Desert rats

Mad dogs, Englishmen and solicitors go out in the midday sun, as Noel Coward almost wrote.

The evidence for this is Matthew Ramus (right), a solicitor at Collyer-Bristow in London, who recently took part in the Marathon des Sables, an international foot race across the Southern Moroccan Sahara set over six days and 150 miles.

Mr Ramus, we are told, is a company/commercial lawyer with a real interest in sports law, but this is a strange way to show it - unless he is looking to specialise in the law of mad people who take on ridiculous sporting challenges in the desert.

The majority of participants have military backgrounds, so it was apparently quite unusual to find a solicitor running it, especially as the runners had to carry their own kit, including all their food for the week (there is no truth in the rumour that Mr Ramus asked his secretary to go with him to carry his stuff).

Each leg of the race is different - ranging from a 22-mile stage across sand dunes and an overnight 52-mile stage - and Mr Ramus came an impressive 220th out of 670.

He also raised money for the charity Facing Africa, with both his firm and that of his wife Benedicta, a lawyer at London's Farrer & Co, backing him generously.