The 2011 Geoff Peck Memorial Trophy event was blessed with excellent DF weather; bright sunshine but not sweltering heat. Only eight teams booked in but they seemed to have a good time.

Station A was operated by Roger Shepherd who was located just to the north of Watlington Hill on a footpath through some scrubland. He had managed to climb about 25 feet up an old yew tree, which was right next to the path. He also had a camouflage net to reduce the visibility from below. The antenna was about 500 feet long and connected to a different wire fence at each end.

Doreen Pechey operated station B from her canoe, which was moored under an overhanging bank of the Thames near Cholsey. There was a very extensive patch of blackthorn between the path and the river. The bush and the shape of the bank made her and the canoe invisible from the west side of the river (but not the east side!). The antenna ran along the bank between trees and bushes and then vanished into the river where it lay in the water under the bank and finished up in the canoe. We had expected teams to go to the A station first because it was further away but many decided to go to the nearer station B. Several teams started running up and down the river bank but could not locate the station. At that point, Brian Bristow appeared on the east bank and could clearly see the blue canoe under the bush. After one failure, he managed to hail a passing cabin cruiser and somehow persuaded them to take him across. He handed in his clock card and then took the boat back! It took him some time to explain everything to the boat owner who demanded to know what was going on. All this activity had given away the station location to those on the west bank and Paul Clark was the first to tunnel through the blackthorn.

Some teams went to the other site first and had spent some time milling around when Brian arrived on the scene, quickly spotted the camouflage net and climbed the tree to win the contest. It was not necessary to climb the tree; as soon as Roger was sure that he had been spotted he would lower a bulldog clip on a line so that the clock card could be taken up to the clock.

Tea was taken at the Scout Hut at Crays Pond where we all heard how the others had succeeded or failed.

Bill Pechey