The March Madness Scatter ran very smoothly despite the threat of snow and plentiful puddles and fog patches across the running area of the Forest of Dean. We saw the highest scores of any of our Ross scatters, so the conditions didn’t hold back the competitors! Also nice to see some older cars, with Paul and Jemma’s mini, and Adam’s Escort brightening up the field.
The evening set off with some fast plotting from Alan and Matt, closely followed by Adam and James, then Richard and Simon. As it turned out, there was no need for plot time to decide any positions this year with each of the 10 crews ending up on unique points at the end – it’s always a balance between accuracy and speed when plotting, and the former may have been sacrificed for two of these crews….
We were pleased to see all of our clue locations visited, with the one near Coughton being the least popular – it was the closest to the start/finish as the crow flies, but also the most awkward to get to and from. One of the most popular clues at Wilson (the leaning gate) needed some accurate plotting and position on the road to locate – and caused 3 wrong answers. 6 crews did get it right, and there weren’t any other leaning gates in the vicinity.
Good to see that all crews managed to get round at least 8 locations, with the top 5 all visiting 13 or more, and three managing to get round 15, so well done to all of you.
The little mini made it round 9 clues, but with a few wrong answers. Luke and Max struggled with the conditions but still managed 8 clues, and were pipped by Tim with new competitor David, who managed to visit 9 clues. A solid run from Owen and Tim saw them into triple figures with 100 points. Matt Parker uncharacteristically succumbed to Mal-de-Nav, but they still managed 11 clues, a good run.
Top scoring mixed crew Becky and Phil Sanders made it to 13 clues, but got a question wrong claiming 5th place.
4th place were fastest plotters Alan and Matt who made it round 13 clues. Not bad as Matt wasn’t at full health.
Adam and James could have been our winners as James had bettered Simon and Andy’s plot times, but he had plotted clue 1 (Blaize Bailey Car Park) a grid square out. Coincidentally there was a road there, and an answer to the question in the back streets of Ruspidge! Not the right answer though, so they took a 5 point penalty ending up on 135 points (3rd)
Richard and Simon, our only experts, made it round a very commendable 15 points. Unfortunately a plotting error meant they couldn’t find clue 4, so it was 140 points for them (2nd)
So our winners this year are Phil and Andy, scoring a maximum 150 points with a perfect run. A very deserving win.
We hope that all the competitors had a lot of fun, and we look forward to see you out again soon.