PUPILS at John of Gaunt School in Trowbridge have been celebrating their own successes in this year's Ten Tors Challenge, after the joy of seeing the school's inspirational event expert Bob Brice become the first individual ever to receive the Ten Tors Tungsten award, in recognition of his 50 years service to the event.

The only one of the three 35-mile teams to complete the route, The Ducklings, were delighted to break the record for the school's fastest ever finish, with Year 10 pupils Calum Duncan, Oli Guppy, Josh Collett, Ted Sansom, Adam Rice and Simeon Brown marching home on Sunday at 11.41am.

There was more joy when the 45-mile team of Ali Peebles, Ryan Fortune, Jamsine Smith, Mollie Nevill, Mikey Clews, and Jack Wheeler arrived at 3.48pm, the second fastest school time in that category.

The final day was full of drama for Mr Brice, the school's Ten Tors team manager Stuart Gray and waiting parents as sadly both the other 35-mile teams, made up of Year 10/9 and Year 9 pupils, failed to finish.

The Year 9 team of Imogen Wood, Isabelle Beauvoisin, Georgia Carter, John O'Neill, Christina Dainton and Kaden MacKenzie had a dramatic end to the day, when they had to be helicoptered off having reached Tor 8, with accidents leaving Kaden with what turned out to be a shattered kneecap while Christina had a sprained ankle.

The Year 9/10 team of George Berrelly, Dan Tarrant, Alexander Ross, John Hudson and Jack Richings had battled on after Xander Wood dropped out with a foot injury, only to be stopped at Tor 10 by officials as they would have run out of time before the finish.

"The 2 Year 9 groups were really disappointed to not get around with the weather being so good," Mr Gray said. "Xander has been back in school but will be on crutches for a month or so - the helicopter ride certainly left them all buzzing!"

The Ten Tors Challenge, for youngsters aged 14-19, involves teams tackling a route across Dartmoor they are only given the day before, navigating by map and compass and camping out for a night. They have to visit 10 Tor checkpoints ad negotiate bogs, rivers, steep tors and avoid obstacles like Army firing areas and sites of protected flora and fauna.