|
TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF RUNNING A NIGHT
NAVIGATION EXERCISE
Way back in the late 70s / early 80s I helped organise a
few road rallies but the December Navigation Run was my
first attempt at a Navigation Exercise. Simple, one
would think!
Over the previous weeks Tina and myself planned to use
some interesting lanes starting North of Mold, then some
loops around Nercwys Mountain and the final section over
Nant y Ffrith. The start was to be the Aldi car park in
Mold, which proved to be an ideal location. Took some
time finding a good finish venue. We had to sample a few
pubs to check them out! Eventually stumbled on the Cross
Keys in Llanfynydd, which was a perfect finish point. A
traditional pub with real fires and good beer.
As it was that time of year we used a Christmas theme.
Decided to use the usual format with symbols printed on
A5 laminated card. To encourage newcomers and novices
alike we agreed to make the navigation fairly straight
forward with map references and a few spot heights and
to place the symbols in places that were not too
obscure.
As I was working on the Friday we had to set up the
symbols on the Thursday night. However it was howling a
gale and the tacks I was using were too short so
consequently bashed my thumb numerous times with the
hammer, plus getting stung by nettles, prickled by
brambles and falling in the mud! By 11pm Tina was ill
and I had had enough so we headed for home. We still had
the final section to set up.
On the Friday we had to print out all the instructions.
By 4pm I was starting to panic as my printer was playing
up so made a dash to the library to print 50 pages by
laser printer. When I returned my printer was still
printing page 4 of 5! As soon as we had collected all
the paperwork together we set off to complete the final
section of the route. My able assistant Tina decided she
was too ill (with ‘flu) to stay out all evening so she
headed for home.
Made it to the start venue just in time as the first
competitors were arriving. Very pleased with the turnout
of 10 crews, some of whom were new faces. It was a great
honour to see top road rally exponents Roger and Leigh
Powley turn up to have a go on their first ever
navigation run in their Hillman Imp. My daughter Rachael
dragged her boy friend Myc along in his Volvo 850,
following on from their success on The Scally Rally (
Calais to Rimini in 4 days via the Alpine roads - in all
3500 miles return trip).
There was plenty of time to plot the route and get to
the finish before 10.30pm. The Powley’s set off after
about 20 mins with the rest of the novices not far
behind. In order to kill time I set up a Secret check at
about half - way point. Waited 5 mins and Rachael and
Myc turned up - looked like they were doing okay but had
missed a couple of symbols. 10 mins later I had a phone
call to say they were stuck on the white. Next car
through were Jan & Graham Thomas in the Freelander.
Graham kindly agreed to take a rope and pull them out if
necessary. After a while I agreed to go to their aid but
they were not on the white on the route. It turned out
they were on another white due to a mis- plot.
At this point I had to go to the finish and greet the
crews and do the results. This proved to be the most
difficult task of the night. Not made easy by the fact a
few symbol markers had gone missing - before the start
it would seem, plus the fact some symbols were
duplicated ( my fault ) as the idea was to solve
anagrams of certain words associated with Christmas.
Whilst the event was deemed a success I would do things
very differently next time.
Results were announced and Jan & Graham Thomas did well
to finish with maximum score - 1st Overall
and 1st Novice. The Powleys were Runners - up
and the three Experts very close behind. Many thanks to
all the crews who took part on such a damp night and
hope to see you again.
All that remained then was to rescue my daughter and
boyfriend from the muddy white! A working party was
formed and we headed off. Although they were only 300
yards from the end of the white it was decided to push
the heavy Volvo uphill for half a mile in order to
extricate it from the mire. This was completed
eventually and many thanks to those stalwart club
members who got caked in mud!
Organisers Keith & Tina Cross
Results:
DRIVER / NAVIGATOR
Jan Thomas / Graham Thomas
1st O/A 1st Novice
Roger Powley / Leigh Powley
2nd O/A 2nd Novice
Stu Thomas / Osian Hooson
3rd O/A 1st Expert
Gwyn Reynolds-Jones / Gareth Reynolds-Jones 4th O/A
2nd Expert
Derek Jones / Stuart Jones
5th O/A 3rd Expert
Neil Lloyd / Rob Lloyd
6th O/A 3rd Novice
Dave Barnes / Lynn Barnes
7th O/A 4th Novice
Noel Dutton / David Griffiths
8th O/A 5th Novice
John Gwynedd / Daffdd Gwynedd
9th O/A 6th Novice
Myc Etheridge / Rachael Cross Retired
|
