Interbranch Challenge
Defining what it is isn't that easy really, its easier just to give some examples. A few (three?) years ago the idea was bought back from the dead (it had been fairly dormant for a number of years) and a bloke called Ade set up a Downhill Race. Word was put about, mostly word of mouth so we heard from Rosie as she's in our branch, that there would be an event at the National and that we should set about building karts. Some branches took it more seriously than others - a few showed up with machines created from customised fairground rides (the train was a storm!), others just bike wheels and bits of string, and yet others like us who really went to town and spent six months building a kart that looked like a Minor.
As an aside, that kart had so much work done that we refused to let it die after the National, and we've raced it at other events including the Belchford Downhill (where 40mph is regularly attained). It was so over-engineered that in a crash a couple of years back it fully wrote off two other karts and received no more than scratches! Us same sad gits are now partway through building another kart with dual suspension and other mods ready for this years gravity-racing season.
Anyway, back to the point. All the teams who had karts (about 11 from memory) were timed down a course with the winners going on to further heats and the overall winner getting the coveted Interbranch Challenge trophy. Modesty forbids me from saying that we won every race we entered,,,, oops, too late I've said it
Sorry, for some reason I cant get this image to work, so follow this link:
http://www.theminorsite.co.uk/album_cat.php?cat_id=22
The following year Interbranch was a bit more tame and just involved running round a bit, and we (Lincs) only finished runners up. Boo hiss. Last year we had Winston, as mentioned above, and the challenge consisted of getting five members in the car with a tennis ball balanced on the bonnet and then navigating round a bumpy course without losing the ball. It was total chaos, the car almost burned out a clutch, but we all had a fantastic time and, again, modesty forbids me mentioning who won
Last weekend we had far less planning time (we didnt get asked til Saturday morning) so the event was more low-key. Much running round, skipping(!), catch, that sort of stuff, with points for each round. Theoretically only the top three would go through to the final, but having discovered we were ourselves outside the top three we changed it to include all entrants (prerogative of the organiser
). The final consisted of 'Generation Game' style stuff, a pair from each team had to replace two members of the Morris dancers troupe and with just two minutes instruction do a full routine. Bloody marvellous fun, although we came near last, so revenge is promised for next time.
So, basically, the Interbranch is whatever the organiser wants to come up with. Its just an element of competition, lasting a couple of hours tops, trying to beat every other team and show them that of course your region is better than them. I've seen from recent years that the more organisation that goes into it, the better its received, so I'm considering applying to the club to run the Challenge for forthcoming years, or at least a few. On the other hand, if others have particularly strong feelings then I'd be happy to stand aside and let them do it - just say the word.
Oh, and for 'wibble', I didn't ring Andrew, he phoned me!
I feel it would be highly appropriate for someone from the committee to post here in response to the points which have been raised.
(I was already in the Leicester Branch team)