2006 Collier Cup Round 7

06 October 2006

This was the last single evening DF of the season for Mid-Thames RDF club, with G3UJO/P, Peter Bradley on the Tx. Seven teams arrived for the start with a very surprise guest in Bernard Poole with two of his offspring in tow (namely Charlie & Kathy). They chose (bad choice) to team up with me and John Champion.

The first TX signal was heard by all but appeared weaker than the last Friday DF event.

Our bearing went up along the M40 towards Kidlington and we decided to use the motorway up to Milton Common to miss the major traffic problems at Headington, not like some other teams who then took over half an hour to drive through the contra-flow! At the 8 pm signal we had a cross towards Otmoor. On arriving near Horton-cum-Studley for the next signal at 8:15 the signal was heard first by young Kathy who was being shown how a DF set works. With a snatch I proceeded to take a bearing which went east towards the Shabbington Wood area. With us all excited at finding the site early, it came as a big shock when at the next transmission only Charlie could hear a faint signal going up towards Islip (once again I felt trapped just as in the last Oxford DF, the bearings were going haywire; my feeling was of this country's Bermuda triangle with no way out). After driving out of hell-hole managed to get to Bletchingdon were the signal was fairly strong,giving us a bearing towards the area aptly named Purgatory. On arrival down a small lane we came across a fair few teams resting against their vehicles. I proceeded down a footpath only to find the signal twisting to my right, running across a very wet field heard my navigator’s voice shouting for me only to find that Kathy Poole had beaten me to the station on her first time out!

"Is it my age?" I thought, oh well, look forward to next years events.

Peter Lisle was first in before 9pm closely followed by Graham Phillips.

Unlike our bearings, Peter’s first and second bearings appeared perfect.

My thanks to all teams and Tx operators who ran and competed at Mid-Thames this year.

Brian Bristow.

Position Competitor Finish
1 Peter Lisle 20:45:15
2 Graham Phillips 20:46:14
3 Steve Stone 21:02:33
4 Bill Pechey 21:02:54
5 Brian Bristow 21:15:34
6 Roger Shepherd NF
7 Mark Coventry NF