A rare change in The Knockout rankings

...as wemnog's The Skylark Travel Bug moves ahead of mat smith's Hazards of Geocaching 2 (The Sheep) John's Knockout Racer TB. The Skylark was retrieved from the Cornish cache that it was moored in by local cachers Stompy&Stampy who then proceeded to take the little dinghy on a busy caching trip, managing to visit 141 caches in the next 5 days! Unfortunately for wemnog, almost all of this effort by Stompy&Stampy was wasted as Rule no.3 of The Great Travel Bug Knockout states:

3. Only the first move by a cacher will count.  Reason: This will not stop "dippers" from doing their thing, but it does mean that only their first dip counts.

The first cache that The Skylark visited whilst in the hands of S&S was this one in Warwickshire, which added 191.99 miles to it's distance travelled, sufficient to enable it to leapfrog mat smith's recently returned-to-action HoG2 Bug into 8th place overall in The Knockout.

I'm not going to link to all of the remaining 140 caches that The Skylark has been dipped into, you can find that here if you're the obsessive type, just mention that as well as Warwickshire it also visited caches in South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire and Wiltshire, including both this cache and this one which it has visited previously.

Current 2nd-placed Knockout entry, Hediya's  Love and Peace (Maan) TB was placed into this brand-new Canadian cache by MaliBooBoo, adding 25.9 miles to it's distance travelled. It was retrieved 3 days later by fellow British Columbians Bull&Tink.

Cooper troopers' the noble traveller TB has also been keeping on the move, Dutch cacher slottys placing it into this puzzle cache (the Dutch love their puzzle caches and their multis!) adding 83.97 miles to it's odometer. It didn't hang around however, as it was retrieved 2 days later by local cacher Radijs.

Not too far to the south in Belgium, current playground of oceanblue07970's Half Hearted Travel Bug, which cachers leffe&duvel placed into this multicache, 29.68 miles away from the cache that they retrieved it from. It was almost immediately picked up by local cacher Verborgen Boswitje.

Meanwhile, to the east, lgxkls' Hazards of Geocaching 1 - Karon's Knockout Racer TB was retrieved by German cacher Taubacher from the Italian cache that it had been left in. He has logged an intention to take HoG1 to Germany, but in the meantime stopped off in Austria (which the little bovine briefly visited in April) to dip it into this cache (adding 38.3 miles to it's total distance), this one (adding nothing) and this one (ditto!).

Finally, commiserations to castlegrice, whose George's Fun Bus 2 Bug has been placed into this Spanish cache, which would have added sufficient milage to save the little camper van from the scrapyard, but it came just 9 days too late!

STOP THE BLOG!! Just received word that German geocacher CryptoBLN retrieved current Knockout leader, Team Blid435's BraveHeart TB from the New Zealand cache that it has been languishing in for the last 2 months and dropped it into this more regularly visited one 1.35 miles along the coast. Well, at least he didn't take it back to Germany with him! (Team Blid435 - that's new!).

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings.

...and I haven't forgotten about the promised mid-race round-up. I'll post it as soon as I have time!

BraveHeart back in a cache, Scary Halloween Monster still AWOL

5...4...3...2...1...

Despite the Christchurch earthquake disaster on New Zealand's South Island, caching has continued on the North Island, with cacher cabhassett placing Blid435's Braveheart Travel Bug into this cache in Taupo township on the northern shore of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo. As this is the 5th cache that Braveheart has visited whilst in the possession of cabhassett, no distance has been added due to the only the first dip counts rule, despite which BH has still travelled more than twice as far as it's closest competitor in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

Unfortunately nothing more has been heard from Happy Humphrey's Scary Halloween Monster Travel Bug, meaning that SHM is currently the most likely TB to be kicked out of the Knockout at the March 1st Elimination.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current Knockout placings.

Braveheart extends it's lead

New Zealand cacher cabhassett dipped Blid435's Braveheart Travel Bug in this cache in Napier, New Zealand, extending it's lead in The Great Travel Bug Knockout by 61.79 miles. Cabhassett then dipped Braveheart into this cache, this cache and this cache, none of which adds milage for the purposes of The Knockout due to contravention of rule no.3 Only The First Move By A Cacher will Count.

Scroll to bottom of this page for current official Knockout placings.

Smart Car 10 goes east

5...4...3...2...1...

After receiving a query regarding the monthly eliminations from The Great Travel Bug Knockout, it's been pointed out that I haven't made it clear whether the eliminated Travel Bug is the one that has travelled the least in total since the beginning of The Knockout, or the TB that has travelled the least since the previous elimination. It's the TB that has travelled the least distance since the start of The Knockout that is eliminated each month, not the one with the shortest distance for that month.

Now for news of a retrieval and a placement, as Canadian cacher moicy has picked up Hediya's Love and Peace (Maan) TB from the Vancouver cache that it was resting in and Smart Car 10 Knockout Racer has bucked the trend of The Great Travel Bug Knockout entries by, instead of heading west to North America, has raced off east to this cache on the outskirts of Göteborg in Southwestern Sweden. This move has added 584.29 miles to SC10KR's distance travelled, consolidating it's current 3rd position in The Knockout.

Scroll to the bottom of this page for latest updated standings

Who's On The Bubble?

5...4...3...2...1...

It's the countdown to the first elimination on December 1st, and currently On The Bubble are Quatchi - Grizzly's Knockout Racer, Hazards of Geocaching 2 (The Sheep) John's Knockout racer and Rag Zombie, none of whom have yet recorded an opening distance, which means that

Rule 7. In the event of two or more TBs ending a month with equal milage, a Golden Move rule will come into play, meaning that the next one to move goes through.

will come into play. Exciting, eh? ;-)

Travelling without moving

I've been rummaging around for my 9-inch square of black silk this morning as I've had to pass my first judgement regarding a rule infringement in The Great Travel Bug Knockout.

The specific rule in question is Rule 3: Only the first move by a cacher will count. This rule was broken when cacher peigimaccann retrieved Jacaru's Knockout Ferrari Travel Bug from the cache that she had placed it in and then placed it into this one, 30.07 miles away. It's quite possible that peigimaccann mistakenly logged Knockout Ferrari into the wrong cache, but I'm counting her first placing as a dip, therefore the subsequent 30.07 miles have not been added to KF's official milage. The column to the right shows the correct current order of entries in The Knockout, but for correct official milage please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Naturally, the entrant of Knockout Ferrari may appeal this docking of milage by posting a comment to this blog post. Just don't expect me to change my mind ;-)

The noble traveller hasn't travelled!

It looked as if cooper troopers' gamble of placing their entry, the noble traveller, into a new cache of their own was going to pay-off with the first Travel Bug retrieval of The Great Travel Bug Knockout, but First-to-Finder Davicker chose not to take it.

Second-to-Find was smart451, who as a fellow entrant in The Knockout have rightly read the rules which forbids them from retrieving another entrants TB.

So, it's nail-biting time for cooper troopers... will Third-to-Find pick up and move along the noble traveller, or is it stuck in one space and time?

You've called your entry whaaat?!

East Midlands cacher geohunter-x has brought the total number of entries in The Great Travel Bug Knockout up to 14 with his slightly eccentrically named;

Voodoo Whodo What You Don't Dare Do People (Racer Bug)

Now, let's all find some pins to stick in it!

On a more serious matter, with 14 entries and at least two more promised to come, is the 1-month period between eliminations too long? If any entrant has an opinion, either you're happy with the 1-month period, or would like it shortened so that the knockout doesn't go on for so long, please post a comment and I'll take note of your suggestions. Whatever is decided, The Great Travel Bug Knockout is now underway and the first elimination date is December 1st, 2010. Good Luck everyone!

Last date for acceptance of entries

As I have received comments that the ten days or so until the start of The Great Travel Bug Knockout is too short a time for some prospective entrants to prepare their Travel Bugs, I will allow entries to be placed up to November 30th. The first elimination will take place on December 1st, and after this time no new entries will be accepted, except for replacements for TBs that have definitely been muggled.

You can place your TB into it's first cache at any time from October 30th until November 30th, but the later you leave it, the less time it will have to move.

Also, just to reiterate that your TB can be any item, but must be attached to a standard Travel Bug Dog Tag. This is to make it fair to every entrant that anyone who retrieves the TB will receive the same icon, and to avoid an entrant entering a geocoin or tag with an unusual and rare icon.

If you have any questions at all, just post a comment. It won't appear immediately as I am moderating them to avoid annoying spam appearing, but I'll okay them as soon as I can.

Happy racing, STP

Leaderboard to the right

If you look to the right of this post you will seea small "badge" of George's Fun Bus 2. This represents The Leaderboard. The Travel Bug at the top will be leading, the one at the bottom will be "on the bubble" and facing elimination. Once a TB has been eliminated from the race, it will appear on an Eliminated board. The TB owner may then edit it's page to create a new mission for it as it is no longer a part of The Great Travel Bug Knock-Out.

As you can see, as the distance travelled by each TB is shown, it makes it much simpler if an entrant could enter a Travel Bug with zero starting milage.

Happy caching, STP

So, when does the race start?

November 1st 2010.

If you would like to enter the race, just leave a comment in the comment box for this post giving the tracking number of your Bug and then wait. The race starts officially on Monday, November 1st, but as I realise that some cachers only cache on weekends you may place your TB in it's first cache on either October 30th or 31st without penalty.

This isn't gambling, so there is no prize for the winner, but I have had made up an engraved trophy (photograph to be uploaded after the race has started!) which I will present as a gift to the owner of the winning entry.

If you have any questions at all about the race, please either email me at slightlytallpaul@yahoo.co.uk or post a comment.

Get ready for a race!

Followers of my other blog, EmCache Race will be aware of my enthusiasm for Travel Bug races! That particular race has a set finishing date, but has run into various problems due to a lack of foresight regarding the rules prior the start.

I'm starting a race organised by myself, with the following rules;

1. Only Travel Bug Dog Tags with hitchhikers attached allowed.  Reason: Each entry will be equally attractive to viewers of the cache page, and anyone retrieving the TB would receive the same icon. This would stop someone entering an unusual GeoCoin which would attract the attention of icon-hunters.

2. No-one with an entry in the race would be able to move any entry, including their own.  Reason: No-one would be able to help their own entry of hinder anyone else's. This would not stop anyone creating one or more sockpuppet-type GC accounts in order to move their own TB along, but hopefully cachers will play the game fairly.

3. Only the first move by a cacher will count.  Reason: This will not stop "dippers" from doing their thing, but it does mean that only their first dip counts.

4. All Travel Bugs must have a picture on their page.  Reason: So that a "badge" can be made so that the race positions can be easily checked. Help will be given to any cacher unable to upload a picture of their TB.

5. A stolen/lost/muggled TB can be replaced, but the new Bug would start from 0 miles unless the original Dog Tag is found.  Reason: Muggling are unfortunately part of geocaching.

6. One TB per caching i.d. only.  Reason: No-one wants the race to go on forever, or for the same cacher to end up racing against themself!

7. In the event of two or more TBs ending a month with equal milage, a Golden Move rule will come into play, meaning that the next one to move goes through.

8. Late logging of TB moves by cachers will only be taken into account if that TB is still in the race.  Reason: Some cachers take TB's from caches and then months later post logs reading "Found in the bottom of my caching bag" or similar. If this happens to a TB that has already been eliminated from the race, it is unfortunate, but one of those thing that can happen in geocaching.

Basically my idea is that the race would be a knock-out with the bug with the shortest distance travelled each (period to be determined) would be elimated until only one remains. How this would work is that if 10 Bugs were entered for the race and the race started November 1st, and the time period was determined as 1 month, then the Bug that had travelled the least distance by December 1st would be out, then the least travelled of the 9 remaining Bugs on January 1st would be eliminated until just 1, the winner, remained.

So, what can be attached to your Travel Bug Dog Tag? Anything! I've posted pictures of a few of my TBs to give you an example of what can be attached, but the only limit is your imagination, although I would suggest that something small enough to fit in a small container may have an advantage.