salford university
motor club

PLEASE NOTE - This page is archived. I am no longer a member of SUMC, as I left university back in 1999. I have no idea if the club is still running, and I am not the person to email about SUMC. If you want to find SUMC, you will need to contact the Salford University Student Union.


1998-99 SEASON

9/10/98 - Salford Freshers Scatter
Salford University Motor Club
Despite this being my first ever scatter, and despite being paired with Vicky (the clubs all round mad/dangerous driver) with his 1 litre Metro, we won! This was remarkable considering we were up against Paul's Civic GT (with Gareth navving), a Golf GTI from Nottingham and Bod in his 2.3 Saab (navved by Nash). Also competing were Stuart and Scally in a Micra, and Mark and Warren in Mark's Rover. My prize? Well, it was inevitable really...
Obvious Prize

24/10/98 - Salford Karting
Salford University Motor Club
This was the first round of the Karting championship. Seven teams of three raced for two hours (2 stints of 20 minutes each) and the result was based upon the number of laps completed. I was one third of team 3, along with Gareth and his other half Victoria. What did we prove? That we are totally and utterly crap! Admittedly Gareth and Victoria had never been in a kart before, and I had never been racing. We weren't 7th all the time - we were briefly 6th after my first stint - but it didn't last. I managed to crash through the tyres seperating different parts of the track on my second stint, and as a result I was black flagged ... which my teammates didn't realise and waved me on ... all a bit of a misunderstanding. Vicky (Metro driver as opposed to Gareth's opposite) got black flagged as well - but for dangerous driving - he proved how dangerous he can be!

28/10/98 - Rec Night #1
Salford University Student Union
We had a good turnout, with most of us dressed up as doctors. There were a group of nurses present as well (from Rag Soc) so naturally we just had to take their temperatures...

30/10/98 - Peak Performance Scatter
University Of Nottingham Motorsport Club
For this scatter I was paired with Adrian in his rather sorted (and loud green) Polo. It was a freezing cold night, not quite icy, but the roads were wet. Also attending from Salford were Chris in his XR2 with Nick navigating, Mark and Warren in the Rover, and Bod in his Saab ... curiously devoid of navigator. He decided to go ahead and do the scatter anyhow, which you can bet he regrets now! It was about 30mins from the end of the scatter, and Adrian and I were returning to the start point. Coming along the B road into Monyash I called out two corners, a 90 right followed by a 90 left. We turned the 90 right, and there was Bod's Saab on it's roof. This obviously being the end of the scatter for us, we stayed to help. Bod was unhurt - in fact his only injury was a bit of glass in his finger when he went back into the car on the recovery truck to get his stuff - but the car was in pain. Having not had the corner called, Bod had approached too fast, braked late, gone up the grass bank, demolished the stone wall and broke a telegraph pole in two! If it wasn't for that telegraph pole, he might have just gone through the wall - Bod said it rolled over slowly enough for him to realise what was happening. The photo's aren't anything special, but you get the idea.

To rub it in...
The Scene
The green car is Adrian's Polo.
The sign says

MONYASH
Please Drive with
special care
(800 x 522/45k)
(800 x 331/22.5k)
Crunch
Ouch!
I was told that Bod doesn't get
the choice as to whether these
photos are seen by the world...
(800 x 553/59k)
(800 x 462/49k)
See Bod's site for a few more photos...

1/12/98 - Leeds Christmas Scatter
Leeds University Union Motor Club
Again I was navving for Adrian. There were three other crews from Salford, Chris in his XR2, Mark in his Rover, and Ian in his Astra attempting his first scatter. It all started well enough, plotting went OK, and we were among the first crews away. But we seemed to be missing clues. For instance, we stopped at a cattle grid on a straight piece of road, and the clue asked "How many concrete posts on the inside of the bend?"! About halfway round we met up with one of the Leeds crews - and found the explaination. The clue numbers were all wrong! The organisers realised this only once everyone had left - and only having the mobile number of their own crew, could only inform that one crew. There were some very red faces in the finish pub, and a very confused Ian and Lee were very relieved to find they hadn't made a total mess of it when they eventually arrived!

4/12/98 - Trafford Centre Social
Salford University Motor Club
A reasonable turnout saw us messing around on the games machines at the Trafford centre. I remember leading a 4 way Sega Rally for a few laps, but not actually winning anything... Afterwards we went and saw Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

12/12/98 - Salford Christmas Social
Salford University Motor Club
What can we say? A load of us went out, had a meal, got drunk, and went and saw a film (Rush Hour). Ian showed us all yet again how well he can put the beers away...

18/2/99 - Rec Night #2
Salford University Student Union
Compared to Rec Night #1, this was something of a damp squib. Only Paul, Ian and I turned up, and only Ian was in fancy dress - wax jacket/flat cap to follow the horse racing theme (supposedly his Grandad's but we don't believe him). As for the actual races - we blew our initial 4 grand without winning once, whereas the tennis club ended up with £31,000.

22/2/99 - Table Top Scatter
Salford University Motor Club
In this event everybody got to practice plotting as in a scatter - except it was done in the warm! Participants were Nick, Gareth, Chris, Bod, John, Paul, and myself. Bod showed he can read a map by getting a perfect score (now all he needs to do is learn how to while driving!). Second place went to yours truly who (help - my head won't fit in this room) lost only 30 points and produced some scorching plot times!

24/2/99 - Early Spring Scatter
Lindholme Motor Sports Club
This was attended by John and Warren in a pug, Adrian and myself as usual, plus Nick in his mini with Piers from Nottingham as nav, and also two more student crews from Nottingham. This was a new experience for many of us, being largely set in an urban area, and having differently point weighted clues. Despite this Adrian and I came sixth (out of 11 crews). Nick and Piers came third, while John and Warren came second, and the event was won by Malcolm and Ian (Lindholme members) in a Mondeo. The other student crews from Nottingham came fourth and eighth.

24/3/99 - Marching On Scatter
Lindholme Motor Sports Club
Again I navved for Adrian on this one. Gareth navved for Mark in his Rover, and John turned up again with Nick as nav. Again, urban areas featured quite strongly in this scatter - but my intention to spend more time plotting (after the multiple foul-ups in the last LMSC scatter) was justified at the end of the event ... as we won! This was highly surprising given my off map attempted short cut ended up wasting 20 minutes! We didn't even get to be there when the results were announced, as Adrian and I went to KFC in order to get some food in, and only realised we had won due to the applause when we finally got to the finish pub (after a phone call "requesting our presence"). Thanks to everyone at Lindholme, and we enjoyed the wine!

30/4/99 and 1/5/99 - Presidents May Day Madness Scatter
Northern Universities Motor Club
As it is Adrian who is the NUMC president (and thus was organising), I navved for John this time around. There was a reasonable turnout of 8 crews including Ian and Lee from Salford, and Nick drove for Piers from Nottingham again. This scatter was of an unfamiliar format in that instead of running for two hours and starting around 10ish, it ran for over three hours and started at midnight! Adrian promised a challenge, and some of the clues proved very hard to plot - most crews used the majority of the plot time, and we failed to plot two clues. Once we set off, the usual navigational errors appeared - but also something else that was less helpful - I began to feel ill! It seems that maybe I took the sickness tablets too early, and that I am not used to Johns car (or maybe I am used to Adrians?). Anyway, I recovered enough to finish the scatter without throwing up, and at the conclusion of it all we found that we had come in second behind Nick and Piers! Not bad at all for a diesel!

The photos below were taken on the night at Knutsford services, before the start of the event.

(800 x 600/67k)
(800 x 600/87k)
(800 x 600/56k)
(800 x 501/39k)
(800 x 600/40k)
(800 x 600/58k)

7/5/99 - University Colours Meal
Salford University
This meal is that at which the University Colours, awarded to those final year students in the University societies who have achieved or organised something, are handed out. Paul and I attended (dressed to the nines); Paul got full recreational and athletic colours, I got half athletic, and Warren got full athletic (although he wasn't there to receive his exciting tie and certificate). Women's rugby provided the unofficial entertainment, laughing maybe a little too much at some of the jokes!

17/5/99 - Salford End of Year Meal
Salford University Motor Club
Well, what can we say? After been rescheduled once, the chef at the planned venue quit on the very day we were supposed be eating! Lee (the total star) got us all booked in at the nearby Beefeater at minimal notice. We were supposed to be presenting the trophies at this get-together, but not many of us turned up, we didn't have the full results, and the trophies weren't engraved anyway! After the food a few of us decided to go to the cinema, forgetting of course that there is no late show on a Monday!

5/6/99 - Salford End of Year Karting
Salford University Motor Club
A good turnout ensured good fun was had by all... blah blah ... there's no use hiding it, it was so long ago that I've forgotted what happened. Well almost - Piers from Nottingham used his semi-pro karting skills to eclipse everyone else, ensuring that the team from Nottingham came very much first. I was paired with Mark and Ian, and we did fairly well, coming second overall. (It was a crap kart last time, I tell you. A crap kart...!) More importantly however, Paul presented the years trophies and certificates at the end of the event. And whaddya know? I got top Nav!

1998/99 SUMC Championship Results
Championship
Overall
Drivers


Navigators


Specials


Freshers
Position
1st
1st
2nd
3rd
1st
2nd
3rd
1st
2nd
3rd
1st
Name
Nick Kilvert
Chris Claxton
Adrian Abbott
John Roberts
Andrew Marchant
Nick Kilvert
Warren Cardwell
Paul Dodd
Adrian Abbott
Nick Kilvert
Gareth Houghton
And of course, the unofficial "Best Stack" award went to Bod, for that pictured above. The trophy? A load of bits of Saab glued together!


At the end of the season, all that is missing is the NUMC meal and RC event, which was guaranteed not to go ahead after I carefully planned a caravaning trip to coincide with it!


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