2008 Gage-Tyler Cup Round 4

18 June 2008

Operator's Report

I decided earlier in the year to use that area for the event since it's on my regular bike ride route. I also decided that for the first time ever I would run an event without using my car once. Unfortunately some people seemed to assume (rightly) I wouldn't be far from home. In fact I live about 0.5k away. Be wary next year as I do 10k bike rides.

I must admit I was a bit worried a month earlier when Mark's event looked like it could be in the same place. The general area is quite large and there are at least three other spots that I could have chosen, and in hindsight I wished I had.

I never thought that the event would be difficult, but even so I was surprised how quickly I was pinned down. I couldn't believe it when transmitting at 8.15 I heard someone coming in to the site. A minute or so later a voice called out 'Dad, I've found the wire', oh no, it's Peter & Tim again! Much to my surprise it turned out to be Mark, who crashed his way towards me but looked the wrong way and eventually went back out to the path to follow the aerial the other way. Marks son eventually found me and guided Dad in just before 8.30.

Peter, Brian, Graham, and Bill rapidly followed within the next 7 minutes, and it then went quite until Dave Ryan and Ray Goodearl turned up either side of 9pm.

Unfortunately Claire never found me. Don't be too disheartened Claire, it takes time to gain the experience necessary.

Steve Stone

Competitor's Report

The Adventures of Mr X and Mr Y (otherwise known as David Ryan and John Mullins)

The evening started badly by arriving late for the first transmission. This was mainly due to Mr X, who, despite being given directions for avoiding the Ascot traffic, managed to get into the thick of it on the outskirts of Windsor. We encountered another delay on leaving the M4 at Maidenhead as some clown had managed to launch his van onto the crash barrier.

On arrival, Mr X grabbed the DF set from the car, found the frequency from Justin and just about managed to get a bearing of 340 before the transmission ended. Fortunately, we found out that the operator lived in Hazlemere so we didn't take too much notice of the first bearing which went nowhere near Hazlemere but assumed it was somewhere to the north. We decided to head to a lay-by on the Beaconsfield to Amersham road (A355) which we'd used before for the 8:00pm transmission. (High ground and no overhead wires). We received a good signal that was fairly sharp, indicating about 3 - 4 miles and plotted a bearing of 285. It should have been around 300 so perhaps this wasn't such a good location after all! This pointed towards King's Wood near Hazlemere. We decided that another bearing was needed to confirm King's Wood and set of to Tylers Green. We stopped at the crossroads there, and waited for the 8:15 transmission. This was a strong transmission, probably no more than a mile or so distant, and gave a bearing of 300 which unfortunately meant that it wasn't in Kings Wood. It also meant that we'd need to use the other map and take another bearing. We got onto the A404 and headed east through Hazlemere to the edge of Penn Wood and took another bearing from there at 8:30. This gave a cross with our 8:15 bearing near to Four Ashes and the most likely place appeared to be the small wood with a radio mast. We set off back through Hazlemere again and arrived at the footpath leading to the wood at about 8:50. Unfortunately, almost everybody else was standing around by the gate obviously having already found the transmitter - Graham and Justin were looking particularly smug! We even had to wait for a couple of competitors to leave before we could find somewhere to park. A short walk across a playing field led to a wooded area. After a bit of searching we eventually found the aerial which led us to the operator at around 9:00pm. Not our finest achievement!

Well done Steve for finding a good site and a pub that served good beer.

John Mullins

Position Competitor Finish
1 Mark Coventry 20:28:49
2 Peter Lisle 20:31:16
3 Brian Bristow 20:32:33
4 Graham Phillips 20:33:11
5 Bill Pechey 20:35:32
6 David Ryan 20:59:28
7 Ray Goodearl 21:01:24
8 Claire Barrell NF