Charity road trip men go 'lawn way round'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33580216

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Three lawnmower fanatics have completed a 2,200 mile charity road trip - aboard sit-on machines.

The petrol-heads from Dorset, Staffordshire and Wigan roared through every county of England, Scotland and Wales with a coast in seven days.

Despite a dramatic flip over and painful potholes, the trio completed their Lawn Way Round challenge.

Tony Dwight, Darren Whitehead and Paul Tindall said raising £2,000 for Crohn's and Colitis UK made it all worthwhile.

Mr Dwight from Wigan, Mr Whitehead from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and Mr Tindall from Wimborne in Dorset, described their adventures after passing the finishing line on Friday.

"Sore backsides" came courtesy of 14-hour drives of more than 300 miles a day on the vintage 1970s-built mowers.

Mr Dwight, a 43-year-old lorry driver, joked: "I don't know what we were thinking."

Landscape gardener Mr Tindall's machine suffered a dramatic failure when his rear axle broke on a dual carriageway at 45mph.

Mr Dwight said: "He went across two lanes of traffic and flipped over but thankfully it was dual carriageway and the road was quiet."

The trio were stopped by police near Newcastle on Tyne, but only so the traffic officer could make a donation.

They started from base camp in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, and motored around Wales, before heading into Lancashire and on to Carlisle in Cumbria.

They criss-crossed Scotland before turning south for Newcastle.

They then took in the east coast of England down into Yorkshire and passed through Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Hampshire.

A 340-mile final leg took in Devon, Cornwall, and Gloucestershire before arriving back at their starting point.

The men, who all race lawnmowers for a hobby, had already completed a previous lawnmower challenge after travelling the length of Britain in aid of Help For Heroes in 2011.

Mr Whitehead, who is chairman of the North West Lawn Mower Racing Association, said they were now looking for their next challenge, probably abroad.