Early Season's greetings to all
This year we had the first no Covid restricted event for two years. So the rally could start as planned on April 3rd. However, Covid has been still with us through the year and the latest mutation has been rattling around Lichfield in the autumn. So, we decided to play safe not to have a at home day for marking.
Like last year I have received many nice notes with this year's submissions, thanking us for persevering and running the rally during the last couple of year. Some even state the NHS ought to prescribe the RBR to help with mental heath.
Looking towards 2023, we will schedule the rally to officially start as usual on Sunday April 2nd 2023. With regards to the A.R.S.E. meet up we can only hold it if we can be sure there is a minimal risk of Covid spread to our fellow entrants. A decision whether to have the meet up or not will be made closer to the rally start and will be confirmed in the email with the final instructions that will be sent out on March 19th.
Now for a final whinge, please don't hold your control card in front of your camera when taking the photo of the landmark. Too frequently most of the landmark and or bike is largely obscured or out of focus. I have to enlarge the image to confirm what I am looking at. Not so easy with hard copy images. Just hang the card on the bike or prop it up against your helmet. The same goes for the use of selfie sticks I get an image with a large person in perfect focus and somewhere in the back ground is the landmark mostly obscured and frequently out of focus.
Now for all the statistics fans!
" Total entries for 2022 was 255 (266 in 2021)
" 179 people submitted photos this year (193 in 2021) and the joint highest returns to date
" 30 achieved the premier slot of 100% All Rounder Award. (35 in 2021)
" The average score this year was a bit lower this year at 1043 points Silver
" The most visited landmark this year with 135 visits was the Warwickshire Vulcan XM655 even though it nearly escaped a few weeks agon when a powered runway taxing run ended up going of the end of the runway and nearly onto the road. The close second with 131 visits was Derbyshire's Old market cross and Europa Nostra Award.
" The most popular Scottish landmark was Dumfries & Galloway - Dalbeattie Motorcycling Mural with 75 visits.
Followed by 72 visits to Dumfries & Galloway 2 and Mennockhass Water Tunnel, North Portal
" The most popular Welsh landmark with 122 visits was Denbighshire's Old Railway crane
" The second highest Welsh was Powys 3 Space Guard centre 121 visits
" The least visited Welsh landmark was Pembrokeshire's Marloes Clock Tower with 88 visits,
" The joint least visited English landmarks were Kent - Road side memorial to Pilot Officer Arthur W. Clarke, Dorset & West Sussex all with 70 visits.
" The joint least visited Scottish landmarks were Highland 1 Flora MacDonald's grave and monument. On Sky and Highland 4 Achiltibuie Piping School Cafe with only 43 visits
" There was a total of 7544 individual landmark visits this year with an estimated excess of 15,000 photos inspected I am getting square eyed with viewing them)
Entrants of note
100%
All Rounders:
The following 30 entrants achieved the maximum by correctly visiting all the landmarks:
Alan Cartwright, Hugh Mc Namee, Pete Brown, Peter Jeavons, Steve & Caroline Hunt, Phillip Saunders, Jeff Collins, David Sanford, Steve McDonald, Darren Penny, Michael Smith, Lenard Jubb, Walter Ross, Dave & Michele Marsden, Carl Holdsworth, Tony and Helen Mackin, Neil & Ro Gomersall, Harry Goldingay, Barry & Keisha Manning, John Pritchard, Sally Pritchard, Des Senior, Bob Badger, Chris O'Connor, Geoff Harvey, Neil Lawton, Mark Wardman, Stephen Allerton, Peter Abrams, Gavin Shaw
All Rounder's
Mick Thurman visited all landmarks but got a couple of wrong landmarks
Bloopers of the rally,
There was a minor blooper with No 80 Powys 2 The Space guard Centre, the owner objected to us riding up into the site. Some riders did comment on the steep and loose surface of the road. So we put out a notice not to drive up the hill and take the sign by the cattle grid.
What could have been a very major blooper (not of Dave's making) was when the Vulcan bomber during a powered runway taxing demonstration it ran off the end of the runway and nearly onto the adjacent public highway. Fortunately, with no reported serious injuries or damage
Problem landmarks
Well, the obvious problem landmark for some was Number 82 Wrexham. You would have thought that if one read the clue properly there should be no problem. Cysylltau Bridge, or Pont-Cysyllte (Welsh). Several people went down into the valley to take a photo of the AQUEDUCT some even had boats crossing it. A few of us parked their bike on the bridge to get a photo of the Aqueduct and the bike, fortunately the bridge parapets are easily identifiable so they got full points by accident. Moral is read the clues, do the research and understand what is required, at times the landmark team can be