Duty judges keeping a watchful eye out for last-minute entries and kamikaze contestants
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3. A Steam Locomotive - x-6-x configuration ( six driving wheels). The track on which it runs must be at least 7 1/4 inch gauge
- Bonus point for having a separate tender.
- Bonus point for visible steam/smoke from the steam engine.
- Bonus point for both steam and diesel engines in the same shot.
I think I’ve just about worked this out. What do you reckon @Challenges_Committee, 3 points?
Brilliant effort all round from competitors and committee members alike 
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We consider that to be the winning shot - except without any track to run on we are unable to determine whether it is in fact a minimum of seven and one quarter inch gauge. If you can furnish conclusive photographic or documentary evidence by 23:00 we will consider your entry
Details of location and aircraft used would be appreciated as the iPhone 14 Pro Max is not a make of drone known to us
TIA
Am I too late to post my third image of the day? 
You can post it old love but it will be ignored. And nobody likes that now, do they?
And our Good Manners in replying to Bad Manners has made us late in declaring the Challenge officially closed:
And for those who are intrigued / indifferent / infuriated:
1. An Illuminated Building (Must be illuminated from an external source)
- Bonus point if the illumination colour matches a capital-increasing inquisitor, once a trans-Atlantic ferry pilot.
Hughie GREEN Wartime Ferry Pilot and later host of “Double Your Money”
6. A Drone in Flight
- Bonus if its colour matches King Charles’ mistress’s wares.
Nell Gwyn, a one time seller of ORANGEs was well-known as a mistress of King Charles the Second although, having already had two lovers called Charles, she called him “her Charles the Third!”
12. This may be your Mission Impossible - a railway track passing under a road bridge
- Bonus point if the truck cab colour matches Christie’s ornamentation of the aged Quercus.
Tony Christie was one of many who sang the Vietnam era song Tie a YELLOW ribbon round the old (aged) oak tree (quercus)
18. An Agricultural Tractor - in a field. Still or video
- 2 bonus points if one tractor’s colour mirrors a daring firefighter’s hue and another reflects the Cheeky Chappie’s audience’s book colour choice
A daring firefighter - RED Adair internationally known oilwell firefighter.
The Cheeky Chappie - Max Miller - was a famed English comedian, In one of his acts he would take from his pocket two books, one a white book and the other a BLUE book, explaining to the audience that these are joke books and asking them which the audience would like; the crowd almost always chose the BLUE book which contained the risque material.
24. A Car or a Truck - towing a boat on a trailer
- Bonus point if the car or truck matches William Brown’s female nemesis or, alternatively, The Duke’s mood in 1930.
William Brown - hero of Richmal Crompton’s Just William stories - was plagued by VIOLET Elizabeth Bott who would threaten “I’ll thcream and thcream and thcream till I’m thick” as a ploy to get her own way
Duke Ellington recorded the now classic jazz standard Mood INDIGO in October 1930
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Shame there’s no points for working out the colours. 
And now for the results:
In first place with a score of 91 plus 3 cryptic clue bonuses giving a total of 94 is John Blakeston @john768 who wins a Gold Medal and a cash prize of £200
(Not John Blakeston)
Our second place winner, after a nail-biting finish when anyone of seven could have grabbed the silver medal and the £100 prize, with a score of 86 and 4 cryptic colours found for a total of 90 is …
… Ian, our freelance statistician aka @DroneGeek
Our bronze medal winner is a first-time competitor for the Birthday Challenge who ran up a very respectable score of 84 with an additional 5 cryptic colour points making him just one behind our second-place man and just five away from the winner. Well done indeed to Nigel Peach @Stomper who picks up a fifty pound prize.
Congratulations and many thanks to all who entered, for our prizewinners we hope the money goes a little way to covering the cost of the fuel you must have expended. And please don’t sit there with your well-earned gains and work out how much per hour of effort you are being recompensed. We don’t like to see grown drone pilots cry!
If you enjoyed this watch out for the announcement of the RTF competition in the next few days. Happy flying!
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Thank you to @Challenges_Committee who worked incrediby hard and did a great job setting tasks, maintaining the leaderboard with amusing images and witticisms. They each gave up their chance to compete to be a ChallCom member.
Congratulations to the three who placed, @john768 John, @DroneGeek Ian, and @Stomper Nigel
And thank you to all fellow competitors who all worked hard planning shooting and posting their images, videos, timelapses, hyperlapses, etc.
A final thank you to those of you with DMs of encouragement. You know who you are.
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And now, as the Challenge is finally completed we are able to reveal to you the identities of those who have made your flying life so onerous over the last seven weeks.
Ladies and gentlemen - the Challenges Committee:
As always, Click the Pic™ to check out the winners and placings on the LEADERBOARD
Congratulations @john768 and to @DroneGeek @Stomper
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Well done everyone and thank you to the challenges committee for the fun, I stepped out of my comfort zone on a few occassions, went to places more than once, some to find out I couldn’t achieve what I wanted and one in particular that kept me up all night thinking about the poor man(ikin) waiting to be rescued from the tower crane 
The cryptic clues were amazing and caused some thinking and chatting to friends to solve the riddles. A very large round of applause for the Committee who can now relax for a while with a beer or a nice malt, until the next time. Thank you. 
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Hopefully the ChallCom members time in storage till next year will help them recover after the competition!
They look like they’ve seen things they wish they hadn’t!!
Seriously though, congrats to all of this years entrants 
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A massive thanks to the committee for this. Due to neighbour problems we have rarely got out to fly recently but been good following it.
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Congratulations @john768 and @DroneGeek and @Stomper. Well deserved winners in what proved to be a gruelling comp. Well done to everyone who took the time and effort to enter with some great entries and the @Challenges_Committee for keeping order and maybe their sanity!
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Congratulations to everyone that entered, there were some great subjects this year 
And a very special shout out to the @Challenges_Committee for not only putting all this together, but for giving up their free time every single day of the week and holding it all together too 
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Well done to everyone who took part and everyone on chall com. Was just far too busy with other stuff this year and I know how much time these things take up. I got as far as creating my spreadsheet. 
Hopefully be back next year but was fun following the antics.
Special shout out to @Stomper for breaking up ‘the big 3 monopoly’ 
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