SIMON CHALK

• Born City of Leicester.12th September 1971

• 1 older sister.

• schools: 5-8 years old Warren primary school
  8-11 years old Willesly School at Ashby-De-La Zouch Leistershire
  11-14 Market Bosworth High School Towcester Northhampshire.
  14-16 Market Bosworth High School.

• Simon"s father was a Formula 1 engineer, the schools Simon went to were all near auto race tracks. Simon said "I had a job lined up as an apprentice mechanic. my parents divorced when I was 11and at 16 I started at BT as a fiber cable planer I had a lot responsibility, It was a challenging job to plan the laying of underground ducting, I found the job rewarding but it was not exciting. I eventfully regretted not taking the apprenticeship at Jordon I realized I wanted an adventure".

• BT announced they were going to sponsor the BT Global Challenge Yacht race in 1994 there were 30 crew spaces open for BT employees, 2054 applied.

• Simon says "I was short list on the BT list and had an interview with Chay (Blyth), I was eventually selected to do the Rio to New Zealand leg via Cape Horn this was my first real taste of real adventure, after 46 days in the Southern ocean we rounded the Horn 1st out of the competing yachts (on board Save the Children) the training Chay provided was excellent I had never been on a sailing boat before I was selected.

• In 1996 BT promoted Simon to events manger Simon said "the job itself was an adventure I was travelling all over the world, I and fellow BT employee Neil Hitt signed up for the 1997 Pt St Charles Atlantic Rowing race we met Alan Rudge who was Deputy CEO of BT, for 2 guys like us to meet the number 2 man in the company was unbelievable, at the 25 minute meeting Mr. Rudge agreed to sponsor Neil and I, two months later the phone rang, it was Alan Rudge calling to tell me that Cellnet were going to be the title sponsor of our row and gave me the phone number of who I had to call. The Cellnet Atlantic Challenger was about to be built".

• In the event Simon and Neil did not row together, Simon said "Neil was a rower and keen on training we had different ideas on this subject and we went our separate ways, I got George Rock to join me on Cellnet Atlantic Challenger we were well funded, more so than Neil, who beat us across in Hospicecare it just goes to prove that funding is not everything".

  Bill Greaves

• Born December 30th 1960 in Winchester England youngest of 4 children (2 boys 2 girls)

• Attended Mile End House School from 8 years till 11 years old 

• Attended Southern Grammar School from 11 till 16 years old.

• Joined British Army from 16 till 19 served mostly at Windsor Castle performing ceremonial duties. Quote: "I enjoyed the Army, the comradship was good, I had no problem taking orders". "It was watching westerns on Television growing up that first gave me the idea of wanting to have an adventure, going into the Army I thought was an adventure, but this row across the Indian Ocean is definatley an adventure I am really looking forward to it , I am ready to go".

• Work expierence
  After leaving the Army Bill Greaves went to work for "Entertainment Leisure Services" as a "Security Officer" "at the end of the day I was a bouncer, the MD was a friend of mine and I stayed working for ELS because of our friendship. I then worked for Simon Chalk for a while as a general labourer (started in 2001) when I heard that George Rock was not going to row with Simon I said If you need someone I will do it with you, it was a simple as that,