Doug and Dave's crop circle confession
On 9 September 1991 the British tabloid Today reported that two Hampshire men, Dave Chorley and Doug Bower, had started the crop circle craze back in 1978 for a joke.
On 9 September 1991, Britain's tabloid Today reported that two Hampshire men, Dave Chorley and Doug Bower, had started the whole crop circle craze back in 1978 for a joke. Today said the pair kept making circles for years afterwards, with a pair of planks, a length of cord and a baseball cap with a wire loop on it, used as a guide for walking straight lines.
Time's account of the story adds that the two said they had spent 13 years prowling southern England after dark, making up to 30 new circles in a season. In their telling, copycats followed, and hundreds of circles appeared in Britain and abroad. To back up the claim, they made a circle at Sevenoaks with a Today journalist watching. Wikipedia records that Pat Delgado, a cereologist who favours paranormal explanations of crop circles, examined that circle and declared it genuine before he learned who had made it. Time says Bower told Delgado the pair had been "having you on."
Chorley also gave a telephone interview to the CBC Radio host Michael Enright, in Canada, on 9 September 1991.
"In 1991, two self-professed pranksters, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, made headlines by saying they had started the crop circle phenomenon in 1978, using simple tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in straight lines.[32] To prove their case they made a circle in front of journalists; a "cereologist" (advocate of paranormal explanations of crop circles), Pat Delgado, examined the circle and declared it authentic before it was revealed that it was a hoax.[8][32][33]"
- This Day in the History of Hoaxes: September 9, Museum of Hoaxes (Alex Boese, 2014)
- Crop circles: Doug and Dave (Time reprint), Time (1991)
- Dave Chorley interview, CBC Radio (transcript), Patrick Gross / CBC Radio (1991)