HARPER TEAM 'PASS GO' TO WIN MONOPOLY CHALLENGE

Posted 22 March 2002

TAKE ONE TOP HAT, an old boot, an iron and a little dog. Add a sprinkling of students and a lengthy pub-crawl around 26 areas of both inner and outer London.

These were the ingredients of this year's Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Junior Organisation challenge, based upon the popular family board game Monopoly, which took place on March 8.

Twelve teams of four students from RICS accredited universities across the UK were asked to visit pubs and answer questions in 26 different areas of the capital, each chosen to match one of the squares on a Monopoly board.

By closing time, it was clear that the teams from Harper Adams University College, Shropshire, knew how to pass go and make the quickest lap of the board as they claimed first and third place in the challenge.

In first place, Rebecca Marshall, Joanna Willett, Rebecca Calvert and Amy Jones claimed their prize of a Psion Organiser each having used maps and a sound knowledge of London to plan their route with military precision.

The second Harper Adams team, consisting of Andrew Black, Andrew Thomas, Charlotte John and James Tyler-Morris, picked up a prize of several bottles of wine each. They had opted for technology over tradition and planned their route using computer based map packages and the Tube.

It was a tactic that nearly paid off. Harper Adams' second team recorded the fastest time of just over two hours, almost twice as quick as any other team, but dropped points on the questions and slipped to third.

(Ends)

Caption: The winning team members were (L-R) Rebecca Marshall, Joanna Willett, Rebecca Calvert and Amy Jones.