General

On what was a glorious evening 22 teams took part in the event which was completed by all teams except Sunseekers, who withdrew after the first leg.  The winners were Moonlighters by the closest possible margin of 5 points over the runners-up-The Chaps.  I did propose a tie to the Hon Secretary but he ruled against this suggestion.

You will see from the marking that I have been very generous in awarding full marks for answers, which are not precisely at points.  The route was surveyed in the early spring and as a result several clues disappeared completely and new ones were introduced.  A farm trailer was totally engulfed in nettles, when we re-visited the route a week before the ramble.  Additionally the entrance to the graveyard at I-J was unfenced when I walked the route on Tuesday 17 June.  Several teams reported that a new fence had been erected without any indication of a stile.  However results from the new system of bonus points instead of time penalties suggests that it was possible to meet the target times.

Results

The ramble was constructed with the objective of including a full range of difficulty in the pictorial clues  I think the results reflect this. 

The following pictorial clues were not found at all:

Common sheet no 2 (an electrified fence insulator) and no 12 ( a repair to a plastic water tank)
 Numbered leg sheet 1 no 2 (a gate latch)

Clues found only once in the ramble were:

Numbered leg sheet 2 no 6 and sheet 3 no 7

Lettered leg sheet 4  no 8
Well done Sunseekers, WNPC? and Dragons

Everyone on the ramble found the following clues on the numbered leg

Sheet 2 no 7 and cryptic clues on sheet 4 nos 10 and 14

The winners obtained 70% of the maximum possible marks, ignoring time bonus points.  The numbered leg was favoured by most teams,  Moonlighters in particular scoring 80% compared with 63% on their lettered leg.

Conclusion

The route encompassed several interesting features, which may merit a re-visit from the competitors. Both Sherfield Court and Lance Levy farm had moats and at point I on the lettered leg the terrain is shaped to be a set of fish ponds.  The huge armament depot at Bramley (on the eastern edge of the map), has only recently been portrayed on the OS map. Interestingly it cannot be accessed by the footpath shown from Goddard’s Farm.  The fort on the NW corner of the map is on private land and can be visited with special agreement of the landowner.

My thanks go to my fellow organisers and the landlord of the White Hart for making the ramble so successful and pleasant.  The results are summarised on the reverse of this sheet.

Semper Sperantes