Mr.Y, looking for Mr.X

Six teams assembled at Maidenhead Thicket for round 2 of the GT cup with David Ryan (Mr.X) on the transmitter. A good strong signal was heard by all the teams but it was almost entirely sky-wave. Nobody could get a null so an approximate bearing was given out. This was 160 degrees and pointed towards Mr.X's home territory of Woking.

We decided to head south of Windsor for the 8:00pm transmission and reached what seemed a suitable place in Windsor Great Park on the A332. When the transmission came on it was much weaker than the start and it was almost impossible to get a bearing. We were probably in the 'skip-zone' where we were too close for the sky-wave but too far for the ground-wave. We carried on south to Ascot and waited for the 8:15 transmission just off the A30 near Windlesham. The signal was still weak but gave a bearing towards Bagshot, although it turned out to be a poor bearing probably due to taking the reading in a road with houses.

We decided to head towards the Lightwater Country Park for the 8:30 transmission which was close to where the start bearing and the 8:15 bearing crossed. At last, a decent signal and a good null, which showed that the Country Park was not his location, but instead pointed towards Pirbright at the bottom of the map with the Basingstoke canal looking a promising place. We headed south towards Brookwood and Pirbright and the 8:40 and 8:50 transmissions confirmed the location as being near the canal or the B3012. Just before the 9:00pm transmission we came across Mr.X's van and Steve Stone's car parked by the A3012. The transmission showed that he wasn't on the canal, which was to the north of the road, but in a wooded area south-west of the car park. Once in the wooded area we came across three other teams all frantically thrashing around in the dark trying to find the transmitter. Unfortunately the other teams found him before we did, but only just.

Steve Stone had been in quite a bit before us and this left Bill Pechey who was still somewhere in the woods, Bill eventually clocking in with a couple of minutes to spare. All six teams found Mr.X and adjourned to his local, The Royal Oak at Knaphill, for a few pints.

Thanks to David Ryan (Mr.X) for organising a successful and challenging DF.

John Mullins (Mr.Y)