Update! Niknrich's TB noses up the race rankings

Niknrich's EMcache Racer: Nosey Pup has been placed into this cache in Warwickshire, adding 105.2 miles to it's race distance and moving up to 11th place in the EmCache TB Race.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Race leader collected

After being passed over by ten consecutive cachers it was 11th time lucky for EmCache TB Race leader Greedy Green Frog which has been collected by German cacher Papabaer. What is it about geocachers that so many name themselves after bears?

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Just for a change, a TB is placed in a cache

Lgxkls' Karon's Promise EmCache Racer Travel Bug has been placed into this cache in Cornwall, adding 155.2 miles to it's total distance travelled, moving it up two places into 8th position in the race rankings. This is my calculation of the distance travelled as cacher clawtech_ratbag who was holding the TB unintentionally logged it into the wrong cache.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Now it's TWR's turn to have his trackable collected

Dutch cacher Huntpostmus picked up The Web Rat's EmCache Racer GeoCoin almost two weeks ago on December 17th, but has only just logged it out of the puzzle cache that it was resting in.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! A 5th EmCache Racer picked up

The Great Galaxy Seekers' Big Ben GeoCoin is the latest EmCache TB Race entry to be collected by a cacher, the cacher in this instance being Iain_the_explorer.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Yet another TB collected

Mine! Emo the Fast Fish has been collected by team pendolino, owners of the cache that it was resting in. Thanks team p!

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! And another...

South Notts cachers Ghost Rockers collected RascalGaskells' Cachechopper Travel Bug last Wednesday from the cache that it was resting in near Bunny.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Another TB collected

Lgxkls' John's stegasaurus emcache TB racer has been picked up by cacher Hunters Inc.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Lucky Lottie's Holiday Bug collected at last

After spending more than 2 months in a multi-cache in Germany, Lucky Lottie's Holiday Bug Travel Bug has been collected by cacher Seemfüßler.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all my fellow emCache members who entered a trackable in the 2009 / 2010 TB Race, without whom this blog wouldn't be possible, and without wanting to panic anyone unduly, there is now a (slightly) ominous countdown added to the bottom of this page, below the race placings.

Have a good one cachers!

Random stats no.21; Letting go is so hard to do

Five entries in the 2009 / 2010 EmCache TB Race are currently in the hands of cachers;

niknrich's Nosey Pup TB, held by Hillhappy1 for 2 days
lgxkls' Karon's Promise TB, held by clawtech_ratbag for 4 days
peachleaf's Definitive GC, held by diebaeren for 32 days
Katie 2000's Needles TB, held by grizzly-bear for 60 days
Mrs Web Rat's Definitive GC, held by The leckie boys for 73 days.

Grizzly-bear has visited several caches since collecting Katie 2000's Travel Bug, so he may have dropped it into one but forgotten to log. I'll check at my earliest opportunity. Ironically at the time of collecting the TB he commented that it hasn't travelled much for a Travel Bug!

Update! niknrich's Nosey Pup collected

Niknrich's EMcache Racer: Nosey Pup has been collected from North Wales by veteran cacher Hillhappy1, who is threatening to bring it back to the East Midlands.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

UK Counties visited; version 9

Another quiet day for moves in the 2009-2010 EmCache TB Race, so it's time for the old standby of a UK Counties visited map, now updated to include Gwent and Hereford & Worcestershire, based on one found here;

The 22 previous counties visited are Cambridgeshire, Ceredigion, Clwyd, Cornwall, Derbyshire, East Sussex, Greater London, Greater Manchester, The Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, West Yorkshire and Wiltshire.

Good going for a race that is only about a quarter run. Now, how about some kindly cacher taking a racer North of the Border for Hogmanay?

Update! Karon's Promise collected by a ratbag

lgxkls' Karon's Promise TB has been collected by the claws of this memorably named cacher who may drop it in Cornwall shortly.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Random stats no.20; Distance

Here's a list of the top ten moves. The figure in brackets is the TB's current race placing.

1. Greedy Green Frog Emcache Racer (1st) 1775.6 miles
2. Greedy Green Frog Emcache Racer (1st) 1591.9 miles
3. The Web Rat's emCache Racer (2nd) 1252 miles
4. The Web Rat's emCache Racer (2nd) 1210.2 miles
5. RascalGaskells emCache Racer - Cachehopper (3rd) 1198.8 miles
6. RascalGaskells emCache Racer - Cachehopper (3rd) 1194.6 miles
7. Lucky Lottie emCache racer "Holiday Bug" (7th) 352.7 miles
8= peachleaf's emCache Racer (4th) 265 miles
8= The Web Rat's emCache Racer (2nd) 265 miles
10. The Great Galaxy Seekers - emCache Racer - Big Ben Geocoin (6th) 229.8 miles

This just goes to prove the obvious fact that TBs that have the longest moves gain higher race placings.

The ten shortest moves are;

1. emCache racer - Emo the Fast Fish (18th) 0.3 miles
2. Geohunter-X emcache Racer (Horsey Neigh Neigh) (8th) 1.6 miles
3= Geohunter-X emcache Racer (Horsey Neigh Neigh) (8th) 1.7 miles
3= Karon's Promise emCache TB Racer (10th) 1.7 miles
5. Katie 2000 emCache racer "Needles" (11th) 2 miles
6. Geohunter-X emcache Racer (Horsey Neigh Neigh) (8th) 2.1 miles
7= John's triceratops emcache TB racer (OUT) 2.7 miles
7= RascalGaskells emCache Racer - Cachehopper (3rd) 2.7 miles
9. Katie 2000 emCache racer "Needles" (11th) 2.8 miles
10. Geohunter-X emCache Racer (Horsey Neigh Neigh) (8th) 3.4 miles

As expected, Travel Bugs with shorter single moves are lower down in the overall race placings. The multiple appearances of Geohunter-X's TB is due to having been dipped several times by the first cacher to collect it.

Update! The Great Galaxy Seekers' Big Ben strikes

The Great Galaxy Seekers' Big Ben GeoCoin has been dropped into this cache in Worcestershire, adding 166.8 miles to it's distance travelled and moving it up to 6th place overall in the EmCache TB Race 2009 / 2010.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Itchys' Crown Jewels is first EmCache TB in Gwent

ITCHYthirdEYE's Itchys' Crown Jewels TB has been placed into this Event cache, to be held in Bassaleg, near Newport, Gwent on January 6th, adding 65 miles to it's total distance travelled.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Random stats no.19; Left on the shelf

EmCache Travel Bug Race leader greedygreenfrog's Greedy Green Frog has now been left in the container by eight consecutive visitors to this cache.

Is this because Germans dislike frogs, or is there simply too much choice with 10 other trackables in the cache?

UK Counties visited; version 8

I just had to post an eighth version of the EmCache Travel Bug Race 2009/2010 UK Counties visited map as between us, our racers have bisected the nation! Map is current as of noon on December 15th 2009, adapted from one found here 

The county that did the deed is Lancashire, to add to Cambridgeshire, Ceredigion, Clwyd, Cornwall, Derbyshire, East Sussex, Greater London, Greater Manchester, The Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, West Yorkshire and Wiltshire. Now, how about some kindly cacher taking a racer North of the Border?

Update! Piston head Pete heads East (12.7 miles East!)

UK89camaro's emCache Racer - Piston head Pete Travel Bug has been dropped into this cache near Redhill in Surrey, adding 12.7 miles to it's total distance travelled.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! peachleaf's GeoCoin collected

German cachers diebaeren have now confirmed that they collected peachleaf's emcache racer GeoCoin from Ruhr Park Shopping / Caching Center on November 21st.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! JACKO is first EmCache Racer to Lancashire

Garland Gang's EMCACHE RACER JACKO Travel Bug has been placed in this cache near the village of Belmont in Lancashire. The 11.3 miles added to JACKO's total distance haven't moved him up the race positions, but every mile counts! Cacher Hillgorilla was only the third visitor to the cache, which was published more than two months ago, so JACKO may have a long wait to be collected, but in geocaching finders can come in clusters, so who knows?

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Horsey Neigh Neigh gallops into top ten

Geohunter-X's Horsey Neigh Neigh Travel Bug has been dropped into this puzzle cache in South Yorkshire, more than doubling it's distance travelled and gaining it a top ten placing in the 2009 / 2010 EmCache TB Race.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! A follow-up to yesterday's post

Cacher crimsonrambler (probably most EmCache members have moved on one of his GeoCoins) has collected The Great Galaxy Seekers' Big Ben GeoCoin and updated it's logs to show the correct distance travelled. Thank You crimsonrambler!

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! A little bit late...

The Great Galaxy Seekers' Big Ben GeoCoin has been placed in this cache. In fact it was placed there more than a month ago, but has only just come to my attention. I emailed cacher Gorraine a couple of weeks ago asking him to log the coin out of GCZ5EX Wheal Friendly ruins but he never replied. I've added the 24.5 miles appropriate to this move and hopefully another cacher will move the coin on shortly.

In related news, I have emailed German cachers diebaeren to ask if they could confirm that they are holding peachleaf's GeoCoin, but I haven't received a reply so far.

Random stats no.18; Hanging around

Welsome to a special edition of Random Stats dedicated to oceanblue07970, who's EmCache TB Racer - Pat's Special Delivery has been stuck in this traditional cache for 71 days and counting. Is he on strike?
Second on the loiterers list is Lucky Lottie's "Holiday Bug" TB which has been vacationing in this German multi-cache for 52 days.
Third longest lingerer is Geopirate4's Definitive GeoCoin, which hasn't budged from this multi-cache for 38 days.

Also a special mention must be made of JohnnyBGoode's You Want Fries With That? and Sukygoeswandering's From Leicestershire With Love Travel Bugs that were teleported on October 14th and haven't been seen since. Did Coppers Lot forget to put a sixpence in the electric meter?

UK counties visited map; version 7

Time for a seventh version of the EmCache Travel Bug Race 2009/2010 UK Counties visited map, current as of noon on December 8th 2009, adapted from one found here

Just one county to add since the last map, Wiltshire, to add to Cambridgeshire, Ceredigion, Clwyd, Cornwall, Derbyshire, East Sussex, Greater London, Greater Manchester, The Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey and West Yorkshire. The blue is spreading!

Update! Garland Gang's JACKO collected

Garland Gang's EMCACHE RACER JACKO Travel Bug has been collected by cacher Hillgorilla who, in his own words, likes being out and about on them hills!

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Update! Karon's Promise is first EmCache Racer to visit Wiltshire

lgxkls' Karon's Promise Emcache TB Racer has been placed into this cache in Wiltshire, jumping up into a top ten place in the race standings in the process.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Random stats no.17: Oldest cache visited

As of noon on 5/12/2009, the oldest cache visited by an entry in the EmCache 2009 / 2010 Travel Bug Race is Alien's Hideaway, placed September 9th 2001 and visited by geopirate4's GeoCoin. Second oldest is Blighty - Rutland, placed October 13th 2002 and visited by Geohunter-X's Horsey Neigh Neigh. Third on the list is Any Fort In A Storm (Staffordshire) which dates from 29/12/2002 and visited by my own Emo the Fast Fish TB.

Update! Geohunter-X's Horsey Neigh Neigh collected from a cache that it wasn't in

Experienced cacher bleaklow has collected geohunter-x's Horsey Neigh Neigh, not from the cache that it was listed as being in, but from one 0.13 of a mile away. The previous holder of the TB, simonwarnes, visited both caches on the same day, so at the moment I'm acting on the belief that he accidentally logged it into the wrong cache (although it is possible that Horsey was moved by a third party) and as the difference is so small no adjustment in distance will be made at the moment.

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Itchys' Crown Jewels increases blogworld domination!

Welsh cacher Tortoiseshell has featured Itchys' Crown Jewels TB in this post on his blog. Congrats to ITCHYthirdEYE on becoming a star of *2* blogs!

Random stats no.16; Alphatrivia

If all caches visited by EmCache TB Race entries were listed alphabetically, 1st would be this cache, visited by geopirate4's emCache Racer and last would be this one, current home of RascalGaskells emCache Racer - Cachehopper.

Update! Nosey Pup goes for a run

Geohunter-X has dropped niknrich's EmCache Racer: Nosey Pup in this cache in Clwyd, North Wales, which despite it's name is a traditional, not a mystery cache!

Scroll down to bottom of this page for latest race placings. I.H.O. means In The Hands Of the named cacher. One * after a TB's milage shows that it is currently overseas, two ** shows that it has travelled overseas and returned to the UK.

Random stats no.15; How fast?

To work out which Travel Bugs are travelling the fastest in the EmCache TB race I divided the distance travelled by the hours travelling, starting at noon on the day that the trackable was launched from EmCache's September meeting, up to noon today, and came up with following chart (rounded to two decimal points);

1. greedygreenfrog's Greedy Green Frog, 2.04 mph
2. The Web Rat's Emcache Racer, 1.54 mph
3. RascalGaskells' Cachechopper, 1.38 mph
4. peachleaf's Emcache Racer, 0.3 mph
5. uk89camaro's Piston head Pete (& Dave), 0.24 mph
6. Lucky Lottie's Holiday Bug, 0.2 mph
7= The Great Galaxy Seeker's Emcache Racer, 0.13 mph
7= Itchys' Crown Jewels, 0.13 mph
7= lgxkls' John's stegasaurus, 0.13 mph
10. Katie 2000's Needles, 0.1 mph
11= Garland Gang's JACKO, 0.09 mph
11= Mrs Web Rat's Emcache Racer, 0.09 mph
13= Geohunter-X's Horsey Neigh Neigh, 0.07 mph
13= Geopirate4's Emcache Racer, 0.07 mph
15. Garland Gang's LOUIS' VROOM VROOM!!, 0.06 mph
16= Slightly Tall Paul's Emo the Fast Fish, 0.05 mph
16= lgxkls' Karon's Promise, 0.05 mph
18. niknrich's Nosey Pup, 0.03 mph
19= JohnnyBGoode's You Want Fries With That?, 0.02 mph
19= Oceanblue's Pat's Special Delivery, 0.02 mph
19= Sukygoeswandering's From Leics With Love, 0.02 mph

Well, what do you know, one trackable is almost travelling at walking pace, whilst most of the others are almost standing still!