Four rugby players from Sevenoaks have set themselves the ultimate challenge to compete in the 2006 Woodvale Atlantic Fours Rowing Race.

Team Sevenoaks – comprising Andy Clark, Mike Sargeant, Steve Haysom, Alasdair MacGillivray, and Pete Stevenson will race west to east across the north Atlantic from New York to the UK.

Commenting on why they’ve decided to take part in the challenge, Team Sevenoaks commented: “The ties that bind the team are the facts that we have all played rugby together for more years than we care to remember at Westerham RFC and latterly Sevenoaks RFC, that we share a common desire to prevail, as well as to do as well as is humanly possible for our chosen charities.

“We’ve now reached the end of the first phase of the project by taking delivery of the boat. There remains much to do, but what started out as a pipe-dream has very much become a reality and the boat was unveiled for the first time at the Langhorn Trust charity rugby match at Knole Paddock on 10 April.

Andy Shirtcliff – Chairman, Sevenoaks Rugby Football Club – endorsed Team Sevenoaks’s exciting project by saying: “Sevenoaks RFC have a long tradition of supporting worthy causes and working with the local community, of which they can be justly proud. In recent years they have raised over £35,000 for those less fortunate than ourselves, including the Richard Langhorn Trust, a charity begun in 1994. I have every confidence that this venture will see that tradition strengthened, and with your help, considerably more can be raised.

It is especially pleasing to see that the Primary Club, who celebrate their 50th Anniversary in 2005, are to benefit from this event. Congratulations to you too! “I urge both the rugby club and Sevenoaks town to support the team in any way they can. Once again, good luck to all taking part, and I look forward to making space for a weather beaten oar on our clubhouse wall in due course!”

If you would like to be involved with project, visit the team’s website:www.sevenoaksatlanticrow.com.