TC16 (Out) @ lay-by in GS 3312
TC17 (In) @ bridge over Motorway

Welcome to the fanstasy World Cup. This was just like the real World Cup in terms of teams, format and playing schedule. Here are the tables and results.

The results of some of the group matches were:

Brazil 3 Scotland 3; Norway 0 Scotland 1; Brazil 2 Norway 1; Cameroon 5 Italy 1; Chile 8 Cameroon 2; Italy 6 Austria 5; France 5 Denmark 2; Saudi Arabia 9 France 2; Denmark 2 Saudi Arabia 3; Nigeria 2 Spain 1; Bulgaria 2 Nigeria 1; Spain 3 Bulgaria 1; Mexico 3 Holland 1; South Korea 3 Mexico 0; Holland 2 South Korea 1; Iran 2 Germany 2; USA 4 Iran 3; Germany 3 USA 0; England 9 Romania 1; Tunisia 2 Romania 2; Croatia 5 Argentina 4; Argentina 0 Jamaica 1; Croatia 3 Japan 0;

When the results of all the matches are listed in the order that they were played, coincidentally(?) this gave a perfect puzzle for this route card. In listing the results, the country alphabetically first was always the 'Home' team. When the kick-off time and date for matches was the same (the third matches in each of the groups), the listed order was alphabetically on the 'Home' team.

All the group results are interpreted in a particular way. The Round 2 results are interpreted in a different way. The Quarter Finals results yield a single, but again a different type of clue. The Semi Finals results yield a single, but another different type of clue. The remaining matches yield four clues of yet another type.

Route Checks:
1) GS of most Westerly point on route
2) GS of most Southerly point on route
3) Number of gradient arrows crossed
4) Number of public telephones passed
5) Number of times the route joins a white road from a yellow road
6) Highest SH on route
7) Lowest SH on route
8) Number of times the route crosses or joins an A road
9) Third SH on route
10) Third from last SH on route

TC17 (In) @ bridge over Motorway in GS 2120

The results of the group matches in sequence were:

Brazil 3 Scotland 3; Morocco 1 Norway 1;
Chile 1 Italy 3; Austria 3 Cameroon 2;
Bulgaria 0 Paraguay 1; Denmark 2 Saudi Arabia 3; France 3 South Africa 2;
Nigeria 2 Spain 1; Mexico 0 South Korea 3; Belgium 3 Holland 1;
Argentina 6 Japan 1; Iran 0 Yugoslavia 3; Croatia 3 Jamaica 1;
England 3 Tunisia 1; Colombia 0 Romania 3; Germany 3 USA 0;
Norway 0 Scotland 1; Brazil 0 Morocco 1;
Austria 3 Chile 0; Cameroon 5 Italy 1;
Denmark 1 South Africa 0; France 2 Saudi Arabia 9;
Bulgaria 2 Nigeria 1; Paraguay 3 Spain 6;
Croatia 3 Japan 0; Belgium 2 Mexico 1; Holland 2 South Korea 1;
Germany 3 Yugoslavia 1; Argentina 0 Jamaica 1; Iran 4 USA 3*;
Colombia 3 Tunisia 0; England 9 Romania 1;
Austria 5 Italy 6; Cameroon 2 Chile 8;
Brazil 2 Norway 1; Morocco 3 Scotland 3;
Denmark 2 France 5; Saudi Arabia 2 South Africa 1;
Bulgaria 1 Spain 3; Nigeria 2 Paraguay 3;
Belgium 3 South Korea 1; Holland 1 Mexico 3;
Germany 2 Iran 2; USA 1 Yugoslavia 1;
Argentina 4 Croatia 5; Jamaica 2 Japan 1;
Colombia 0 England 1; Romania 2 Tunisia 2;

* This was erroneously recorded as USA 4 Iran 3, but the error was fairly obvious and correctable on examining the final table.

Writing these results as a continuous list and breaking it into groups of six gave map references to visit as follows;

331 113, 320 123, 322 103, 316 103, 313 103, 300 101, 305 110, 292 136, 302 121, 310 143, 309 156, 282 133, 252 113, 233 113, 221 145, 210 122

You had to be very careful plotting these, especially around Combe St Nicolas, since there was a non-obvious shortest route easily missed. This primarily affected the answers to RC3 and RC7). Look at Ian Buxton comments for further explanation.

Doing the same for all the knockout stages gave these sequences of results:

Austria 2 Morocco 0, Italy 1 Scotland 3; Paraguay 2 Saudi Arabia 0; France 1 Spain 4; Germany 2 South Korea 1; Belgium 1 Yugoslavia 5; England 2 Jamaica 1; Croatia 2 Romania 1;

This gave GLs to cross as 20, 13, 20, 14, 21, 15, 21, 21

Austria 2 Paraguay 0; Scotland 2 Spain 1; Croatia 1 Yugoslavia 6; England 2 Germany 0;

This gave a single via map reference of 2021 1620

Scotland 2 Yugoslavia 0; Austria 1 England 5;

This gave a single via GS of 2015

Austria 7 Yugoslavia 1; England 2 Scotland 1;

Pass over the blue numbers of  7, 1, 2, 1

Route Check Answers:
1) 1817  2) 3109  3) 9  4) 1/2  5) 12  6) 262  7) 65   8) 5  9) 138  10) 197/257

I accepted 1 black phone or plus 1 blue phone in RC4, because of the dispute as to whether a motoring organisation phone is public or not. For RC10, it's debatable whether SH239 is on or off route, so 197 or 257 was allowed.