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Sunday June 13th 2021 Multi-Tx DF Organiser Philip G0NXH Location Hadleigh Suffolk. Click here for road map with zoom. Event Format - full details here. |
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I used the site at Broom
hill nature reserve in March 2013 for the Snowman. Andrew Mead hid in
Hadleigh whilst I was in Groton Wood not far away. Several teams remembered that event, won by Graham Phillips with Tim 20 minutes behind. That Sunday it was cold and overcast, with the threat of rain, June the 13th was clear, sunny with a threat of heat stroke! |
I had visited the site a couple of weeks before to both check out how busy it might be at a weekend and to finalise the TX layout. Tempting though the top of the most southerly hill was with the WW2 Pill box on the top, there was not a lot of cover and more visitors so I went for the small hill to the north of it, the main Broom Hill and the flood plain down be the river for the easier A group with the Ghost as close to the middle of the site as I could get it. As we got closer to the event the worry became the heat and the rapid growth of nettles and brambles which shot up in the weeks since the last reconnoitre. It took about three hours the evening before to lay out the TX with a slight repositioning of C originally intended to be closer to the river, but way too overgrown. Was relieved on Sunday morning to find everything working – well done Roy for building in such good reliability. The briefing took place with teams all huddled together under the limited shade and this set the scene for the day given the heat. |
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| Loaded up with a supply of
water, during the day found that most teams had come prepared and
sensible about the heat issues. Catherine was out on her first DF and with some training from Roy seemed to pick it up really quickly. We arrived at A, close behind Vaughn and she also demonstrated a willingness to get into the undergrowth and a keen eye, spotting the triffid and dibbing for the full 40 points with no hesitation. We then headed to B which caused some confusion having been placed just the other side of the new bridge across the river Brett. Here were found a local clearing the undergrowth of invasive weeds, grateful of a bottle of water for his efforts. Roy and Tim also put in an appearance having had some misleading bearings. When we got to the entrance to C from the main path we found that it had already been well flattened by Roy, who later joined us as he had not actually found it, but finally did as we stood by and watched. |
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 As we all know, triffids can cause
blindness!
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| The route out from C to the rest
of the site was not straight forward but we eventually found George
taking a sensible rest at the main footpath junction by A, where he had
found some shade. Followed Catherine and Vaughn up the main path with both F & K straight on and fairly weak. As it was slightly stronger Vaughn decided to head up the hill to F, which took a couple of transmissions to locate. I had this time come equipped with some secateurs and took a moment to cut out some nasty thorns on the way in. We then tried to follow Tim into G, but as he was going cross country I took Catherine round the top path to find Vaughn trying to work out how Tim had got into G and then disappeared. Vaughn and Catherine then managed to climb down through the nettles to find G. |
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| I then found
Chris also taking a break under some shade next to G, before I shot off
for the Ghost, leaving the other two to have a go at H which they did
manage to find. After collecting the Ghost I heard a plaintive cry from within the wood. This turned out to be Roy who wanted to make contact for some reason. He had already done the Ghost but discovered that somewhere since doing K he had lost his phone (and credit cards + cash - Ed.) We started to back track towards A, crossing the meadow whilst ringing the phone. Then bizarrely someone answered the phone and said is that you? It became clear that Tim had heard the phone and eventually picked it up. Met up with Tim at M, where he handed over the phone later up at L, saw Gary who had found lots of TX but gathered little points. Steve just as hot as the rest turned up at L and took some water off me. |
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Back at the
start I decided we had to do all the after events bits in
the shade and managed to acquire a picnic table with some cover for the
collection of TX, dibbers and calculation of results by about 5.00 pm. |
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Points mean HUGE prizes! It became clear that Colin F had won both on straight points and after handicap, with Tim a close second and Catherine third both due to a good starting handicap and some good scores. Points ties are resolved by looking for the earliest validation time, see below. An advantage of having a wild joker is that you don't have to return to it to validate points, the disadvantage is that the automatic validation time is 16:00, OR as usual Tim was just lucky! |
Times
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 Left - Colin is the Multi-Star and grabs the Hero trophy from Gary. Above - Tim is awarded the
'Need to go faster,
peanut energy prize'.
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Winner's Report:
We all knew it was going to be a hot day, and most of us seemed to be
prepared, however Phil’s warning of nettles etc did put off those that
sometimes wear shorts, a good tip! After the last event which got a bit
hectic towards the start time, this was much more relaxed, and after
checking in with Phil and receiving my joker ‘H’, I got myself
organised to plot bearings. The start was only a short walk beyond a
metal gate, but I moved away from this, just in case it might throw my
bearings off. At 13:30 I began the task of working my way logically
through all 9 Tx signals, I didn’t bother with senses at this stage,
because it was fairly obvious that all signals would be in a NW
quadrant from our starting point at the most SE point of the site. The
bearings were clearly grouped into 3 distinct directions, with H being
the most easterly and B being the most northerly. With all my apparatus
put away, I check which would be the most appropriate path and followed
Gary & George along the edge of a field, (a little too south maybe)
in the general direction of the hill with the bunker on top. I had
already decided running was out, and I think Gary had as well, at the
next corner Gary and I lost George as he continued straight on. We
turned NE and found ourselves following a wide grassy path up to left
where the bunker stood. Gary decided to check the hedge beyond the
bunker, whilst I waited for another signal. Fully expecting something a
bit louder and closer, I was surprised H was still quite weak to the
NW. We followed the hedge north down the hill, but finding no way
through I resorted to climbing over a wire fence where the undergrowth
was thinnest, Gary followed! Now dropping down in the next field, there
was a narrow path through some tall nettles and a gap in the trees to
another field. We followed the hedge on the right until there was a
gap, the signal now getting stronger told us to use the gap and climb
the short steep incline to the corner of yet another field. |
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| H was strong but when Gary walked past it, I guessed he was probably after G or F, I climbed through a thorny hole in the hedge trying to work out which way I should search. Fortunately it was close to the left, just the other side of a tree, and the triffid was placed behind it. Relief that I saw a 1 displayed is always a sign of the first challenge over, then I extracted myself carefully back out into the open. I’m not quite sure why I chose G next, as F was slightly nearer, I hadn’t realised that we had in fact both passed it as we rounded a small wooded area, interestingly, I had noted some interference earlier at this point, and had scanned around for overhead power cables, but saw none, I wonder if G was ‘on’ when I had the gain turned up for H. Anyway G was easily found just inside the trees, but I was surprised by another 1st at 14:04. Now F had to be next, in a northerly direction I dropped down a slope and was soon pulled strongly to my left into a cave in the trees, it wasn’t far in and easy to get at, with another 1st I was beginning to wonder whose jokers I was taking! Now my bearings suggested K should be next, so crossing a wide open grassy valley K’s signal took me up a path alongside more woods, I was now close, and being another green was easy to locate, but this really shook me, another 1st, are these triffids working correctly I wondered? This has only ever happened to me once before! I realised I needed to stay calm and focused, it was good news . . but I could still mess up by making too many mistakes. My bearings suggested L now, but I was aware that time was ticking for the ghost, which I had kept track of to the east. It was 14:30 when I dibbed for L, this I think was by a big tree, 2nd place and things were looking too good to be true. M was tricky though, a path by a wire fence at the edge of a field took me to a point where the signal was directly south, and over a sharp drop into the woods. As it was not obvious how to get through, I thought maybe there is a path the other side with an easier access. Further along the fence another path cut back diagonally through the woods, and I now had a signal north. The nettles were as high as me with no gap to be seen. I could now hear Steve and another up on the bank, and thought they must have found a better route. I was not prepared to search anymore and tentatively trod a path through the nettles, it was slow but I got through it, Steve & co had now gone and left me to collect another 2nd and I left M at 14:40. |
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Now it was
definitely time to try for the ghost, which gave regular signals to the
SE keeping me on track, although finding the right way on winding paths
through the wood was tricky. Fortunately I came out with a strong
signal on my left, and I didn’t have to venture far under the trees to
pick up the ghost’s triffid, it was now 14:49 with a not too bad 4th.
Thinking ABC are now north of me, A had a marginally nearer bearing,
but when I picked up it’s signal it was east, and not too far off
either. I continued on the open path east to the edge of dense
undergrowth where a path crossed left and right, I think I went to the
right, and then with no paths I just dived in, not too many nettles
this time but still slow. There were obvious signs of others having
done the same, so I kept in their tracks. |
| A was not too difficult, and I clocked in just before 15:00 with a 7th
then retraced my steps back to the main path. Oddly, I now decided to
go for B, even though my bearing for C was close to A’s, maybe I was
getting a stronger signal ! . . B appeared to be 100yds or so north
back into the undergrowth again, but this was not so easy to make
progress this time. After 10mins I actually gave up and decided to do C
first, then have another go at B. This turned out to be a good move, as
C was just a bit further north and not so difficult to find, another
7th didn’t surprise me. At 15:12, I still had plenty of time to give B
another go, and headed back south looking for some way of getting
nearer the river without going back to the start. It wasn’t long before
a small path appeared on my left (just what I was looking for), it took
me to the main river path through the woods. I followed this north
until I was about inline where I had dived in earlier on the west side,
only to find the signal was still farther off to the NE. |
| I found a path
that took me right next to the river, very narrow but navigable. I
continued north until a metal bridge was in sight, but with no signal
what should I do? I was now uncertain which side of the river B might
be, so I decided to stop right on the centre of the bridge. A couple of
guys wanted to cross, so not wanting to obstruct them, I crossed to the
NE side just as B came on quite loudly. It seemed to me I was probably
on the correct side, and homed in on it quite quickly finding it under
the trees at 15:27 for another 7th. B and my joker H were about as far
apart as they could get, so with half an hour left I strolled in the
rough direction down to A then west across to FGH, I met up with Gary
for the last part who seemed a little confused by the whole adventure,
but had managed to find all but the ghost. Although hot and dehydrated,
I had benefited from keeping the running to an absolute minimum, still
picking up good positions for the first 6 Tx’s. Back at camp, I still
wasn’t sure if I had done enough, but when Phil announced 2nd place and
I had not got one yet, my heart was in my mouth. How on earth had that just happened, it was a surreal feeling after convincing myself at home that morning I was in no position to be competitive today, I had decided to just relax and enjoy the event doing my own thing! Many thanks to Phil who put on a perfect event in an outstanding location, it couldn’t have been better, and to Roy who provides all the background work to every event, and incidently has not missed a single multi in the past 9 years. I might also add that Gary can now put his ‘toy radio’ back in the drawer and start competing again (which might revitalise some ‘old spice’), whilst I think about what I should do with a ‘Hero’ trophy’. |
Very
well done Colin especially after driving a 100 miles to be with us. I
suspect the return 100 miles may have passed more quickly. Your
new handicap of 152 caused a rescale by 130/152 (results are rounded to
the nearest integer).
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Congratulations Colin you are now our Hero!
(Code for - yep that should stop him winning, giving us lesser DFers a chance) Thanks to every one who came along to support us and extra special thanks to Philip and Tim for bringing my stress levels down to a survivable level! Next event July 11th, watch this page for details. |
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