Nine teams arrived at our first daylight start of the season. It was great to see three old faces at the start; Robert Vickers, Colin Boyce and Chris Friel (who actually brought a torch).

G3UJO (Peter Bradley) was on the transmitter and his first signal at 7.30 was cracking, with most teams plotting a bearing around 280 which pointed towards the east of Abingdon. As all the teams left the start it was up to myself to phone Peter on how many were competing and what type of signal was received. He was delighted on the response but added he was enjoying a waft of curry coming into his hide! (more later)

With all teams gone, I proceeded to get to the other side of Stadhampton whilst others managed to get around the Oxford ring road. At the 8pm signal Peter was not so strong but I managed to take two quick bearings which crossed on the Thames towpath near Lower Radley. After driving through a maze of traffic lights in Abingdon, I managed to get a third cross on the same path which I drove down to Lower Radley, searching for Peter's car with no luck. On the second time round I found Steve Stone had also had the same idea and on jogging down to the River path met Steve who was not convinced that Peter was here.

On came the the next signal and I decided that although the signal was not excessive I would run along the tow path (which I thought was quicker than driving). Steve eventually came along too.

After crossing one set of pylons and the signal was still weak, Steve and myself started to think "Well, that's it". After running (oh well, walking and jogging slowly) saw torches on our side of the Thames and on approaching said torches I noticed a small tent with two Polish fisherman sitting on the bank beside it. On searching their tent (yes I have the power to do it) I then questioned them if they had been cooking curry early that evening to which they replied yes. On looking which way the smoke of their fire was drifting made a quick dash around the corner to find Peter resting on a log.

To my surprise I was third in with Steve just behind me.

As we came out of the site we were told that Alan Simmons was on the site first but to our amazement, still did not find Peter until well after us. But the usual story was still to be told; Peter Lisle arrived after Alan and after a slight search managed to pip Graham Phillips into second place.

With the pub just across the river, the usual natter on what went wrong was discussed,with Chris Friel arriving to state he was searching for Peter on the adjacent map!

Brian Bristow.