18-19 October
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18-19 October |
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The event this year was organized by Bugbrook and Harpole venture scouts.
The course was basically a figure-8. It started at 21:00 and in order to save operators we set up control in the Landrover at base ( checkpoint ) 8 in the centre crossover of the course. |
The first hour only saw 3 teams through 8 and one of those was going
the wrong way. Team 8 going backwards through
base 8 on the figure of 8 course. At about midnight another burst of
about 6 teams came through. The numbers of the
teams passing through each of the bases was radio'd through as they
were visited and the team locations were updated
on our maps.
The organisers had no need for any event progress info so we used it
purely for ourselves. As each team completed
the course and got back to the community center their pin was removed
from our map.
By 02:00 there were still 2 pins in the map and realised that those
teams were still outstanding and a search plan was put
into place. The map pins indicated that the teams should have been
roughly in the vicinity of base 10 so the minibus, with
one of our operators on board, was dispatched there. We were unable
to verify if they had been through base 11 and
the '11' marshals had lost their score sheet. An initial report from
the minibus said that they could not see the teams so a
visit to each checkpoint was also initiated to verify if they had or
had not been through each of the points.
The reported information from all the other checkpoints confirmed that
the map markers were correct and that the team
had to be in the vicinity of base 10. Knowing that all the other teams
were safe and that the missing ones had not been through '3' then
3,4,5,6 and 7 were closed. 8 was also closed but as the RAYNET control
vehicle was still on site there was no danger of missing the teams.
All mobiles then made '10' their destination and a team of marshals
started to walk from 9 to 10 to check the footpaths.
While ZJK was being instructed to make his way from the far side of
the course to sweep the roads in the vicinity of base10 the minibus interrupted
in with a 'relevant' message and reported that both teams had been
found and were safe with the base 10 marshals.
We stood down from the search at about 03:00 Saturday morning.