25a. Wythenshaw Park – This was a mid-Summer evening event run by Chris Plummer, as a training event for novices to DF. The idea was that an experienced DF’er would act as team for a novice. Thus, Chris did not make it so hard as to discourage new comers, or so he thought, so he took a gentle walk into Wythenshaw Park , just next to the end of the M56, and set up a ¼ l of wire close to a path, only 3-400 yards into the park, in a clump of Rhododendrons. The site was only 2 miles from the start at the club, so low power was used.

As Chris settled in for the evening, a police car came patrolling in the park, over the grass. This was significant locally as a sex offended was being sought who dress in military camouflage gear just like Chris uses, so he got into his hide quick to avoid embarrassing questions; long before the first transmission time. This was a mistake as Manchester had bred some real nasty mosquitoes this year, and they seemed to like Chris’s blood. So he abandoned the hide and went to fetch some sun cream from his car which contained insect repellent. This worked for a while, but as the scars around his ankles and face confirm, the bolder, or hungrier, insects were not deterred, and in fact liked the stuff.

Chris nearly declared himself the winner, as it was almost 22:00 before the teams arrived on site, having been fooled into going off south of Ringway airport.