It was smiles all round for a Feltham economics graduate who won a £1,000 prize after guessing where a trig pillar in London was located and getting outside to visit it.
Walid Faizi (21) took part in a new Ordnance Survey ‘Touch Grass’ mystery trig pillar competition.
Walid, who has just finished his course at King’s College London, had never even heard of OS before.
However after social media influencer Max Khadar posted a series of clues on his Instagram stories about the whereabouts of OS’s trig pillar, Walid – who follow’s Max’s account – deduced it was in West London.
Cleverly Walid agreed for a friend to try a trig pillar in Richmond Park while he himself ventured out to Horsenden Hill near Greenford.
When Walid arrived at the trig pillar, he was greeted by Max and a film crew. He shouted “Touch Grass” as he touched it, setting off confetti cannons and bagging £1,000 in cash for being the first person to guess it right.
Walid confirmed he would split the cash with his friend.
He said: “I saw the clues on Max’s Instagram account and TikTok and from there I did some research on the exact area.
“I knew about trig pillars but didn’t really know about who Ordnance Survey are, so I found out how much [trig pillars] help with their maps. Big thank you to Ordnance Survey for the £1,000! I’m over the moon man – bare happy.”
For four Saturdays during August, OS is broadcasting a livestream from mystery trig pillars somewhere in England across OS’s social media platforms – Instagram, TikTok and Twitch – to spark a race to find it.
Each weekend a different trig pillar has been selected for the livestream and throughout the morning clues will be shared on social media, to help identify its location.
The first person to arrive at the trig pillar and shout “Touch Grass” to the camera will receive a £1,000 prize.
The aim of the competition is to encourage everyone in the UK to stop doom scrolling social media feeds and take action to get outside instead.
The video is available here.