Finchampstead Ramble Friday 16th November 2001 Results
General
Firstly, thank you to everybody who turned out on the night making it a bumper entry of 27 teams. To the debutantes, we hope you enjoyed it and will turn out for the next: to the old hands, we hope this lived up to your expectations. Thank you also for observing the request not to park in the Pub car park – small isn’t it? The weather was very good to us with no rain and the temperature just low enough to stop us overheating. The mud organiser has now been relieved of his responsibilities due to his failure to provide sufficient on the night. All profits from the ramble will be donated to the organisers’ chosen charity.
Marking
Blake’s Six used a firm but fair marking system ensuring consistency across team’s marks. Some clues were so clearly located, e.g. at the point, that no leeway was given and all incorrect answers scored –10. If you feel hard done by and want to ‘get your own back’ we would be delighted to take part in your ramble.
Clue Analysis
Owl Eye awards to the following for being the only teams to find: Clue 18 – The Sun Spotters; Clue 55 – SAS Hedgehogs; and Clue 76 – Four Plus One. Clues 1 and 42 were voided. The disappearance of Clue 1 left us rather shocked – the last thing we expected was the disappearance of a sixty foot bridge days before the ramble. Apologies for the typo in clue 42 and congratulations to those teams which gave the answer we were looking for – Santella Pines. We can only credit you with a well done but ‘null point’ as we know of teams who found the answer and deliberately chose to avoid the risk of a 10 point penalty by not writing it down. Wokingham District Council chose to mess up Clue 90 by spending their surplus label allowance and littering the route with IRS Swaffham Labels: answers 18, 19 and 29-30 were all credited with full marks. Congratulations to those teams who alerted us to the second answer to Clue 12 at 15-16, this answer and the answer 11-12 were given full marks. Clues 21 and 31 were stringently marked: while this may appear harsh, we were anxious not to penalise those teams who correctly followed the navigation instructions. Clue 38 gave the organisers much post-ramble investigation. In the end the only full mark answers allowed were 11-12 and 12. While there were two potential candidates at 15-16 they lacked the details in the connectors clearly present in the clue picture. Clue 70 provided some interesting suggestions such as Field House and Rectory Farm. We were looking for Manor Cottage but allowed Manor Flats as it contained the elements of contradiction and dwelling as required by the clue.
Scoring Scheme
Using our published scoring scheme the winners were Dragons Old followed closely by Gracie Fields with Moonlighters 2 and New Dragons tying for third place. As promised we also scored teams using the ‘old’ penalty scheme of 1 point per minute for the first 30 minutes and five points per minute thereafter. On that scheme the winners would have been Heeglins H’owls (who owned up to being a horde of six and therefore would not have been able to claim the honour) followed by Moonlighters 2, Gracie Fields and Dragons Old. It is, of course, difficult to draw comparisons between the two systems as teams will have changed their tactics according to the scoring rules, but it is interesting to note that the same seven teams are in the top group regardless of which scoring system is used: likewise the same nine teams are in the bottom group. Any feedback on this subject via your team contact point would be welcome.
Next Ramble
This is the crunch bit! At the moment there are no further rambles organised: this may be the last! Organising a ramble is not difficult – there are many current or past organisers who would be delighted to coach or advise new organisers. What is missing is the real commitment and action by people. We hear lots of words but we see no activity: we see plenty of teams taking part but few organising rambles. Just think, by organising a ramble you have the perfect excuse to go down the pub for committee meetings; the perfect excuse to go for a walk before lunch and just happen to be near a pub at lunch time: what could be better? You’ve all said after a ramble “that would have been better if you’d have …”. Now is your chance to stop being a bar stool organiser and do it for real. As a bonus, you’ll find that you get better at spotting clues after you have organised your own ramble, you get a feel for what makes a good clue and see it before you realise it is on a clue sheet. So, go on, be a devil and make a whole host of somebody’s days (or evenings) by setting up your own ramble for the rest of us to enjoy. Afterwards, we’ll tell you how brilliant it was – honest, but it would have been better if you’d have …
Thanks,
Blake’s Six.
| Results Table | Clue details |