There are two reports this time

Nine teams arrived at the start at Maidenhead Thicket on a clear but chilly evening with a continuous display of fireworks in the clear sky. Hope was built up when Peter Lisle arrived by himself as his son was stuck in London (oh dear!). Also to the amazment of all, Andy Collett arrived to compete with his usual team.

With the first signals on, only two stations were very audible with one station requiring an approx bearing for most of us.

Your scribe had decided to return to this event with his own hand picked team as he was keen to win!

At least three teams decided to travel south as far as they could to hear the very weak station which was situated in a wooded area near Stanners Hill. True to form, my team found Dave Ryan first and made quick headway north towards Windsor, where the second station' operated by Graham Phillips, was situated in a small but awkward piece of scrubland the other side of the M4 near to some playing fields.

As we ran across the bridge over the Motorway Peter Lisle (now with his team) was running out. "Ha, Ha" we muttered "it's his first" (more later). After frantic searching, my hand-picked team once again pointed me in the right direction. Yes, we were possibly second into this one. Puffing and panting, we made it back to the car and drove through Slough centre monitoring all the way. Eventually, we went back towards the start with no signal heard. At last, the third station became audible and we arrived at the forest area behind Wilton Park (Beaconsfield). Steve Stone was on this station and after meeting Roy Emeny (who was using a computer as a map), the signal took us into the east side of the forest where once again my trusty two found Steve.

With whoops of delight through finishing fairly early we were then told that Peter Lisle arrived at Steve's station just after the second transmission. It appears that Peter's son arrived at Beaconsfield railway station just after the start of the DF and when Peter picked him up had no chance of driving far away from the station so he headed east towards Steve and was in fact only about a mile away on the second transmission.

So the final outcome was Peter had beaten us.

Tea was supplied at the Dashwood Arms PH in Piddington where two clocks were presented for downloading, the third unfortunately was still trying to clamber out of the wood at Stanners Hill and Dave`s torch had gone out (never thought of spare) so with rough times being read out, we still found Peter was the winner by far. Our thanks to Graham, Dave, Steve and John for organising and running a fun event.

FOOTNOTE

In early January, Dave went back with Graham to retrieve his aerial only to find in his confused state when he left the site he forgot his favourite blanket. It has now dried out!

Brian Bristow

A view from one of the operators

Despite Graham's worries that there wouldn't be many competitors, nine teams turned up at Maidenhead Thicket for the start. The weather was fine, clear and cold although rain had been forecast for later. The event had coincided with the Diwali festival so there were plenty of firework displays around, particularly in the Slough area.

The three stations were all on the eastern edge of the Reading and Windsor map and were located at Wilton Park near Jordans - NGR 971903 with Steve Stone as operator, Upton Court Park near Slough - NGR 986786 with Graham Phillips as operator and Gracious Pond near Chobham - NGR 995640 with David Ryan on the transmitter.

There were a couple of surprises at the start. Firstly, Andy Collett arrived with his regular team much to everybody's amazement, probably his first DF since a serious operation. Secondly, Peter Lisle turned up on his own as his navigator was still on the way back from London. Peter's plan was to collect him from Beaconsfield station after the event started. Most other competitors rejoiced at this news but unfortunately for them, one of the transmitters was only a couple of miles from Beaconsfield station and the train was on time!

All three stations were audible at the start but good bearings could only be obtained for the two northerly stations. An approximate bearing was given out for the southern station.

A number of teams decided to head south, whereas Peter Lisle had to head north to pick up his navigator which turned out to be a fortuitous move as he was only a mile or so away from Steve Stone when the second transmission came on.

The Slough site proved to be quite tricky as most competitors approached it from the south side which meant crossing a small stream and negotiating a swampy area whereas if they had parked in the public car park and walked across the playing field and entered the wood from the north side they wouldn't have tripped over the nasty mounds of grass and lost bits of equipment. I did return to the woods on the Sunday morning but failed to find any of the missing equipment.

Towards the end of the contest, I offered to pick up Steve Stone after the last transmission and take him back to his car which was parked in a hotel car park on the A40. Whilst waiting for Steve, I noticed a group with torches coming out of the woods not far from Steve's location, cross the road and carry on away from the transmitter. I wasn't sure at the time if they were contestants (might have been poachers!) but it turned out that they were as they eventually returned to the road about the time that Steve arrived with his transmitter. It turned out that this 'lost' group (I can't remember who they were) had parked their car some 2 miles away on a very narrow single track road and were about to start walking back to it. I couldn't fit them all in my car so I took the driver and we left the rest of his team by the roadside to await pickup once the driver had got to his car. So instead of being first to the refreshments, I was almost last as after dropping off Steve Stone by his car and the 'lost' driver by his car I ended up getting stuck in the single track lane because I met another car. (The other car couldn't reverse as it was being driven by a woman!) But I wasn't quite last to the food as one of the operators, David Ryan, having shut down his transmitter, found that his main torch had died, proceeded to get totally disorientated in the woods and ended up heading away from his car. He did eventually reach civilisation and a road, but not the one where his car was parked and he was faced with a 45 minute walk back to his car along dark country lanes and decided to abandon any attempt at reaching the pub. This meant we didn't have the third clock for calculating results but he phoned in the approximate times for his station.

Refreshments were provided at the Dashwood Arms in Piddington.

Even with approximate times for the third station, Peter Lisle was declared the winner. How does he do it?

John Mullins