51 crews met at the Royal Bath and West show ground on Sunday 7^th November to contest the final round of the HRCR XL Refrigerators and Speedsport Design road rally championship. It promised to be a good day with a total of 20 tests and 5 regularity sections planned for our entertainment.

The first six tests took place at the show ground itself and good long tests they were too. After playing Colin McRae and Nicky Grist for a while we set off on regularity 1. The navigation was a mere 4 map refs (including regularity start and finish that we already had plotted!) and a speed change at the first ITC. Nice and easy.

This took us to Zeals for tests 7 to 10. Very slippery conditions at the disused airfield saw at least 2 cars off and a hold up of about 8 mins for the rest of us. We had no problems (apart from the distraction of attempting test 7 whilst a "Live Recovery" of Skinner / Pettie's Austin Healey was taking place!)

Before long we were into Regularity 2 and heading South towards Stalbridge. Navigation comprised of gridlines, tulips and a single speed change. With 0, 9, 4 and 2 second respective penalties at the ITC's we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Regularity 3 would soon change all that. 23 miles heading west to Podimore. Spot heights grid lines and an avoid defined the route together with some map refs. 4 ITC's lay in wait to catch those who found the 7 speed changes just too much to cope with.

After the Podimore tests came lunch. The discussion amongst the drivers seemed to centre around the slippery conditions (and for some reason the salt and vinegar crisps) whilst most of the navigators were making jokes along the lines of "We could have done with a few more speed changes in that last regularity, Don't you think!" Oh how we laughed....Oh how little we knew.

After lunch, Regularity 4 took us on an 18-mile circuit via Cadbury castle, Woolstone, North Barrow and Babcarry. Almost unbelievably utilising a No through Road! More Tulips, spot heights and map Refs with one section giving us a choice of roads with not much to choose between the two. I bet you can guess who chose the wrong side of the loop.... I wasn't the only one though.

Missing a board is one thing but our troubles were compounded by the 6 changes of speed and guesswork became a big part of our strategy.

Thankfully Laurence was very supportive and it didn't spoil our enjoyment of the event, even if it did spoil our Time card! Back to Podimore for 2 more tests and then we headed north for the final regularity of the day, Like lambs to the slaughter!

Regularity 5 was an overwhelming affair. Spot heights grid line crossings and a very long Herringbone. But it wasn't the route instructions that made it hard. An out of sequence set of speed changes to take place as we passed certain features en-route were to provide us with a mind boggling 20 miles and the pressure caused many top crews to miss a loop here. We started at an average of 30mph and ITC1 appeared at just 2.06 miles! Between ITC 1 and ITC 2 were a shattering seven changes of speed in only 10 miles. ITC 3 was a further 5 miles and another four speed changes away! At ITC 3, I actually thought we must have finished the regularity, but no. ITC 4 was 2.4 miles and yet another speed change further up the road.

Shell shocked, we made our way back to the show ground for the final six excellent tests. The "roads" had become more slippery than ever and provided us with much fun, we shrieked and giggled like a couple of schoolgirls as time and again Laurence got the A35 sideways through the corners, but fatigue had set in and I think its fair to say that by the end we were glad to see the final control and retire to the bar to share dinner and tales of daring do with the other crews.

I think everyone agreed that we had all had a brilliant day out and that Salisbury and Shaftsbury car club deserve a very big thank you for putting on such a very well organised event.

I'm looking forward to next year already...