Internet Table-Top Rally Championship 2004-2005
Round 1 - Five Diamonds Rally
Competitor's Comments

Struggled with most of the clues, think I'll stick to stage navigating and road rally driving. Best of luck with the series, know anyone who wants to buy two unused Southern maps?? :-) 
Neil Bye

Ourageously[sic] difficult and not the fun I was hoping for. 
Brian Cope

The first half of each route card is nice & straightforward - so much so the wife was able to plot them too & she doesn't do road rallies with hard navigation, just 12 cars, pre-plot & pace notes on stage rallies!!
The masters section is great - really gets you thinking. Going on past events - I've normally plotted the correct route but am quite good at missing the odd church etc for the route checks!!
PS Having re-read what I put - it didn't mean to come out as Carrie doing the first half & me doing the masters!! She's been doing those bits on an old map afterwards just to show she could do it as we knew there would be comments from the pre-plot brigade saying it was too hard!
Gavin Rogers

Superb challenge, thoroughly enjoyed it. Nothing like the rallying I did over 20 years ago. Glad it wasn't the old plot n' bash, I'd have never got my driver off the start line! I will, however continue to enter until I hopefully clean it, as long as I have the time!
Dee Rampling Lee

Sorry, you have me beaten now. The last bit of the route of the one above is a guess to be honest! I thought I was a reasonable navigator as we don't very often get lost but this sure seems a bit beyond me. Hope the answers will be given out in full so I can see how the routes I just can't get to grips with work. Hopefully then I'll do a bit netter next time!
Thanks anyway - you must have put in a lot of work to put this altogether.
Gill Sweetman

Great Rally very thought provoking - hope your ears didn't burn too much. See you in November. Thanks for all your efforts.
Brian Banks

Seems pretty much the right standard, don't get any ideas about making it more tricky! Quite like the 'simple' first half to get you started, although I didn't think many of them were all *that* simple - certainly harder than most navigational rallies I've ever been on. The route-check questions seemed a bit easier to answer than last time as well, fewer 'dubious churches' and that sort of thing. Or maybe I've just got better at spotting them. I thinkI have also got better at remembering about no-through-roads than I was on the last event, not easy sometimes to swap from the 'driving' mindset where all roads count. Looking forward to a rest now before the next one.
Ian Buxton

I think the difficulty level was just right for me (though I may change my mind when I see my result!), but obviously too easy for the gentleman who got 100 percent. I enjoyed doing the Table Top and am now going to de-stress before the next round. Does anyone know where I can get an eraser keyring to attach to the chain around my neck with the roamer, magnifying glass and pencil?
Mitch Fielding

Have enjoyed very much so far and will try harder in the next rounds. Many thanks.
Paul Hardy

I am a deeply frustrated man. It doesn't help that I am using an old (1993) map, but this was the only route card that I was able to plot! I need a LOT of practice and some help!
Sorry, just can't plot them. Get some way round on some and then.... nothing! I will try to do better when we get on Map 188 if I can find the time.
Andy Elcomb

Thoroughly enjoyable - but unless I get a sudden flash of inspiration in the last 24 hours I'll be two Route Cards short.
John Elkin

First time out on the internet table top championship, found it very good event and level of challenge about right. I am still unable to get the second parts of section 6 and 12 to work, so there is definitely a challenge to the old brain. Well done.
Glynn Hayward

Ouch!
Stuart Lawrie

Thanks for all the hard work in setting what was an enjoyable event, and congrats on raising so much money. I think it was slightly harder than the events I did last year, but perhaps Ive just forgotten. Looking forward to the next one.
Gareth Lewis

Another challenging rally!!!!! Thanks.
Sarah Talbot

Not keen on the format of having each section in two parts - probably because I couldn't make the first part work on a number of sections. Didn't have much time to devote to it, but I don't think anymore time would have helped, the last evening and a bit providing nothing new. Obviously not tuned into for this one. Must say that I can't get my head round LWRNAM - what is the point of plotting a route against things that don't exist?
Peter Smith

Many thanks for all your efforts inputting such athought provoking event as usual I shall be interested in where the route should have gone although I feel I have got some of it right. thanks again.
Mick Lowe

To summarise the whole event: I was unable to spend as much time as I would have liked, so in the end I was rushing and just ran out of time.
Steve Skepper

You have put a lot of hard work into this, Ray, and I have 'enjoyed' it. A bit 'iffy' with the 50m rule on telephones, but plenty of head scratching. As usual I do not possess the imagination (left brain) to decode the obscure sections, but it is very thrilling to 'crack' one and find that it is easy (ish). Congrats to the winner, and rather sad about those who did not find at least one plot and bash section to draw them in. Cheers.
Peter Robertson

Crow: Thanks a lot for your hard work once again. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to keep coming up with fresh ideas for these competitions. I know I always enjoy trying to find the answers to the riddles you come up with - and there is an immense sense of satisfaction when the penny finally drops after hours of puzzling. This time you had me beat with the references to LWRAM and - even worse - LWRNAM. How you can plot a route round a triangle which exists only in your (fertile) imagination, I really don't know!!!! I didnt have the foggiest idea about either part of Route Card 8. First, I couldn't line the dots up with anything - the smaller size of the square didn't help - and with no reference point for TC8A, I had no idea where to start for part 2, so all the Y's and N's made no sense.. One point which doesn't seem to have been mentioned by anybody else is in part 2 of Route Card 4, where the 7th YYY at the beginning should be YYYY on edition D of the Map, as you! acknowledge that the Yellow towards the Green road actually joins it by changing GGY (for C1 users) to GYGY (for D users). Times out - I'm gone.
Alan Crabtree

Some of the sections completely defeated me. I hope you will publish an explanation of how they work. Otherwise I enjoyed it.
Tom Davies