15/08/2022
HarpersHunt 2022 HEAT 2 Review 🏁
WHAT A SCORCHER! 🌞
In preparation for Sunday’s HEAT (as opposed to Sunday’s heat...🥵) I took the van with the Start Arch to our Top Secret meeting location (FF) on Saturday evening, so that I could bring Baby (my MGF) as Chase Car on Sunday. 🏎
Andrea drove me back home, only for me to realise just before I went to bed that I had misplaced the MGF keys. But not to worry, I have a spare set... 😇
On Sunday morning I rose none too bright and far too early, took the cover off the MG and realised the spare keys do not have either of the two spare keys for the Diskok steering wheel clamp attached to the car. The Disklok was a relatively recent purchase and I’m usually highly methodical in such matters, but I checked ALL the bunches of keys and the spares have simply vanished into thin air. 😐
So Baby remained at home and we drove to the Start in Andrea’s Montecarlo (Skoda Citigo not Lancia Beta) which I recommend to anyone as a fun little drive. It’s tiny three cylinder engine makes a satisfyingly sporty growl when revved, it rides and corners well and is comfortable unless you’re in the rear seat directly over the back “axle”, and it has enough power to entertain and enough room for all our Hunt junk apart from the arch. 🚙
Andrea wanted to return home to the cats after the Start, so the van was to serve as my Chase Car for this HEAT - first time I’d used it on this route. 🚚
Just before Lockdown, Santa brought me a Sony ActionCam which I’d asked him for as it’s the camera of choice of Harry (Harry’s Garage) Metcalfe. It spent the next two years in its box unopened as the Sony suction mount ordered at the same time failed to materialise and eventually we settled for a substitute that only arrived a day or two before HEAT 1, so I’m still getting to grips with it. I set it up on the tripod to act as back-up camera to my iPhone, the battery of which has suddenly deteriorated to the point where it only lasts 15 mins at best before needing recharging, to capture footage of the cars as they got underway. It would have been a good idea if I’d pressed the RECORD button as well as the Power one, but at least I twigged my error before every Team had departed and managed to get the last two or three as they were flagged away. 🎥
Andrea deduced that the main keys for the F must be in the van, and she was right. Along with the charging cable for the ActionCam, so the battery for that was flat too when we arrived at 08.00 to set up the Arch. 🤪
My excuse for leaving the keys in the van was the double distraction of clobbering one of the trees on the narrow entrance drive to FF with the nearside door mirror, resulting in both mirror glasses falling out and dangling by their wires, followed rapidly as I parked up, by being approached by a member of staff I’d never met previously who demanded to know who I was and my reason for being there. Nobody had told him. Communication Communication Communication... 🤨
We had a full 12 car turn-out which delighted me as it’s never guaranteed, and as you can see, there was a good variety of make and model of car. Team Allen were due to take part but contacted me on Friday evening to say the babysitter had Covid and they were trying but failing to get a replacement. They could come with the kids in their LandRover or come on HEAT 4 in the Exige. I bumped them to HEAT 4. I spent Friday night texting all previous Hunters to try and fill the vacant spot and was hugely relieved and delighted when Ethan Lam who had Hunted once before, a few years back, said he’d would love to come in his BMW 1 Series Coupe. 😃
Our host and beneficiary this year had postponed their biggest fundraiser event of the year, intended to happen between HEATS 1 and 2 due to the extreme heat on its intended day. They rather optimistically rescheduled it for this Sunday, and asked us to make other arrangements for the start and finish, suggesting a pub with a large car park down the Lane. I spoke with the landlord who had no idea he’d been volunteered but was happy to accommodate us. Then the rescheduled big event was postponed for the second time for the same reason, the temperature, so we were back to Plan A (almost...) 🤔
It was explained to me half way through setting up that FF were not expecting us to be there, that they understood we had been advised to use the pub, and that they were still expecting the majority of people (a car park full) to arrive any moment because they didn’t think the majority attending that event would know it had been cancelled. A two way system using the neighbouring driveway to the adjacent golf course had been set up and we were requested, as we were there after all, to exit through a gate they needed to find the keys for, so arriving traffic could use the drive into FF. 🧐
Those keys were found, the dividing gate was opened, signage was put in place to enforce the two-way working, and we flagged our Teams away at one minute intervals without event - until I received a phone call saying most of our cars were trapped on the golf course drive in a queue because the automated gates were closed and we hadn’t been told we’d need the key code to open them. 🤬
A queue was also forming in the Lane, golfers trying to get in who couldn’t because of our cars. Andrea dashed to the FF office in search of a solution while I jumped in the van, drove through the dividing gate, then reversed the quarter of a mile to the golf clubhouse to find someone to open the gates and solve the chaos. Like all jams, it cleared eventually. 🤗
This years route and clues are greatly reduced compared to previous years where I’d added ideas year on year to try to improve the event, but as they say, less is sometimes more. So I had less time to get to the halfway point / lunchtime pub, arriving only a few mins before the first Team in the Delta, despite taking a shortcut. 🙄
I “meeted and greeted” most but not all of the Teams as they arrived (it does get frantic and my apologies to anyone I didn’t get to chat to - though that may well have been a relief to some...) and everyone seemed happy enough. I’d not sought permission from the Landlord to use the pub as there were no other options, and he was delighted with the sudden influx of extra trade. We were not quite as obvious on HEAT 1 (eight Teams instead of twelve) and he’s now looking forward to HEATS 3 and 4 more than any of us! 🤑
With everyone refuelled we were away again and after tailing the Sprite for a mile I took another shortcut back to FF. I was not the first to get there. Andrea was back, but so was the Lancia. 😳
“They obviously haven’t answered all the questions or found all the clues” I concluded... 😐
As ever, things became increasingly “whirlwind” as Teams returned and I got stuck into checking their CHALLENGES photos, and again my apologies to anyone I failed to chat to at length. I’m acutely aware that I spend more time talking to some than others but I never intend it to be that way. I love you all equally 🥰
With all photos checked we moved on to marking the Questions, or more precisely, the Answers, and totalling up the scores. Our thanks and congratulations to everyone on the Shopping Challenge as you collectively spent a grand total of £190.20, which was up on the HEAT 1 spend of £179.69 - although there were ONLY eight Teams then 🥸
A rather nice vintage Riley arrived just after I returned, and parked right in / next to our spot. It’s the sort of car I’d love to have on the Hunt at some point as it would sort of tick the “Steeds vintage Bentley” box that I hope to attract one year. I didn’t get the chance to talk to them either, but while it’s muscular, tattooed driver and companion took what appeared to be a cat bed big enough for a horse into (I presume) to charity shop, I dropped a “Great Car” HarpersHunt calling card on the passenger seat where they couldn’t possibly miss it, in the hope they might join us. Historically, this has been the most productive way to recruit new Hunters, and at the very end of the day, after packing the sign away and all the other bits on the van, I was checking the car park thoroughly after everyone had gone home to make sure I hadn’t missed a dropped nut, bolt or washer. You can imagine my delight when I found my card lying in the grass, firmly and I imagine aggressively, crushed into a small ball. I don’t think the Riley will be joining us after all. 🤨
I had a far more encouraging encounter earlier in the afternoon with the three occupants of a 911 who arrived to meet several potential new members of their family. Dad, Mum and Daughter came to us and were all keen to learn more about The Hunt! Porsche owners are rapidly becoming our biggest supporters. 🥰
