Report

This was the eighth and final Navigation Run of the 2023-2024 winter series. The club records it’s sincere thanks to Sion Matthews and his support ream of Lee Matthews, Endaf Davies, Winnie Cheng and Dafydd Edwards (sometimes!).

Many thanks to Lee Matthews for this report on the Easter Bunny Navigation Run.

Sion had planned a much easier event for the final round of his Winter Series, but he let his dad put the symbols out, so maybe not so simple after all.
Sion, Dafydd, Winnie and Endaf signed the twelve crews on at David Hughes Sports Centre. In exchange for the £10 entry fee, they were given a route card which included map references to define four short sections, and Tulip Diagrams for the longer four, covering about 30 miles up the northern centre of the Anglesey.
The first symbols were found in the short Section 1 which started at the Tafarn Y Rhos Inn, Rhostrehwfa and ended on the Bodffordd B-road. No problems here and everyone found all 5 symbols, which were the usual easy-to-see cut-down numberplate digits (code boards) on short stakes placed in the verges or leaning against walls or posts.

Section 2 was three of the “whites” that used to be the old B-road to Llanerchymedd before they straightened it out. The one on the left around the church had the first sneaky symbol, a “5” placed slightly behind a refuse bin that had been put out for collection.
Section 3 started at the Clorach hairpin left slot at Hebron, but the first ‘dud’ placed 100 metres before the slot in the “neutral section” was recorded by a few, including top seeds Dion and Cory in the Transit meaning points deducted. Also in this section, crews got caught out by the notorious NAM (Not As Map) Triangle near Llandyfrydog. The triangle was not mentioned in the route instruction so the shortest route should have been used, but crews got tempted by the obvious codeboard on the long-way-around, thus not recording the correct one, which was half-hidden, but also recorded the ‘dud’ with points deducted. Oops! The section ended on the B-road by the tennis courts, then neutral to the back of Rhosybol.
Section 4 was defined by Tulips and some crews wrong plotted the staggered crossroads in Four Crosses, not realising that there were two junctions close together, not one. This caused at least one crew to head south to Llyn Alaw, catching me putting up the last symbol. I think they realised their error then, as they knew I run about an hour ahead. The correct section route ended by the school in Amlwch, although the final symbol was just after the end point, the ‘dud’ recorded by a few.

Section 5 took crews through the centre side-streets of Amlwch, where the symbol placed outside a take-away was the only one to go walk-about. This section also included the old road, now a “white” layby, exiting Amlwch to Burwen, the two symbols there being the only ones missed by Iwan & Dom. They also saw and recorded two ‘duds’, otherwise they would have won the event. The Burwen slot left onto the yellow was perhaps the trickiest bit of the night, with reports from most crews of going down a dead-end to someone’s house. Even I couldn’t find the slot at the first attempt and had to retrace my steps. It turns out that the notoriously difficult to find narrow slot had a van parked right up to it, so we couldn’t see the slot from our direction as it was literally a matter of turning around the back of the parked van. Once found, this road was waterlogged and a number of muddy fords were negotiated before reaching the A5025. Here two of the lay-bys were used, the first had four symbols, the second three. Both lay-bys had a sneaky symbol which I hoped would sort any tie-deciders, as the rest of the symbols were placed very easy to see if you went the correct way. It worked, as the favourites for the win, both Dion/Cory and Kay/Duncan missed these.
Section 6, also defined by Tulips, started at “Little Scotland”, nicknamed probably as it is the most northerly road on Anglesey, then headed south through Carreglefn to the finish at The Ring Free House in Rhosgoch for drinks, chat and results.

Results were close as expected, and the furthest cleanest tie-decider was needed for six crews. But the surprise winners were a crew that have done all of Sion’s Nav Runs, where they started off struggling to get in the top 10, then got better and better results on each event. Well done Yvonne Matthews driving the green Micra K11, with John Evans eventually finding the right pair of glasses to read the map. They only missed one of the 74 correct symbols, that bin-hidden “5” early on. Congratulations.
Dion & Cory were runners up, using the furthest cleanest tie-decider when they saw that 5’, which 3^rd placed crew Kay & Duncan in the Skoda did not.
Lee Threadgold and Sion were classified as 4^th as a result of equal-scored Iwan & Dom getting too tempted by that ‘dud’ long-way round easy symbol on a NAM that was not listed. Lee & Sion’s first missed symbol being an ‘8’ white reflective symbol placed in front of a white reflective marker post in Parc.
Sixth to eighth were a point apart, then newcomers Alan/Cain and Merfyn/Iwan tied on 64 points, Merfyn/Iwan losing out when they missed one in Llanerchymedd.

This was a very good beginner friendly event, yet also managed to sort out the regular top guns, and an added bonus of new winners who received, what else, … Easter Eggs awards.
Thanks to David Hughes Sports Centre and The Ring Free House for use of their facilities, Sion, Dafydd, Winnie and Endaf for running the events, and to all the club members who participated over the Winter Series Navigation Runs.

RESULTS
Maximum possible score = 74.

1. Yvonne Matthews / John Evans, Nissan Micra – 73 points
2. Dion Rowlands / Cory Thomas; Transit Custom – 72.1
3. Kay Littler / Duncan Littler; Skoda – 71
4. Lee Threadgold / Sion Jones; Peugeot RCZ – 70.1
5. Iwan Evans / Dominic McCormack; Ford Focus – 70
6. Jill Clarke / Paul Clarke; Nissan Qashqai – 69
7. Kyle Jones / Jacob Bolton; Ford Fiesta – 68
8. Jamie Williams / Dominic Stephenson; Vauxhall Astra – 67
9. Alan Jones / Cian Jones; Vauxhall Astra – 64.1
10. Merfyn Williams / Iwan Jones; Ford Focus – 64
11. Geraint Jones / Cameron Hazelgrove; Suzuki Swift – 50
12. Adam Burton / Mali G; Ford Fiesta – 28.5

Information

Navigation Runs are ideal for learning to plot a route and read a map, and provide good practice for anyone aspiring to compete in a road rally anytime soon.
This will be the final Navigation Run of the current season, organised by Sion & Lee Matthews and team.

The start venue is the David Hughes Leisure Centre, Menai Bridge, LL59 5SS, at the rear of Ysgol David Hughes - Ordnance Survey map 114, reference 547 723. what3words location ///airbase.prayers.germinate.
Finish will be at The Ring, Rhosgoch.

You will require map 114 (Anglesey/Ynys Món) plus the usual navigation aids of poti, romer, pen/pencil, etc. Sign on from 19.00 hours; route handouts from 19.00 hours.

Drivers and navigators need a valid club membership. Renew or join at Membership Application

Drivers and navigators also require a Motorsport UK competition licence of minimum grade RS Clubman. The RS Clubman licence is available free of charge at RS Clubman licence application