There must be easier ways to spend a Saturday than eating squid and sardines, scaling a rock-climbing wall, and collecting sea water with a kiddie-sized spade, but it would not have been as much fun for contestants in Bermuda's first Amazing Race contest.

Taking its inspiration from the popular American TV show of the same name the crazy race across the length and breadth of the Island sent 15 teams seeking clues and encountering challenges as they battled to be the first to finish and win the top prize of travel vouchers.

Along the way the teams, which consisted of two people, had to complete challenges or face incurring a 15-minute time penalty.

In the end 12 teams completed the full race, with the winners husband and wife pair Kimale and Kuhn Evans who took five-and-a-half hours to fulfil all the challenges.

Merle Parfitt, who came up with the idea after speaking to the "Netts" netball group, was delighted by the way the event unfolded and is confident there will be another Amazing Race challenge in the future.

"It went very well and was a great success. At the end every one was excited about doing it again and I think I'll have another one after I've had a chance to sit down and reflect on this one," said Mrs. Parfitt.

She made special mention of Carol Bean and her committee who came up with the clues and organised the equipment needed during the contest.

The participants set off on Saturday afternoon from Bernard Park but not before one team had to overcome a self-inflicted time penalty after locking themselves out of their car.

That was just the beginning of the fun, with some teams not realising the first clue that mentioned "three crowns" was linked to the North Village ground adjacent to the park and was nothing to do with the Hamilton Princess Hotel.

Going the wrong way was also a problem for one team that trekked all the way to the Maritime Museum at Dockyard before realising they should have gone instead to the Bermuda Historical Society museum in Hamilton.

If navigation was enough of a puzzle the actual challenges proved no less testing. At one checkpoint contestants had to eat a meal of rice, sardines and squid, at another there were drinks to be gulped down that included soda, water and a vegetable juice.

There was also a beach challenge that involved filling buckets with sea water using only kiddies sand spades, climbing the Olympic Club's rock wall, a test of Biblical knowledge at the Heydon Trust and finding buried tennis balls on a beach.

Participants used a variety of modes of transport from cars and bikes to ferries and buses, often while soaking wet or covered in sand. In the heat of the contest some contestants were reduced to minor arguments with one another ? just as happens in the TV game show.

Mrs. Parfitt said: "I only wish I could have had a video camera follow the teams around."

The second team to finish were Nina Webb and Rozina Hypolite and third place went to Karla Parfitt and Whayman Butterfield.