Crews were greeted by his wife Mandy who’d not only prepared welcome teas and coffees but was also on car park duty! Sadly we lost one crew at the start with car issues so Diane Whittock flagged away nine starters at just after 8pm.
The route of 50 miles was split into seven sections, the first one being just over two miles long so crews were in the thick of it straight away. The lanes were typically narrow and well washed after all of the rain with one re-route required after inspection earlier in the day due to flooding. The crews were taken on a compact tour of the area which included Paulton, the edge of Radstock, Peasedown St John, down into the myriad of lanes around Foxcote, out beyond Kilmersdon, back past Babbington House, through Faulkland, Wellow, Priston and on to Englishcombe. A final leg from Newton St Loe to Farmborough via Stanton Prior got the first crews back to Timsbury by 10pm. Two crews used marked maps with the remaining brave souls using handouts containing a mixture of navigation instructions.
Despite an error in the instructions at Peasedown which was sorted in the results, most crews managed to navigate the Foxcote section and then had a fairly uneventful if brisk run through the rest of the route returning to Timsbury to be greeted by sandwiches and cake which had most certainly been earned!
On this occasion, the marked map crews were subject to a 10 minute penalty from the outset to keep the results fair which when calculated, gave us a joint first place between two plot and bash crews, Jerry Pennell /Dan Stone and Giles Pursey and Mark Dunkerley. As per the regulations, Jerry and Dan took the honours (and the £40 Majestic Wine vouchers donated by Stonier Hobbs estate agents!) on the basis of furthest/cleanest.
Duncan was keen that this should be a social as well as competitive event and the Conygre Hall at Timsbury proved to be an excellent venue with plenty of space for cars and crew. The last crews headed home just after 11pm. He wants to publicly thank the marshalls that were out in the dark and Nick Chapman for sorting the results. Special mention of Dave Clifford is deserved for helping Duncan set up the controls and (18!) route check boards earlier in the day then collecting them all that night with Taff Evans.
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