At a magical cabaret at the Crown Hotel in Blandford Forum, two Hall & Woodhouse team members (both magicians) went head-to-head to conjure up funds in support of Hall & Woodhouse’s (H&W) charity partner, eight local air ambulance charities.
At the fifth annual ‘Battle of the Wizards’ the Great Baldini (aka David Hoare, former H&W Director) and Duncan the Deadly (aka Duncan Rouse, Head of Managed Operations at H&W) presented ‘Gunpowder, Treason and Plot’ to an audience of over 100 diners at the Crown Hotel.
Duncan the Deadly was the evening’s reigning champion with more than £8,000 raised, making this the highest total to be collected at the annual ‘Battle of the Wizards’ event. This total brings the overall fundraising total to £25,000 over the past five years.
The Crown Hotel provided the Sealey Suite free of charge and 25 per cent of the ticket cost went direct to the charities. H&W also donated auction prizes including a £1,500 Delvita pizza oven.
The Great Baldini explained: “The format is simple, after dinner we each present five illusions. After each illusion, the magician goes into the audience to collect money. Audience members give more or less depending how good they think the trick was. At the end of the evening we both stand underneath one of the Crown’s windows, the total for each magician is announced and the one who collects the least is gunged.”
Lucinda Gray, sixth-generation of the Woodhouse family and Hall & Woodhouse Charity Champion, added: “As a company that places community at the heart of our business it is very important to Hall & Woodhouse to support the air ambulances that work tirelessly to care for critically ill or injured patients in our community. In under two years we have raised over £200,000 for the air ambulances that cover the counties where our public houses are located. We are extremely proud of our two ‘Wizards’ who have backed the campaign and supported our fundraising for a fifth year.”
Hall & Woodhouse is an independent family company that brews award-winning Badger ales and runs a collection of 180 beautiful pubs and inns across the south of England. The business is dedicated to supporting its local communities and causes, having invested more than £30million in its public houses over the past five years.
Please visit http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk for more information.