National Rally; July 2005
The Army Serves Breakfast
The 2004 National rally was my 6th National rally on the trot and my feeling after finishing it was that I wouldn't be doing another too soon. I was wrong as my wife, Chris and I did do the 2005 National rally.
Our plan for 2005 was just to do the 2005 Welsh National rally and go touring in France. We did the Welsh National rally but we had a change of heart about touring in France. Instead of touring France, for various domestic reasons we're now planning to tour Scotland at the end of August / beginning of September 2005. I have always wanted to go back to Scotland after doing the 2003 Scottish National rally and Chris being half Scottish will get to meet her Scottish kin, most of whom live around Wick in Caithness. As our planned dates for going to Scotland coincided with the Scottish National rally we thought we might as well enter for the touring award. Now we're thinking we've done the Welsh and we're planning to do the Scottish, we might as well do the National and get Three Nations awards for doing all three domestic rallies in one year. I broke my collar bone in 2003 and missed doing the Welsh that year. (I did do all three in a year but not a calendar year, i.e July 2003 - National, September 2003 - Scottish and May 2004 - Welsh).
The 2005 National ran from 2pm Saturday 2nd July through to 10am Sunday 3rd July. As our reason for doing the National was to get a Three Nations award we planned to turn the National into a Saturday afternoon / evening ride around the southern outer zone. Start at 2pm at the closest control, ride around the outer zone doing 200 miles and finish at a control as near as possible to home before midnight to allow us to sleep in our own bed and pick up a couple of Merit awards. Chris hadn't done the National before so I didn't think it was fair to go through the night and to be honest after doing it a dozen times I wasn't keen on going through the night. This was our plan.
Now our mate Dave who did get a Three Nations award in 2003 was indulging in his usual sport of winding me up by telling me that he didn't think a Merit award qualified for a Three Nations award. Guess what? Even though he didn't know it he was right. I couldn't find anything in the rules to say that you needed more than a Merit award. However, on checking the Three Nations application form I was given when I finished the 2003 Scottish rally it did say that the minimum award was a Finishers award. Dave's wind-up saved the day. Can you imagine doing the Welsh, National and Scottish rallies to find out at the end of the last one, the Scottish, that you don't qualify because nobody bothered to mention that only certain awards count for a Three Nations award?
So knowing that we had to end up at the finish control at Rugby on Sunday morning we devised plan B. We wouldn't be sleeping in our bed Saturday night but we were still intent on sleeping in a proper bed Saturday night and not going through the night. We decided to go for a Bronze award which means doing a minimum of 300 miles starting at the outer zone and finishing at Rugby in the inner zone on Sunday morning. We planned to do around 225 miles on Saturday afternoon, sleep at a hotel or B&B Saturday night and get up early in the morning to ride the remaining 75 miles to Rugby. (It turned out to be a blessing that we hadn't planned to go through the night as one of our kids arranged for us to get 2 hours sleep Friday night.)
We started at Romsey and the ride from Romsey to Alton and Basingstoke was quite enjoyable. Live 8 was on that afternoon and the sparsity of traffic on otherwise busy roads made all the difference. Basingstoke to Newbury, Andover and Amesbury was uninpsiring via the A34 and A303. (We hadn't planned to use the A34 but took a wrong turning.) Amesbury to Shaftesbury along well known roads was enjoyable. Getting to Glastonbury was OK. However, after discussing it with several fellow riders we are sure that the Glastonbury checkpoint was in the wrong place. It turned out that it was in Glastonbury and not 4 miles west of Glastonbury as the instructions had said. There was also no sign whatsoever of a Little Chef. With the Glastonbury Tor in sight we frustratingly meandered too and fro on torturous Somerset roads trying to find the control. We lost a lot of time there. There's something about Somerset?
After Glastonbury we had a good ride to Melksham and the Waney Edge cafe where we took our rest stop. Faggots, chips and peas for me. After a good rest we pushed on to Chipping Sodbury taking the back roads past Castle Combe. (The Bristol & Avon Roadrunners MCC were very welcoming and we should have put a vote in for them as best control.) After Chipping Sodbury, we rode up the A46 to Stroud and to the the Premier Travel Inn at Little Witcombe where we had pre-booked to stay the night. It was a nice ride and we arrived around 10.30pm. Given the previous night's sleep deprevation, we soon were fast asleep.
We got up at 6am Sunday morning, had a coffee and a cereal bar and were on our way. We checked in at Andoversford which was only a few miles from the Inn and rode to Stratford via Stow and Moreton. The weather was a bit damp to start with but the sun soon came out. After Stratford it was on to the final control at Rugby via the Fosse Way. It made for a really nice Sunday morning ride.
The sun was shining when we arrived at Rugby around 8.30 pm. We had done our 300 designated miles so we went and picked up our awards. Because we had slept in a bed Saturday night we were feeling good and this felt a bit unusual to me. Remembering what I usually feel like, I felt sorry for those who had gone through the night. The Army was serving breakfast so that couldn't be refused. (My Yorkshire Dad gave me a liking for black pudding.) As we were leaving people were revving up for the Sheene rally which ran immediately after the National finished from the same place. Based on previous overnighters, it's hard for me to believe that running the Sheene rally immediately after the National is a good idea. Is that what people who want to do a rally like the National really want? We didn't stay for the Sheene rally but a friend who did said it was very good.
In lovely sunshine we rode back the way we had come, via the Fosse way and the A429 through Moreton and Stow. We stopped off at Bourton-on-the-Water for a coffee break. From there we rode home via Warminster and Shaftesbury.
We are very appreciative of the work that goes into organising the National and of all those people who give up their time to man the controls. They all do a great job. We also enjoyed the majority of our ride. However, it was apparent by the numbers that entered this year that the National struggled. The organisers have tinkered over the last few years with the National's formula but I would suggest that it's time for a radical overhaul. The Welsh rally would seem to point the way. Their move to a daytime only rally seemed to work very well. Certainly, I for one am not keen to go through the night anymore. Maybe it's my age but after doing it several times I really can't see the point of doing it.