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MARK THE MAP n February 9th, Chin and I competed in Croydon Motor Clubs' 12car starting from Westerham Garage, thanks to Pete Johnson once again for the start venue. This was my second time on the maps with Chin, the first being Ian Crockers' scatter in January where we finished a very pleasing second behind a top road rally crew of Doug Kingsley and Ben Greenfield. On that occasion, I had got through the event without any signs of travel sickness and felt ready for another go. Croydon's events tend to be a little more difficult than ours and are more tightly timed. But we were out for fun so that didn't matter. Out of the start, I began to get the route on the map as we were moving. The first section was a herringbone and I got so far along it but then just couldn't see the crossroads left that the navigation was indicating. We had to stop and only then could I see the tiny yellow that now produced a crossroads where I had previously seen only a T with a B road. We lost a minute on this section. The next section was OK and lost us no more time, although Chin hopped out to water the roses and whilst he was doing that, I put the next section onto the map, so far so good. We drove that section OK but still lost time, but not much. TC2 to TC3 was I think an 'avoid the following spot heights' which didn't prove too difficult although it's one of those sections that needs to be fully plotted before driving off. We arrived at TC3 still with only a two or three minutes lateness, I can't remember exactly! It was either here or somewhere on the next section that Chin decided to make another personal visit to the scenery. I need a volunteer please to tie a bag around it!. This last section, which included all the navigation to take us to TC4 and also onto TC5, proved to be our downfall. I hadn't fully got the route down and wasn't totally convinced that what I had was correct but it seemed to work. When we steamed past TC4 in the wrong direction, we realised that we were wrong but I still couldn't see it on the map. It was a go via map ref's with some directions of approach and departure indicated, but they were spaced well apart and the route was far from obvious to me and Chin. Finally we decided to go a certain way, which now looked right and was but we had lost some 15 or so minutes by the end. "If only" is a phrase that springs to mind. If we had only lost a minute on the last section we'd have been joint winners. I can tell you that it just makes you more determined next time. Also out from 7Oaks were Kevin Ablitt navigating new member Neil Regan in his Pug 106 Rallye to a third spot ahead of me and Chin who finished 4th. Chris Scudder and his 'boss' were also out and I can't remember where they finished apart from behind us, yeah we beat someone!! I felt fine, no signs whatsoever of sickness. Oh, I nearly forgot, coming into TC4 having lost all that time, I started winding down the window and suddenly the car slewed sideways. I kept winding, I don't know why, at the same time thinking 'if we hit a puddle now, I'm gonna get 'kin soaked'. Much arm twirling on Chin's side of the car and then a 'what happened there?'. 'I dunno, I'm not driving, must have been icy'. Reverse back into the control laughing our heads off to find the marshals hiding behind a stout tree saying, 'you're not the only ones to do that'. As we pulled away, it was evident that the road was icy although in places there was standing water, difficult conditions! Mark Dawson |