Photograph by Steve Alexander

This could have been a truly wonderful circle but it simply wasn’t meant to be. Look at the left and right points of the star and you’ll notice they’re of unequal size, rendering the central pentagon somewhat wonky. A real shame, but there’s still enough here to enjoy. 

Photograph by Steve Alexander

It would have been no mean feat to construct this circle with alternating rows of standing and downed crop. Unfortunately it seems someone has flattened more than they wanted to during the marking out of this formation. Not just once, but twice.

First, look to the lower half of the leftmost circle and you’ll see a straight line of flattened crop running through to the very centre of the formation.

Second, closely study the bottom right area of standing crop in the square. You’ll see another stray construction line. 

Likely errors aside, The Croppie is a big fan of this unusual crop circle.

Photograph by Steve Alexander

According to gossip at the time, it seemed this circle was near enough destined to go wrong from the off. The circle maker concerned was unable to call upon experienced hands and recruited his ‘team’ from drinkers at The Barge. 

The formation was constructed over two nights. The first left us with the transitional piece above. The design is pretty interesting as it’s constructed around a pentagon, but somehow or another, too much of the standing crop where the fifth ‘beetle’ should have gone has been stomped down. 

On the second night, the group has made a pretty decent stab at standing up the downed crop and using it to insert the final ‘beetle’. However, this little creature seems a bit smaller than its four siblings. 

Photograph by Steve Alexander

Although this crop circle attracted a lot of criticism at the time for its clear mistakes and messy appearance, we like the design and what the maker was trying to achieve. It’s something of a miracle in itself that they managed to turn it around so well.

Photograph by Steve Alexander

From a distance this crop circle looks flawless. A very tidy eight pointed star contains a labyrinthine central circle. But examine the four quarters of that circle and you’ll notice things aren’t particularly tidy. Some of the curves are wildly inaccurate and clumsy.

We imagine the errors are partly a result of a particular construction method used by the circle makers. Known as ‘boarding’, this involves the maker holding one end of the stomper to their stomach and aligning the other end over a reference point (such as the circumference of a circle). They then begin to move sideways, attempting to keep the far end of that stomper aligned where it should be. As the ‘boarder’ sidesteps they’re followed by another team member who stomps the newly made walk lines. It’s all very good in theory, but when you’re spiralling in ever-decreasing loops any mistakes have a tendency to become magnified. Just look at the top left and bottom right quarters.

Photograph by Steve Alexander

2009 was a great year for the circles and the opening months of May and June produced some wonderful formations. Among them was the ‘Aztec Bird’ at Barbury Castle. Whilst it’s dominated by some beautifully laid down circles and tail lines, the wings’ feathers are nowhere near as tidy or accurate as you’d expect. Today’s tough critics would slap down a wonk-score of 90% for the feathers on the left, but The Croppie isn’t so scathing. It’s still a great formation.

Photograph by Lucy Pringle

This wonderful formation on Roundway Down has a bit of a problem; one of its twelve triangular areas of standing crop has been flattened. Interestingly, The Croppie has only seen this flattened piece in Lucy Pringle’s photos. This suggests other photographers are able to use Photoshop or something happened after the circle was put down. No matter the cause of that vanished triangle, there’s plenty to love about this fantastic creation.

Since this article was published, we’ve been contacted by someone who visited the circle shortly after its location was published. They have insisted that the missing piece was still standing at the time of their visit, thereby implying that a third party flattened the triangular area between then and Lucy Pringle’s arrival!

Photograph by Steve Alexander

Depending on who you are, some possible errors jump out at you far quicker than others. It took The Croppie repeated viewings of this photograph to notice the errant triangle in the top right area of this minimal yet beautiful circle. It’s as if one arm of that five-pointed star has fallen off and gone askew. Deconstructing this formation, The Croppie can work out how this one has gone wrong and we love the decision to leave a stray triangle standing.

Photograph by Steve Alexander

The Om formation was at the centre of a controversy in 2007 when it apparently appeared in a flash of light during the early hours of the morning (more on that nonsense can be found by clicking here). However, when you look at the end product you can see it went wrong. Not only are the two large arcs almost certainly misaligned, the one on the left sports a wonky crown. And just what is that weird, messy appendage coming from where the two large arcs meet?

Photograph by Colin Andrews

The 2002 ‘magnetic field’ circle on Windmill Hill is an all-time classic but it falls just short of perfection. This first photograph is of its initial appearance, as captured by Colin Andrews. Look at the bottom area around the inner hexagon and you’ll see it possesses an extra walk line that shouldn’t be there. A similar extra line appears in the identical section to the right, renedering these areas different to their four siblings. (The Croppie admits to having never noticed this discrepancy until it was pointed out by a third party. As this individual said at the time, ‘this circle is so busy that the mistake gets buried.’ In other words, there are so many lines to draw the eye that it’s going to be tough to spot the error.)

Things took a turn for the weird on a subsequent night when someone returned to flatten the hatched areas into a chequer-board pattern. For whatever reason they never completed even one sixth of the task, leaving behind a tragically spoiled wonder.

Photograph by Steve Alexander

Photograph by Steve Alexander

The ‘flying swallows’ formation remains one of the best from the 2008 season but there is a very notable error. Look closely at the left ‘swallow’ on the second row from the bottom. Notice how the upper part of its left wing looks different. This seems to have been a consequence of the circle makers attempting to stand the crop back up after it was incorrectly flattened on the wrong side of a construction line. 

Photograph by Steve Alexander

What hasn’t been said about this genuinely fantastic crop circle? It’s considered one of the very best by a lot of people, but it contains some notable errors concerning the shape and size of the ‘headdress feathers’. Look carefully and you’ll see exactly what we mean … but don’t let it spoil this wonderful creation. The Croppie hopes someone never got slapped around the head for their boo-boo.

Photograph by Lucy Pringle

Held up by so many people as the pinnacle of the 21st century crop circle phenomenon, it surely cannot be the case that the legendary Milk Hill ‘Galaxy’ formations contains errors? Well, it certainly does hold a few mishaps, although most elude the eye and the brain due to the sheer quantity of circles that make up this awesome piece. In fact, you have to be a special kind of anally-retentive pseud called Robin to sit down and check the ‘Galaxy’ for errors. But they are there, mainly misalignments of the smaller circles and at least one ommitted circle. Look if you must really be that anal, but surely you’re better than that?