You swine! The route card was fun to decode (had me scampering after my calculator instruction manual though!). Especially the avoids with 3x8 figure MRs thrown in for good measure - very clever! I bet you were laughing all the way to the new server shop after you had devised the route checks! I will be VERY surprised if you get many 10's as I'm sure lots of people will make mistakes (including me probably!) counting endless things. I'm sure the RCs have taken twice as long as the actual route! Specifically:-
RC1. I make either end of the tiny yellow in 1619 VERY close - a bit of trigonometry made me plump for the southern end of it, however my Romer is not 10 figures acurate though! (would you have accepted the 100KM numbers as one digit?) [that's what I wanted]
RC2. The white in 2525 2480 which links the other white to the yellow roundabout caused me some problems - I decided it wasn't a goer [I think it does] so I used the dual carraigeway and picked up another bridge. If you deem it to go, then my answer will be 21 (both probably wrong!). Also, I assumed there were no bridges at the service area at Taunton Deane [yes, bridge symbol!]- but did use the footbridge over the M5 in 2120 [OK].
RC3. I assume that if you ignore NTR, then you also ignore the junctions with them, not sure my answer would be any different though.
RC6. I decided that the telephones at 2727 (up yellow) and 2928 (up white) were off route. [Correct]
RC8. I've used the whites at 30550 28225 and 2500 2865 (strange one) but again, not used 2525 2480 as in RC2 otherwise answers would be different.
RC9. Comments as in RC8.
I expect you will get many comments from this section's RCs - but thats all part of the fun isn't it(!?!)
Try this one .... Cappuccino with sugar/Diet Cola/Cocolate, ok a bit unfair but this equates to 1955 2035 (The Motorway Services) according to our drinks machine at work (perhaps we could rig up a Web Cam!). Keep up the good work - only two more to go!  [first to answer]  Mark Goodman

I hope I don't shock you with the quick response...I have had to rush this one off in one night because I am likley to be able to access the site and have time to work on it for the next week or so,  lets hope its not too far away! (Not sure on RC 10 though!!  Steve Waggett

Question 2:  Have counted going under the Motorway in SQ 2524 as UU (2 Bridges) If this is not the case my answer would be 20 Have also counted the foot bridge in 2120. Question 3 think it's 3029 could be 2529. Question 5 Once again counted going over the M5 as OO OO (crossed it twice)  Answer could be 2 if you counted crossing the M5 as O  O. Question 8  Have note counted the Lock symbol in sq 3029. Enjoyed this section. Struggled with the avoid. Could only come up with the following.2 6 4 2 7 0, 2 7 4 2 8 0, 3 0 3 2 9 4, 2 8 6 2 8 8, 2 7 7 4 2 7 3 0, 2 7 5 2 8 7, 3 0 1 5 2 8 3 0, 3 7 7 2 9 0 , 2 7 4 3 2 9 3 7. Sorry the answer are not very accurate. Have run out of time to double check them.  Ewan Hopes

Q1. Y junction at end of M-way run. Answers in brackets depend on how you count M-way. bridges/crossings. Great Section.  Pete James

By far the most difficult set of route checks. RC2: my version of the route uses the M5 - possibly a bridge at the services but no bridge symbol so NOT included (would have passed under it once). RC4: even if I have the correct route, bags of scope for the wrong answer - total includes SH 8 in 2724. RC6: telephones in 2827 and 2928 NOT included as just off route. RC8: assumed the route leaves the A358 in 2723 on a Y (difficult to distinguish between Y and W). I ended up with 8 via, 9 avoid and 9 via grid references - not at all confident with my solution to the avoids - I'll list my references just so you can see where I went wrong 1) 303 218 2) 318 249 3) 314 253 4) 300 226 5) 294 218 6) 273 234 7) 280 246 8) 271 261 9) 264 270 10) 274 280 11) 303 294 12) 286 288 13) 2774 2730 14) 275 287 15) 3015 2830 16) 277 290 17) 2743 2937 18) 264 289 19) 253 290 20) 243 287 21) 232 283 22) 269 281 23) 255 263 24) 257 258 25) 176 201 26) 251 250 [just a problem with the last one]. Reference 22 caused the delay - obvious really! My route also passed through avoid ref10 between via ref 22 and via ref 23 - another minus in the confidence stakes. If 25 and 26 are correct then many route options up and down the M5 affecting almost all the route checks - perhaps a little unfair - I opted for ref24 - M5 J25 - off through services - ref25 - M5 J26 - M5 J25 - ref26  Dave Bell

I have assumed that West London/Plymouth & Launceston decodes via map numbers to 176/201. [fooled you here I think!] This doesn't seem to fit as an MR, so I haveassumed that I need to take the difference, which gives me 25. This is then the number of the motorway junction to be visited. The other poss. is that this gives us MR 250250, which would then result in answer 2 being 1, and answer 9 being 9. 55 spot height in GS2822 is not included as it's on the other carriageway from the one we're using. The phone in GS2928 is off route, on the white and is therefore not
included.
Liked this one, it made me think, but didn't make me get stuck too much. Spent ages trying to interpret 9! as nine not, given my computer biased brain, without much success, before I remembered that it could be 9 factorial. Got caught out on the avoids. Worked out that they
were first character first of all 'words', but didn't work out the 333 and 007 until three of them didn't fit. Then it clicked. The 10 fig. map references caught me out to start with, then I twigged. Thought
that the last one was a hideously complicated equation at first, and was very glad to find out it wasn't.
I've looked at your proposals for next year, and like the idea of having to score on more rounds so it can be made easier. Bit worried about the idea of 12 rounds in 4 weeks though - sounds like a lot more time needed, which would be difficult to find. I do like the idea of seeing how you're doing as you're going along. I've not done particularly well this year, but it hasn't put me off just because I've
seen others doing much better. Rather the opposite in fact, I've been spurred on to try to catch up. It's also nice to see the solution very shortly after you've done the RC. I think I tend to favour the idea of logging when someone checks an RC out, and when they check the answers in. You could then include the answers in the confirmation e-mail for their answers they could see what they were supposed to do. That way you could still publish scores as you go along.
I use the internet only at work, and do have a concern that you try to make it fair for those of us who are in this situation. For instance if I check out an RC at 5pm, and back in at 9am the next morning having done it in one evening, I should not ideally get any more penalty than someone with home access who clocks it out at 8pm and back in at 11pm. This is of course particularly relevant to the weekend (when most of my RC's tend to get done), when those like myself are away from the system for nearly three days, even if we get it cracked on Friday evening. I'm sure you'll come up with something fair though. [Good comments, thanks]  Matthew Atkinson

RC2, includes FB in 2120. RC6, phone in 2928 taken as off route.  Keith Norman

RC1 - I've assumed you wanted a 10-fig ref including the 3/1 100km square numbers, as per your refs in the route card. Normally I'd have thought you meant 1636020000 but I'd be suspicious of giving a grid ref to the nearest metre. RC2 - I've included bridges where you go under the M5 at junctions 25 [under?] and 26, as there is just about a bridge symbol for the roundabout. I did not include the services at Taunton Deane as there is no symbol. RC3 - I took 'junction' to exclude no through roads as defined - but then noticed the answer was the same anyway! RC4 - I excluded 55 in 2822 as it's on the wrong part of the dual carriageway. RC5 - If you include driving ON the M5 (which I didn't) then the answer would be 2. RC6 - phones at 2727 and 2928 ignored as they are pointing to side roads rather than the road the route travels on.
Got the route check clues (eventually!) but not totally sure about the exact route! From 269281 the only option seemed to be to go either the wrong way down the dual carriageway (disallowed by the rules) or up the dual carriageway and loop back through the avoid at 274280 - but since this had already been 'avoided' earlier on I took this to be OK. [correct procedure] Couldn't find any other route round.
Some tricky answers - I found the 10 fig refs (grid ref of blue numbers on the map) and the 'quotes' strings (grid refs of spot height/trig point) the hardest. the x/x+2/... came to me in a flash, once I'd managed to stop thinking about division! Most of the others seemed OK but the 'avoids' were tricky, I assume the groups of numbers represent the 1st, 2nd etc digits of the grid refs, with the extras used for some 8-fig refs. But before you plot the remainder of the via's there would have been a much shorter route going nowhere near the avoids - which worried me a bit.  Looking forward to the last few now - without too much of a sting in the tail I hope!  Ian Buxton

Short of time on this one.  Bridget Lewis

Well done, you beat me this time! Worked out all the clues except for the longest one (the 6 ten figure references - if that's what they are). I assume this would give me a 10 figure MR (ie answer 1)? Unfortunately the lack of this clue probably means I'll only get 3 or 4 answers right if I'm lucky....For what it's worth, I've not included the telephones in 2928 or 2727, since they're not quite beside the road. Interesting RC anyway. I'm waiting to see what was actually intended for the last part of the route...Jeremy Rodgers

I enjoyed this Route Card - it appealed to my mathematical bent. One complaint, though, there was far too much counting on such a long Route!  Just a few notes....RC2. - I`ve counted passing under the M25 in GS 2524 as 1 bridge only (ie not 1 for each carriageway!); and I`ve also counted the footbridge over the M25 in GS2120 (twice - one for each direction.) RC4. - SH55 in GS2822 is on the "wrong" side of the dual carriageway, so I have not added it in. RC6. - In my judgement, the `phone in GS2727 is just off the Route, and is therefore not counted; while the one in GS2928, next to the church, is on the Route and counts. [sorry, I think it's up the white]  Alan Crabtree

Another fine mess!  I've solved all the MR's bar the last one BUT I can't sort out the route in the middle. I can't fit in the cube root plot 244.6 255.6 so I guess something is wrong [er, where was that then?]. The pity is that with an incomplete route I suspect most of my answers will be wrong.  Heigh Ho ! RC19 tomorrow.  John Evans