Fourteen teams assembled at Gt Dunmow this year, with Peter Lisle having decided that one marathon a day was enough.

Technical problems beset the A station transmitter, that had been getting out in earlier tests, but failed to reach the start (full TX diagnosis still underway). Weather was warm with the occasional light showers not putting too much of a dampener on things. Four teams decided to head northeast to Peter at the edge of the map, with the rest heading towards the infamous new town of Harlow. Andy Collect was soon on site and crashing around at about 2.20pm, having pinned the B station down north of the town between the railway and the Stort Navigation and found somewhere to park. Having crawled right pass Philip, the first competitor to find a station was then left to Colin Merry, who came via the same route at 2.33 pm. Tim, Andy and John Mullins followed shortly with Doreen not far behind.

Soon after Peter had his first crop of the day at Broaks Wood (Shardlowe’s wood on the map) with George smashing through the cover to find him at 2.43pm followed by Brian, Graham Nicholls and Geoff Foster. All then went quiet for Peter, whilst the rest of the field trickled into Philip. The top runners took about 1 hour 15 mins to get between stations, so the 10 min head start turned out to be the deciding factor, with Tim first at 3.49pm and Brian second at 4.01pm. Twelve teams in all found both stations within the time with Gary Parker, the up and coming youngster finding the Harlow station after an afternoon of frustration at 4.17 pm.

Having found two stations, Brian decided to find and adopt some cygnets, discovered lost and abandoned in the road, which he then took home to Piddington. Both adoptees were given names by old softy Brian, the first being called ‘A present for you Dear’ the other named ‘The new Contest Manager’!

Philip Cunningham