On 15th September, the Berry & Oak team swapped financial planning for farming and headed to Farm Adventure in North Yorkshire for an afternoon of challenges, friendly competition and plenty of laughter.

And, as it turned out, one of our teams proved to be rather better at farming than any of us had expected…

To divide the teams fairly, everyone’s names went into a hat. Completely by chance, this resulted in a girls’ team (with Craig as an honorary member) called What the Flock, and a boys’ team named Oaky Blokey.

Let the farming commence!

First up was sheep herding, with each team given five minutes against the clock to guide their sheep around the course and through the gates.

Oaky Blokey went first and made it look suspiciously easy. There is still some debate about whether their sheep simply knew exactly where they were going, as they seemed to trot through the gates with remarkably little encouragement.

What the Flock weren’t quite so fortunate. Their sheep appeared far more interested in exploring every possible direction other than the one they were supposed to be heading!

Next came tractor driving, with everyone taking a turn behind the wheel. Luke demonstrated some particularly impressive tractor skills, quickly earning himself the nickname “Farmer Luke”, before reluctantly handing over the keys to the rest of the team.

The competition continued with welly wanging, where we discovered that accuracy was every bit as important as distance. Craig and Andrew deserve a special mention for managing to send their wellies spectacularly wide of the intended target, while Louis claimed the honours with the longest throw of the day.

Pigs, tyres and a metal cow…

Then it was time for pig herding.

If anyone thought sheep were difficult to control, the pigs had other ideas. After another highly entertaining few minutes, What the Flock successfully rallied and claimed a well-deserved victory.

There was also the farmer’s assault course, involving everything you would expect from a normal obstacle course, if your normal obstacle course included milking a metal cow, scrambling over hay bales and crawling through tractor tyres.

By this stage, competitive instincts were well and truly showing.

The final challenge was egg throwing, requiring coordination, a gentle touch and, perhaps most importantly, a willingness to risk being covered in raw egg. It is fair to say that not everybody escaped unscathed!

Oaky Blokey make Farm Adventure history

After all the points had been counted, Oaky Blokey were crowned the Berry & Oak Farm Adventure champions.

But there was an even bigger surprise.

Not only had they beaten What the Flock, Oaky Blokey had achieved the highest overall score of any team to visit Farm Adventure throughout the whole year.

They also recorded the year’s best sheep-herding score.

Quite an achievement and proof that apparently, we are not just good at financial planning. We may have missed our calling as farmers!

Competition aside, the afternoon was a brilliant opportunity for everyone to spend time together away from the office. There was plenty of laughter, lots of encouragement and more than a little friendly rivalry, while the challenges certainly tested our communication and teamwork in a rather different environment from usual.

We finished the day in the best possible way, sitting down together to enjoy a fantastic barbecue and reliving some of the afternoon’s more memorable moments.

A huge thank you to everyone at Farm Adventure for looking after us and giving us such a fun and memorable team day.

And congratulations to Oaky Blokey Farm Adventure’s highest-scoring team of the year.

We suspect we’ll be hearing about that one for quite some time! Especially as Andrew was on the team!