Tour de Trigs 2013


The Victorious Team Alfini

Nick Vanson writes:

Well, this year's Tour de Trigs certainly lived up to its reputation as the toughest non-stop cross country navigation exercise in and around North Oxfordshire, South Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. A team made up of three LDWA Thames Valley folk entering under the team name of Alfini (not named and sponsored by the local Italian pasta & pizza restaurant) consisting of Alan, Fiona and Nick (now work the name out!) returned just after 9am on Sunday morning triumphant in the knowledge they had completed at least 50 miles within the strict rules and 24 hour time limit. And to put the cream on the cake, team Alfini from Thames Valley came away with the Over the Hill Trophy, presented by none other than the Mayor of Banbury!

The permitted 30 minutes for plotting the route was insufficient so the tactical decision to plot the entire route before we actually started walking, albeit losing about an hour's daylight, paid off handsomely as our strong and consistent pace throughout meant we overtook many earlier starters and spent time at checkpoints replenishing food and drink and not worrying about plotting next steps.

Fortunately, weather conditions were favourable, mainly cold and dryish throughout, with many of the ploughed fields relatively dry. At least we didn't end with an additional 5lbs of mud on each boot! Almost two-thirds of the walk was completed in darkness making accurate navigation skills a must. It would be fair to say that our navigations skills were tested to the limit and beyond with key lessons learned on the move. Yes, probably an extra mile or two was added. No one will ever complain about written LDWA route descriptions ever again!

There were some 40 senior teams starting with just 21 finishing, the winning team coming home in 16h32' and team Alfini finishing in 22h48'. I have to say it was a great effort by all three of us, and I think we all enjoyed it with thoughts now about returning in 2014 to defend that hard-won trophy.

We all thought that it was an extremely well-run event and while having very strict rules on kit and conduct during the event, these were firm and fair and the marshals at the many checkpoints were very helpful, friendly and even encouraging. We would certainly hope that our experience might persuade a few others to have a go next year. Maybe Thames Valley group will have a couple of teams entered for 2014 although anyone else will have a battle on their hands if they wish to get the Over the Hill Trophy from team Alfini!

Nick Vanson.

Chairman Martin Burnell adds: A mighty big "WELL DONE!" to Alan Warrington, Fiona Cameron and Nick Vanson. Now, how about another team (or even two more) next year?