I have never been to a rally – they don’t appeal somehow. I do belong to a couple of Facebook groups where searches are organised, but so far, the dates have not proved convenient. This, on the subject or rallies, from our former hard copy newsletter “Eureka” September 1990. I thought it worth reproducing the whole article. Might be interesting to read your comments, on our Facebook page, about rallies you have attended.
“In the last editorial I made some fairly critical comments about the Conqueror rally at Bletchingly in May. Having, at the time of writing recently returned from the Newbury rally, I am more than ever convinced that these rallies do nothing but harm to our hobby. Firstly they appeal to one of the worst aspects of the hobby, namely greed. The top prize at these events seems to be getting bigger and bigger – £500 at Longleat a few years ago, now £1000 at Newbury and I hear that another is to be held at Bournemouth at which the top prize will be £2000. I feel that this trend is particularly unfortunate when most of us are still struggling to get away from the idea that we metal detect for financial gain.
Secondly, it would certainly appear from the Newbury rally that these rallies really do encourage a total disregard of normal detecting practice and especially consideration of other people’s property. The state of the fields searched at Newbury was simply disgraceful. Not being a competitor I did not go on the competition fields but only searched the free areas. There I saw many holes very badly backfilled and, worse still, numerous instances of unwanted rubbish items ie cartridge cases, pieces of lead, shotgun ends, scraps of rusty iron etc simply tossed aside on the ground. I was advised by club members who were in the competition that the competition fields were far worse – some competitors, in their haste to get to the next signal, mad no attempt to backfill their holes at all but just left them as they were after they had removed their find. Ken Peters, who was competing, said that he spent a significant amount of time filling in other’s holes as he could not bear to see such wanton damage left in sight of others.
I feel that the organisers were very much to blame, because they failed to marshal the event properly. What few marshals there were seemed only to be interested in ensuring that nobody entered the competition filed who had not paid their fees. This done, they just walked off and left the competitors to it! We were told at the prizegiving that the marshals had to mount a night watch on the competition fields to ensure that no one cheated by by searching in advance of the events. They were clearly well aware of the type of person they were attracting to these events! Geoff Burs, who was competing, reports that the night watch marshals were not completely successful as, on several occasions, he saw unfilled holes before the competition even began, so some individuals must have been night poaching!
One must of course remember that the organisers run these events purely and simply for profit. This is apparent from the growth in the number fo events. A few years ago there might have only been one or two a year, but entrepreneurs are now realising that they are a ready source of quick profits and the magazines now showing one every few weeks. I doubt whether the organisers even care what state the fields were left in at the end of the event. Whether the farmer finds that the money he receives for the use of his land, however much that might be, is sufficient compensation for the abuse of his property, we shall never know. The attitude of the organisers of the Newbury rally were obviously completely money orientated. This became apparent at the prizegiving when they kept the award of the top prize of £1000 to the very last – to keep everyone there I suppose – and then made a rather vulgar display by waving the bank notes in the air so everyone could see them. The moment the winner was announced, and it was apparent that there was nothing left to win, the crowd melted away like ice on a hot summer day, leaving only a few to applaud the winner. Not that many of the spectators seemed all that interested in applauding other people, they only seemed interested in whether they themselves had won any thing.
On the plus side there were very many interesting natural (Ed. non competition seeded objects.) finds made during the two days. One luck competitor found a hoard of five silver Roman coins in superb condition which one the prize for the best natural find (I trust the organisers will ensure he reports them to the coroner for the area [Ed.Now via the FLO]). He was actually a friend in the motor caravan next to us and we overheard him saying that if he had known what a Mickey Mouse prize was on offer for the best natural find, he wouldn’t have bothered to report it to the organisers (nor, I assume, the coroner!) I believe several other historically important items were found. Incidentally, I was very interested to overhear three strangers debating whether or not some of these ‘natural’ finds had actually been found elsewhere and then brought to the event in an attempt to win an award – which one speaker said was frequently done by less scrupulous competitors. What depths some people will sink to just to win a prize! it is inevitable that the big money prizes will attract the less desirable types of person. It is also clear that, if you do enter these events, then you must accept that some of your fellow competitors will be cheating in as many ways as they can find, including searching the competition area the night before! Certainly the organisers mad little, if any, attempt to enforce their own printed rules which stated that all holes must be backfilled properly, which obviously was ignored by quite a few people. The rules also said that nothing larger than a hand trowel should be used to dig signals, but I personally saw quite a few cut down spades being used. One competitor was even using a full sized garden spade and another with a mattock! Before long I expect we shall see someone trying to use a mini JCB!
I suppose I have been spoilt by our own annual search competition, where I sincerely hope members compete for the honour of winning the club trophy or just for the fun of the thing. I know that our system of awarding the main prize to the person finding the most disks was used in open rallies at first but was soon abandoned when groups of competitors were suspected of pooling disks in an attempt to win. This is why the winners are decided by picking numbers from a hat.
The answer for people like me who disapprove is not to attend these events. It will certainly be a long time before I go to another. I would also like to suggest that other club members who are going to rallies give serious consideration as to the possible damage such events are doing to our hobby. Of course, these are only my views and I would be happy to publish letters from others who disagree with me.”
Reg Nightingale.
