The weekend was a fantastic event where employees from all our three offices took part in nine different sports. Vanquis t-shirts were buzzing around all the different venues where people were competing in dragon boat racing, go karting, table tennis, bowling, cycling and many more!
Team Vanquis did us proud! We won a medal in the 10k run (congratulations to Carly Kerr!) and plenty of teams finished in the top eight. The dragon boat racing team didn't manage to do as well as last year, however, we did beat Vodafone in the last race despite them being ahead of us.
"Incredible and overwhelmed" was how the karting team described their first feeling when they walked into a room full of professional karter's. In true Vanquis style, this didn't stop Kieron Bentley from getting stuck in and he won 4/6 qualifying races along with fastest lap of the day (23sec).
Kieron said: "There was a real sense of comradery within all teams which made it all the more enjoyable, I even got asked to go in for a victory picture with the Vodafone winners. Corporate Games really helps with getting to know people within the business from each location. It was a truly amazing weekend with great team spirit and Vanquis will definitely be back next year to try and win even more medals!"
This year Kieron did better than last year, He got into the finals, started 6th on the grid and worked his way up to 3rd. Due to the 2nd place having a crash it resulted in Kieron having to move out of the way and end up being in 5th position overall.
As well as all the high octane adventures, we also had teams enjoying table tennis and cycling and others practicing their best poker face whilst playing a competitive game in a professional casino - who knew that poker was a sport?! To see a list of the full results, click here.
The Corporate Games Parade took place on Saturday evening with the Sherriff of Stoke-on-Trent leading the way! Vanquis were out in force carrying banners and flags before celebrating late into the night at the fancy dress Great Games Party.
Lewis Murch, Customer Services Agent from Bradford said: "Overall the weekend was a fulfilled great experience with plenty to do and see with some amazing people throughout Vanquis and every other company that we met. Appreciating every moment and appreciating every little thing that Vanquis did for us from providing a beautiful hotel to the fun and ambience of the weekend."
Noreen Rafiq, New Business Team Leader from Bradford said: "We've taken part in the Corporate Games for two years running and I've been lucky enough to attend both times. I had such an amazing experience last year that I volunteered to help out this time around. We all put in so much hard work into organising the event and it really paid off. Everyone had a great time and we even won loads of prices at the parade - great work catching those tennis balls guys!"
Thanks to UK Corporate Games for having us and here's to next year!