Bulletin 7 (October 12, 2021)

I've just received a winner's photo from Keith Irvin - our 2021 Champion. Keith lives in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

I've never polled the typical age of a TTRer, but believe that many have roots in the time when road rallying was a popular form of motorsport in the 1970's. No ageist disrespect to our plotters, but I'd guess that a good proportion are retired or in their senior years. Good to see our sport is attracting young talent.

"Crow"
October 12 @ 23:15

Bulletin 6 (June 4, 2021)

The Thalamorph Rally results are now final. Congratulations to the podiumees Iain Tullie, Phil Robbins and Keith Irvin (with exemplary performances) and class winners (again, again) Lyn Gale, Pip Secker and Stuart Baird.  

I think this was the smoothest run event so far given my adjudication and adjusting was minimal. Most credit to the volunteers Monica Dowson, Bob Blackstock, Roger Ashmead, Ian Canavan, Robert Owen, Nikki Baker and Glynn Hayward for their slick, robust and doable route cards, all with good competitor rankings.
With Andrew Green, Alex Hoult, Henry Carr and Phil Robbins their contribution to making this year's Championship successful has been considerable.

In line with the awards statement in Bulletin 4, Iain Tullie will take a 1st Overall award, and Phil Robbins for Best Master.

Championship awards (bespoke mugs) go to 1st Overall - Keith Irvin, 2nd Overall - Phil Robbins, 3rd Overall - Ian Canavan. Having elevated the first 3 to Super Master: 1st Master - Iain Tullie, 1st Expert - Lyn Gale, 1st Novice - Pip Secker, 1st Beginner - Stuart Baird. (Full Championship Standings)

I've updated the World Rankings and Ian Canavan's short stay at #1 has been usurped by Keith Irvin. Interestingly, Keith last took over #1 after Thalamorph 2018.

TTR will be taking a competition vacation, although there will be a summer-clean of the website and introduction of new features. Talking of which, your suggestions for enhancements to the site/software are always welcome.

There will be a new competition starting in mid-September. Not sure what it will be called yet, possibly: al golS, Jogle or Clegs, but you've probably guessed from the name it will another 100 legs/days event. 90 legs will be straightforward plotting. On 10 of them there will be international interludes when you will be given return air tickets to plot on overseas maps. Since these will be virtual experiences there will be no need to adhere to the Government's red, amber and green country labelling. The remaining 10 legs will be short and simple real-time events.

Volunteers are very welcome to set legs. I will divide the basic route from JOG to LE into 90 approximately equidistant sections, with nominal starting and finishing points. Unlike La Slog 2020 the sections will not be perfectly contiguous since requiring the start of a leg to be at the same place as the finish of the previous leg would be too restrictive and impossible to coordinate with random volunteers. I'll publish the locations of the start/finish points (probably beginning of July) and then the volunteers can choose which legs they want to craft.

Enjoy your summer break and continue to take care. Thank you as always for your generous support and raising £2,000 for NHS Charities Together. (Just paid over the last tranch of £500).

I hope you can come back to TTR in autumn mentally and physically refreshed. 

"Crow"
June 4, 2021 @ 08:00

Bulletin 5 (May 14, 2021)

The Schoolfrenz Rally results are now final. Congratulations to the podiumees Keith Irvin, Ian Oakey and Iain Tullie, and class winners (again) Lyn Gale, Pip Secker and Stuart Baird.  

Clearly Schoolfrenz was a lot more cleanable than previous rounds. Every Leg (except the Regularity which is to be expected) had a stack of zeroes, over 100 in total. So despite the few gumbles, this was in my mind, a well balanced challenge for all classes. And down to the wire at the top.

In line with the awards statement in the last bulletin, Ian Oakley will take an award for Best Master, and Lyn Gale for Best Expert.

However, after Ian Canavan's (pictured below) good run on the last four events, Ian Oakey's stay at World #1 position for two events is over, and his first namesake has taken over. (World Rankings)

(Ian Canavan is also route master for the Hero Challenge 2 in Yorkshire in June, which will be my first proper rally as competitor for two years. I trust the navigation will NOT be to his TTR difficulty.)

With all this Ia(i)n good news, maybe competitors should consider renaming themselves as Ian for some glory to rub off!?

My thanks to Monica Dowson, Andrew Green, Alex Hoult, Ian Canavan, Bob Blackstock, Phil Robbins and Henry Carr for sacrificing their efforts and compromising their scores as setters for the Legs.

The Championship Standings have been updated. The Overall Champion and Master Champion titles are still open to a few contenders [some named Ia(i)n!] but I am pleased to already crown Lyn Gale as Expert Champion, Pip Secker as Novice Champion and Stuart Baird as Beginner Champion.


Table-Top Rally Setter, winner of The Nearest FarAway Place 2021 and World #1 - Ian Canavan

"Crow"
May 14, 2021 @ 20:30

Bulletin 4 (April 26, 2021)

Bulletin 3 (April 1, 2021)

First a HUGE THANK YOU for your support. Over £2,100 raised for charity, bringing the on-going TTR total to almost £31,000.

Another HUGE THANK YOU to the volunteer setters. They gave me a break to catch up on other matters, and I think they enjoyed the pressure and (sometimes) hassle that goes with setting a navigational challenge. Only a few glitches, the most annoying of which was Google being a bit too up-to-date and "blocking" a master route with real roadworks, which were difficult to circumnavigate.

It was a tough event, perhaps a bit too tough, so I think the setters for round 2 have: cut down on the target IQ level, shortened their routes, knocked a factor off sneakiness and will specifically advise on their "shortest route" intentions.

The Nearest FarAway Place Rally results have been provisional since the event closed on Sunday. Can you please hold up your hand before this Sunday if there are any scores you wish to query. Notwithstanding that, provisional congratulations to the podiumees Ian Canavan, Ian Oakey and Andrew Green.

The Panglossian Rally starts tomorrow (Friday) at 9am. Enjoy.

"Crow"
April 1, 2021 @ 16:30

Bulletin 2 (March 10, 2021)

We are two days from the next Internet Table-Top Rally Championship and again I am chuffed with your enthusiasm, support and generosity: 75 entries and over £1,700 raised for NHS Charities Together.

Secretly I hope this might the last ITTR series for a while, because everyone will be too busy out of lockdown, enjoying the summer, doing real rallies, going on holiday and spending long lost time with friends and family. I pray for the motto Don't Stay at Home, We've Saved Lives, Thank You NHS.

Over the next 3 months you'll have 32 TTR Legs to plot. Assembled by a band of volunteers, you'll be plotting routes on OS maps, with just a few diversions to other maps and real-time sections. My thanks to Nikki Baker, Monica Dowson, Alex Hoult, Bob Blackstock, Henry Carr, Ian Canavan, Andrew Green, Robert Owen, Phil Robbins, Roger Ashmead and Glynn Hayward for giving their time to give me time to do other things. However, the other things have mostly been devoted to making general improvements to your TTR experience which you'll probably encounter on the second round of the Championship.

Make good use of the Forums to pose any public problems you have with the events, or send a portal message to the route card setters for private enquiries.

I hope you enjoy the series, and MANY THANKS again for your valuable support.

"Crow"
March 10, 2021 @ 23:00

Bulletin 1 (February 3, 2021)