The Five Diamonds Rally Results are now final. 

Some last minute adjustments have been made following your scrutiny of solutions and scores, which have changed a few minor placings.

Final congratulations to Ian Buxton for winning the Masters category with a perfect score and Paul Taylor for (narrowly) winning the Experts. 

The links above will take you to the Five Diamonds pages. From the Results Table page you will also be able to download a spreadsheet of all the answers and marks.

The positive statements from you far outweigh the few negatives, so I take that to mean you pretty much enjoyed the event. 

The return rate of about 50% puzzles me though. I can't believe that half of you couldn't answer a single Route Card! Perhaps it was the strange weather, the start of the football season, the end of cricket season or just laziness that held you back. There's still three rounds to go, so plenty of time still for absentees to make their presence felt.

Judging the difficulty of the route cards is always a challenging exercise. They have to be hard enough for the top guys and gals, and easy enough not to put off the junior competitors. Based upon the scores and your remarks, I aim to make the Cloverleaf Rally in November a fraction easier - about 25% if it's possible to be that precise.

As always I have been super generous with the marking, particularly where you provided reasoned comments why you have answered in a certain way. Strangely, the GN type Route Check had numerous interpretations, despite there being an example in the Practice Route Card. I have allowed some of these interpretations, but have also updated the Navigational Regulations (in this and a few other areas) so that these anomalies don't happen again.

So, I now have a welcome short TT break to catch up with my imminent house move, marriage and recent unemployment.

See you in November or a bit sooner if you are tackling the North Skeet Rally.

   "Crow"

   October 10, 2004 (Updated)