The Ashes Travel Bug Race - Who fancies a go?

davester · Post by **davester** » 18 August 05 9:52 am

A version (see below) has been crossposted in the www.geocaching.com UK forum.
 
Hello Australia.
 
Who fancies a nice friendly travel bug race?
 
No?!
 
Then how about all out bloody war!
 
Face it, we're slaughtering you at cricket so we might as well give you the small chance to beat us at something.
 
Seriously, are there any takers for an inaurgural Ashes Travel Bug battle? If you can spare a tag then you can take part.
 
To maintain some parity with the real Ashes, I would suggest the following rules.
 
First, we decide on Five Tests. That is, we get five people who are willing to release a travel bug from both England and Australia. These are then randomly drawn into five travel bug vs. travel bug matches. The opponents then post the bugs to each other and place them on an agreed day. The first bug to get home wins that Test Match.
 
To make sure that each bug bats twice it MUST get 20 wickets (or pass through the hands of at least 20 cachers in countries other than England or Australia.
 
I can make up more rules before we start.
 
Do you accept the challenge? Discuss it among yourselves and see if one of you has the balls to be a captain!
 
-----Version posted to www.geocaching.com UK forum follows--------
 
These Aussies? They don't like it up 'em.
 
Captain Vaughan and the barmy army have shown that. Now, while we're on a winner I thought we should press home the advantage and try and beat them at every sport we can (although we MAY let them keep swimming)
 
In short, I have laid down the challenge for an Australian team to take on our best travel bugs in a daggers-drawn five test series. I need bugs with tenacity and strength, good strong all-rounders.
 
Let's take the 1st geocaching Ashes for England!
 
o maintain some parity with the real Ashes, I would suggest the following rules.
 
First, we decide on Five Tests. That is, we get five people who are willing to release a travel bug from both England and Australia. These are then randomly drawn into five travel bug vs. travel bug matches. The opponents then post the bugs to each other and place them on an agreed day. The first bug to get home wins that Test Match.
 
To make sure that each bug bats twice it MUST get 20 wickets (or pass through the hands of at least 20 cachers in countries other than England or Australia.
 
I can make up more rules before we start.
 
I shall stand as captain of fair England unless someone comes up with a convincing argument otherwise. The challenge has been laid. Can you spare the bug?

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 18 August 05 10:04 am

I'm in!!

president & 1st lady · Post by **president & 1st lady** » 18 August 05 10:07 am

I'll have to check if we have some spare tags, I'll check tonight and let you know. In the mean time, count us in.

1st lady

rhinogeo · Post by **rhinogeo** » 18 August 05 10:14 am

I'd be in it too. I currently have a TB that I have created (but haven't released into the wild yet) - and he is a 'roo so he is perfectly suited to the challenge

Partic · Post by **Partic** » 18 August 05 11:40 am

A perfect use for one of my tags I hadn't come up with a use for yet...

Now to find a suitable ashes related attachement for it.

Perhaps an additional rule... the tags need to travel to at least one other recognised Cricketing nation amongst it's 20 wickets?

Will the bugs need to all start from the same ground, or will we have the matches starting in different locations?

I'd suggest starting the race in Australia in Sunbury "Birthplace of the Ashes" at History Revealed II - except that I was the first cacher to visit in 6 months.

UK Forum Topic

sc00t · Post by **sc00t** » 18 August 05 11:53 am

Team Booya may be interested.

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 18 August 05 11:54 am

Concern though - how quickly will the tags be inclined to move when the opposing team has a vested interest in not moving them out of britain?

Partic · Post by **Partic** » 18 August 05 11:59 am

Perhaps start on home turf, and then aim to get to a landmark cache in the other country.

I'd suggest the "Watch The Big Men Fly" cache near the MCG for an Aussie possibility, but it's not large enough for bugs.

Nothing to stop the Brits though sending them off to some far flung reach of the Empire

Aushiker · Post by **Aushiker** » 18 August 05 12:12 pm

I am in ... of course as a Kiwi I might prefer a Pommie travel bug to win

Andrew

president & 1st lady · Post by **president & 1st lady** » 18 August 05 9:43 pm

president & 1st lady wrote:I'll have to check if we have some spare tags, I'll check tonight and let you know. In the mean time, count us in.

We have a couple of bugs that have not been released, so we're good for the race.

1st lady

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 18 August 05 11:15 pm

I'm Still waiting for the last UK-OZ Travel bug race to finish.

It sounds good as long as certain cachers in the UK especially Volvo man dont get hold of any bugs

Is there going to be a tracking page such as Oz-Bug race 2004 has ?

Team Piggy · Post by **Team Piggy** » 18 August 05 11:17 pm

Cached wrote:Concern though - how quickly will the tags be inclined to move when the opposing team has a vested interest in not moving them out of britain?

Why can't the Oz bugs leave from OZ and the UK form the UK, this will avoid this issue.

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 19 August 05 12:19 am

Just moves the issue to the other end.

Saves on postage though.

davester · Post by **davester** » 19 August 05 5:21 am

Good to see a good response, both here and in the UK.
 
I was wondering about tweaking the rules to mimic (as best we can) a real Cricket Match. This will also avoid problems about starting the race.
 
The new idea is as follows:-
 
Each side has 11 players (or bugs) and each will accumulate runs as they travel from England to Australia or vice versa.
 
6 bugs on each team are batsmen, 5 are bowlers.
 
Batsmen will start on away soil. Runs are then scored as follows:-
 
2 runs per cache. 
4 runs per cacher. 
6 runs per country. 
Bowlers start on home soil. Wickets (which for the purpose of our game just reduce the batting total) are taken by:-
 
Being within 100 miles of a batsman - minus 2 runs 
Being within 50 miles of a batsman - minus 4 runs 
Being within 20 miles of a batsman - minus 6 runs 
Being with 5 miles of a batsman - minus 10 runs 
Being in the same cache as a batsman - batsman loses ALL their runs
 

What does everyone think?

Partic · Post by **Partic** » 19 August 05 3:27 pm

Just to merge the two topics, it's probably easier to move this whole conversation into the UK forum to save confusion and double postings.

Please read more at
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index. ... pic=106084

We still need at least 4 players (5 for a twelfth man, others in case of injury) to complete the team. Post your interest on the UK Forum.