Who are we?

The Craggy Islanders are a trio of pals - Phil, Steve and Colin - brought together through a mixture of circumstance, pub quizzes and a mutual appreciation of anything “Father Ted” related. Although we all live and work in Stirling, none of us are actually Scottish by birth. Phil hails from Blyth in Northumberland, Colin from Keady in County Armagh and myself from Meopham in darkest Kent. It was around September last year that we first thought about teaming up to do something fun for charity and thus Team Craggy Islanders was born.

In this our inaugural year we have chosen to enter a Banger Rally; a trip from Calais to Casablanca in a car worth no more than £100. We're having to start on the 3rd of April, 2 full days before the official start date to make sure we get to Calais on time so check back then to follow our progress LIVE!

Yes, you heard right, we're actually planning on having a live tracking page where you'll be able to see exactly where we are, updated every 5 minutes. We also hope to update a blog at the end of every day so you can see what we've been up to. More information on the rally itself can be found by clicking The Event above.

Here’s some more detailed info on the Islanders: you can even click on our names for some mugshots if you're feeling brave!

Phillip Strong
Age:                            42
AKA:                           Flaps, The Scarlet PumperPhil
Footie Team:                Newcastle United
Team Jobs:                  Co-driver, Welder, Chief mechanic, Resident Geordie,
Likes:                          Rusty cars, motorbikes, tea & biscuits, being a Geordie.
Dislikes:                      Rusty nuts & bolts, most films, the young, most music
Most likely found:         In front of a cup of tea
Catchphrase:               "Are you shewer?", or “Nah, Gawd bless yah” (when winding Steve up)
Little-known fact:         Phil's great great great grandfather was Charles Faa Blythe, king of Yetholm gypsies and notable ancestor of
                                  Bill Clinton. So that's Bill and Phil the latent peg sellers then.

Steve Brown
Age                             36
AKA:                           SupaSteve, BoyBrown
Footie Team:                Chelsea FC
Team Jobs:                  Co-driver, Gadgeteer, Organiser, Apprentice mechanic, Ebay sniper
Likes:                          Ebay, coffee, getting excited, taking things apart, planning ahead
Dislikes:                      Luddites, being bored, putting things back together again, wasps.
Most likely found:         Badgering the others to do something
Often says:                  “Arse to that!”, or “A divvent kna aboot that, like” (when winding Phil up)
Little-known fact:         Steve's Uncle Derek  has won an Emmy and helped produce 2 of the best car chase films ever made,
                                  "Ronin" and "The Italian Job" (the original one with the minis, not the cack remake I hasten to add...)

Colin Caraher
Age:                            41
AKA:                           CoCo
Footie Team:                Celtic FC
Team Jobs:                  Co-Driver, Interpreter, Navigator, Entertainments officer
Likes:                          Muttley, The Jam, golf, being a driving instructor
Dislikes:                      Dick Dastardly, Marmite, instructor exams, all other road users
Most likely found:         Complaining about something or other
Often says:                  "Here - that's bang out of order, so it is"
Little-known fact:          After bringing him into the world, Colin's mum "mistakenly" left hospital without taking him home with her. 
                                   She later claimed it was a terrible mistake but I can't say I blame her for trying!

 

Corporate Sponsors
In addition to the three of us we also have the most welcome backing of the following fine upstanding companies:
Eilean Marquees      Quality Marquee Hire in the Western Isles
thinkAnalytics          Leaders in RealTime Decisioning & Content Recommendations
3Arc  Limited            The leading innovator in Personal and Vehicle Tracking systems
TotallyDynamic        The first nationally based vehicle wrapping specialists
Halfords Stirling       SatNav, tools, bulbs, first aid kits - you name it, you can find it in your friendly local Halfords. We certainly did!
A.A. Components      Suppliers of components to the engineering and motor industries since 1964
Menzies BMW            Stirling's premier BMW specialists
Roy Milne CSC           The Roy Milne Celtic Supporters club, based in Alloa
D Signs                      Stirling's friendly Signwriting company - a fine supplier of special paper for putting stickers on cars!

Things also wouldn't be right if we didn't also make a mention to our two non-competing honourary team members whose help preparing for this year's event has been most welcome:

Norman Noble, for writing and hosting this fine website - not to mentioning buying the URL! He's a lovely man, so he is

James "Jamesie" Hall, our one-man breakers yard for being our #1 source of spare parts and an all round top bloke to boot. Cheers Jamesie - we wouldn't have got anywhere without your patience and kindness (not to mention your engine, gearbox, petrol tank, indicator stalk... etc etc!)  AND CUPS O' TEA

More information about the rally itself and the organisers, StreetSafari, can be found by clicking The Event above.