1/10/99 - Salford Freshers Scatter
Salford University Motor Club
This was the first event of the new season, and it was wet. This was also my first ever drive. I teamed up with Phil as my nav, and the other crews were Paul in his Civic with Katie as nav, Rachel in her Peugeot 106 with Gareth navving, Nick navving for Chris in his XR2, and two other crews, one in a Metro and one in a Polo (sorry, I didn't get your names guys!). Paul, Gareth, Nick, Chris and myself were the only non-freshers, and the event was organised by Adrian. What can I say? If it were not for the combination of nearly foot deep water splashes and Fiat engineering, we would have done better. The first such water splash saw water coming through the panel gaps at the sides of my bonnet. That reduced us to three cylinders, and the second one we hit to one... We decided to stop and dry out, thus finding that my inlet manifold design allows 2cm of water to collect around the spark plugs... In the end we came fourth; Nick and Chris won, Paul and Katie came second, Gareth and Rachel third, and the guys in the Polo and Metro fifth and sixth.

10/10/99 - Salford Karting
Salford University Motor Club
The first Karting event of the season and the last ever visit to the soon-to-close Oldham track saw some clean and close racing, with no black flags! Adrian and myself opted to drive as a team of two, with another team of two and three teams of three from Salford (plus another three teams not from the uni) as the competition. At the end of the race Salford held first to fourth and sixth positions, myself and Adrian holding fourth (despite a puncture three laps from the finish), and the guys in the other team of two eventually winning it. Yet again I haven't got everybody's names, sorry!

15/10/99 - NUMC "Easy Peasy" Freshers Scatter
Northern Universities Motor Club
The first NUMC scatter of the year saw the previously unheard of turnout of 14 crews. Again Phil navved for me, and with no rain our chances were much better! Other crews from Salford included Chris in his XR2, Nick in his Jag, Paul in his Civic, Lee and Ian in the Orion, and again the guys in the Polo and the guys with the Metro (which failed to finish due to a broken exhaust). Shockingly, we came fourth overall, second crew from Salford (Chris came second overall in his XR2). We even beat Nick's Jag! Not bad for a little one litre.

Official Results
1 Chris Steele Claire Champion 150* Notts 10
2 Damien Fox Tom Aykroyd 150* Notts 9
3 Chris Claxton Neil Gaskell 150* Salf 8
4 Andrew Marchant Philip Barton 140* Salf 7
5 Brendan Morris Simon Hill 140* Lough 6
6 Tim Male Jim Payne 130 Lough 5
7 Paul Dodd Matthew Preece 120 Salf 4
8 Kris Sutherns Andrew Steele 110* Lough 3
9 Mark Davies Rich Gooder 110* Notts 2
10 James Chollerton Martin Bentley 100 Notts 1
11 Nick Kilvert Anthony Cunningham 90 Salf 1
12 Lee White Ian Wray 85 Salf 1
13 Joe Morton Chris Timms 80 Salf 1
14 Chris Germain David Germain DNF Salf 1
* Plot time denotes position

10/11/99 - Drohans' Scatter
Lindholme Motor Sports Club
Again a big turnout, with many familiar faces competing. As usual, the Salford contingent were late, and as such were the last crews to arrive back at the conclusion of the event. Salford crews included Paul and Katie, John in his Pug, Rachel in her pug, the Escort guys (including Phil observing) and Adrian and myself in the Uno. Two crews (John and workmate plus Adrian and I) could have done quite well, both having amassed 32 points, but our penalties for being late back dropped us out of contention.
The Escort guys failed to finish ("handling problems"), but for a few mad miles disproved their statement of "that Uno doesn't half shift", as they had observed on the way to karting. My car ended up rather muddy, after following close behing them for a few clues, as can be seen here.

Official Results (University entries only)
5 Ollie Fairclough David Dargue 29 Notts 10
8 Pier Evershed James Chapman 13 Notts 9
9 John Roberts Matt Glastone 12 Salf 8
10 Andrew Marchant Adrian Abbott 12 Salf 7
12 Rachel Coe Matthew Preece 9 Salf 6
15 Chris Germain David Germain 3 Salf 5
16 Paul Dodd Katy Legg 1 Salf 4
17 Tom Aykroyd James Cholerton -2 Notts 3
20 Marcus Atkinson Mark Davies -73 Notts 2
Chris Timms Joe Morton (Retired) Salf 1

1/12/99 - "Red Bull" Loughborough NUMC Karting
Loughborough Kart Club
This event promised much but delivered little. The top karting teams from six universities (including Nottingham, Notts Trent, Loughborough, Salford, and Leeds) were to fight it out on an indoor track near Loughborough. Before the race started, we were impressed - well maintained karts, good organisation - but curiously no practice. We soon found out why - all the karts were limited to about 20mph! But even worse, they were limited by slightly different amounts - and guess which team got the worst kart - and then had it replaced by one even worse? Yes, we were being passed by everyone on the straights, and as most of the course (bar one hairpin) could be taken "full" out, everywhere else as well. Notts Trent had a poor kart too, and although not as bad as our two, they were still second from last at the end of the race. We tried to speak to the organiser, but he was having none of it, blaming "our driving". So explain how our loads-of-karting-trophies scrawny 8 stone ginger bloke had the same lap times as fat biffa me then? Sorry guys from Loughborough - it wasn't your fault, but maybe you should have checked the karts out first. It has to have been the worst way I have ever spent £20. We left in disgust as soon as we could, not even staying for the presentation and results. To put it mildly, F1 Karting at Wymeswold near Loughborough is NOT recommended.
(In September 2001, nearly two years after our visit, F1 Karting at Wymeswold was taken over by new management. Mark Gardner, the new manager assures me the problems have been sorted out, and the track has many improvements, including a 150 foot bridge with flyover! Take a look at the F1 Karting website.)

9/12/99 - Salford Christmas Meal
Salford University Motor Club
This was a good night out with a good turnout. The restaurant was very well chosen, but that cannot be said for the pub we chose to spend some time in... Fresher very nearly pulled a bloke with a 'tache and string vest! Also Katy seemed to do quite well earlier in the night at Yates' with a couple of firemen... And what Rachel's flatmate must have made of her bringing a big group of blokes back at midnight I cannot think - then again, maybe he's used to her doing that all the time?

23/2/00 - 02/2000 Scatter
Lindholme Motor Sports Club
Not exactly a gigantic turnout, but Chris and Claire from Nottingham, Joe and Chris (?) in the Polo and Adrian and myself in his Escort from Salford made it enough to be a NUMC round. Adrian was a bit late arriving, which got us off on the wrong foot, and with me making several severe navigational cockups within the first half hour, and Adrian kerbing his alloys, we knew it was not our day. In the end we came 7th out of nine crews, Chris and Claire beating us to 6th. The Polo guys had worse luck however, loosing all their oil over the car park and not going anywhere!

29/3/00 - Drurys' Scatter
Lindholme Motor Sports Club
Another Lindholme scatter saw two student crews, both from Salford - Joe as nav for John in his Peugeot, and Adrian navving for myself in my Uno. For a change I was the last to arrive (but still well on time), and plotting went without too many problems. Few navigational errors occured, but a late spotted 90 right resulted in a sideways lock up... We managed to stay on the road, and once back we found that out of the 12 entries, Adrian and I were 7th or 8th, and John and Joe 11th.

3/5/00 - Drohans' Scatter
Lindholme Motor Sports Club
Adrian and I constituted the only university crew taking part. This was a very different scatter, involving a lot of motorway driving, hence the ability of the car became quite important! We just about managed 90 at one point, and some of the guys claimed ton-thirty... Our one hairy moment involved an uphill B road to A road junction, lacking in any roadsigns, that now has four long black marks! In the end we came fifth out of eight crews, and our score equaled my cars new found top speed!

5/5/00 - Aurora Borealis Scatter
Salford University Motor Club
Five crews turned up for this event - the big 5 hour one - four from Salford and one from Nottingham. Adrian and Nick were organising, and I navved for John in his Peugeot. Chris and Neil turned up in the XR2, Joe (formerly of Polo fame) and Chris in a Golf, Chris and Phil in the Metro, and Chris Steele in a Fiat Tipo. Plotting went well, and my efforts in properly preparing the map paid off giving us a plot time about 10 minutes quicker than anyone else! We were off first, starting just after midnight - but found the mist on top of the moors reduced visibilty greatly, such that the guys in the Tipo soon caught us. The clues didn't start well, both ourselves and the Tipo guys failing to find clue 9 (there was no red gate to be seen) and at clue 15, we found there was no question! We reached the halfway point first, just before 1.30, and so lost a few minutes. After setting off again things improved, and we started getting to clues and getting answers with few problems, other than feeling very tired and having to avoid the wildlife (a couple of deer, hundreds of rabbits, a few cats, humping hedgehogs, phesants, a hare, and a badger). It became clear as it started to get light and we headed for the final clues that we would be late back, and in the end (at about 5.30am) we were, being 8 minutes over and thus loosing 40 points. We had visited 23 clues and got them all right however, giving us 190 points. Also on 190 were Chris and Neil in the XR2, and the Tipo guys were on 180... Both the other crews had retired (the Metro only 15 minutes after the start, again loosing its exhaust) so with the help of our stunning plot time, we won!

10/5/00 - End Of Year Meal
Salford University Motor Club
I couldn't make this purely social event, but it was here that the end of year awards were handed out. The list I was given doesn't differentiate between Navigators and Drivers, plus the club voted that all the non-students didn't get given awards...

1999/00 SUMC Championship Results

Championship Overall Freshers Ladies

Position (Non Student) (Non Student) 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd

Points 75 72 38 37 34 37 26 26 16 15

Name Adrian Abbott Andrew Marchant Paul Dodd Joe Morton Ian Wray Joe Morton Chris Timms Matthew Preece Rachel Coe Kate Legg