After dripping like a tap that I hadn't had any runs despite all the times I'd been on call, I finally got my first outing.
The trick seems to be to bite the bullet and volunteer to be a controller for the Sunday daytime shift and a rider for the subsequent night shift.
Whichever divine entity that is responsible for motorcycling rewards this sacrifice by arranging for a really juicy run to come in just as one's riders are going off shift so you can bagsie it for yourself.
Thus it was that I had a very pleasant evening ride: first to Southampton General; spend a stupid amount of time finding the Path Lab; collect miniscule sample box; transport it with all haste to the handover point at Warminster for onward transit via Avon Freewheelers to Bristol; then home down the snakey A350. A four-hour jaunt covering 130 and some odd miles. Loverly.
The view for much of the homeward leg.