After my despondency last week, many of you have rallied round with words of encouragement and suggestions for the future. I am indeed encouraged, and all being well, will try to keep you amused up to RC20. Keep those comments coming, so that any future events can benefit from all your good ideas. I have a few ideas myself which may be of interest to you, and I'll be publishing these in about a month's time. What would help enormously would be to attract more competitors to such events. Please spread the word to your rallying colleagues when you are taking part in 'real' events, and supply me with names and postal or e-mail addresses of any person or organisation that may be interested. Or perhaps you could write an article for your club magazine? - I'll gladly supply any materials you might need.

Here's some general comments from this week's e-mailbag:

Just thought I'd drop you a line after your comments in the Latest News. Although I haven't submitted answers to the last three route-cards, please don't assume that I've given up. I'm currently spending all my spare time preparing for a Multi-Venue Stage Rally which I am Clerk of the Course for on Sunday 12th July, and really haven't had time to put any effort into the Table Top, much to my dismay. Once it's over I should be able to put much more time in, and hopefully get a reasonable score over 12 rounds, since I've already got 5 decent scores to build on. I'm hoping for decent scores again from RC13 or 14 onwards. While I'm writing, I think that perhaps the comment about increasing the number of cards which count, and then making them a little less difficult would be a good idea. Whilst I appreciate that you need to be able to split the top people, I totally agree with the person who commented that if you end up staring at the map for hours on end without a clue what to do then it gets very boring and frustrating. Knowing roughly what to do, and then finding it difficult to find the correct route is much more appealing, and less likely to find people giving up, I would have thought. In case you're interested, here are my opinions of the last four cards which I haven't been able to do.
RC7 - Got the idea about decoding the letters based upon their position in the sentence, mainly helped by the fact that there were exactly 100 letters. Worked out 96, but then couldn't get any further. Hadn't the faintest idea what the clue meant. Assumed that all the numbers would be grid lines, but obviously this didn't fit. I think you put in too many variables. Without knowing that we were looking for GL numbers, spot heights and MRs, coupled with the fact that each letter could have been on average about 4 numbers made I think it's hardly surprising that you only got 6 entries with over half marks.
RC8 - With your comments about unpunctuated clues, I tried to get the route to fit using grid squares with no dots (i.e. spot heights) in them. (taking unpunctuated to mean no dots). This clearly didn't work, and I have no idea how anybody worked out the white road rule. Again, only 4 people got over half marks, so I seem to be not the only one who couldn't do it.
RC9 - I wouldn't have got this in a month of Sundays. By this one I was running seriously short on available time though, so it only got a brief look. I think a clue would have been in order. I would assume that some people have either seen this before, or are better than I at lateral thinking, because you got a much better response rate this time.
RC10 - Really liked the idea of this one, but just didn't have any time to even open the map. Great disappointment, because it looked like the best one by far. At least you've got something to go on, and wouldn't have to spend time just staring at the map. This type is the way to go.
RC11 looks like fun already, though whether I'll have any time is questionable.
One way of putting me off entirely, however, will be to base any of your RCs on ball based sport, particularly football. I am sure that a high proportion of the people doing the TT are, like me, utterly sick to death of the World Cup football, and it would be really nice if this could be a sport free zone. If you do require a 'France 98 match schedule' for an RC, then I won't be able to do it, because I haven't got one of these, and have no intention of getting one. It doesn't seem
to be possible to do anything these days without a mention of the damn world cup, so please keep it away from the TT.
Keep up the good work, and I hope you take these comments as helpful suggestions, they're not supposed to be criticisms.
Just an idea - instead of furthest cleanest, why not use the least amount of time taken as a tie breaker? I assume that you know when each response is received, so why not give those who reply quickly a potential benefit? [Interesting idea. However, there are some active postal entrants, so, unlike e-mails, it's a bit uncertain when they actually receive the RCs and when they despatch their answers to me.] Particularly given that you appear to have one or two people doing very well who didn't join until RC3 or 4.  Matthew Atkinson

Please don't give up on the event, speaking for myself I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and working hard at all the sections.  The only reason for non response on some sections is that I wasn't able to do them, although annoyingly on Route Cards 6 & 7 I'd solved the clues but just couldn't make it plot.   I think doing sections week by week is more difficult than the normal 'all in one go' style as when stuck you don't have the start of the next section to give you an idea of the general direction or the often very helpful ability to isolate/reduce the possible options by completing the surrounding sections. [I take your point. I could have posted all the route cards in one go, but this event was always planned to be a bit different from the National Championship. A variant would be to post them all, and then have a scoring scheme which say reduces your points total proportionally to how long it takes to submit your answers. Two problems with this, I think. 1) it might be difficult to find an equitable way of penalising competitors based upon time taken, but I'm certainly open to suggestions here. 2) Such a method would favour those who have lots of spare time on their hands such as retired folk and students. At least with some time pressure it's up to you how long you devote to each route card.]. I haven't checked against old entry forms but it looks as if you have some new names on your entry list so I hope that will be good for Table Topping in general. [In fact, the main reason I started the Summer Internet TT was to attract some new blood to stop the decline of interest in the National TT series. We certainly do have a few new names around, but not as many as I had hoped. There must be loads more potential competitors in the big wide World, it's a matter of reaching them. Any contributions to my mailing database e.g. motor clubs, map fanatics, competition junkies, would be most welcome.] Gillian Goodlass

As to the question - what do I think of it so far? - totally impressed. I'm not sure where you dream up the ideas from but keep them coming!   Dave Bell

Just read your news page. Keep up the good work, I'm downloading the route cards every week but I'm not bright enough to solve them, hence no replies. Remember to look at the number of hits! Agree with the others that more easier ones would be good.  Catherine Doherty

Thanks for putting all the effort into the championship.  I think that the standard of the route cards has been very good.   I think that counting only 12 of the 20 cards should reviewed though - this may encourage more people to make attempts at the hard ones and would ensure that a clear result was found without resorting to 'furthest cleanest'.  Mark Fearon

Even if other are not sending in answers, I for one am enjoying the harder sections, my answers may be wrong but my routes always turn out fairly close, and you know me it's the solving of the route card that is important not the calculating of answers. Please, Please go on. Please do not stop I like the harder ones better. This is the table top of the year, and anyway my name's already on the trophy from the Rally Round days [1989 winner].  Pete James

Sorry that I haven't done the last four RC's, but I have just sold my house, bought another and I get the keys for the new house this coming Friday - if it is finished in time!!! As you can imagine, time has been a bit short recently, and I can't see me having to much time over the next few weeks, but I'll try.......  Steve Turnbull

Regarding your thoughts about 12 from 20, with hindsight I think that 12 from 16 (or even 16 from 20) would have been better, but having set out the rules at the beginning, you can't really change them now.  Don Clarke

I've enjoyed it so far even if I have given up on a couple - herringbones have never been my favourite! The main ones I gave up on were those involving lengthy calculations since I've only my head to do most of it and the road junctions in particular took a long time to check measurement! I don't look forward to the football - I know nothing about the World Cup and I haven't got the schedule either, still I'll do my best when you get there! Don't give up on us, you're doing a great job and certainly occupying all that time I should be doing something else! [OK, but what about the ode?]  Carol Moulton


And here's the comments about RC11:

That seemed a bit easier than the last one.  I prefer this sort of section where it still takes some time to work out the route once you've worked out what to do.  I wasn't too sure about the route in 4628 - it looks like the yellow crosses GL29 twice which would give 2 extra crossings of a northing.   I can't see any alternative route though so I've ignored them.  Mark Fearon

Answer 9, I have taken it that there is not a bridge over the disused railway in 4126, there is only a vestigial bridge-line on one side which I assume doesn't count. However, if you've taken that it *is* a bridge, then the answer for question 9 is 2:41. Also, the section before question 9 (on the yellow) I took to finish at the YR junction in 4128, having come down through the gradient - however this distance (from YW in 4429) was very much on the borderline between 2.5km and 2.75 km; I've taken it as 2.5km as it fits the route. I've also assumed there is no bridge over the disused railway in 4224, since there is no bridge symbol.
Quite a good route, a bit like a 'real' rally (with cars) in that you can do quite well by guessing the route and see if the route instructions fit! Just out of interest, I got the route card parameters to be as follows: x = 45km/h, b = 9 (easting), c = 20 (northing), d = 4 (bridge), e = 11 (gradient), f = 7 (spot height), g = 14 (phone), h = 18 (milestone). It seemed fairly easy to get these, about 10 min trial and error on the trusty spreadsheet! (forgot how to solve simultaneous equations properly years ago...) The only comment is that although you said you'd rounded the distances to nearest 0.25 km, but several of your samples were to the nearest 0.1 km; I've assumed they were meant to be exact distances.  Ian Buxton

I didn't realise how rusty my maths was!! Good route card but made you think very clearly - footy off, bottle of wine open! Only comment is that In RC10 I assume there is no bridge over the dismantled railway in 4224 and that spot heights at junctions only count on the colour they are on meaning roads end at the entry to a junction and not in the middle of them. I hope you keep perservering - this is certianly my first experience of anything like this on the Internet - I'm sure there would be many more entries if more people new about it - perhaps we should all write up an article for our local club magazine about it????  Mark Goodman

Who is an idiot? Spent 4 days unable to get anything to plot, only to find I did not read your instructions. I was trying it with accurate measurements only to finally realise you state to the nearest 0.25km. That made it easier, the best section so far don't you dare stop now.  Pete James

I managed to figure out that white roads were driven at 45kph, yellow at 55kph, orange at 65 kph and red at 75 kph. Eastings were 9 seconds, Northings 20, bridges 4, gradients 11, spot heights 7, telephones 14 and mile stones 18, or at least I hope so!!! Spent ages trying the different combinations - aren't spreadsheets wonderful. Four or five guesses worked out first time, but I ended up getting lost somewhere in the middle and had to go to the end and work back - at least my routes tied up in the middle!  Steve Turnbull

RC7 - Taken as 0.75 km, but right on the border of 0.5km. If it is 0.5, then the answer is 1:09. RC8 - Taken as 0.75 km, but right on the border of 1km. If it is 1.0, then the answer is 1:20. I have counted the half bridge at 427260 as a bridge. If it is not, then the answer to RC10 is 4 seconds less. Really enjoyed this one, even though I almost gave up on the first section because nothing fitted. Then I read the bit about "to the nearest 0.25 km", and suddenly it fitted!! My speed 'x' was 45 km/h, b was 9, c, was 20, d, was 4, e was 11, f was 7, g was 14 and h was 18. I thought I'd do it properly, and composed an equation for x based upon your first two samples. Unfortunately, it gave me a quadratic equation, and I can't for the life of me remember how you solve one of those! However, a quick guessing session on the spreadsheet soon found the answer. For reference, the road colours I used for each section were:- RC1 - white, RC2 - yellow, RC3 - yellow, RC4 - Orange, RC5 - White, RC6 - Orange, RC7 - White (very difficult to see because it's covered in a bridleway. This one took me ages to find.!), RC8 - White, RC9 - Red, RC10- Yellow. The bits I found difficult were trying to guess where to go on RC4, because there were so many possibilities, especially when the 2:11 fits both the intended route and slight deviation at the end to finish on the Red road, but only carries on working using the route to the white. Seeing the white under the bridleway was also very difficult, and measuring it even worse! Nearly thought you'd miscalulated the 3:48 between RC8 and 9, until I saw the gradient arrow, and then I don't think I'd have got the last section unless I'd been able to do it backwards from the finish point. One of the best RCs so far, maybe even the best. No staring for hours trying to work out what to do, just gradually getting through the route, with encouragement every time you manage to work out another RC answer. Keep up the good work.   Matthew Atkinson

Great! No guesswork in this one. Solving simultaneous equations using a spreadsheet is much faster than doing it properly using quadratic equations (which took me about 7 attempts - too many digits to type into a calculator!). Hopefully there aren't any alternative shorter solutions lurking, I didn't check every possibility....A few of the answers were quite borderline on the nearest .25km. In particular, I've used .5km for 7). If you thought it should be .75kms then the answer would be 1:29.  Jeremy Rodgers

I liked this RC - very good. I had problems measuring the length of road for RC7. It is not easy to see where the yellow changes to white. I made the actual length 0.65km and therefore rounded to 0.75km, but it could be 0.6km, which rounded makes 0.5km. If the actual length is 0.6km my answer to RC7 is 1:09.   Ted Manktelow

Brilliant - really enjoyed working that one out. A bit of everything there. More of these please. Don't even think I need to query anything - which is great. Where am I going to get a football fixture from, I chuck anything to do with football away as I'm not interested in it, even the World Cup! [The Times has a full page covering the World Cup schedule every day, and there are lots of soccer sites on the Internet with the same information] Keep the faith.  Mike Biss

Very good novel clue. I had some difficulty rounding the distance to the nearest 0.25, and a different 0.25 would change the result significantly. RC4  I assumed 0.5Km else 0.75 would result in 1.29. RC6  I assumed 0.75 Km else 1.0 would result in 1.20.  Colin Hensman

A bit undecided which way to round the distances for RC8 and RC10, but what the hell. Another enojyable Route card .  Ewan Hopes

Didn't like this. My route is very dubious.  Keith Norman

Calculated and plotted by my own unique method! Thus I guess largely wrong and I've meandered all over the wrong roads.  Carol Moulton