There is always a risk that, at this time
of year, any sign of high winds could force the closure of the first
Severn Crossing thereby making the task of reaching the start somewhat
difficult. This year was no exception and given the gusting conditions
in the afternoon your organisers felt the usual anxieties. Fortunately
the Bridge stayed open and consequently 6 crews signed on in the Public
Car Park adjacent to Tintern Abbey for, what is now, our traditional
January Navigation Exercise held ‘over the bridge’.
This year the initial 9 miles of the route remained on the Gwent side of the Wye. By leaving the village via Chapel Hill and passing through The Cot, Ravensnest Wood, Whitelye and Botany Bay it retuned to Tintern at the Wye Valley Hotel Junction on the A468 valley road. By good fortune this loop avoided the recently installed Traffic Light controlled landslip on the river bank in the village. No foresight claimed! By crossing the Wye at Brockweir we also avoided the second weather induced landslip at Landogo a little further up the road towards Monmouth. From there the route followed an anti-clockwise loop via St Briavels Common, Hundalls, St Briavels, Clearwell and Bream before heading south to the finish at the Rising Sun at Woolaston to complete 27.5 miles.
This year we were pleased to welcome Andy Baverstock and Steve Suckling for the first time. Having not entered this type of event for many years they took a Novice card with some success. Instant promotion to the ranks of Expert is their reward! We hope you enjoyed your evening. We were also pleased to welcome Brad Snow and Andy Wood as sole representatives of the BMC.
(click to enlarge)
However full marks for enthusiasm must go
to Dave Turner and Alex Messenger who navigated Dave’s father Phil in a
Ford Transit on their first event. Phil’s’ encouragement of Dave and
Alex is highly commendable and will surely result in their long
association with motor sport. We provided a ‘beginners’ route card
consisting solely of 6 or 8 figure map references for their use.
Incidentally both Dave and Alex have places on the Lackham College Motor
Sports course at Castle Combe.
Route definition for both Novices and
Experts, which following our previous policy, consisted of four sections
using map references, some with false origins, grid lines, a
herringbone, and tulips, once again achieved a clear result without the
need to resort to the furthest cleanest tie break. The winners by 5
points were, for the fourth year, Chris Goodchild who navigated for
Martin Baker in Martin’s new 2.0 litre diesel SEAT. Second overall was
shared by Andy Moss/ Martin Emsley and Andy and Steve. Alex and Dave
achieved a commendable score of 120 out of a possible 250 maximum.
There was, as in previous years, full
agreement that the roads available in the area around the River Wye make
our, traditional, annual visit very worthwhile.