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 Organiser Roy G4JAC/P |
Sunday 10th May 2026
Multi-Tx DF Location Pods Wood, NE of
Tiptree
NGR TL 89963 17946 Map with zoom Contact us direct or by using this email. Noticeboard Event format Dates |
 10 Txs and associated triffids provide the amusement. |
 Conyfield wood has some
interesting features, I have placed several Txs there in the
past. As I made plans remotely, I could picture all the paths and
good hides, probably others would be able to do the same, give that area a rest for this year.
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 My Tx / Triffid hiding place plan |
| Pods
Wood also has a few memorable features but also large areas with trees,
trees and ..... more trees. Plus there are paths shown on the OS
map but MANY others gently persuade you into random directions.
If the sun isn't out and you don't watch your compass, it is very easy
to get lost. Wandering around planting Txs, without a dog, usually attracts attention! Recently I have warn my hi vis kit from the car, with that on most assume that I am there officially, often asking about plants or how to get back to the car parks! Saturday was no different with people asking where they should leave their dog poo bags or, remarking on where others shouldn't have left them. |
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| Saturday
was very hot, by the time I arrived at the area where I intended
to plant M, I had discarded several layers of clothing, the water glinting in the sun was
attractive. There was little cover on this side but much of the
other side had tempting deep undergrowth.. |
 With
lots of cover elsewhere, this shouldn't look like a hiding place, the tree's branches
reached out to the water's edge, offering a support for the Tx antenna.
The Triffid could be located in the ferns close to the waters edge, in
the centre of the picture.
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 A close up of the Triffid, can you catch a glimpse of it? No? - zoom in and look near the bottom of the picture. A sunny day .... I was really enjoying planting these puzzles. |
Sun (no) day |
| It wasn't raining BUT the temperature was at least 10 C lower, all my
layers were back in place but while setting up the pre-event practise Txs
with numb hands I wished I had gloves! Two new faces joined the regulars, David and Jack. My suggested plan was that they should just record times, rather than compete, then they could go around together with me giving some help if needed. My initial training based around the practise Txs included motivational stories - e.g. how, on a previous occasion, a new recruit had a reverse sense and spent the entire afternoon on his own in the wrong wood. 13:30 Plan in place. 13:35 Plan modified - equipment needed taking back to the car park. David & Jack had a bearing on F and I said I would catch them up. 13:45 .... I caught up with David, "Where's Jack" ..... "He went that way through the undergrowth" ... but by the time I got to F Jack had gone. Ah, the next element of my cunning plan was that, at this stage, they (now he) would tell me where he was going next (G, A, K ? ?) and I would follow at a distance in case more help was needed. I went back to David and we agreed to forget Triffids and instead search for Stealth-mode Jack! The joker system does a good job in dividing people up and, in this wood, with so many alternative paths between Txs, you are unlikely meet others. The one exception might be the ghost just before 15:00. I arrived there just in time to see most of the action. |
 Philip and Colin M waiting for a signal.
|  Yes it's going to be a Rhodeo! |
 Philip and Tim are attempting the pretty entrance to the ring.
|  Tim is getting very warm - lucky him!
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 Philip and Colin are not so sure this is the best access or, could it be Philip has a reverse sense?
|  At this point the action
is getting too fast for my shutter finger, so I switch to video -
9 seconds in, a 40 pt, smug looking Tim coming out the easy way
with George heading in.
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 78 seconds - In the centre Philip can just be seen 32 points!.
|  113 seconds - George 26 and Colin 23, manage to squeeze through the branches.
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 Getting in was a struggle but, without Triffid motivation ......
George is extra slow, his hood firmly grasped by a branch. |  198 seconds - Gary demonstrates his one arm, one leg Triffid dib.
This may be the first time this has been captured on film, in the wild. |
| During this welcome distraction from my task, I had asked all if they had come across Jack, none had. I started to wonder if history was repeating itself - had Jack got a reverse sense and ended up in some distant wood ? However, David and I needn't have worried, as his times show, Stealth-mode Jack knew exactly what he was doing. |
Results
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Times
for info:
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 Two winners! Before this event, Tim presented Gary with the Multi-Star for event 1. Both had to leave before the results and pubs, but this double act saves pixels! |
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| How did Tim do it ? Well .... there
we were in Pods wood again, with the start about 100m into the wood
down a familiar wide track. I was expecting the usual layout with some
transmitters on both sides of the road. The three good signals from A,F
and K heard at the start indicated that this may not be so.
Having drawn joker K, I realised that other competitors with jokers L and M may try and nip in first, so I found a shortcut across the right hand bend in the main path to be first along the track towards K. Now it is always an idea to know who you are up against, so a quick glance behind indicated Rosie and Gary in hot pursuit. I knew then that I was in trouble. The second transmission took me to the vicinity of K, but I think Gary may have spotted a tell-tale bit of bright green triffid attachment, and he dived in first. I then knew it was going to be a bad day. |
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Gary
shot off in a strange direction before L next came on which confused
me. I later found out that he was trying to do a quick raid on B. He
got back to L to grab the 40 points just before me. With no signs of
Rosie, I guessed that her joker must be M, and she had gone there after
K. Heading down a small track took us to one of Roy’s favourite hiding areas near a pond. Rosie was already hunting in the trees nearby. A signal took me out of the trees towards the pond, where there were several areas of potential triffid hides. All three in our gang searched in several wrong places, then Rosie found the triffid lurking in a green clump at ground level, followed by Gary and myself. Now kicking myself because I had looked around this area previously, I thought that 32 (J) ,32 and 26 was not a winning start. To make matters worse, Phil arrived as we left M, so he had probably made a clean sweep at A B and C. |
| From
Gary’s earlier sortie towards B, and Phil’s quick arrival, I considered
that A,B and C were close by and so were next on my list. These were
all found without too much trouble, with reasonable points scores. I had previously heard the ghost in a direction back towards the road, so that’s the way I plodded next, walking along the main start path, with my legs feeling heavy today. I waited for a short while on the raised bank at the roadside. I was expecting the ghost to be on the other side of the road, as no other transmitters were over there. A very loud signal came on and without a good sense, I crossed over the road to look, about 50m in. The next signal told me I had got it wrong, and I had to go back over the road into (from a previous experience) a ********** (please insert your own word here) large clump of Rhododendrons. With lots of likely places to hide a triffid, I just took a punt and headed through a thin bit to the other side. No luck here. However on the next signal I headed straight back into the clump in another place to an area of twisted and tangled branches, almost impossible to get through ! I did however, spot the ghost triffid, but getting to it was another matter.It took a frustrating long time to weave my way through to it. However, I was rewarded with a flashing “1”. Unbelievable ! A bit lucky as several others now homed in. |
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Just F,G H to do; Phil
grabbed F on a high branch before me; then having managed to previously
get an idea of where G was, it didn’t prove too difficult for me to
find. Phil was nearby but shot off somewhere; I thought he must have
found G before me.
Onwards towards H with George and Phil nearby; just one more signal took me to H first to grab a pleasing 2nd place. |
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| Back to joker K now for a long wait. Colin M passed by along the path,
then along came Colin F to find K at about 3.50, living dangerously so
near to the 4.00 finish. Having sat down on the ground for 40 min, it
was rather difficult for me to get back up again. The joints ain’t what
they were !! Thank you to Roy for another successfully run event which kept us warm in the cold weather. Congratulations to Phil too on being the “100% - points” winner. |
| Hero League Changes after this event Tim grabs the Hero back from Gary - but this time no rescale - phew!
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What might happen next time? Only four people can take the Hero Trophy home after the next event which Gary will run. For running the event he will receive 5 Hero Points - will he be merciful on these hot shots by discarding - surely not ? ! Can Tim get a third ( 8 points ) or better to cover Gary's bid of 130 +5 ? Will Philip be the 100% man again, getting 50 to force us all down the Multi-Snakes (& few Ladders) with a rescale? Or will George grab the Hero for the first time with a win taking him to 134 while the other hot shots are left in the dust? Keep your eye on the Noticeboard to find out. |