brit butt rally 2014
I'm already looking forward to this year's rally and it's still 5 months away. At the IBA UK Christmas dinner we did get a clue to the theme for this year. It's "...and now for something completely different". That tends to suggest a Monty Python theme, but you never know with Chris, the Rallymaster. It could be anything!
We were also given two additional pieces of information: You would need a camera that is able to take a short video, and you would also need a Kazoo (now there's a blast from the past). We've already been told that a comb and tissue paper is not a suitable alternative. Personally, I think that a funny walk could be called for but please see above paragraph for the caveat.
Dawn has agreed to help out the rally team this year, so accomodation has already been booked from Friday night through to Sunday night, and this time round I've also got my Spot Tracker to set up to allow the team to see where I'm heading, and to no doubt have a good laugh about why on earth I'm taking that route!
Update
Time to head down to Castleford for the rally. Anyone interested in keeping track on the way down, or even on the rally itself (06:00 on Sat - 17:00 on Sunday), can follow me at https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=9c4f53792bbbcb1d3
We were also given two additional pieces of information: You would need a camera that is able to take a short video, and you would also need a Kazoo (now there's a blast from the past). We've already been told that a comb and tissue paper is not a suitable alternative. Personally, I think that a funny walk could be called for but please see above paragraph for the caveat.
Dawn has agreed to help out the rally team this year, so accomodation has already been booked from Friday night through to Sunday night, and this time round I've also got my Spot Tracker to set up to allow the team to see where I'm heading, and to no doubt have a good laugh about why on earth I'm taking that route!
Update
Time to head down to Castleford for the rally. Anyone interested in keeping track on the way down, or even on the rally itself (06:00 on Sat - 17:00 on Sunday), can follow me at https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=9c4f53792bbbcb1d3
It was a simple plan on the way down. I'd head off on the bike and Dawn would follow an hour later in the car. I'd pick up a few Round Britain rally bonuses as usual and we'd meet for lunch. All went well to start with as I set off at 8:13 (I can never seem to start bang on time...too much faffing I guess). I picked up the first three locations and was only 8 minutes down so I'd already picked up 5 minutes. Next stop was from the Brit Butt Tour, Winters Gibbet. The Gibbet itself has disappeared so I had to make do with a photo of the memorial stone instead. After that it was a couple more RBR locations by which point I was 15 minutes ahead. I pulled into Scotch Corner services and had my lunch break. Dawn had set off late, because the dishwasher was getting repaired, and with me being early, it was another hour before Dawn pulled in. By this time, there was a tailback getting in and out of the services! So we both decided that we'd just head straight for the hotel at Castleford instead of me swinging by two more RBR locations that I'd planned. I arrived at the hotel almost bang on the original time and set about checking in to both the hotel and the rally.
With that done, it was simply a case of getting the technical checks done, and riding the odometer check route. There were some raised eyebrows at the mileage I was showing (18 miles as opposed to the 15 or so everyone else was showing), but it would only matter if there was a tie on points...not very likely. Then it was time to get unpacked properly and get prepared for the rally book.
After the meal is was off to the rally room to find out just what the "..and now for something completely different" rally actually meant. A mercifully short meeting and we had the instructions. The book consisted of 80 locations with pictures...from the early 1900s mostly. We simply had to find the same spot and take a picture of what it looked like nowadays.
Simple! Oh, and for the first time one of the locations was manned, but only for 1/2 hour at the beginning and an hour at the end of the rally...I suspect that a kazoo will be involved here....and there was a photo quiz too.
So it was off back to the room to plan. First things first, and I transferred the locations from the USB to the laptop, renamed each to show the points, and time restrictions for each. Next I split the locations into high, medium and low value and planned a route using only the high values to start with. The other things that I was keeping in mind was that the weather forecast was for heavy rain starting on the south coast, which would move up the country over the course of Saturday. I decided that, as long as there wasn't a really obvious, high scoring route, that meant I had to go south first, I'd head north for the first part of Saturday, then head south through the rain, with the plan being to stay in it as little as possible (a good idea as it turned out).
This is where methods will differ completely from rider to rider. Once I'd got a circular route, I added in the medium scoring locations near the route. This also picked up two of the three combination bonuses. But the route would take too long, so I lopped off a bit of the northern stretch (there were more points to the south) and that was that. First mistake! I'd forgotten about the third combination bonus. They were low scores individually but both were close to my route and the additional points would have made them worthwhile...lesson learned...look at combos!
By 01:00 I had three potential routes, picked the highest scoring and transferred it to paper for my tank bag. I'd marked up three locations that, if time was tight, I could miss out and regain about 1/2 hour each, although I also had a 20 minute buffer built in. That was enough for one night so it was time to grab a few hours sleep before getting down to the car park for 05:30.
With that done, it was simply a case of getting the technical checks done, and riding the odometer check route. There were some raised eyebrows at the mileage I was showing (18 miles as opposed to the 15 or so everyone else was showing), but it would only matter if there was a tie on points...not very likely. Then it was time to get unpacked properly and get prepared for the rally book.
After the meal is was off to the rally room to find out just what the "..and now for something completely different" rally actually meant. A mercifully short meeting and we had the instructions. The book consisted of 80 locations with pictures...from the early 1900s mostly. We simply had to find the same spot and take a picture of what it looked like nowadays.
Simple! Oh, and for the first time one of the locations was manned, but only for 1/2 hour at the beginning and an hour at the end of the rally...I suspect that a kazoo will be involved here....and there was a photo quiz too.
So it was off back to the room to plan. First things first, and I transferred the locations from the USB to the laptop, renamed each to show the points, and time restrictions for each. Next I split the locations into high, medium and low value and planned a route using only the high values to start with. The other things that I was keeping in mind was that the weather forecast was for heavy rain starting on the south coast, which would move up the country over the course of Saturday. I decided that, as long as there wasn't a really obvious, high scoring route, that meant I had to go south first, I'd head north for the first part of Saturday, then head south through the rain, with the plan being to stay in it as little as possible (a good idea as it turned out).
This is where methods will differ completely from rider to rider. Once I'd got a circular route, I added in the medium scoring locations near the route. This also picked up two of the three combination bonuses. But the route would take too long, so I lopped off a bit of the northern stretch (there were more points to the south) and that was that. First mistake! I'd forgotten about the third combination bonus. They were low scores individually but both were close to my route and the additional points would have made them worthwhile...lesson learned...look at combos!
By 01:00 I had three potential routes, picked the highest scoring and transferred it to paper for my tank bag. I'd marked up three locations that, if time was tight, I could miss out and regain about 1/2 hour each, although I also had a 20 minute buffer built in. That was enough for one night so it was time to grab a few hours sleep before getting down to the car park for 05:30.
Rally time
After what felt like no time at all, it was time to head down and get the bike ready for the rally.
It was cloudy, but dry, so not too bad. One last odometer reading and it was time for the off! Whilst Foster was busy making sure that everyone got out of the car park junction safely, Joy was busy recording everything for posterity. You can see the full video here. (I'm at about the 2:00 mark with the hi viz vest).
After what felt like no time at all, it was time to head down and get the bike ready for the rally.
It was cloudy, but dry, so not too bad. One last odometer reading and it was time for the off! Whilst Foster was busy making sure that everyone got out of the car park junction safely, Joy was busy recording everything for posterity. You can see the full video here. (I'm at about the 2:00 mark with the hi viz vest).
I thought that the manned checkpoint would be busy first thing, so I'd made the decision to pick this one up at the end, figuring that to get back to the finish on time, I'd have to make the window for this as well. So it was straight off to my first bonus at The Globe pub in Newcastle, with the rally book photo taken about 1915. As I found out later, most people who went this route had already picked up some smaller scoring locations and half of the combo I'd missed out, before they even got here! Never mind, I'd already picked up 10 minutes on schedule. I'd lopped off the trip up towards Edinburgh during the planning phase, so I headed over to the west stopping in Penrith for my first fuel stop. It was here that I had a major panic. After fuelling up I went to star the bike...nothing happened! Completely dead. I checked the cut off switch (it wouldn't have been the first time I'd accidently flicked this whilst getting off). That was fine, so I pushed the bike away from the fuel pumps and got off. I fiddled around with some wires, trying to look as though I knew what I was doing and it started. Before it could think again I jumped on, put it into 1st gear...and it cut out again...and wouldn't start. Checked cables again and the same thing happened. Check the side or centre stand wasn't down (they can "bounce" back a little if I kick them up) but they were fine. This happened another couple of times, then for some unknown reason it didn't stall, so I was back in the rally! A single bonus wouldn't have looked too good at the scoring table...
Thankfully, I didn't cost me too much time and I was at the next stop, still 10 minutes ahead of plan. This was Church Cottage in Grasmere. It was originally built as a school in 1630 and in 1850, Sarah Nelson moved in and began selling Gingerbread. When I arrived, the two BMW riders that were at the first stop, were busy trying to find the right building. We were all looking at a cottage which had a National Trust plaque on the side, and wondering if this was the right one...until someone thought to turn around and there it was, complete with Sarah's name on the side. The other two were off ahead of me, and that was the last time I saw them.
Next stop wasn't far away, at Hill Top. This is the 17th Century cottage bought by Beatrix Potter in 1905, from her first royalties. She moved there on a permanent basis in 1913. A very helpful car park attendant pointed me in the direction of a layby opposite the gate to the cottage, rather than the main car park. I got there just before the next tour started, so I commandeered the services of a one of the guides as a flag holder. I was still 8 minutes ahead of schedule at this point, the sun was shining, and all was well with the world...oh how things change.
Next, was a run down the M6 to Chester. As I worked my way south, I hit the rain on its way up and at one point was reduce to 30 mph on the motorway simply because no one could see far enough ahead to go any faster. I followed the sat nav to the location...or at least close because I'd hit a pedestrian precinct. For some reason I had it in my head that my bike had to be in the photo, so I spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to get closer, going round and round the one way system that all town centres seem to have nowadays. Finally, I remembered that it was only the flag that needed to be in the photo here, and got back to my original spot, only to find a parking warden handing out tickets. Putting on my poshest Scottish accent (which still sounds like you're trying to pick a fight with someone) I asked if it was all right to park here for 2 minutes while i got a photo of the covered walkway at the corner "just up there". No. ?? ...but he said I was fine as long as I parked the bike in between two bollards in the pedestrian precinct, I'd be fine while he ticketed a couple more cars. Two minutes later I had my photo of Chester Rows. Between the rain, slow traffic and my own stupidity, it had cost me over half and hour and I was now 25 minutes behind.
The next location was to cause me more delays and, as I found out on Sunday night, I wasn't the only one with problems. White Nancy is a monument built in 1817 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. According to the book it was 18 foot high and a listed building. So when I arrived at the sat nav coordinates, thoroughly drenched, and could only see a pub car park surrounded by new build flats, I wondered where I'd gone wrong. I drove around a bit, found a "pond" complete with ducks (given the weather, the irony wasn't lost on me), but no monument. I never even thought to look up. What wasn't mentioned was that it was on top of a hill, a fact I only discovered from a higher vantage point. There didn't seem to be any roads leading up the hill, so I took my photo and decided that if it wasn't good enough to pass muster, then c'est la vie. It doesn't look like the monument is there in the picture but if you zoom in, you can just make it out at the top of the hill against the skyline.
By now I was 1/2 hour behind schedule and the next location, a market square, was in the middle of Shrewsbury...on a Saturday afternoon...in the pouring rain. Not exactly a recipe for a quick in and out, and by the time I'd taken the photo (which was also to include a Victorian post box to the right hand side of the building), I was 45 minutes behind. The only comfort was that this was half of a combo bonus worth an extra 1000 points.
Not too long afterwards the rain finally stopped, but I was already soaked through. I did have a dry change of clothes in my top box but thought that I'd carry on, just in case the rain came back on, and change at the 3 hour rest stop. The next few locations went by without too much incident, though I did miss the Skirrid Inn in an effort to try and get back lost time. It was the lowest points of my pre-rest list that wasn't part of a combo. So it was Watsons Motor Works (the inspiration for the rally), Arnos Castle (at the back of a Sainsbury car park!) and The Flying Horse pub in Oxford to finish off the last of the daylight photos. I was now back to only 15 minutes behind.
I wasn't looking forward to the next two locations, which involved driving into the centre of London on a Saturday night. The first was the Crown Tavern, where Lenin and Stalin held a meeting in 1905. Not only that, but the Apollo Lounge, upstairs, had been used in films, one featuring Dme Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett (Notes on A Scandal I presume but the rally book didn't say). Not that you can see much of the pub, on the right, since it was covered with scaffolding and tarpaulin.
From there it was on to Selfridges on Oxford Street. I certainly wouldn't have much trouble identifying the building, but parking the bike was another matter. I checked with one of the travel "attendants" or whatever they're called, if it was OK to leave it parked at the bus stop, until I got the photo. he didn't have any problems with it but did say that his bosses had been a bit concerned early in the day, about the number of bikes pulling up and taking photos. Apparantly they have problems with smash and grabs, which are mostly done by folk on motorbikes. They thought we were all casing the joint!
The next few stops would see me up to my rest break, so it was South towards Brighton, picking up the Cock Pit pub in Eton (with post box to complete one combo) and the Shoreham lighthouse (which you can just about make out in the dark). My route did have another one, at Bray, but I noticed that it was a daylight only bonus, so that had to go. Since I'd left London 25 minutes behind, that was no bad thing. Mind you, I'd only made up 5 minutes on this deficit by the end of the first day. I had planned to take my rest break at a BP petrol station which had a Wild Bean Cafe. My thinking was that, if it had a cafe, it would have seats. That meant somewhere warm and dry to snooze for three hours. Reality was somewhat different. It was more like a Marks & Spencers style, with no seats, and a pile of drunk locals coming out of clubs/pubs on Brighton's main party scene. Funny enough, I decided against this and just headed off to the next location looking for a garage or service station that I could stop at on the way. The sat nav soon flashed up with a Tesco one in Lewes, so I detoured there to find the garage shut. But the Tesco did have a handy bench under cover, and an ATM machine that I could get start and finish receipts to prove I'd stayed in one place. Almost perfect except for the fact that it was where the night shift workers took their break, but still got a couple of hours kip.
The next few stops would see me up to my rest break, so it was South towards Brighton, picking up the Cock Pit pub in Eton (with post box to complete one combo) and the Shoreham lighthouse (which you can just about make out in the dark). My route did have another one, at Bray, but I noticed that it was a daylight only bonus, so that had to go. Since I'd left London 25 minutes behind, that was no bad thing. Mind you, I'd only made up 5 minutes on this deficit by the end of the first day. I had planned to take my rest break at a BP petrol station which had a Wild Bean Cafe. My thinking was that, if it had a cafe, it would have seats. That meant somewhere warm and dry to snooze for three hours. Reality was somewhat different. It was more like a Marks & Spencers style, with no seats, and a pile of drunk locals coming out of clubs/pubs on Brighton's main party scene. Funny enough, I decided against this and just headed off to the next location looking for a garage or service station that I could stop at on the way. The sat nav soon flashed up with a Tesco one in Lewes, so I detoured there to find the garage shut. But the Tesco did have a handy bench under cover, and an ATM machine that I could get start and finish receipts to prove I'd stayed in one place. Almost perfect except for the fact that it was where the night shift workers took their break, but still got a couple of hours kip.
The next day started off at 05:18 with a decision to make. Although I had a 20 minute buffer to finish the rally by 17:00, I only had a 9 minute window to get the manned bonus at the end. Since I'd got the final bonus last night, 20 minutes behind, I decided to cut the first of the "optional" locations on my plan. So rather than heading towards West Malling Airfield, I went straight for Canterbury and a photo of the Westgate Towers. This is the last survivor of the orginal 7 gates, built in 1739. I could also take stock of where my schedule was. I was now 15 minutes behind, so I still had some time to make up before the finish.
At least the rain had stopped.
At least the rain had stopped.
In fact, the rest of today was perfect weather and I guess that my next stop, on Canvey Island, would be busy later on. It was the Labworth Cafe, which had been built in 1933 to resemble to bridge of the Queen Mary. The rally book called for a photo from the seaward side, but looking at the steep, seaweed strewn banking, I decided against climbing down to get the same angle as the photo in the rally book, and stuck to the wording in the book instead. Sometimes a few points just aren't worth getting dunked into the sea. It was now 17 minutes behind...it was going on the wrong direction.
The next stop was much more straightforward, the Market Cross at Milldenhall. It dates back to the 1400's. I was starting to feeling a little tired at this point so a quick stop into the shop for a pick me up, and it was off the the next one...but I was only 7 minutes behind now.
The problem with the next stop, was that it was the Town Hall in Great Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth on a sunny, bank holiday Sunday, didn't bode well for a quick in and out. The rally book asked for a photo from the bridge, which I took, but then had second thoughts. I had taken it from the same side of the river as the Town Hall, but the photo in the book was from the other side. So I decided to take another one from the other side, just to be on the safe side. Fortunately, between getting two photos and getting in and out of town, hadn't cost me any time. In fact I was now only 4 minutes behind. It's wierd the way that you start to concentrate more on the time as the final day wears on.
Next stop was another pub...do you think that the rally master realises how annoying it is to stop at all these pubs, on a nice sunny day, and not be able to have a pint? Probably.
The Green Dragon, in Wymondham dated back to the 14th century and legend has it that a door in the main bar, leads to a tunnel to the 11th century abbey next door...sneaky old monks.
My time was starting to look better, only 3 minutes behind. I had three locations left, but two of them were for high points, leaving only one that I could potentially drop. I could leave the decision until I got to the next bonus, which was my last combo, but I was already starting to lean in the direction of missing it out.
The Green Dragon, in Wymondham dated back to the 14th century and legend has it that a door in the main bar, leads to a tunnel to the 11th century abbey next door...sneaky old monks.
My time was starting to look better, only 3 minutes behind. I had three locations left, but two of them were for high points, leaving only one that I could potentially drop. I could leave the decision until I got to the next bonus, which was my last combo, but I was already starting to lean in the direction of missing it out.
The final combo of the rally was Hunstanton Lighthouse, which dated back to 1840. You also had to get the remains of St Edmunds chapel in the photo. The roads were getting pretty busy by now and whilst I managed to make decent progress, I was now 6 minutes behind. So it was decision time. Would I head for the next bonus location and hope that I didn't lose any more time between here and the last one? I'd estimated that missing it out would gain me 30 minutes, so I would arrive in plenty of time if I did skip it. It was worth 580 points and in the end, I decided that it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference to my final placing, and I certainly wasn't going to be on the podium anyway, so to give me a much more relaxed run to the finish I decided to miss it out.
So, now for that final, manned checkpoint. Missing the penultimate bonus location meant that I arrived at 16:09. I'd managed to save the 30 minutes I thought I would and another 3 minutes to boot...damn, I could've gone for that other location. This was the one and only bonus location that you didn't ahve to take a picture. The rally team were more than delighted to do that for you, as this video shows. Our group even get the "privilege" of a slow motion action reply...not that it makes it any better. Still it was worth it for the 2000 points and sums up the attitude of every involved in the rally.
Final Results
So now it was just down to making sure that the paperwork is correct before you head into the scoring room, because you're not allowed out once you've gone in. Thankfully, for the third year in a row, I didn't have any deductions and came out with the same number of points I went in with.
After the meal, it was back into the room for the final results and it was 17th place out of 47. I'm quite happy with that and it's a definite improvement on my 25th and 28th of previous years. Mind you, there's still that niggling feeling of, "If I hadn't dropped those 3 locations from my plan, that was another 1780 points (up to 11th) and if I'd paid attention to the combos during planning that would have been another 2530 points (up to 9th). But then again, every other rider will have at least one thing they could have done better. That's why you keep coming back.
Once again, a cracking rally and huge thanks goes to everyone who was involved in organising the rally. Roll on next year!
Final Results
So now it was just down to making sure that the paperwork is correct before you head into the scoring room, because you're not allowed out once you've gone in. Thankfully, for the third year in a row, I didn't have any deductions and came out with the same number of points I went in with.
After the meal, it was back into the room for the final results and it was 17th place out of 47. I'm quite happy with that and it's a definite improvement on my 25th and 28th of previous years. Mind you, there's still that niggling feeling of, "If I hadn't dropped those 3 locations from my plan, that was another 1780 points (up to 11th) and if I'd paid attention to the combos during planning that would have been another 2530 points (up to 9th). But then again, every other rider will have at least one thing they could have done better. That's why you keep coming back.
Once again, a cracking rally and huge thanks goes to everyone who was involved in organising the rally. Roll on next year!