12. The Treble after the Storm – This was a Treble Night event run for Mid-Thames by Chris Plummer only a fortnight after the Great Storm of 1988, that had left many woods in the South flattened. Chris only used one site in such a wood, but caused chaos at all of them.

  1. The start – yompers. Chris’s wife Ann acted as the Starter for the event and organised the teams at Frensham Great Pond Car park, Good signals were heard and they all set off, except Ann, who was going home to prepare the supper. Just as she was about to leave, a group of Squadies from a Army or TA group went past Yomping up the road towards Farnham. They obviously saw a sign in the heather relating to them, and pulled it out and kicked it off way away from the road( thinking this would hamper other groups of squadies) Moments after they had done this ill deed, a hand came out of the heather and replaced the sign. Obviously their Sergeant had been hidden there for hours but not seen by any DF’ers taking bearings and came as a shock to Ann.

  2. Under the wires and stream bank. The B Station had been placed under the crossing and joining national grid power lines south of Alton, This was bad enough, but the bridle path was also a stream bed running inches deep in water, and Chris had strung wire under all the power lines. The hide was a no hide special. As a stream had cut a V shaped ditch into the edge of a field and a Dog Rose had rooted at its edge, this gave an ideal small one man hide by cutting a ledge under the overhanging rose bush into the stream bank. It also had the advantage that the TX operator had not left any tracks to his hide as he walked in up the stream bed. This site had even the professionals foxed for a while.

C. Laddies in the lake – Otter Slide? – Orienteers - Car Rally – Boat. For the A station Chris had a friend carry a rowing boat over the dunes to Frensham Little pond, only 300 yards from the start, and hidden in a reed bed across some 15’ of open water from the steep bank of the lake. The reeds also hid the boat quite well (until later) . The signals were heard at the start, Weakly, which led many competitors to shoot off to the Hogs Back for the second timed transmission, only to find it pointed directly back to the start. The fun (at least for the TX crew) came When Brian Bristow and Bill North turned up under the aerial on the bank of the lake. Bill found what he thought was a path down the bank through the heather, stepped onto it , and ended up in the water within arms reach of the TX crew. The ‘path’ had been an Otter Slide.... Bill struck out for the bank and it was only latter when Brian had had courage to wade the dyke at a shallower section that he found us (and the boat) and threatened to hole the boat, in his ire. Others when arriving on site were unfortunately decoyed by following torches of orienteers who also chose that night and that common to play on. Indeed when the contest was over at Midnight, the crew rowed out and were carrying the boat back to the car, when irate Car Rally organisers accosted them for ‘blocking’ and access to the heath. What with the Army, Orienteers, DF’ers and Car Rally enthusiasts, Chris had never seen so many people on the heath even in Daylight in High Summer.

  1. Somewhere up this Holly tree. The C TX site, run by Roy Powers, was 15’ up in a Holly tree that had been bracketed by fallen Beech trees in the storm on the North side of the M3 at Rotten Green at the back of the Fleet service area. Roy had laid down a canvas to protect him from the Holly thorns up in the branches, and swears that he had his bum fumbled several times that night, but no-one realised at the time it was the hidden station whilst pushing through the tangle of branches. In fact the next day whilst recovering the wire he discovered tunnels through the Holly at 3’, 8’ 12’ and his hide level. A sad item from this event was the accident (not organised at all by Chris)- to the first ever all ladies team had got to within a mile of the TX site, and gone down a farmers concreted access road, when asked the farmer let them go down the track, but not to drive over his new sewn grass verges. When the next transmission came up, the bearing was back up the track, so not wanting to drive on the grass Doreen backed the car up, but had not realised that they had driven over a bridge over a river, as it had had no parapets, so Doreen missed the bridge, put a wheel over the edge, and turn the car upside down into the river. The water wasn’t deep only about 2’, but when you are in the dark with water over the windows, it give you quite a turn. We rescued the girls but had to leave hubby Bill’s car overturned in the river until the next day. It was a write off.