With this team there is so much to say. Mary was the most prolific email correspondant by far and when we finally met her on Wednesday evening, everything we\’d ascertained from her correspondance seemed to make sense. One thing\’s for sure though, nearly everything they did from the list, they did with exceptional style!

Starting with examples of that style, they didn\’t bring us ordinary pictures of bridges that vampires can cross, oh no, they had Aidan dress as a vampire to cross those bridges. Similarly when sending us photos of people whose names are geographical places, they made them look awesome. When it came to seceding from a political organisation, it just had to be done in black tie. As for the Owlbear, it took three of them to \’make\’ it, and was quite indescribably fantastic, mostly for involving Mary climbing onto someone\’s shoulders, all wearing black and tree branches. Sadly there is no photo of that feat.

Moving to more miscellaeneous items, they planted a slightly skeletal tree, found someone in the university who owned a My Little Pony, brought us a cake with a toy soldier (apparently an extra team member) inside it and also managed to punt some tourists.

Other noteable scavenges included a The Simpsons monopoly set, more dressing up in order to save a copy of Le Monde and sending Chris a fax via Caius. On video we can show you Blaise defeating a fellow at Rock, Paper, Scissors and also crossing a new bridge across the Cam, constructed from the plank they had earlier fetched for us.

Perhaps part of their success was down to their unique access to the Institute of Theology and associated religious establisments. It meant that for copies of the same book in multiple langauges, we were shown Bibles in English, French, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Coptic. Then we have Mary pictured with both a bishop and a president of a seminary. Additionally, for whatever reason, the wife of a fellow offered her help to the team and when asked if she could make the presidential pasta portrait, gathered several different types of pasta and produced a marvellous George Washington. Finally in related matters, enjoy Chris munching on red M&Ms from the church collection plate they borrowed.

They were no strangers to attempting to bluff us into giving them points either. Much like WSSFP, they crossed the Rubicon fruit juice, although they did bring every flavour. They also told Chris\’ fortune by observing the fall of doughnut sugar over a picture of Tiger Woods, then channelling Tiger\’s innate divining powers to reveal my fate. After researching the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge and finding it to be a wormhole, they brought exactly that, from their garden in a jamjar of course. Their Carmen Sandiego was not a women dressed in red, alas, but it was a copy of the original game.

To finish our sparkling review of their performance we have their musical talent. It began with a medley of US TV themes (it made a change from Neighbours and Eastenders) on Wednesday morning. Then in the afternoon we were treated to a guitar-accompanied blues song in which they mostly woke up in the morning. Apparently the lyrics to their song about Jesus, naturally their favourite historical figure, were made up on the way to see us, but they flowed so well they could have had their own rock group. The piece de resistance however was mostly definitely the string quartet which comprised entirely of team members. We were both wowed and wooed. Inspiring stuff!

After meeting us to collect the list early on Tuesday morning, we didn\’t see them again until Wednesday, apparently due to rowing. We\’re glad they showed up eventually though! We\’re missing pictures of many things so unfortunately descriptions will have to suffice.

Firstly, someone had some serious drawing talent. They produced a superbly coloured-in poster warning of the dangers of driving alone and also a combined protest banner/book banning asking us to \’Say No to Pharmacology\’. Their cakes were also quite delicious. Alex sang a lovely medley of TV themes, on her own, bless. She then recounted the many woes she had from the day\’s rowing before. Their flag of Derbyshire was unparalleled, complete with flagpole and again, hand coloured. The team also brought us the only genuine (or as genuine as you can probably get) chunk of the Berlin wall – it had that \’sold to tourists\’ feel about it. Alex also told Chris\’ fortune through palmistry, she\’s clearly a very talented young lady. They combined 4 items in one with their gelatinous cube of jelly-ice containing a thimble, brought us a single statement with 8500 nectar points, the most we\’ve ever seen, and had a pasta family tree that extended over three pages. Finally, their survey revealed that the public is torn between Superman and Batman if they were to fight. All in all, an impressive haul for just a morning\’s work, well done!