Donegal navigation a test for crews and cars

The final round of the Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship took place last weekend with the Donegal Navigation Trial. Keith and Damien Sheridan organised an 85 mile route based out of the Termon. Leader of the championship navigators title going into the event and overall winner of the previous round, Conor Mohan, led crews off into the night with his driver Michael Carbin. The first Plot and Bash section began at TP4 for the route to and the location of TP5. Navigators were handed a 13 section box tulip diagram, with each of the changes in direction happening within a mile and a half. The final six direction changes were in the 246 yards preceding the final destination. A total of nine crews failed to arrive to the timepoint and many of those who did make it dropped considerable time. The midpoint control was located just outside Glen Village. The next Plot and Bash section began at TP16 where competitors were issued with a herringbone tulip with intermediate distances for the route to TP17. The tulip looked straight forward at first, but to get the correct approach, navigators had to be pinpoint accurate with their trip meter as the final ten directions were all within 530 yards of each other. Unfortunately Ciaran Duffy/Pauric Duffy would take a wrong bog lane leading to them getting the car stuck and leading to Ciaran having a big water bill this week as he had to wash his shoes and feet multiple times to remove the sheer amount of bog mud from himself after trying to push his car out of the mud.  Only four crews managed to arrive at TP17 on time and with the correct approach. The final Plot and Bash section began at TP25 for the location of both TP26 and TP27. A cumulative distanced herringbone tulip was the diagram given. In keeping with the tradition of navigation trials bringing crews absolutely anywhere, the correct route involved tuning down a field, heading around a house and driving under a child’s swing to arrive at TP26.  This location proved to be almost impossible to find as only seven out of 33 crews were able to find TP27. By the time it was time to return to HQ, Martin Tynan/David McCrudden were comfortable winners (if there’s such a thing) finishing on a total of nine penalties. Well ahead of 2^nd OA Shane Dalton/Sam Johnston who finished with 29 penalties having picked up 20 penalties at TP26.  In the classes, Dalton/Johnston finished 1^st Expert with Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan 2^nd. 3^rd in class went to Charlie McMonagle/ Aidan Friel. 1^st Semi-Expert went to Niall McDaid/Ciaran Coyle, with Eoghan Corr/Ruaidhri Nash finishing 2^nd. Damien Treanor/Christopher McMahon finished the event in 3^rd Semi-Expert. 1^st in the Novice class went to Aidan McDevitt/Aidan Sweeney 2^nd was Darragh Kelly/Molly Maguire with Shane Laverty/ finishing the class in 3^rd place. Shane Farrell/Eoghan Farrell had a fantastic event, comfortably winning the Beginner class and finishing 7^th OA. Marty Gallagher/Darren Curran were 2^nd Beginner with Damien Carr/Oisín Joyce finishing 3^rd. All was to play for in both the overall and class honours in the border championship going into the event, and dropped scores and average points for COC duties mean a clearer picture will appear when provisional final results are calculated. News on those and prize-giving details to follow.