A TEAM of four daredevils from Chard became silver screen stars at the weekend as they took part in the Red Bull Soapbox Race 2017.

Golf’s Trolley Dollies, made up of Clive Fisk, 74, Andy Beale, 67, Daniel Pugh, 42, and Liam Clarke, 32, were featured on TV channel Dave’s coverage of the event.

The group are all members of Cricket St Thomas gold club and took part in the homemade soapbox racing challenge, which was this year held at Alexandra Palace, to raise money for Diabetes UK.

Andy Beale, who was the pit crew boss, said: “On arrival it was clear that many of the other competitors had put a huge amount of either time or expense into their creations and we would have a challenge on our hands to impress the judges in all areas of they were testing creativity, presentation and the actual race.”

The team race down the course powered only by gravity in a time of 51 seconds, without crashing on the makeshift course.

Mr Beale added: “Overall our final position was 66th - a little disappointing, however we consider ourselves winners just for the shear experience.

“We also felt that being selected from a huge 5,000 entries to take a place as one of 69 going forward to race day.

“We met some very friendly and totally committed individuals in the other teams and now realise the effort and commitment needed to be a success at such events.

“However, to finish on a positive note, our intention in entering this event was to use it as a vehicle, excuse the pun, to raise funds for Cricket St Thomas’s Golf Club seniors captain’s charity Diabetes UK.

“We regard this as mission achieved having raised, we estimate, somewhere in the region of £3,000.

“This fundraising has not finished yet.

“We hope to hold a gala golf day at our golf club to celebrate the completion of this magical event, a true once in a lifetime opportunity, and also as a thank you to everyone who supported us by either giving of there time, material, advice and support though out the length of this project.

“We must credit the golf club owner and wife Steve and Jackie Hill for allowing us to promote the event through the golf club and the work carried out at Steve’s company Metaltech Precision to fabricate our soapbox which we were extremely proud off.

“Also the work by cartoonist Bob Moran in creating a picture board cartoon of our efforts which we will treasure as a memento of our experience.”

For more information on the Trolley Dollies, visit www.redbullsoapboxrace.com/uk/en/team/golf-trolley-dollies.