Hello Hunters,
A good turnout of hunters braved the cold and damp to break their transmitter hunting 'fast'.
G4TSN was the fox, and the expectation was that he would have found some 'fox covert' in the wilds of unexplored north Notts. As we waited for the first transmission, dark clouds began to gather ever so slowly from the west!
19:30 and the 'fox' was 'on-the-air'. A resounding signal and a good bearing in the direction of Southwell was scribed on the map. Great......... let's GO!
We are first out of the car park with others hot on our tail. We get a good run along Mapperly top and make our way for Dorket Head.
19:35 we are at Arnold Lodge corner, bearings still great and indicating Southwell again.
I decide not to follow the obvious and drop down into Woodborough as we will lose the signal and get slowed down by all the yellow roads.
So its "as fast as you dare" to the A614!
19:45. We have made good time, all the lights have been with us and we are zooming along the B6386 towards Oxton.
19:50 We are negotiating the 'dogs leg' around Oxton and I want us to be out of the built up area before the transmission ends.
Great just made it... another good set of bearings just skimming the southern edge of Southwell, hmmm maybe the fox is beyond?
19:54 and as we approach the town we see Martin and Phil in the rear-view mirror.
Decision time, do we wait outside the built up area and get a good bearing (yet let them pass), or risk RF disruption in the thick of it.
We wait.....
19:55 and the bearing is definitely south of Southwell and more like Upton or Staythorpe.
As we drive along, I frantically try to assess which track the fox might be down.
No sign of Martin and Phil, have they come the same way...are they already down one of these tracks?
My bearings pass within spitting distance of Upton mill, a second track at the east end of Upton and a superb track in Staythorpe.
The Staythorpe hiding place would require us to exit the hunt area and re-enter it...very sneaky but would the fox have though of this?
20:00 we decide to go for it, as we approach Upton the bearings are dead ahead.
If the fox was down the Mill lane or the following track I would expect them to be changing to the right.
20:10 we have found the track in Staythorpe....
The car runs aground and so I leave John to extricate it and I run on ahead...it's deserted!
As I trudge back through the sludge, John is getting an ear-bending by a local for driving down an (unmarked) private track. To cap it all the bearing now suggests we have passed the fox and the second Upton track is the most likely suspect.
20:15, Martin and Phil must have found the fox by now, here's the track "hard left!"
Did someone say 'unsuitable for motors' we are in serious risk of losing the exhaust
Well my shoes are soaking already ...so out I get.
20:20 Job done....second place....not bad considering all the messing about we did.
Oh-ho just in time too as Tim and then Adrian & Simon come slithering down the track.
We decamped to the pub and had our first post-mortem. I had a suspicion that we have a slight 'squint' on the DF system, better check that out before next time.
Sadly the weather spoilt it for the later runners as the heavens opened and turned the track into a quagmire.
Future foxes please note!!!
I hope I can say that the evening was a reasonable success given the WX?
Thanks to Jon and team who doggedly braved the conditions to successfully open our season.
G7WFM is fox for the next hunt.
Tim is reserve.
Happy hunting....Dave
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