This was the last Collier Cup event for the 2007 series, with Alan Simmons on the Tx. Six main teams arrived at the start plus Chris "lost in the woods" Friel, who attached himself and navigator to Peter Lisle's team.

To our surprise, Alan's signal appeared very weak at the start with various discussions as to which way the signal was coming from, so an approx bearing of 145 degrees was given out.

As teams rushed off from the start, I decided that I would travel towards Marlow on the B420 as I thought Alan was pulling a fast one. Together with David Ryan, I managed to get just before Marlow for the 8pm second transmission, but Graham Phillips and Steve Stone arrived near to or at the Wednesday DF start at Maidenhead Thicket.

Alan's signal was stronger at Marlow but the bearing passsed through Maidenhead Thicket. Meanwhile, Graham and Steve took their bearings but just could not believe that Alan was indeed hiding in the adjacent thicket wood and promptly drove away to get another cross. By this time, I had arrived at the thicket and with Alan's third signal proved to me that he was nearby. Knowing that Alan did not like leaving his car in strange places I drove into the pub car park and spotted the car hidden around the corner. I then set off walking down the road towards the entrance of the thicket wood. Alas, Peter Lisle's teams (2 off) spotted me and were quickly on to my tail into the thicket.

With the next transmission on I ran (oh well, struggled) across the wood until I felt that I had reached as near to Alan as I could. After searching with no sign of any other team, I locked on to Alan's next signal only to arrive with Peter, Graham and Steve. Frantic search began only to find that Peter and Graham had beaten me (blast - Collier Cup gone). Eventually, all the teams managed to find Alan with the last team actually having Alan walk up to them with the time clock so that they finished before the time ran out. Much enjoyment was made at the pub afterwards on all the different approaches that were made to find Alan on this very mild evening.

Thanks again for all the operators and support from the teams entering for the Collier Cup this year.

Brian Bristow