Collier Cup 2009 Round 1

03 April 2008

The Competitor's View

Seven teams started this first event for the Collier Cup at the Cowleaze Wood start. Peter Lisle was the TX operator on this event putting in a fine signal to the start. However, skywaves gave six teams the run around and only Steve Stone appeared satisfied with his bearing and took off.

With a guide bearing of 125 degrees the rest made off.

The casual teams drove down the B482 towards Marlow whilst some other keener ones drove straight down the M40 into High Wycombe. I managed to arrive at a favourite bearing taking spot just above Marlow to find Mr. X and Mr. Y also there. Mark Coventry arrived just outside Flackwell Heath.

A nice crisp signal was heard at 8pm giving me an idea that Peter was on the other side of Marlow in Bloom Wood. Mark actually took two bearings along the road and they swung 20 degrees so put him in fine spirit to run in directly into Bloom Wood. On jogging down the track towards Peter's site he bumped into Peter Lisle's son (At that stage, Mark thought Roger Shepherd was hiding - whoops!)

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Foster and I decided to run into Bloom Wood from the west which, after the 8.30 transmission, we both knew was not the shortest route.

On finally arriving at Peter's site we all (including Mark) had extreme difficulty in actually DFing Peter as it appeared that the low anti rabbit fence was radiating all over the place.

Plod by plod, we eventually managed to DF Peter well hidden in the Boonies only to find yet another Graham had pipped us all in finding Peter first. All seven teams found Peter before close down.

Brian Bristow.

The Operator's View

The 7 teams who assembled at Stokenchurch for the start of this year’s first Collier Cup event had to grapple with a high level of sky wave, despite a good signal being heard from the Tx. Most teams decided to wait for an approximate bearing and were therefore only able to get to the vicinity of High Wycombe for the second transmission which was a blessing in disguise, since the Tx was located about 3 km south from there in Bloom Wood overlooking Little Marlow. Mark Coventry guessed rightly that the Tx was located near Flackwell Heath despite being unaware that Peter Lisle was running the event, and so was somewhat surprised to pass Peter’s son Tim on foot coming away from the Tx area at 8.15pm. Tim had been helping put the aerial up – not taking a pleasant walk in the countryside as Mark’s navigator erroneously concluded! Yes it was a glorious, warm, moonlit evening, but No – Tim does not have more than the average teenage interest in walking!

The Tx was located a good run in from the road and Mark arrived in the vicinity at around 8.30 followed by several other teams on the next transmission. There followed a good 20 minutes of happy foraging amongst the undergrowth with a fence around the wood attracting a lot of attention – little did they know this was the counterpoise earth from the Tx. Eventually, a number of teams closed in on the Tx site itself and Graham Phillips succeeded in nailing his first win for some time (well done Graham!) and exited the site without drawing attention to himself. Brian Bristow came a slightly noisier second and was followed by Geoffrey Foster, Mark Coventry and Steve Stone. There was then a pause and some puzzlement since two teams had not been accounted for and time was running short. It transpired that Alan Simmons had driven away from the neighbourhood after getting a reverse sense on an earlier transmission and had been followed meekly by Dave Ryan and John Mullins. These teams eventually arrived after a pleasant but unnecessary tour of the environs of Flackwell Heath. A good natter in the Queen and Albert at Wooburn Green rounded off a very pleasant evening.

Peter Lisle

Position Competitor Finish
1 Graham Phillips 20:58:57
2 Brian Bristow 21:02:27
3 Geoffrey Foster 21:03:16
4 Steve Stone 21:09:06
5 Mark Coventry 21:09:22
6 Alan Simmons 21:19:03
7 David Ryan 21:20:31