The Taskmaster army | Alex Horne overwhelmed as 1,800 fans respond to book challenge

The Taskmaster army

Alex Horne overwhelmed as 1,800 fans respond to book challenge

Around 1,800 people descended on a small Buckinghamshire park yesterday to complete one of the challenges in the Taskmaster book.

Alex Horne expected a few dozen people might turn up to Lowndes Park to tick off task number 185 in the tie-in title, published more than a year ago.

But in the event, hundreds arrived – some from as far afield as Boston in the US.

He said: ‘I was overjoyed and overwhelmed by the number of people who turned up. I had no idea people were that into picnics or coordinates.’

The task  was simply: ‘Meet at this mound at midday on September 14, 2019. A Taskmaster tour begins at 1pm after a picnic. Bring  your own picnic’ and gave the latitude  51.706625073 and longitude -0.619552994.

The coordinates took fans to the green space close to Horne’s home, where some of the Taskmaster tasks are filmed.

So many people showed up that a plan to go to a football match was abandoned, and a tour of the town was cut short. Instead the crowd took part in task to keep a beach ball aloft as long as possible.

Last week it was announced that Finland and Norway were to make their own versions of Taskmaster.

Published: 16 Sep 2019

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