First day of the Gradient British Record Encampment. Gary Puhl (Aspen 3), Mark Jones (XC2), Brad Nicholas (XC3) and myself. First gaggle got away whilst we were briefing at 10. 40 then an unexpected tough line came through with a large area of spread out and light drizzle. I thought that there was little point going XC as you would only get as far as the spread out. There were only 3 pilots left on the hill and I planned to just fly back to the car to drive retreive. I hit reasonable lift and decided that I should give the XC3 a short XC on its first outing. A long glide over the Wenlock Edge almost put me on the deck, with a broken climb over a farm in the bottom of the valley which then exploded into the strongest climb of the day, 10 up to 5000ft. A long glide over southern Clee Hill and I caught up with Wayne Seeley who had his own low save over Cleobury Mortimer. Took a cloud climb to 6000ft to catch him up then we made the cruicial decisiosn of the day, which was to push north of the trough line where a line of CU were forming. A push west connected us with a great line of energy, allowing a low lifty glide in light lift. A thermalling sailplane at Edge Hill forced a push NE then Wayne lead out to a great CU over Banbuy. A long glide over the town was rewarded with a climb on the downwind edge. At base with a cloud street ahead to the moon, disaster struck... I somehow turned my XC Trainer off and it then wouldn't turn back on again... Arghhh. Just 10km short of a new British Declared Goal Record of 143km, I was forced to spiral down and land whilst Wayne cruised on for 169km. Complacency, flying with only one instrument so serves me right.