Gage-Tyler Cup 2004 Round 7

16 September 2004

The magic ten teams arrived at Maidenhead Thicket for the last Wednesday evening DF of the year. Your scribe, G4KBB, was the hidden station as is normal for the last event. The signal appeared fairly weak at the start with an amount of sky wave adding to the problem. Most teams recorded around 40 degrees or so but one team came late and the stand-in umpire had to read out an approx bearing which read 320 degrees. This then startled all the teams who had gathered around and they wanted to know just what was going on! Well, a short phone call to me discovered that due to rushing out said bearing, I had plotted it on the wrong side of the protractor (silly me). That in turn kept some teams from leaving the start until 7:45.

The site was situated on a parcel of woodland alongside a small stream of the River Misbourne, near Chalfont St. Peter. The access was easy if you plotted the bearings onto the West London map but was still fairly clear on the Reading map . I was hidden under a fallen tree with 20 mts of wire rising then attached to a rather long barbed wire fence, with various wires thrown around.

Around 8:25 I saw a torch flashing near to the fence and started to get excited to see what it would do when the transmission was switched on. At 8:30, with the team getting very near, I came on with constant Cw. This appeared to drive them/him away, but for only a short time as he found the main aerial and tracks that led to my hide. Yes, you've guessed it, it was none other than C. Plummer (Bu**** it!) who then found my hide just after 8:32. The next set of DFers arrived near 8:50. Some did find it somewhat of a problem but, in the end, nine teams managed to find me.

Brian Bristow.

Position Competitor Finish
1 Chris Plummer 20:32:03
2 Bill Pechey 20:54:36
3 Alan Simmons 20:56:12
4 Steve Stone 20:57:37
5 Graham Phillips 20:58:10
6 Bob Gray 21:05:59
7 Colin Boyce 21:06:17
8 John Champion 21:18:43
9 Gerry Sheppard 21:19:07
8 Richard Wagner NF