Controller's Comments

I do not think any who competed at this event would have guessed that today's courses were planned by a novice planner of age 14 years. Oliver Hague produced interesting courses of the right technical difficulty, and only very few improvements could be suggested as the courses were finalised.

On the Long course, the transition from mostly flat out running in the urban and open areas to less obvious features in the Paradise nature reserve did catch some of you out. However, it was not intentional to mark Owlstone Road in Newnham as "Out of Bounds" as implied by the olive colouring. This was inherited on the base map, but I should have spotted this before the maps were printed. This would not have affected route choice, but probably did cause some confusion about the location of the road leading to control 16 (number 89). Apologies to anyone who lost time as a result.

Some "mispunches" on the long course are apparently due to the dibber not registering the punch. However in all cases the box was checked and found to be beeping and flashing OK, and other runners running earlier and later did not see any problem. Please be aware that some boxes respond more slowly than others, evidently even when the weather is warm, and I wonder if this may be the cause of the mispunches. It is the orienteers responsibility to ensure the punch is registered, so do check for the visual and audible confirmation!

Some comments for future Organisers and Planners in this area:
Cows were found to congregate in the underpass (highly sought after shade ?) and although they are segregated from the "pedestrian" lane designed for bipeds who can open gates, some bipeds may look for an alternative route to avoid going close to the lovely cattle and their not so lovely aroma. However, since there is no safe alternative way of crossing Maids Causeway, (unless we lay on a marshalled crossing, see below) juniors should be told that they must use the underpass.

Secondly, on a related point. The traffic on Maids Causeway during the event was heavy and continuous - far more traffic than we have seen on previous events here, which is probably due to the exceptional weather and the event being in July when the tourist population is near its peak. We have sometimes planned marshalled crossings of this road for junior courses, without problems. However, with today's level of traffic, the wait for a safe crossing window may be quite long, implying the need for controls either side so that the wait period can be removed from competition times, and maybe stage the crossing at the zebra so that there is a means of stopping the traffic!




The nature reserve and Lammas land car park may be unavailable late September/October this year if planned work on the nature reserve proceeds.