Night Event Controllers Comments

40 or so brave souls turned out on a night that had brass monkeys worried and saw heavy winds and occasional flurries of sleet and rain.

Pre marked maps and electric punching at night was a first for most of them. They did have an opportunity to run on a new map and go into areas they had never seen before.

This fact and the conditions did take a heavy toll on the competitors but most seemed to enjoy the experience  (if that is the correct word for it) and those that finished were largely complementary about the challenging but fair courses.

Our thanks must go in no small measure to Graham Watson, the planner, and his assistant who were still out retrieving boxes when the deluge started and rain was coming sideways.

Thanks are also due to Kevin Bradley who set up a computer suite in the back of his car.

Roy Denney, Controller

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Day Event Controllers Comments

As I sat in my car waiting for first light, to start out checking controls, I started to think what was a somewhat overweight M60 doing contemplating going out into a severe gale and where were all the younger members when these jobs were being handed out. Especially having spent 3 hours the previous night controlling the night event with a chill factor I wouldn't guess at.

When the sun came up and I moved down from the summit area all seemed a lot more encouraging and I remembered that one of our younger members was planning the event, his first senior event for the club.

By 9.30 with everything checked and runners starting to turn up everything looked rosy but things went downhill from there. 

I must apologise to those runners who experienced problems out on the course due to the vandalism we experienced. 5 stake and box sets were removed completely and another 4 were moved or knocked over which kept the planner and myself busy running round replacing controls. We did programme out the missing controls even for those who got to them before problems or after they had been replaced to be fair to everyone.

The missing equipment was all eventually found either thrown into brambles or lakes but someone obviously had a determined go at wrecking the event and we can only hope that it was a one off because we do not normally have any problems at Beacon.

I particularly felt for Graham Watson, the planner, who had put a great deal of work into his courses only to see them partially spoiled by this activity. 

Despite these problems runners did cope in good spirit and were very complimentary about the courses and the times suggest that the distances and b were about right.

Thanks are also due to Barbara Sacre who organised an event for the first time and all her band of helpers especially those that hung onto the tent when it threatened to go into orbit.

Roy Denney, Controller

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Night Event Planners Comments

While putting out controls on Saturday afternoon in the glorious sunshine I thought we were going to be lucky with the weather but from the onset of darkness things gradually got worse.  Thank-you to all the brave souls that did turn up and hope you enjoyed pre-marked maps and electronic punching!

I didn't hear too many complaints about the courses nor map so I must thank Don Moir for producing the map in time for the event.  If was deemed safe enough to have an un-manned road crossing at night, so I hope you all enjoyed the later stage of your courses, entering an extended part of the map.  I hope all agree that at night the extension added an interesting twist to the closing part of the courses.

My thanks go to Roy Denney for controlling the event and Simon Horton (my helper) for helping me after the event collect the electronic boxes in the driving rain.  Thanks must also go to Kevin Bradley who helped run the electronic punching system from the back of the car and to Andy Portsmouth who helped with car parking and registration throughout the evening.

Graham Watson, Planner

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Day Event Planners Comments

Luckily most of the work putting controls out had been done the previous day and all that was required was a quick run round all control sites placing the electronic punches.  In the age of electronic punching it is no longer possible for one person to put out and collect all the controls in a timely fashion, so thanks to all the help I received.

My apologies to those people that experienced problems with missing controls during the early part of the competition.  I do hope that it didn't affect too many people and every effort was made by all to correct the problem as quickly as possible.  We never did catch who did it despite patrolling the area for the rest of the day.

I didn't hear one complaint about the courses nor the map, but it was a shame that I couldn't gain access in time to the two Woodland Trust parts of the area, covering the north-west part of the map.  Maybe next time!  Although pre-marked maps and electronic punching did increase the amount of work I had to do before the event, looking back on it now, it was well worth the effort.

Some thanks must go to Roy Denney who nurtured me through planning my first colour coded event.  On first submission of the courses I found out that I was planning to the 1994 BOF standards, which are a little different from those of today.  Well that's what controllers are for: reducing course lengths and cutting out controls.

My thanks again to Kevin Bradley who helped run the electronic punching system and to Barbara Sacre and her team who helped organised the event.

Planner, Graham Watson

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Results software provided by Michael Napier, e-mail mnapier@cix.co.uk