An annual Cambridge ritual, the RAG Jailbreak competition challenges pairs of University students to get as far away from the city as possible in just 36 hours, without spending any of their own money.

This year’s event has been widely regarded as one of the most successful yet, with the winners managing to get to Washington DC. Nick Millet and Reza Khorasanee, both from Fitzwilliam College, raised the £449 necessary for return tickets to New York, primarily through performing magic tricks.

Dressed in tuxedos, Reza promised to solve a rubix cube in under 40 seconds, while Nick performed card tricks, resulting in the boys raising £120 on the train to London alone. Once in New York, the pair’s tricks continued to impress, earning them enough money to get to Washington just before the 36 hour deadline.

Despite the success of their magic tricks, the boys also noted the surprising number of connections they found with people on the trip.

“Someone in the city knew my uncle, and a lawyer we met in America had just listened to a talk by Professor Michael Lamb, one of my lecturers,” Nick, an SPS student, told us. “Even on the train to Liverpool Street we met an ex-RAG rep who donated £40.”

Other Jailbreak teams also managed to travel incredible distances this year. The second placed team made it to Abu Dhabi, 5478.7km from Cambridge, while the third pair got as far as Dubai.

Three teams managed to get to Turkey, and over four fifths of the 101 teams competing made it out of the UK.

While the majority of far-reaching teams used the money they’d raised to buy airline tickets, some pairs decided to hitch-hike all the way. The most successful reached Alicante in Spain, an impressive 1539.64km from Cambridge city centre.

Other impressive hitch-hikes landed students in Berlin and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Of the hitch-hiking experience, Katie Forster, who made it to Spain along with Simon Whitaker, enthused, “I’m so glad we did it. It was a great experience. It could have been dangerous, but we didn’t really think about it at the time.”

With the pairs’ 36 hours coming to an end at 9pm on Saturday evening, the couples were forced to return to reality on Monday morning. As Reza marvelled, “I was back in dissection by 10am.” Cambridge RAG supports a wide variety of charities, including the Alzheimer’s Society, Jimmy’s Night Shelter and the East Anglia Air Ambulances.