Auctioneers raise £4,000 for charity with 230-mile ride

A trio of auctioneers are celebrating the end to a successful cycle challenge in which they have raised more than £4,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Andy Clements, James Wotton and Jamie Batt, who all work at Sedgemoor Auction Centre, swapped the sale ring for the saddle and cycled 230 miles around the Greenslade Taylor Hunt offices in Somerset, Devon and Dorset.

Mr Clements said: “Travelling across Exmoor from Minehead to South Molton was one of the toughest legs, which we were expecting, but quite the scale of some of the hills pushed us to our limits.

“It was on Exmoor and the first day when we remarkably had our one and only accident when James didn’t make it all the way through a ford and also our one and only puncture that resulted from the same ford.”

Despite this inauspicious start, the group managed to complete the challenge in three-and-a-half days, a full half a day ahead of schedule.

Kicking off in Taunton on Monday, November 5, the ‘Tour of GTH’ headed across Exmoor from Williton to Minehead before continuing to South Molton on the first day.

The challenge also crossed the Blackdown and Mendip Hills – taking in Tiverton, Honiton, Chard, Ilminster, Dorchester, Sherborne, Yeovil, Langport, Wells, Burnham-onSea and Bridgwater – before finishing at Sedgemoor on Thursday, November 9.

All three were back at work the next day with no plans for further cycling forays.

Mr Clements is one of the dairy and calf auctioneers and is based at Sedgemoor. Mr Wotton also sells the calves as well as the fodder at Sedgemoor, and has recently moved to the Honiton office, handling a large amount of professional work.

Mr Batt works out of the Yeovil office covering a large area for professional work and is on the sheep section selling breeding rams every Saturday at Sedgemoor.

Farming and rural affairs reporter @AthwennaWMN ‘The scale of some of the hills pushed us to our limits’

Andy Clements