Multi-DF     Sunday  Sept 13th 2015

  Organiser  Steve S       10 Txs plus the 'Bonus X!'    Start  1:30   End  16:00      Pub  The Plough at Cuffley

Steve says:

Being unable to use the majority of the large Broxbourne woods area due to apparent privacy issues, I was left with the Hoddesdon woods area and a smaller car park.

After a walk around decided it was OK, although maybe a bit more open than I would have liked.

This limited Tx placement to smaller clumps of thicker woods, and maybe made it slightly easier. I therefore opted to add distance. This dictated the locations of R/S, Y/Z and I/J in the corners of the wood. 

Would have preferred somewhere a bit less open for A but it was OK.
Decided to do something different with F/G. Normally these seem to be close to A/B grouping the 4 greens together. I put F/G off to the left of the start to give competitors with harder jokers a decision to make because it wouldn't be a slight diversion on the way to the other Txs. I was also hoping that the less experienced competitors would therefore have an opportunity to pick up some higher points score on these two. I think that worked out well.

Decided to start from the Nature Reserve (arrow) mainly to bring everything 250m closer, since Y/Z were about 1K way. Giving out O maps of the area was an experiment, although I suspect not many gained much from it as they do take getting used to, in particular the need to maintain your position on the map at all times.

The only equipment problem I had was with X where I had left the large amount of unused aerial wire wrapped around the casing and then buried it! Doh. I had set it to transmit on 1980, but after chatting to Roy discovered that some of his loan sets don't go that high. So after the start I took my laptop out and reprogrammed it onto 1900 (and also unburied the excess aerial). Worked fine after that.
Many thanks to all those who collected kit at the end.

Sounds like everybody enjoyed themselves and that makes all the effort worthwhile.

A Rose amongst the ferns

Mark  has all the ingredients for a top team

 111 man with cupped hand directing Triffid bleeps earward.
This must be early in the event, John's set is still in one piece.

Do I detect a spring in Richard's step?
 
I've tried phoning help the aged but ....

A confident Rosie approaching the finish.
What did Graham find in the woods?

Results:

Position Competitor Handicap Joker A B F G I J R S Y Z Total Percent
1 Colin F 40 R 13 11 17 17 40 32 64 32 20 23 229 100
2 Rosie M 0 I 32 8 0 9 64 40 15 15 15 17 215 93
3 Richard S 5 G 26 26 11 22 26 23 17 17 17 15 195 85
4 Gary P 93 S 15 13 20 20 20 20 40 80 26 32 193 84
5 Roy E 54 Z 9 9 23 23 8 7 23 23 40 80 191 83
6 Mark C 0 * 23 20 80 32 9 11 0 0 0 0 175 76
7 Graham D 0 J 8 32 0 8 23 52 13 13 13 13 175 76
8 Tim P 111 Y 40 40 15 15 17 17 20 20 64 26 163 71
9 John M 0 * 20 17 64 26 13 13 0 0 0 0 153 66
10 Graham P 0 G 17 7 26 80 11 9 0 0 0 0 150 65
11 Colin M 70 R 11 23 13 13 15 15 52 26 23 20 141 61
12 Bob S 0 J 7 15 0 0 7 16 0 0 0 0 45 19



Hero Points

Win  50
Second  10 
Third 3

Discard up to 10

Hero points count towards the Hero Trophy awarded to the person who is brave enough to compete with the biggest handicap.
More detail


Colin F Multi-Star for the second time this year, now going for the Hero ....
.... and Steve is the man he has to catch, oh and 111 man!


Penguin power was just not enough, Colin M picks up the 'Must try harder' prize for finding X.
 So how did our winner do it?   Over to Colin F:

Steve’s event was in Hoddesdon woods, east of the A10. From Hoddesdon a small car park was found on the right of Cocks Lane, Roy was there with his new ‘off-roader’, it looked all white to me! This was not the start point though, at 13:00 Steve took us down a track and then left through a gate into an open picnic area. Our pre-hunt instructions were announced, with an explanation that half the area was out of bounds due to some ‘official’ work going on, but he had clearly marked this on a very colourful and detailed map that he supplied. I had drawn joker R from the red bag, and decided with two areas to go, I should wait for R to let me know where it was. So at 13:30 I stayed put, and did some plotting before R came on, and it was a good signal which was pretty much on the path to the North.  I took flight, running hard down to the stream, crossing the bridge and through the gate, then a gentle slope upward which proved to be a slog that slowed me down a lot. I continued North for a while until the signal veered Eastwards, the woods were fairly open here, so I just followed signals from both R & S.  
Passing by S to concentrate on R, I went a long way down to a stream when the signal stopped. I decided not to cross, but waited . . . damn! . . R was now back where I had come from, confused, I retraced my steps almost back to where I thought S was, how did that happen ? (I later discovered I had been heading for Y which follows on from R’s transmission).  eventually I homed in on R only to find the 40 had gone, not good, I had now lost 16 points ! But at least I knew S was not far away, and headed into an open area to find Gary scouring the same trees as me, soon Colin M joined in, but unfortunately I could only watch as Gary picked off another 40 token again, I think Colin M had missed that, as he was behind some other trees. Rather disappointed, I ventured off SE where I & J signal’s were calling. On my approach to J an opening appeared with a narrow path through waste high grasses, I jousted with Rosie coming towards me as I ran past in pursuit of J’s signal. I soon came to a stream with a vertical bank on the opposite side, I leapt up onto the edge, and just about managed to keep my balance, I was almost there, the signal was very strong now. I quickly found it nestled by the roots of a fallen tree, and got another 32 points here. ‘I’ was now not far away to the NW, and only took 2 mins to get to, but amazingly nobody had been here, 40 points at last !
I hadn’t heard much from Y & Z (at least that’s what I’d thought) and tuned in for a brief burst, and with a good signal I headed north, but don’t remember anything significant about either of them, I had noted 11 mins to find Z, and being quite close another 2 mins to find Y, with 23 & 20 tokens from their triffids. 
14:37 . . I began to wonder how far away F & G were, unsurprisingly they both had quite weak signals . . But wait a minute I’d forgotten about X, a quick rotation of the tuning dial down to its minimum setting, and wait . . . I didn’t have a long wait before a very low beat filled my head, I adjusted the tuning slightly to a more pleasant tone, and decided to do it whilst I was in the area. It took me down to a dense dark place with lots of low undergrowth, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but scoured the ground anyway. With several short bursts and intervals I found another triffid, green tokens and the 40 was still there indicating I was first (whatever that meant !). Now back to F & G, but hold on A & B are rather strong now, and even though I had over an hour left, I thought it might be foolish to pass them by. So B first with 11 points then onto A, the bottles by a tree were a good sign, quite light here with the sun shining through the tree tops, and the triffid wasn’t difficult to find, and another 13 points gained.
OK . . now I have to go for F & G, but as I walked away I realised I had not posted my tokens, and duly returned to scrape the leaves off the tin, then remove the red band. My new token holder was working better than the last, but still difficult to get more than one token off at a time ! Red band back on, and cover with leaves, heading NW I came to a path where Roy was going NE uttering ‘it’s a long walk’, I guessed he was talking about F & G ! . . I pressed on SW over a log towards the kissing gate, and then pondered on which path to take, one either side of the stream. I didn’t have to wait long for a signal to suggest I should stay on the northern side, thinking I still had a long way to go I broke into a trot, and found myself level with a couple jogging on the other side, but after switching frequency a couple of times they got away, now the signal was NW into the woods, I stayed with the path as long as possible, then with an increasingly strong signal I dived in. I found G first with a still reasonable 17 points, it was fairly easy going here and within 3 mins I was onto F, but there Gary wanted the same, and yet again beat me to it, Tim was close behind so I gave him the next token, another 17 for me and at 15:01 I had 11 tokens, but I still had 2 to post, so headed back along the stream to the gate. Paused for a moment whilst I figured out which path had come from A, the middle one I think, and I soon came to the fallen tree confirming I was right. Now I needed a signal to find A which took me into a rather shady area not like I had remembered at all, I hunted round in circles before I heard Steve and Gary who were now at A, how did I miss that ? Gary and I selected pairs of Tx’s to collect, and headed out before time was up, with I & J in the bag most were now back at A. Richard had seen some action with blood running from his forehead down to the end of his nose (nothing a good pint of beer wouldn’t cure), so we headed off for the Plough in Cuffley. AK was flowing, and great food was enjoyed, now time for the results, Colin M took the ‘X’ prize, a box of chocolates with a stern warning ‘must try harder’. Rosie took 2nd with a bottle of wine, and after such a poor start I had unbelievably come 1st, I was quite taken aback! I think the handicaps must be having an effect, and now have 90 to my credit, life is not going to be so easy for quite a while.
My thanks firstly go to Steve for organising and supplying his detailed maps for the hunt, and Roy who always works hard behind the scenes for every event, it really was a most enjoyable day, not least because it remained dry and cool.
Well done Colin,  a double 2015 Multi-Star!

Steve, thanks for a great event, leaving home at 7.30 am and having a report and pics to me before midnight!

Having found Y & Z for probably the first time in my Multi-Career I thought I had a trophy booked but one mustn't rest on one's triffids.

This was to be the last event of the year but Colin F suggested having another and no one could think of a good reason to object (other than a lack of appropriately equipped penguins) so watch this space for details.