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Bulletin No.16 - July 21, 1998
There is now a "World"
Rankings list for Table-Toppers based upon the results in the last two years National
TT events.
The opening round of the 1998/99 National TT Championship, the
Pathfinder, looks like being delayed until early 1999 - watch this space.
The "one-arm bandit" RC15 will be published tomorrow,
and the fantasy World Cup RC16 a week later, but unless interest picks up these will be
last this year.
Bulletin No.15 - July 14, 1998
You should have got RC13, particularly if you had a name check! Ah
well, another idea seems have fallen on sterile ground - only one set of answers at the
time of writing.
I've just finished compiling the summary of the finishing
positions of competitors in all previous National Table-Top Championships and you can find
this at Championship Summary 1988-1998 - it
makes very interesting reading.
About 30 of the Summer Internet TT entrants are in the list, which means, hopefully, there
are a few newbies doing this event which will take part in this season's National
Championship (more on that below).
There are lots of "oldies" too, competitors such as Mike Biss, Dave Bell, Carol
Moulton, Pete James, Dave Keetley, Gillian Goodlass, Colin Hensman, Mark Goodman and Don
Clarke have been TTing for at least 10 years.
Not quite 100% yet, but there are good signs that the next
Internet TT contest(s) will have a sponsor/advertiser to help with the prize fund. As well
as extending the awards list for the leading competitors, it would be appropriate to
devise some additional classes so that everyone has the opportunity to win something.
Here's one idea for you to consider. Class 1 Entrants have one week to complete a route
card; Class 2 entrants have two weeks to complete a route card and a clue would be posted
after the first week; Class 3 Entrants have three weeks to complete a route card and would
have a second clue posted after the second week. Let me have your own ideas.
RC14 revives the name of Rally Round and to coincide with that a
stack of new TT pages will shortly be available describing the game and it's history. (Keep
looking at the List of Contents for a new Rally Round section) You don't need to know anything
about Rally Round to solve RC14, but you may be interested in some proposed Internet
competitions which could be based upon the game - Let me know.
Good News. Details of this year's National TT Championship will be
published very shortly. As usual it will based upon the Pathfinder, Nelly, Langer Park and
Cultivator events. Entry levels for these events have been falling in recent years so I
really hope the practice you've had over the Summer will encourage you to take part during
the Winter. You should find them easier than the Summer TT because, typically, you'll have
about 4 weeks to solve 20 route cards.
Bad News. It is rumoured that this may be the last time that the Nelly and Langer Park
events run, due to the retirement of the current organisers. I would hate to see the
Championship die, but it does need some new blood to come forward and organise qualifying
events. It's a lot of work, but very rewarding even with all the competitor hate mail that
you'll get. How about some of the "oldies" mentioned above giving it a go - you
can't complain about lack of TT experience!
Even Crows have to fly South sometimes (Well, West actually).
Having given you his full attention during the Summer, "Crow" will be off on
holiday on August 28th. So once RC20 has been published (August 26th) your friendly
e-mails will go unanswered and the TT site will remain static, until his return about 2
weeks later.
Bulletin No.14 - July 7, 1998
RC12 seems to have put many of you off, sorry. It's not an easy
job pitching the route cards at the right level, particularly when the leading contenders
keep returning perfect scores. There have already been a lot of positive ideas proposed
via the Competitors' Comments pages for the next contest. You can add your ideas publicly
by contributing to the Discussion Group elsewhere in this site.
I'd particularly like your input now regarding a level of entry
fee for future events. This year's event has been funded by my spare time and pocket. I
didn't try too hard for sponsors, but with the relative success of this year's event,
maybe some of you might be able to interest potential benefactors or advertisers for the
future. The event doesn't need a lot of cash, just enough to cover modest operating costs
and to extend the awards list. The bigger the sponsor, the smaller the entry fee.
I would also welcome a co-organiser next time around if there are
any volunteers out there. Running this event in it's current, 20 consecutive weeks format,
leaves me little time to be sick, wash, sunbathe, read a book, have a holiday etc. Help on
route card design/ideas (which would mean you can't compete), and deputising on
maintaining the web site during the event (via MS FrontPage) would be useful.
RC13 is imminent. In some ways it's a bit like RC12 in that once
you've hit on the idea, the rest will be easy (I promise!). RC14 is another nostalgia trip
for me with a visit to the Rally Round game board; RC15 I liken to a One-arm Bandit; RC16
redresses the UK balance of power after a poor Summer of sport with England beating
Scotland 2-1 in the fantasy World Cup final. RC17 shows how useful a digital camera can
be. RC18 is just map references! RC19 and RC20 are still in gestation.
The results over the next few weeks will suggest whether the
tie-decider in the rules is still going to be sufficient. Currently it is still possible
to have 25 competitors tie for first place with a perfect score of 120 points. I
might have to invent an extra, optional routecard timed to the nearest 0.1 second, sound
familiar? - well, this is the World Table-Top Rally Championship afterall!
My thanks to-date to Don Clarke, Ewan Hopes, Keith Norman. Bridget
Lewis and Pete James who haven't missed a week in supplying answers to the first 11
routecards. (When do you go on holiday?)
Bulletin No.13 - June 30, 1998
Many thanks for all the words of encouragement received this week
- unless you all disappear in the next few weeks, I am inclined to keep you busy until
RC20. I've included your general comments and ideas on the RC11 Competitors' Comments page.
You are truly amazing! Within 48 hours of posting RC11 I had some
perfect answers in my mailbox. I thought this would beat you, but yet again you've proved
me wrong.
RC12 is coming - I don't think this is too difficult?!
You've probably noticed that the TT site keeps changing (for the
better?) as new pages become available. There is now a general TT Site News page which
endeavours to keep you abreast of what's different.
Bulletin No.12 - June 23, 1998
I'm writing this after a depressing two hours watching England get
thumped by Romania, so I'm not in the best of moods. Cricket, Rugby or Football we seem to
be crap - perhaps if we had a World Table-Top Rally Championship we might actually
get a Brit to win it. Well, this event is open to
the World via the Internet, so whoever wins it, I shall declare them as World Champion!
Don't worry, if there are any late entries from Romanians, Germans, Argentineans,
Italians, French etc., I shall conveniently lose them in my recycle-bin. ;-)
Talking of depression, where have all the answer forms gone? Just
five so far for RC10. With all the work (unfunded) that this event takes, I'm beginning to
wonder whether it's worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, I don't want paying for this, I'm
doing it for my own fun too, but it would be more motivating for me if I had the kind of
responses that the first five route cards achieved. Have the tougher route cards forced
some of you to seek pleasures elsewhere? Maybe the mistake has been making the scoring too
generous, i.e. only best 12 from 20, so that there had to be too many difficult route
cards to ensure a clear winner? Food for thought when it's all over? I'll soldier on for
now, because the hard core of competitors remaining seem to like what's going on. I have
route cards ready up to RC16, but if you want the full monty to RC20, I may need some
encouragement.
I've now got the trophy for the overall
winner. I'm re-using the one that used to be awarded for the Rally Round Table-Top event,
so I am grateful to Martin Rea, the last winner in 1993, for returning it to me. |
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Apologies for changing some of the pages around recently. The TT
site is growing in size and with quite a few pages to add soon, it needed a bit of
reorganisation. If you want to access the Route Cards directly you can now reach them at
(deleted).
RC11 will be posted soon to kick off the second half. It's my
favourite and a toughie, but I couldn't resist a bit of TRACOM nostalgia.
With England embarrassing us on the Cricket field, I've scrapped
the cricket idea for RC15. Instead prepare yourself for a football fantasy World Cup theme
in RC16, where I guarantee that England beat Scotland in the final. It might be useful if
you kept hold of your France 98 match schedule - it might be relevant!
Bulletin No.11 - June 16, 1998
The response rate appears to have picked up for the, apparently
easier, RC9. RC10 is perhaps a bit tougher with some strange herringbones. We're half way
there, what do you think of it so far?
OK, so I'm no good at predicting football scores. Come on England
and Scotland!
Bulletin No.10 - June 9, 1998
Is everyone on holiday, doing exams, preparing for Scotland v
Brazil or just too overcome by the drama of the Canadian Grand Prix? Not too many answers
for RC8 and many of them look like guesses. I'm still deliberating on the few almost
correct answers so it will be a few days before the results are published.
I've de-tuned the original RC9 a bit to help you get your
confidence back. Might be an idea to take this opportunity for 10 points before I turn the
screws back on.
Will we all be depressed by this time next week? My money's on
Scotland 1 Brazil 1; England 1 Tunisia 0.
Bulletin No.9 - June 2, 1998
RC7 - sorry about that, but you can't have it easy all the time.
If you can't solve a Route Card, then there's nothing to stop you taking a guess at the
answers. There's a chance you could score a few points and you might need them when it
comes to working out your best 12 results. It paid off for a few guessers on RC7.
The shape of things to come: RC8 should get you scoring again. RC9
is, well, different. RC10 is "herringboneish". For RC11 you need to know
about TRACOM and some maths expertise. RC12 is numerical, RC13 alphabetical and RC14 is
"Rally Round" based. RC15, being in the middle of the cricket season will bowl
you over.
If you think you haven't got time to devote to TTs over the next
month because you'll be watching the World Cup...please get your priorities right.
Bulletin No.8 - May 29, 1998
Well, I thought RC7 was a bit easier than RC6, but only 6
answer forms so far - you must still be working out all the possible combinations!
Don't forget that RC8 (and I promise you will find this easier
than the last two) will not appear until overnight next Wednesday in line with the revised
publication schedule.
My thanks to an honourable Jeremy Rodgers, who pointed out that I
had given him one too many points for RC6. This has (temporarily?) demoted him to joint
2nd, so the Leader Board has been updated. If ever you think I have marked your answers
incorrectly, please e-mail me.
The discussion group is in progress. Feel free to raise TT topics
which you would like debated amongst your fellow competitors.
Does the background to this page look at all familiar? Look out
for it in a subsequent route card.
Bulletin No.7 - May 21, 1998
You're unbelievable! Route Card 6 has definitely slowed some of
you down, but still the right answers arrive in my mailbox, even with one benign mistake
in it. When you query such things with me by e-mail, there is nothing I can do except
reply "No Comment". To do otherwise could perhaps give you an advantage over
other competitors. Also, I can't correct the Route Card web page because a) the postal
entrants won't see it and b) internet users shouldn't have to keep visiting the page to
see if anything has changed. So, once a Route Card is published, that's the point of no
change. If there are any problems with it, make comments with your answers and marking
will be adjusted accordingly.
Your general e-mails, and e-mails regarding solutions are most
welcome. I'll always do my best to reply on a timely basis, but I have a job to attend to
which occupies most of the daylight hours, so please be patient sometimes.
Apologies to the handful of postal competitors. I'm afraid I can't
possibly send you paper copies of everything that gets added to the TT web site. I will
however ensure you see all relevant material regarding solving the Route Cards, plus
occasional updates to the results table.
Not too much response about changing the publication times. Unless
there is a sudden upsurge of unrest, in line with the new timing, RC8 will now appear on
June 3rd.
Don't be shy! If you have some information about yourself that you
are happy to share with the world, I'll gladly add it as a link on the Entry List/Scores
page.
Have your crash helmets ready from RC9, there may be a few Special
Stages thrown in "timed" to the nearest 0.1 marks! Don't tell the RAC though,
because I haven't exactly got permission for closing the public roads.
Bulletin No.6 - May 14, 1998
Well, Route Card 5 seems to be giving me some varied answers so
perhaps we are beginning to sort out the men/women from the boys/girls.
Probably the biggest debate in your comments seems to be the
publication and closing date for each route card. Your opinion is very much biased to
whether you have Internet access from home, work or both. Those with only work access seem
most disadvantaged since they can at best collect the RC on Monday morning and have to
answer by Friday afternoon. Whilst I don't advocate, nor wanted to encourage private usage
of the Internet in the work place without permission (hence the weekend deadlines), It
seems it would be more acceptable to you if I were to change the deadlines to weekdays.
So unless there is enormous outrage from you, I'm planning to change the arrangements from
RC8 onwards. Publication of that RC and all subsequent ones will be at approximately
00.01 on Wednesdays. Answers will then be due by 23.59 by the following Tuesdays. For
postal competitors I will post RCs on Tuesdays and they must fall through my letter box by
the following Wednesday. I'll be updating the schedule some time next week. OK?
In some ways this will be better for me too, however sometimes I might have to vary this
by plus or minus a day due to my own work commitments. You should get adequate warning of
this though.
Bulletin No.5 - May 7, 1998
Your plotting brilliance continues with more 10 pointers on Route
Card 4. RC5 should not baffle you too much, but from RC6 the going will get tougher.
There is a new topic "Ordnance Survey Info" in the List
of Contents. This is a collection of useful reference information reproduced by kind
permission from the Ordnance Survey web site. You might need to refer to this information
in later Route Cards! P.S. The screen saver is fun.
Bulletin No.4 - April 30, 1998
Route Card 3 does not seem to be causing you many problems,
obviously we have an entry list of computer nerds! I think I'll have to revise future
route cards so that you have to write a C++ program to discover the route ;-)
You are reminded that this is an event for individuals
and individual effort. The similarity of a few of the incorrect answers
received may indicate otherwise! (see Championship rule 26)
Please use the form on these pages to send your answers. Not only
does this e-mail your answers to "Crow" but the results are also stored as a
text file on our Web Server should I ever need to double-check something. When using the
form make sure you remember to complete the name and e-mail address boxes. This week I had
a set of RC3 answers from an unknown source; so if your score doesn't appear next week let
me know. I usually try to acknowledge receipt of all answers within a few days so if you
don't get a "Received Safely" e-mail you will know why.
Thanks to those who have sent me their personal details. These are
accessible from the Entry List/Scores page. Keep them coming.
Postal entrants are reminded that their answer sheets must arrive
no later than the Monday (or Tuesday after Bank Holiday Mondays) after the closing date.
We've 47 entries now, including one from Canada - 50 or more would
be nice - spread the word.
An alternative address to get access to the TT Home Pages is now (deleted)
this just maps to the usual (deleted) .
Bulletin No.3 - April 24, 1998
The final positions for the National Table Top Championship for
1997/98 are now available following the recently published results for the Cultivator.
Looks like the 1998/99 Championship is going to run, so watch these pages for further
details.
Lots of correct entries are arriving for Route Card 2, so there
will be no clear leader going into round 3. RC3 may make your brains work a little bit
harder.
Bulletin No.2 - April 17, 1998
44 entries to-date - Not bad for a new TT competition. Spread the
word to your TT colleagues, there's still plenty of time to join the action.
As expected there are a lot of "10 pointers" from the
first Route Card. However with the best 12 from 20 to count, you can expect at least 9
tough RCs to get a clear winner...but not just yet.
Bulletin No.1 - April 5, 1998
Entries are beginning to accelerate as the start day comes closer,
with 25 at the last count.
Many of the pages have been updated, and there are now a full set
of Championship Rules available.
For postal entrants, Route Card 1 will be posted next Thursday
because of the Easter break. Internet entrants will be able to view Route Card 1 from
about 09:00 next Saturday morning.
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