The Ashes Travel Bug Race - Who Fancies A Go?

[davester]

A version of this (see below) has been cross-posted on the www.geocaching.com.au General Chit-Chat forum.

 

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?

 

 

------Version posted to www.geocaching.com.au forum follows-------

 

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!

[+The Hokesters]

I'm In! Where do I sign up?

[+Archer4]

I'm in - can we send them a cricket ball TB and watch them all fall over it before they start

[+badger]

I picked up an ideal TB for this one recently... Which I do believe belongs to you Archer4? Bail me out.

 

I can spare a TB tag for this as well, but might need a few suggestions for the item attached.

 

Matt

[+Rhinogeo]

With the series locked up 1-1, we'll see what happens at Trent Bridge and The Oval

 

In regard to an Ashes TB Race....count me in !! We breed TBs tough in Benalla (NE Victoria) and I have a TB activated, but not released who is itching to have a go

 

I'll be in an uncontactable part of the world from 22 August to 2 September but before or after then email me through my profile on gc.com with the updates

 

A thread on this race has been posted on the gc.com.au forums which will probably generate a bit more interest

Edited August 18, 2005 by Rhinogeo

[+Partic]

I'm in. I just hope the Aussie bugs don't fall short in the death throws of the match.

 

Aussie Forum Topic Link

Edited August 18, 2005 by Partic

[+Cached]

I'm in too - I have ordered new tags, and am sure to be able to field a player who is able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (or should that be the other way round...)

 

Pres & First Lady have also indicated an indication to partake.

 

Cached

[+Sc00t]

Team Booya can get one together, we have a correspondent in Scotland who is also part of the team and may be able to help out.

[+Mad H@ter]

Count us in, we have a tag that we've been trying to think of a task for.

[+lordelph]

I'll play, I know an aussie cacher too who will no doubt play along!

[+Team Maddie UK]

Count us in. I have a few tags that are itching to go and finding a bug is easy. Got a box of them as well.

[+sTeamTraen]

Better keep the rules of the race "cricket-free" on the TB sheets, in case they pass through the US, France, etc...

[+Skippy and Pingu]

We're in. Love these TB races. This looks like a novel one.

[+HazelS]

Oh yes... count us in.... we need to come last at something else too!! (I'm thinking of the Footie TB Race here!!)

[davester]

Good to see a good response, both here and in Oz.

 

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?

[+Team Maddie UK]

Rules sound easy to follow..glad you have volunteered to be the scorekeeper

[+bobuk]

if your still looking for players please pencil me in

 

 

B.

[davester]

I'm thinking that the race will be limited to at most 22 (2 teams) or 11 (1 team). Let's see how many Aussies want to sign up.

[+Partic]

I've just suggested all the conversation goes on here from now on, to help everyone keep track of the topic.

 

Some questions:

 

How long will the scoring run for? Hate to have Davester having a lifetime of run management to go on with.

 

I don't know how well the runs wickets will work down under. Unlike the UK where there's plenty of caches spread around the countryside, for bugs to keep moving in Australia, they're really going to all be concentrated on major cities. This would put them within 100miles of any other bugs playing in the same city, and with it all relying on other cachers moving the bugs, it's more than possible for a bugs runs to dwindle very fast.

 

I'd say same cache is fair enough to lose all, but make the rest of the deductions a little more friendly... 5miles (8km) 6 runs, 10miles (16km) 4 runs, 20miles (32km) 2 runs. In Melbourne for example, there's 600 caches in 32km of the CBD, so this rate would let bugs still accrue runs, rather than having negative scores each time they moved.

 

Also, it's unlikely (from what I've seen) for a particular travel bug to stay in a cachers hands for several cachers, so instead of 2 per cache and 4 per cacher, would it be worth looking at 1 run per Trad, 2 per multi, 4 for a Mystery/Puzzle cache and 6 for when a bug makes an appearance at an event cache?

[+Partic]

Australian Team (Updated 19/8/2005, in no particular order)

 

Cached

Team Booya (sc00t)

RhinoGeo

Partic

Team Piggy

President & 1st Lady

Aushiker

The Hill 4

Pauliegh

Team Baggy Greens

 

Any more takers Down Under (or that I've missed)?

Edited August 20, 2005 by Partic

[+Sc00t]

Team Booya can provide more than one if the numbers are needed, just give us some preperation time to find a suitable bug.

[+Toby's Jugs]

Count us in too. Holiday / caching in Spain for next two weeks so out of contact, but will check messages on return.

[+The Hokesters]

I agree that the rules (which are excellent) will cause problems in Australia - especially if the recent Simply Paul bug race was anything to go by.

 

I can't think of a good solution though

[Zytheran]

For the Aussie's I'd put down Team Baggy Greens. I'll even buy him the TB if he hasn't got a spare. I'm pretty sure he hasn't seen this posting but I'd bet he'd be in it with bells on his toes given half a chance. With him on our side the Ashes are ours already.

MiniZyth2 will also be in it.(Part of the Zytheran team)

[+lordelph]

Add Pauleigh to the Aussie team.

[+Team Seedsman]

I'm in for the Aussies!!

An opportunity to remind the Poms how the Ashes have been for the past 16 years and will continue to be for sometime to come can't be missed.

 

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi! Oi! Oi!

[davester]

The bowling and batsmen of each team will start on other ends of the world, so they shouldn't have a chance to meet on home soil.

 

Anyway, I envisage that the race will finish when 4 of 6 batsmen make it home and 4 of 5 bowlers get all the way. If a bug sees no activity for 3 months they will be retired hurt. Batsmen finish scoring once reaching home soil. Wickets can only be taken in neutral countries.

[+TeamLangy]

Well given that I have a couple of unactivated bugs AND I love watching the odd "to and from" suffer in their jocks - count me in as an antagonist for the colonials.

 

However I must respectfully ask that my my bug be a bowler (just pencil me in at No 11 in the batting order) and so I will look for either a pigeon (Glenn McGrath's nickname is pigeon for those who are uninformed) or a ferret (as in 'batting ferret' - the one you send in AFTER the bunnies!).

 

In short - count me in!

 

Langy!

[+alex]

Hey! If you still need any more on the Australian (read winning) team, I'm in.

[+Partic]

Cached

Team Booya (sc00t)

RhinoGeo

Partic

Team Piggy

President & 1st Lady

Aushiker

The Hill 4

Pauliegh

Team Baggy Greens

TeamLangy

Alex

 

Looks like we have an Australian Team all set to go (including a 12th Man).

 

Aussie team: Please post your batting and bowling preferences, as well as any captain candidates.

 

I guess we just need to see the UK lineup and we can get things going.

[+TeamLangy]

Aussie team: Please post your batting and bowling preferences, as well as any captain candidates.

 

I have already indicated my preference as a bowler.

 

PS - It looks like Partic has already done some of the captaincy work and got the side together - or is it just that the rest of us stepped back faster?

[+macroderma]

I have my first TB ready to go if there is still room in the England team

 

12th man?

[+Team Seedsman]

Batting position for me please. I can't bowl to save my life.

[+Team Maddie UK]

I have my Tb ready to go as well for England and am in possession of Archer 4's Out on Bail who is also an Ashes tour TB that was set lose before this idea.

will take any position..not fussy

 

Lynn

[davester]

Good to see we have an Aussie team. As there are more than 11 UK entrants, what shall we do? First come first served, or drawn out of a hat? Hopefully the aussies can drum up an A team to play our 2nd XI anyway!

 

Now to find those bails I was going to burn!!!

[+The Hokesters]

How many UK cachers are there signed up so far? Would be best if we could have two teams from each nation rather than excluding some UKcachers. Just my 2p - take it or leave it

[+The Hill 4]

Batsman if possible. I'd like to nominate Partic for team captain too.

[+bobuk]

Bump:

 

Has rain stopped play?

 

 

B.

[+Skippy and Pingu]

We've got our TB ready to go.

[+president & 1st lady]

So this is where you've all been hanging out!!! Bowler please! We can't bat for peanuts. Of course we could send in a chief of staff to bat for us.

 

1st lady

[+Team Seedsman]

My TB Baggy "Coat of Arms" Greens is ready to put the pads on. When does play start?

[davester]

Life is a mixed pot of busy-ness at the moment. I shall get it sorted this weekend.

[+Team Piggy]

Sorry all, I am gonna have to drop outa the list for this race, guys.

 

Very busy at work and home and havent got much time to set up or even follow stuff at moment.

 

Thanks though and good luck with it all.

Edited September 6, 2005 by Team Piggy

[+Partic]

I've emailed the Australian Team tonight, and should have a line up sorted out in the next few days.

 

Grabbing TB Name, TB Number, Preferred EMail, Team Position from each Aussie player.

 

Any other info you need Davester?

[Aushiker]

Bowler Grolsch is already to go into bowl for the Australian team ...

 

Andrew

[Zytheran]

Somehow Zytheran got left off the Australian team..

If there's a place were ready to fill it with TB.

[+Partic]

Yes, well, we know that the Barmy Army have gone quiet whilst nursing their hangovers following their winning of the Ashes Series. We'll bring it back down under soon enough.

 

So back to the Ashes TB Race...

 

What's happening?

 

Aussie Team is almost in place - I have about 3 team members still to finalise their details and then I'll post the team line up in the next few days.

 

Read from you soon Davester

[+The Hill 4]

What's happening with this race?

[+Partic]

I think the entire concept just fizzled out at the end of September, as Davester got a little bit busy... as did I for the past 3 months.

 

The rules and scoring have not been finalised, so I would say that it's not going ahead further at the moment until that happens.

 

Davester - your thoughts?

[+Partic]

Tickets being on sale for the next Ashes from June 1, I figured it time to see whether it's time to re-plan the The Ashes TB Race and get it going before this year's season whitewash by [Australia or England] over [England or Australia].

 

(I for one pick the first options above )

 

Post your interest here.

 

Rather than the complex runs and wickets plan in place before, perhaps just looking at getting the entire team over the line into the other country will be the go.

 

- 11 TB's start in Australia, 11 in the UK.

- Each is destined to the other country initially.

- Each needs to make it's way through two other countries (I would suggest two other WCC cricket playing countries, but that may grind the game to a halt).

 

Other suggestions welcome.