The Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2024 gets off to a flying start yesterday with impressive numbers of players out in the field bang on 11.00 am as the countdown to the new Round ticks away. It took about 5 minutes for everything to set to zero but soon Team Scotland was clocking up those all-important points, takes and uniques. However, all was not well in the virtual Turf realm.
Things seem slow at the start and began to faulter with crashes and stalls throwing a spanner in the works and no small degree of player frustration. And this was in addition to the usual Turf app crashes and sudden shutdowns. Hopefully, the Turf Wizards are working on the problem. More than once in a session I’ve noticed the zone failing to take and you stand there wondering how long you should wait, only to realise the Turf app has stopped working. On other occasions the Turf app just closes itself down for no apparent reason. I hope these issues are resolved before it becomes such a problem that turfers begin to abandon this fine game.
There have also been some issues with Turfportalen, the site that shows all the information and stats relating to the Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2024. Some teams were showing data but others were still all zeroes. And some players were showing some amazing points values with one player in the Hamburg Team showing 86,000 points while not having taken any zones at all. Rumours that this is a ploy by the German and Scandinavian teams to foil the Scottish Team are probably not true. Probably.
Team Scotland boss Fearglas has done a cracking job of organising everything as well as posting some very useful information about the fight on some newly created WhatsApp groups. I particularly like this note;
“Before we start, I ask that we behave in a polite and friendly way, that we consider what we are saying in the chats and how others may receive it, and that everyone is allowed to turf in the way they wish to without judgement, be they on the team or not.”
On the topic of my ultimate turfing bicycle, my plans to upgrade to more powerful 4-pot Hope brakes have been foiled, at least for the moment. Unknown issues have prevented the brakes from working effectively and I’m back with the original Shimano 105 brakes. The front brake never worked properly from day one when I bought the bike and despite numerous attempts to rectify the matter, still remains dodgy. So, I decided enough was enough and had another go myself.
This time I ignored all the advice, helpful hints and instructions from the many videos on YouTube and elsewhere, particularly the one about having the brake lever at the highest point and printed out a set of Shimano 105 instructions. Yes, back to good old paper rather than a laptop or mobile phone screen. No need to worry about getting mineral oil smears on expensive equipment. After 30 minutes of work and one attempt, hay-presto, a cracking good front brake, just as it should have been from the factory.
As for the Hope brakes, I have a Plan B, but you will have to wait until later to hear about that. I’ve checked the parts are all compatible and corresponded with the manufacturer who states, “We haven’t’ had chance to test our callipers with all other manufacturers levers out there but we don’t see why they shouldn’t work.” Fingers crossed they will.
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