Report on the Brit
Butt Light 2009
The first running of the IBA
UK’s Brit Butt Light rally took place on Saturday 25th July. This was to be a shorter, daylight only version
of the Brit Butt Rally, over 12 hours and with no minimum points or mileage demands. Riders were also sent out the list of
the forty rally bonus locations 72 hours before the start, giving them time to map them out without using up rally time to
do this – not knowing the value of the bonuses meant they could not plan an effective route before the start.
They were also sent a quiz
– a set of sixteen questions about pubs (the reasons for which would become clearer when they received the bonus book)
– the quiz was optional but answers could gain riders a maximum of 48 points towards their total. This was to prove
very important for some!
The Friday evening had seen
torrential rain with thunder and lightning in the village of Old Arley where the start, The Wagon Load of Lime public house
was located. However, the Saturday dawned bright and sunny and promised to be a beautiful day – not at all what the
rallymaster had ordered!
By 7.30am all the 25 riders
entered had arrived and met with the rallymaster for the rally briefing and explanation of some details in the rally book.
Following this the rally flags and bonus books were distributed and riders were able to plan their routes before leaving anytime
after 8am. The bonus book was entitled ‘The Unique Pub Crawl’ and all the 40 bonus locations were public houses
in England (well one was in Wales), all with unique names. Each pub had a points value, with points ranging from 101 points
for the Winged Spur in Ullenhall to 5009 points for the Bucket of Blood in Hayle, Cornwall. There were also a few other ways
riders could gain points, including three combo bonuses and also by getting a meal receipt or by collecting beer mats from
the pubs.
About half of the riders had
taken part in the Brit Butt Rally, but for many it was their first timed rally. Notable entrants included Steve Eversfield,
three times a finisher of the eleven day Iron Butt Rally in America. The youngest entrant was 9 years old Thomas Pevalin,
riding pillion on his dad’s Yamaha FJR1300. The furthest travelled entrants were Jason Kelly and his girlfriend Sarah-Jane
Cameron who rode down from Scotland on the morning of the start of the rally – by the time they returned home they must
have covered 1000 miles.
By 8.15am all the riders had
left, including two additional entrants. Nick Robbins and Jools Hamilton had turned up to see everyone off but had a bonus
book and rally flag thrust upon them by the rallymaster and became riders number 26. Jools had anticipated going to see the
monkeys at Trentham Monkey Forest, instead she was to enjoy a day riding to the end of Cornwall and back for a steak sandwich!
The other rider was a local guy, Russ Teagles, who had heard about the rally from the landlord Eric the night before. He wandered
into the briefing and was so interested he signed up, went home and returned on his Suzuki GSXR1100.
Statistics of bikes entered
– BMW (12); Honda (9); Yamaha (2); Triumph (2); Aprilia (1); Suzuki (1).
Riders left in a variety of
directions – one in several, as Sam Clarke left going south then came back and headed north a minute later, he even
tooted to make sure we knew he didn’t know where he was going. Destinations for riders included north towards the ‘Tan
Hill Inn’ in Swaledale, South-east towards London, East into Norfolk and Suffolk, and South-west towards South Wales
and Cornwall. Others had plans which involved circulating the Midlands where the majority of bonuses were located. The most
ambitious plan was that of Martyn White who planned to collect the combo bonus for the three ‘Nowhere’ pubs; the
‘Muddle Go Nowhere’ in Grantham, the ‘Nowhere Inn Particular’ in Croydon and the ‘Nowhere Inn’
in Plymouth., for an additional 3500 points. The first rider to return was Ken Tucker, having got 4 miles down the road before
realising he had forgotten to pick up his rally flag!
At 10.20am the rallymaster’s
phone rang – Mike Edwards, on the smallest bike to start the rally, a Honda CB500, had suffered mechanical breakdown
and was waiting for the AA to recover him home. The only other phone call was from Dave Pevalin with the information that
the ‘Nowhere Inn Particular’ was indeed nowhere in particular, having been converted into a block of flats! He
was asked to photograph the road sign instead. This had been a slight concern, with the number of pubs in England being closed
down every week at the moment.
Between 1pm and 2pm the start
location, the Wagon Load of Lime became a ‘live’ bonus worth 1000 points. Three riders turned up to collect this.
The first were Soji Ojelade and Mike Benstead who stopped for a while and had a picnic and a pint. Sheila Kiggins, the only
female rider in the rally who had started the rally suffering from flu symptoms, also returned to claim the bonus but retire
from the rally.
The afternoon was spent hoping
not to get any more phone calls and waiting for the rest of the riders to return. It was punctuated just after 5pm when someone
came in to tell the rally team there had been an accident involving a local biker just outside the village.
From 6.15pm a few riders started
returning – first back were Soji Ojelade and Mike Benstead who had enjoyed a sunny day in the Midlands. Other riders
came back with tales of heavy traffic, roadworks and long tailbacks on the motorways as people headed away at the start of
the school holidays. Some looked a little frazzled by the experience, most seemed to be smiling and to have enjoyed their
day. One rider, Wulstan Melling had suffered a puncture but managed to repair it on the had shoulder, another had experienced
an encounter with Police who wanted to discuss his rate of progress with him. Between 7.10 and 7.25 there was a constant rush
of arrivals as the deadline of 7.30, when riders started accruing penalty points at the rate of 50 points for each minute
back after that – arriving back after 8pm would mean disqualification.
By 7.30pm there were only
two riders unaccounted for - Dave Winter and Martyn White, both of whom had been heading for big points bonuses. Dave arrived
back 8 minutes late after an epic journey of 675 miles which included getting to ‘The Bucket of Blood’ in Hayle
and ‘The Captains Wife’ in Penarth. Four minutes later Martyn arrived back with a tale of woe, despite having
travelled 587 miles he had ended up realising he was not going to get to the third ‘Nowhere’ pub in Plymouth and
had had to bale out of the attempt, leaving him with only two controls and 1483 points, of which he was about to lose 600
for time penalties. He did at least have the satisfaction of knowing he was the only rider to gain full points (48) on the
pub quiz!
While all the riders sorted
out their paperwork and photographs the rally team raced to get the results out. Certificates were printed out while the riders
enjoyed the curry, rice and naan bread provided by the landlady of the Wagon and sat around comparing their experiences. Shortly
after 8.30pm the award ceremony, presided over by Roger Allen, saw all riders being presented with their finish certificates
in reverse order, and the first three riders were also presented with glass trophies (these were to be replaced later with
trophies bearing their names).
When everyone else had left
and the team were packing up one rider brought his results to the rally team and said he could not see how his points added
up. The rallymaster could not do either so decided to recheck all the scores n the morning. This brought up the realisation
that the software used to calculate the scores with had a flaw so that one control, the ‘Hack & Spade’ in
Yorkshire had been scored at 177 points instead of 1177 points. This affected the scores of the seven riders who had visited
there, and changed the placings for the first 18 riders, including the top three positions. Those most affected were informed
as soon as they could be contacted, all riders were emailed with the news, and the new results were published on the internet.
The winner was Daren Rogerson
from Barnsley, with 8344 points, narrowly beating his friend Adrian Middleton, also from Barnsley by 5 points. Darren and
Adrian rode together and were only separated by their scores on the pub quiz. Third place went to Sam Clarke from Northern
Ireland with 7813 points. All three were riding BMW R1200GSAs.
Darren’s winning route
–
Bleeding
Wolf, Congleton (300 pts)
Soldier
Dick, High Peak (417 pts)
Old Thirteenth
Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps, Stalybridge (513 pts)
Sumpter
Horse, Penworthan (866 pts)
Tan Hill
Inn, Swaledale (1962 pts)
Hack &
Spade, Whashton (1177 pt)
Goat &
Compasses, Hull (1379 pts)
Prussian
Queen, Saltfleetby (852 pts)
Muddle
Go Nowhere, Grantham (440 pts)
Wetmore
Whistle, Burton-upon-Trent (399 pts)
Pub Quiz
(39 pts)
