Competitor Profiles
Gavin Rogers
Profile Index
Gavin RogersJob?
Computer Programmer 

Rallies?
Road Rallies since 1989 - won in both seats including the East Anglian Classic in 2000 & London Counties Navigators championship in 1996. Stage Rallies since 1993 - won various events & championships in the drivers seat.

Why did I do the 2004/2005 Championship?
Seemed like a good challenge to tackle on winter nights that involved minimum car preparation.

Liked/disliked?
No complaints - found everything very enjoyable & well organised.

How did you tackle it?
Normally spent a few good hours on the first weekend plotting as much as possible. If a section bugs me because I can't solve it then I'm the sort of person who'll sit there until its done as I couldn't leave it! Often get bored at work so might spend an hour doing it there too which helps as I work 6am till 8pm so don't get any time at home during the week!

Where do I plot?
Table in living room with a bright lamp & Poti wired into the mains!

Stories?
2nd round of the championship - first Saturday night of plotting we had a power cut for 3 hours - as there's not much to do in the pitch black on the side of a welsh mountain (I live 7 miles north of Lampeter and about 20 miles south of Aberystwyth near the top of a 1000ft hill / mountain. I moved here about 4.5 years ago from Essex) - the wife suggested we get the road rally car out, so she took it for a spin whilst I went for authenticity points for plotting on the move using the map light!
Last round of the championship - spot frights section - got bored at work & annoyed I couldn't solve the navigation, so identified 26 possible spot heights & wrote a program to list the 1.8million permutations (!) which narrowed it down to 25 sequences which worked with the navigation and about one that seemed to plot about right. Typically, though I wasn't sure of it and I didn't submit the answers - it turned out it was right!

Gavin Rogers
April 27, 2005