HOAX / FAKETHE MAKERS
The Men Who Conned the World
1991 · Near Sevenoaks · Kent · England
WHAT IT IS
Two men in their sixties made a formation for a newspaper, let the leading expert pronounce it genuine, then showed how they had been doing it since 1978 with a plank, a rope and a sighting cap.
THE ALIEN READING
Cereologist Pat Delgado, invited by the Today newspaper to examine the new formation, declared it genuine and beyond hoaxing.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
Doug Bower and Dave Chorley then revealed they had made it, and claimed 25 to 30 circles a season for thirteen years, more than 200 in all. Delgado conceded: 'We have all been conned' (TIME, 23 September 1991).
WHERE IT STANDS
Hoax / fake. Passed off as unexplained, then exposed or confessed.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 5 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- 1991
- PLACE
- Near Sevenoaks · Kent · England
- MADE BY
- Doug Bower and Dave Chorley
- TYPE
- The makers
- TECHNICAL
- Wheat · made with a plank, string and a baseball cap fitted with a wire sight · published 9 September 1991
MORE FROM VOL. III · CROP CIRCLES
FORMATION 27 · EXPLAINED
The Crop Circle Competition
1992
FORMATION 28 · EXPLAINED
The Avebury Cubes
1999
FORMATION 29 · EXPLAINED
The Dietzenbach Clover
2008
FORMATION 30 · EXPLAINED
The Hedenham Rocket
2013
FORMATION 31 · EXPLAINED
The Third Paradise in Wheat
2019
FORMATION 10 · HOAX / FAKE
The Oliver's Castle Lights
1996