Has Baywatch returned to our screens once more? Not exactly. Although the plotline could be said to be equally implausible. Durham firm Swinburne Maddison entered two teams in the Castles Challenge Triathlon earlier this month: Team Old (Terry Lee, 45 [pictured, nearest runner], John Davison, 52, and Jonathan Moreland, 42) and Team Young (David Low, 25, Martyn Tennant, 27, and Jennifer Hawke, 26).

The day started at 7am with an invigorating plunge into the North Sea (Obiter prefers a nice cup of breakfast tea for morning invigoration, but each to their own). Remarkably ‘call me Mitch’ Lee, for Team Old was the first of 140 competitors to emerge from the 1,500m swim, in 21 minutes 6 seconds. The old timers then extended their lead over the youngsters in the 42km cycle ride, and by the time it got to the 10km run at the end of the challenge, old codger Jonathan Moreland was already on his penultimate lap by the time Jennifer Hawke started the run for Team Young. In the end, the spry veterans came in at 2 hours 39 minutes overall, while the spring chickens took a still impressive 3 hours 14 minutes. Moreland, whose team picked up the third place trophy at the charity event, crowed: ‘We certainly did not expect to pick up a trophy, but that was just a bonus as our main aim was to ensure the younger members of the firm were put in their place.’ Obiter suspects that the office banter on this one will run and run.