With the Turf Bonanza 2025 running full swing in Edinburgh, starting with the Welcome Foot Turf Event on the Friday evening, I was keen to keep adding turfer uniques to the collection and with the influx of visitors for the event, I was almost spoilt for choice. My first session gave me 16, the second session added another 10 and last evenings foot event allowed me to add another 9, though it was again frustrating at times.
Hunting ghost turfers is the term I’ve come up with to describe the situation when you are heading for a turfer unique zone, believing the information on Warded’s TvT page is up to date, yet when you arrive at the zone, you find it’s just been taken and your turfer unique has vanished. Happened to me on three occasions during the Welcome Foot Turf Event but that’s all part of the game.
I find it very annoying, and I’d definitely say it’s very bad turfing sport, when turfers switch off their GPS between zones, particularly when the area around the zone appears clear to you on the turf app, so you head that way. Then, minutes, or even seconds before you arrive at the zone, some bloody turfer switches on the GPS, appearing as if they have just beamed down from a space ship, takes the zone, then switches the GPS off again and vanishes (or beams back to their space ship). Grrr! Leave your bloody GPS on you son-of-an-alien-slime-blob! I curse you! May all your hair fall out/may you drop your phone down a drain/may you be snatched by passing aliens for medical experiments. Rant over.
Anyway, one benefit of the event was that all the participants were busy taking event zones meaning I was free to take any of the normal zones at my leisure. One thing I did find strange was watching turfers on the app taking zones where there were no zones, at least as far as I was concerned. As I was not taking part in the event, I would not see the event zones, only those taking part would see them.
So, on to today’s event, the Bonanza 2025 Bike Championship, this one taking place to the west of Edinburgh city centre, stretching out from the Bruntsfield area to the Saughton area, an area I know well having worked in the area for a few years. I used to walk this area every morning before work, so hoping my local knowledge will help, though knowing who I’m up against, I suspect not.
Now, imagine time has passed and its now “sometime later” and the event has finished. Well, that was fun. Also, hard work, challenging, frustrating and annoying, all at various time. Oh, a wet as well, at least during the final 15-minutes when the heavens decided to pump their load on us.
A Bonanza 2025 Bike Championship is quite different to normal turfing, most, if not all the usual parameters are changed. Takeover time is 30 seconds, block time is 3-minutes, zones are worth 10 points for a take and 60 points per hour if you hold them. No bonuses, no assists and wearing a bicycle helmet is compulsory. Oh, and e-bikes are not permitted unless you have a really good excuse and can convince/bribe/blackmail the turf event organisers to allow you to ride one.
There were 46 participants and 169 relatively close-together zones in the event area, which covered an area of very roughly 3 square miles and that means is a lot of turfers aiming for the same zones, and often getting there before you. But then you are doing the same to other turfers. It’s all rather hectic and you sometimes wonder where am I, what am I going to do now and so on. As far as the results go, I managed 32nd place out of 46 participants with 1066 points, The winner was MaXi who had 1803 points. Full results can be viewed here.
The forecast heavy showers held off for much of the event with only a few spots of rain occasionally having you reaching for the waterproofs. It was only in the last 15-minutes or so, that the heavens opened and even with waterproofs, well, I certainly got very wet but so close to the end of the event, it really wasn’t an issue. I’d also had the good foresight to bring a change of clothing, just in case. All in all, a good day turfing.
So, that’s all for now, I’m away to enjoy the edible contents of my welcome pack, the Irn-Bru (made from girders!) and some of Mrs Tilly’s famous Scottish tablet. Mind you, I was actually hoping for a fruit scone! Bye for now.
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