I went along to best wishes to all those who were heading off on the Wednesday night sleeper (it's a pub, after all ... and what is there to do in a pub other than give people your best wishes???).

All seemed hale and hearty, and we had a good crop of first timers whom a certain Challenger (I will not name him ... ) was busily inducting into all the Challenge traditions old, new and freshly minted. I especially liked his freshly minted tradition that when two or more Challengers meet on a social occasion, whoever has the least crossings buys the drinks.

We seem to have some particularly gullible first-timers this year ...