ORGANISER’S COMMENTS

From my point of view the event seemed to go well. Fortunately the weather, even if a bit chilly, was dry – even sunny at times, which was a great help. I suspect that Christmas ailments had hit a number of people, as there were quite a lot of no shows from pre entrants, although over 150 came and entered on the day. Particular thanks to my experienced and dedicated team of helpers, who made my task an easy one. We do hope you all enjoyed yourselves.

Lost property: One very muddy large bobble hat and one smallish white sock. Will be returned to any claimants (first come, first served!) or otherwise will go for recycling in the textile bank.

John Brown

Planners Comments

Firstly, I must thank the Controller, Mike Pemberton, for his time and effort that helped ensure the junior courses were of the correct technical difficulty.

The choice of start and finish location were largely determined by the White course, the most difficult course to plan with a complex network of paths close to the car park. The spread of times on the junior courses suggest we had them at the right level. We were grateful the weather had remained largely dry over recent weeks. A month ago there was a lot of standing water which might have proved a hazard along parts of the junior courses.

Thank you to Andy who maintained our Master Course Planning file and who did all the extra jobs including sorting all the stakes and SI units ready for putting the controls out. Thanks also to my family who have helped in various ways to ensure the event was a success.

Finally, thank you all for competing at this busy time of year; it makes the time spent planning and checking control sites over the last few months worthwhile.

Sue Bett

I would like to start by thanking our Controller, Mike Pemberton from BKO Club, who I have gained so much from over the last few months.

To my co planner Sue, for been so patience with me and doing a wonderful job on the junior course.

To our Organiser, John whose work leading up to the event and then on the day was nothing short of excellent. I would also like to ask John to thank his team of helpers he put together for their tireless effort they put in as well

To Paul Keeble and Les Hunt who helped with putting out the control Stakes / kites on the Saturday, Boxes on the Sunday and bringing the whole lot back in, Paul Fox, Gill and Sue’s mum, I give my special thanks.

Lastly like Sue I would like to thank you all for competing and echo Sue comments!

Andy Cottrell

Controllers Comments

Thanks to all the SN Helpers for making the event a success and making my job much easier.

A special thank you to Andy and Sue for their hard work on the courses and for listening to and, when necessary, applying my suggestions for changes. The receptionist at BAE got to know Andy quite well as he dropped in to deliver maps to me from time to time.

Also "Thanks" to the tireless Kevin Main and Paul Fox who made checking all the SI boxes on Sunday morning possible. Without their efforts I could never have checked every single box on the day.

Only one complaint on the day from an M21L who failed to find 243 (his penultimate control). I checked the site and map carefully and could not really see what the problem could have been, as the pond and the fences around the control were pretty accurately mapped. I watched several competitors find the control with no difficulty. The vegetation mapping was vague but was mapped as indistinct so was no surprise. I too found the pond from several different attack points without any problems but then I had not run 12km by that time so was not as tired as he may have been. Other senior controllers also confirmed that they had found the control successfully.

Would the gentleman who forgot to download after his latish finish please remember to do so in future? He caused a few anxious moments as we considered having to organise a search in the fading light and cold weather. Fortunately a comparison of the 'Start' control and 'Finish' control SI boxes proved he had indeed completed the course, an absence of un-Mike Pemberton BKO accounted for cars in the car park finally confirming this fact.

A big thank you to SN from me for the opportunity to control this event and work with the SN team once again.

Mike Pemberton BKO