WITH satellite navigation systems now available for as little as £80, more people are trusting a little box fitted into their car rather than an AtoZ.

Kat Dibbits tries one out, while Andrew Mosley uses a traditional map to find their way from Middlebrook to Rishton Lane in Great Lever.

Once there, they had to buy a copy of the Bolton Evening News and make it back to the office.

ANDY: THE A TO Z

I WAS pretty confident, it has to be said. After all, Kat is the woman who didn't know where Burnley was and confused Newcastle-under-Lyne with the more famous city populated by Geordies.

Unfortunately, my over-confidence led to an early mistake akin to Manchester United's regular under-estimation of lower league F A Cup opposition.

I put the car into gear, released the handbrake and set off - without planning my route to a destination chosen by my opponent.

It was going well until I came to a crossroads around half a mile from the town centre and mistakenly - under pressure with the lights at green, traffic behind me and the A to Z that I had borrowed from my opponent proving difficult to read while driving - took a left.

Ten minutes later, however, I was feeling pretty smug as I headed towards Rishton Road and certain victory, only to realise I should have been in Rishton Lane in Great Lever.

It was too late. There was no way back.

Not one that I could find in a hurry, anyway.

I attempted to right myself and 15 minutes or so later I passed the agreed meeting point only to find Kat not actually there. I pulled in to call her, only to be greeted by a claim that she had been to Rishton Lane, bought a copy of the Bolton Evening News, been back to the office, put it on my desk and headed back to the car park.

There are doubts as to whether this actually happened (after all, one copy of the Bolton Evening News looks pretty much like any other available from newsagents all over town), but I have to confess that, when using a map, a little bit more pre-planning is advised, especially presented with what should have been an easy challenge of defeating a directionally-challenged technophobe.

KAT: THE SATNAV

YOU hear all sorts of horror stories about SatNav systems.

Drivers who have been sent hundreds of miles out of their way, drivers who have been directed over the edge of cliffs, that sort of thing.

Coupled with my notorious reputation as the woman driver with the worst sense of direction, possibly, ever, the odds of me beating Andy to a newsagents in Rishton Lane, Great Lever and then back to the office initially seemed slim. Especially as I had given him a head start.

The TomTom One system did not pose the operating difficulties that some cynics had suggested it might do for me. You type in where you want to go, and the disembodied woman gives you directions. Easy.

Easy until she starts sending you a different way to the one you would have chosen, that is. Stay calm, I thought, it has satellites. It knows what it's doing. The whole point of the race was that I wasn't allowed to use my local knowledge, so as much as every nerve was screaming at me that the best way to Rishton Lane from Middlebrook, is to go down the motorway, I did as I was told.

And it got me there, no problem.

With no Andy in sight I popped in to the newsagent, bought a copy of the Bolton Evening News, snapped a picture of the road sign on my camera for good measure and instructed the little screen to direct me back to our offices.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing, the one-way system on Princess Street has been turned back-to-front, a fact that the SatNav was unaware of.

Back in the office there was no sign of Andy. I left my copy of the Bolton Evening News on his desk with a note, and went to put my car in the car park. Who says girls and technology don't mix?