19a. Rugby manhole. Every once in a while a transmitter crew finds a really evil site.. This one comes from a Rugby event, in the Seventies. Derek Newman and his mate Bill, found a disused railway tunnel near Charwelton, but rather than hide in the tunnel, or the thickets around its entrance, they found an old manhole on top of the tunnel entrance. The manhole let to a chamber that was partly filled with water, and had a drain pipe down into the tunnel. They dropped a brick down the pipe with the wire attached, and led it to the tunnel entrance, and back into the darkness of the tunnel. The wire outside the tunnel was only then led to the thickets.

The tunnel was at least ¾ mile from the nearest road access, and took most competitors all afternoon to find. When we did open the rotting timber covering of the chamber we had to climb down an old ladder to reach the TX crew, sat on stools with their feet in wellies in the water, and the TX on a table in the darkness. Of course when he was found the ladder got overloaded and many teams fell in the water....

Years later the same area was used again and those with long memories (from 1977) first checked the manhole...