Post by Roadrunner on Feb 3, 2020 9:39:33 GMT
Each year the Vintage Sports Car Club holds an event which has become legendary, 'The Measham'. This is a navigational rally where participants have to decipher a set of clues which will enable them to plot and follow a 200 mile route, mostly along country lanes and minor roads. Just to make it more difficult it is always held at night. There are various classes, according to speed and difficulty of the clues, with the main Expert section being fiercely contested each year. Some drivers and navigators have become legends in their own lifetime.
This year's event was held over the night of 1st to 2nd February, in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Using the Brightwells auction facility at Leominster as Rally HQ, the route took participants over the Long Mynd and back through deepest Shropshire and Herefordshire. I was involved as a Marshal, operating as part of a team of three, we were running three of the 30 or so time checkpoints throughout the night. These checkpoints are kept secret and positioned randomly around the route. All cars have their rally check sheets signed and their time of arrival noted. Penalty points are gained by missing a checkpoint altogether, arriving too late or too early, or arriving from the wrong direction. With cars leaving Rally HQ at one minute intervals from 8:30 PM they should, in theory, pass through each subsequent checkpoint at one minute intervals; but of course this never happens.
Cars arriving for scrutineering and a final check over. Vehicles lined up fro the next Brightwells auction can be seen in the background.
As you can see, there are not highly polished trailer queens. They are all in very much 'used and enjoyed' condition.
My first checkpoint was in a gateway in a narrow lane, a few fields away from the the south-western end of the Long Mynd. The course-opening Land Rover comes through to synchronise timers and then we are ready for the first competitors. The 10:30 PM silence of a Shropshire country lane is awoken by the sound of a hard-driven vintage car approaching, then we see yellowish glow of vintage headlamps and the first car, a Riley 14/6, arrives. I sign his sheet and, with that lovely six-cylinder Riley sound, he is off into the night, just as a Frazer-Nash BMW approaches. This continues for the next hour or so, some cars not arriving, some in the wrong order and two arriving late, just after the course-closing Land Rover has passed through to close the Time Check. This has been a good TC to operate, with decent weather and a good view of the cars as they climb the steep road up the Long Mynd, towards the glider club. Some made the climb fairly well, others struggled and someone seemed to stop for a while near the top. It turned out his car had boiled dry, but a following car was carrying some spare water which got him on his way.
We load up the car and, advising a couple of late-comers to cut short and try to reach some TCs before they all close, we then make pour way to the next TC, in deepest Herefordshire. This is something of a navigational trial in itself and leads us to a muddy gateway near Lucton. By this time the rain has started, but soon the string of cars appears framed, as always, by the two Land Rovers. The sound of vintage engines and straight-cut gears momentarily shatters the rural Herefordshire silence before it is time for us to set up at our final TC, somewhere south west of Leominster. By this time the filed of cars seems to have depleted somewhat, with rumours of a steering link having let go and a broken brake rod, but we count them all in and out, closing our TC just as the first signs of dawn appear in the east. Time to head back to Rally HQ for a full English and a sharing of tales of missed TCs, navigational errors, cold, rain and fog, but most of all of complete and utter enjoyment.
Having well and truly caught the Measham bug, I return home for some much needed sleep, already firmly having inked-in next year's event to my diary.
This year's event was held over the night of 1st to 2nd February, in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Using the Brightwells auction facility at Leominster as Rally HQ, the route took participants over the Long Mynd and back through deepest Shropshire and Herefordshire. I was involved as a Marshal, operating as part of a team of three, we were running three of the 30 or so time checkpoints throughout the night. These checkpoints are kept secret and positioned randomly around the route. All cars have their rally check sheets signed and their time of arrival noted. Penalty points are gained by missing a checkpoint altogether, arriving too late or too early, or arriving from the wrong direction. With cars leaving Rally HQ at one minute intervals from 8:30 PM they should, in theory, pass through each subsequent checkpoint at one minute intervals; but of course this never happens.
Cars arriving for scrutineering and a final check over. Vehicles lined up fro the next Brightwells auction can be seen in the background.
As you can see, there are not highly polished trailer queens. They are all in very much 'used and enjoyed' condition.
My first checkpoint was in a gateway in a narrow lane, a few fields away from the the south-western end of the Long Mynd. The course-opening Land Rover comes through to synchronise timers and then we are ready for the first competitors. The 10:30 PM silence of a Shropshire country lane is awoken by the sound of a hard-driven vintage car approaching, then we see yellowish glow of vintage headlamps and the first car, a Riley 14/6, arrives. I sign his sheet and, with that lovely six-cylinder Riley sound, he is off into the night, just as a Frazer-Nash BMW approaches. This continues for the next hour or so, some cars not arriving, some in the wrong order and two arriving late, just after the course-closing Land Rover has passed through to close the Time Check. This has been a good TC to operate, with decent weather and a good view of the cars as they climb the steep road up the Long Mynd, towards the glider club. Some made the climb fairly well, others struggled and someone seemed to stop for a while near the top. It turned out his car had boiled dry, but a following car was carrying some spare water which got him on his way.
We load up the car and, advising a couple of late-comers to cut short and try to reach some TCs before they all close, we then make pour way to the next TC, in deepest Herefordshire. This is something of a navigational trial in itself and leads us to a muddy gateway near Lucton. By this time the rain has started, but soon the string of cars appears framed, as always, by the two Land Rovers. The sound of vintage engines and straight-cut gears momentarily shatters the rural Herefordshire silence before it is time for us to set up at our final TC, somewhere south west of Leominster. By this time the filed of cars seems to have depleted somewhat, with rumours of a steering link having let go and a broken brake rod, but we count them all in and out, closing our TC just as the first signs of dawn appear in the east. Time to head back to Rally HQ for a full English and a sharing of tales of missed TCs, navigational errors, cold, rain and fog, but most of all of complete and utter enjoyment.
Having well and truly caught the Measham bug, I return home for some much needed sleep, already firmly having inked-in next year's event to my diary.
