DRAGNET 2008
Event Started: 05/07/2008 - 00:00
Event Finished: 07/07/2008 - 11:00
Location: Cartmel
Attendees: 175
DRAGNET 2008 - 4 to 6 July
The Dragnet Challenge is to make your way through a narrow corridor of land in the Cumbrian Lake district covering a distance of around 35 miles. Teams of four have to navigate from Friday night until Sunday morning back to the defined base camp from the secret drop off point. On the way you must avoid capture from teams of experienced catchers who can take one of of three life cards which will reduce your chance of winning the competition. The winning teams must have the maximum number of lives and run into the base camp closest to 11am on the Sunday.
Our Explorer Scout Unit, entered 4 teams in this year’s event and had our best ever result with a second place, a fourth, a twelfth and the fourth team covering the distance but unfortunately loosing all three lives. The 2008 event started at Castlerigg and finished at Cartmel Racecourse, the weather conditions were horrendous, so for 31 teams to finish out of 40 starters was unprecedented and very impressive. This year’s Explorer Scout Winners were from Sheffield, we’ll do our best to bring the trophy back to Cumbria next year! Below are the stories from two of our competitors.
Ayers Competitors 2008
Well.........
We got off the bus near Threlkeld, knowing where we were as we'd followed on the map. We then ran in the direction we thought we were meant to be going, which tuned out to be the wrong direction! So we found the right way to go and ran to catch up and get ahead of the main group. We then went down a few bridleways to get to the main road near Thirlmere by about 1:30am. We decided to take the quieter route down the side of Thirlmere hoping we wouldn’t see any catchers. We didn’t! We got to the other side of Thirlmere with all lives still intact. We took the back roads into Grasmere and were at Grasmere at about 5am’ish. We were then heading round the tarn and up some steep roads that led up and then down to Skelwith Bridge and after about 30 minutes of getting across we sat down on a bridleway at about 9am and decided to cook some noodles and a cuppa soup! The Minestrone ones were nice. So after topping up on energy it started to rain so we got fully waterproofed up and walked on only to find the rain stopped quickly so it was waterproofs off again!! Then shortly after this we entered the top of Grizedale and decided to lift the spirits with a bit of music. I then got the team slightly lost so we headed
for Esthwaite water in full swing bopping to the tunes. Our detour to Esthwaite Water turned out to be a good one! We came across a stream and topped up on some nice fresh water. After sterilising the water we walked along the road around Esthwaite water and decided whether to take the busy road into Newby Bridge or divert around it! We thought because we reckoned we were ahead of all the main bunch of catchers it wouldn’t be a problem so at about 11am Saturday we were on our way down the busy road to Newby Bridge! We quickly got out of Newby Bridge to avoid getting caught as we wanted to keep all 3 lives! We then pulled of onto a bridleway once again and lied down for a well earned 20 minute rest! Still no sleep!! So after 20 minutes rest we set of on a walk again that went past a country sports centre, and then went on a bridleway through some trees and pulled of in to the trees at 5pm Saturday for our 1st sleep! We all got out the wonderful survival bags and it wasn’t long before we were discussing how bad they really were they kind of warm you up but then soak you with condensation! Weird really! So Tom cooked some noodles, Matty probably was starting with the hilarious rips and Razzy was settling for sleep and so was I. We got up after 10 minutes because couldn’t cope with he rain!!! We packed up and sat wondering what to do as we were only 3 miles from the finish if that! After about an hour we all tried to get some sleep under the botthy bag and it worked until it hail stoned!!! So we were rudely awakened and I thought I’d had a good few hours sleep which turned out to be 15 minutes!! No joke!! I wish it was!We set of again and decided to get to the racecourse and sleep in the trees overnight! We got to Cartmel at about 8pm Saturday night and settled down hoping for some sleep we couldn’t get sleep as we were so wet and cold so at about 2am we cooked some noodles and cuppa soup then retired to the botthy bag once again. We all got up at 7am and were all on look out for catchers! At about 7:50 we saw 2 catchers approaching the woods so pegged it!! Right around the woods and into a field where we stayed for a good few hours behind a rock before taking a good chase from the same catchers we’d seen a while ago! Hats of to the woman she was quick, but we got away ran past a sleeping team ha-ha! Then can’t remember much apart from running a lot and eventually getting caught by a man that got out of a black fiesta and was easily the quickest catcher we’d seen! He sadly took out 1st life at 10:12am. We than managed to hide and run in for exactly 10:59:35.So that’s our story! We came 2nd!!!Thanks again to Dave and all of the organisers for a great event and see you next year to take the trophy!! P.S the pies are nice!
Andy Thompson (16)
It must have been 7 in the morning and we had cleared almost half of lake Thirlmere - we were almost parallel with the 2nd island and had seen a few teams pass us by on the roads - but we were being more cautious. We met up with one team and spoke with them for a while then we decided to split - Then we rested on the shore side - It was then that a team shot past us - we panicked and stood up to find a group 
of 3 catchers with the white bands on running towards us. We sprinted towards the other team frantically - but the catchers were to fast so 3 of us double backed and the fourth member - Euan - sprinted off into the wilderness. I turned around with amazement that the catchers had gone for the other team but only to see Andy and Dan lying on the ground battered - they had both fell on some rocks damaging their ankles and knees. Dan wasn't to bad but Andy struggled to move - we eventually hid in some tall brackens away from the catchers - I went back out leaving my bag in our hiding place - I searched for Euan with my monocular on the beach but it was hopeless the catchers were blocking our path whilst they spoke to the other not so lucky team....So we decided to try and find Euan as a group and go round the back of the catchers - sadly we had waited to long and they were mobile again - the remains of our group were once again split - we Panicked as me and Dan ran up a bank into the wilderness . Andy was stranded at the bottom so I shouted "Disappear Andy" and so he did back to the bracken. Eventually once the threat had passed our team of 4 re-united - we all exchanged stories on how we escaped individually and Andy told us how he was hid in the bracken as the catchers closed in on him then gave up just meters away. It was all very exciting - it was our first real chase and it held us back by about 30 minutes but we loved it. Sadly about half an hour later we were caught by two guys in a silver Audi - the same 2 that were to steal our third and final life card only 4 miles from the finish .... gutted - it was just a case of the wrong place at the wrong time DRAGNET what a great experience.
James Ferguson (16)
