Miglia Quadrato results
Energised by a hearty meal in my local caff (just us and Pete Townsend in that night :-), Mark and I ventured to Finsbury Circus for the 47th Miglia Quadrato at midnight, Sunday May 14. Five hours later, we'd scored respectably for a first-time two-crew: 26 correct answers out of a possible 60. All our answers were correct, except for the (reasonable) guess made for the clue round the corner from the finish on the way back. The winning teams - all four-crews, I believe - scored 51, 49, 48, 46 and 42.
The first hour on the road, to about 01.15, flew by. We did well with the 20 Easy clues, apart from running off the north edge of the map, and had 18 answers on our pit-stop at 02:30. By 03:30, I was losing the ability to re-plan the driving route when we hit obstructions, and we had a run of failures-to-locate in the same hour. After 04:00 we were definitely improving our ability to get Medium clues, answering them quite easily on the way back to Finsbury Circus for about 04:55.
We could have got 30/60 if we'd saved:
Driving is fast. Unless you're after a 40+ score, it's preferable to drive arbitrary distances between Easy/Medium clues rather than do a shorter circuit that encompasses Hard clues. Mark's Jaguar XK8 was a very good vehicle to compete in...but for the four-crew you'd need to make a serious attempt on 40, a BMW M5 would be ideal :-)
Not only did we not get stopped by the police, we only saw them twice - both times rounding up groups of (non-MQ) people on the pavement.
The typical location of an Easy clue was an engraving above a doorway or a fairly obvious plaque or building name. A Medium clue was often an embossing at foot-level or a non-obvious plaque. The best example I remember is "Who of HARRISON ST?" which was answered by looking on a drainhole cover in a dark corner of a courtyard accessible only by foot from a small lane one car wide. It's just as well we had to hand in the route card or I'd be trying to solve a few more clues this week!
The biggest contrast: posh Devonshire Square being one street away from the Middlesex Street/Bell Lane area to the east of Liverpool Street station, which was straight out of a zombie film set: grubby Victorian buildings, shuttered shops, litter and poor lighting.
The first hour on the road, to about 01.15, flew by. We did well with the 20 Easy clues, apart from running off the north edge of the map, and had 18 answers on our pit-stop at 02:30. By 03:30, I was losing the ability to re-plan the driving route when we hit obstructions, and we had a run of failures-to-locate in the same hour. After 04:00 we were definitely improving our ability to get Medium clues, answering them quite easily on the way back to Finsbury Circus for about 04:55.
We could have got 30/60 if we'd saved:
- A notional 5 minutes by being more familiar with the style of clue. The first five Easy clues took seven minutes each; it should take half that. (The winning team's score of 51 implies an answer every 5m45s, even for the Hard clues, of which they got 15!)
- A notional 15 minutes by not getting caught in one-way streets. A bigger map with more detailed obstructions would solve this one, and also avoid mis-reading which clue number is next.
- A material 5 minutes by not trying (and failing) to snipe a Hard clue at Smithfield, where we saw another team leaving. (My idea :-|)
- A material 20 minutes by plotting more lazily. Having not used the romer or coordinate system before, we spent 10 minutes at the start plotting the 20 Easy clues, and another 10 minutes in our pit-stop for the Mediums. We should have realised the start's location, gone to some Easy clues nearby and had someone sit in the car plotting the rest of them while the other two searched. I don't believe you can plot accurately on the move.
- A notional 15 minutes by searching with another pair of eyes. You need all the crew searching on the non-Easy clues. If a clue is really hard, and two or three of you are failing to find it, then you'll know to give up quicker.
Driving is fast. Unless you're after a 40+ score, it's preferable to drive arbitrary distances between Easy/Medium clues rather than do a shorter circuit that encompasses Hard clues. Mark's Jaguar XK8 was a very good vehicle to compete in...but for the four-crew you'd need to make a serious attempt on 40, a BMW M5 would be ideal :-)
Not only did we not get stopped by the police, we only saw them twice - both times rounding up groups of (non-MQ) people on the pavement.
The typical location of an Easy clue was an engraving above a doorway or a fairly obvious plaque or building name. A Medium clue was often an embossing at foot-level or a non-obvious plaque. The best example I remember is "Who of HARRISON ST?" which was answered by looking on a drainhole cover in a dark corner of a courtyard accessible only by foot from a small lane one car wide. It's just as well we had to hand in the route card or I'd be trying to solve a few more clues this week!
The biggest contrast: posh Devonshire Square being one street away from the Middlesex Street/Bell Lane area to the east of Liverpool Street station, which was straight out of a zombie film set: grubby Victorian buildings, shuttered shops, litter and poor lighting.
posted by Alex Buckley at
5:27 pm
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