Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Some people drive it, others cycle it, and the very ambitious walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

But nobody has ever been truly barmy enough to row a boat from the most north easterly tip of mainland Britain to the most south western point. Until now.

There are many reasons why such a journey by rowing boat could be considered a rash undertaking. There are the 1,097 miles of sea, river and canal for starters. There are the three weeks of a punishing schedule of row, eat, sleep, row again.

Then there is the thought of being one of six men trapped in a boat – imagine how bad the jokes will be when they’re scraping the bottom of the humour barrel after the first five hundred miles.

Who could be crazy enough to attempt such a feat? And why?

Step forward Lumbers’ Captain Dominic Gomersall and his merry crew: Olympic rower Gary Reid, Leicestershire businessmen Ian Mattioli and Andy Lyon, and Paul Bassett from Lumbers. The crew will be completed by another Tigers star for the 2010 challenge. It may have started as a mid-life crisis on Dominic’s part, but the Lumbers John O’Groats to Land’s End rowing challenge this July will not only be a momentous journey. It will also raise tens of thousands of pounds – the target is £150,000 – for four charities.

They money raised will be split equally between the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, the Rainbows Children’s Hospice in Loughborough, the Prince’s Trust and the RNLI.

So whose bright idea was rowing from the tip of Scotland to the extremity of England?