SOLDIERS have been taking advantage of Children in Need to get their own back on some of their Army colleagues.

Signallers from York yesterday took part in their own top secret operation to raise funds for the annual charity effort.

Operation Splat was launched at Imphal Barracks, in Fulford, with the express aim of hurling custard pies at military personnel from 2 Signal Regiment, to raise money for the BBC appeal.

Staff Sergeant Mark Tench said: "The way it works is that people take out a custard contract and pay the hit squad to deliver it.

"With the high profile personalities in the regiment, we are waiting until we have built up a sufficient pot of gold for one mega-pie.

"Lower profile targets are being 'splatted' as they come up.

"Needless to say, there is some settling of old scores, but it is all being taken in good part, especially as it is for a very worthwhile cause.

"Most of us have seen the plight of needy children in the different countries we have been to and wanted to support the appeal."

Assistance for the military operation came from Asda, which supplied the foam to make the custard pies.

Halfords and Motorworld also helped by supplying materials for a sponsored car wash at the barracks.

The regiment returned to York at the end of the summer after a tour of duty in Iraq, where personnel set up the military communications and computer systems.

Operation Splat was just one of hundreds of different events that took place across the county to raise funds for Children in Need

At Bellmont Grosvenor School, in Harrogate, all the youngsters wore Pudsey-style eye-patches.

At Ampleforth, the local fish-and-chip shop donated its day's takings to the charity.

A team from Castle Howard pulled on their hiking boots for an arduous sponsored trek in the Lake District and at RAF Leeming, personnel and their wives took the plunge and raised thousands of pounds by abseiling from the base's 150ft water-tower.