SUNSEEKERS' YATELEY RAMBLE - 24^th JANUARY 2003

SUNSEEKERS' YATELEY RAMBLE - 24^th JANUARY 2003

Firstly, Thank You for coming and supporting our first ramble. We thoroughly enjoyed organising it, and it was quite nerve racking when we sent you off, and even worse when you didn't come back on schedule...!

Given the timing, in the winter months, we were concerned about the state of the footpaths, so set the course to avoid the worst ones. This meant a fair amount of walking on asphalted roads. Sadly, as K-L proved, we still got "got". We did redirect the course through the Frogmore course because carrying on at point 9 got you into a very very VERY waterlogged field (as one team discovered on the night...) Our apologies for those who got dispirited (and muddy – some of the answersheets came back very brown).

The weather had been relatively kind, and we had expected Love Lane to be a bit better, but perhaps our inexperience of organising neglected the effect of 80+ pairs of boots in one evening.

We tried to spread the clues about a bit – there were some "hot spots" – in particular the Tythings, and Point 4. Given we had a figure-of-eight, we had the problem of the public house being visited 4 times – so we opted for a remote start on one leg, and a remote finish on the other. Hands-up all those who didn't read the navigation instructions to discover this...?

The winners were the Moonlighters – by the terrific margin of 7 points over Black's Six. Heeglin's H'Owls in third place. Special mention to the Sassy Unicorns went on the lettered leg first, and bogged down in K-L, the mud seeped in, and they retired, but with a stunning sheet 5 score to dazzle the rest. They were the only team to to be the only spotters of two clues, if you get what I mean!

Scoring was not as high as we'd expected. We'd hoped for the average team to get about ½ the clues on their sheet, but this level was only achieved by the winning teams. Sorry! On average we'd have been happier (as would you) if you'd all found an extra 20 clues. Oh, and we'd had been happier if you'd walked faster(!) and attracted less penalty points. It seems our first ramble reversed the trend of the rambles getting a bit easier. Ooops. It seems the navigators had the best time on their sheets – and they were kept busy navigating in places (to save having too many waypoints too close together). Comment was made that if you got lost amongst houses one row of houses looked the same as another – which is a fair critism.

No teams were able to spot:

• Clue 3 – the back of the "Yateley Depot" sign at point 8,

• Clue10 - Mr Rick 2002 graffiti on a tree just before point 9 (tricky one this)

• Clue 37 – A tree strap – on the green outside the pub.

• Clue 61 – the manhole cover outside the building just by point P

• Clue 86 – The advert for the LM Company on the notice board of the same building.

• Clue 93 – A portion of fence on Love Lane – or Mud Lane as we should call it.

• Clue 103 – Marmax's sign on the playground on P-Q – they make recycled plastic products.

• Clue 110 – the garage door at the buildings near P. Point P was busy for clues!

• Clue 116 – The Robin Hood's french friend – Little John – or Petit Jean. Actually SAS Hedgehogs DID spot this clue on a lamppost near Tindall close (R-End)– but gave it as an answer to the wrong question. Well done for finding it – Commiserations for missing out.

We were pleased that everyone knows the name of the Landlord of the Dog & Partridge, and you all got the gatepost on 8-9.

Hats off to the teams that were the only ones to spot a clue: They restored our faith that the clues were visible:

• Clue 1 (Milestone Inspectors) – the post, just after point 6

• Clue 11 (Moonlighters) – on the back of a sign post (the side facing us) we walked past on 11-12

• Clue 23 (Magic Roundabout) – the garage frame at Nettlebed, between 8 and 9

• Clue 36 (Semper Sperantes) – at point 1 – most people's head must have passed within 1 metre of this one!

• Clue 39 (Blake's Six) – a cable tie, wrapped around the sign post support between 5 and 6

• Clue 43 (Rakehill Raiders) – a "Give way" sign, at a slant, indeed looking as if it were about to Give Way

• Clue 58 (Flying Kakapos) – SOUTHWATER – stamped on a brick about 11m before point 11

• Clue 68 (Sassy Unicorns) – A badly scratched Cable TV cabinet beside the road on A-B

• Clue 80 (The Chaps) – the Beechbank house sign (which was also word clue 73 which most people got)

• Clue 83 (Gracie Fields) – A broken plank on M-N

• Clue 108 (Sassy Unicorns) – a hinge on the fence between A and B

• Clue 118 (Four Plus One) – Billie's Topcut (anag.) which solved to "Public Toilets" at the Tythings.

There were a few disappointments – that so many walked over clue 52 ("Pull") – twice - but only 2 got it. Only 2 got the telephone number for Stagecoach that Dick Turpin would ring. Our hands almost dropped off writing "Stagecoach 0845 121 0180 pt 7-8" so it serves us right. My pet favourite was "Dwarfish Dyslexic Officers of the Law" (Little Copse - E-F) which stumped many, but we understand why the clues in K-L weren't spotted too often whilst dealing with the mud. We even heard stories of the men giving the ladies piggy-backs here. Almost everyone solved "Bing's flower beds" and small moss-covered post clue 94.

Sadly we didn't feel we could award points for ingenuity for "Political Maniacs HQ here" – which referred to the notice outside the Start/Finish pub as being the HQ for the Monster Raving Looney Party. Those that tried "Blaire Park" (Raving?) or the BNP(Politics?) on the tree raised a smile but we hardly think it fitting for either (New) Labour or the BNP! Only a real Lunatic would choose Yateley.

A special mention to Tony "Mac"Brotheron of Heeglin's H'Owls who travelled to join us – all of 400 miles, having moved to Scotland. If it was any consolation Tony, it was actually raining in Scotland.

We were able to raise £95 towards CLIC – Cancer and Leukemia and Childhood. Thank you for your support!

We don't have a date for the next ramble. First timers though – come on and try it out! We did this one completely with a digital camera, Paintshop Pro and StarOffice, a photocopier and scanner. Oh, and support and advice from Kevin King – special thanks Kevin!

NUMBERED LEG