Results for Grace Dieu Badge Event, Grace Dieu, 06/06/2004

Again, good weather graced us for an event at Grace Dieu ………and we were, yet again, overwhelmed by the numbers of late entries! Of course, it’s very good to see you all here in Leicestershire, but when we are swamped by almost 150 “Entry on the Day” when we only had just over 200 pre-registered competitors, it makes life exceedingly difficult for the staff when we were only expecting a third of that number. Why is it that so many of you decided to leave it until the day to enter? Was it the good weather? Whatever it was, thanks for coming and my sincere apologies to those few competitors who got to the start only to find no maps left. That must have been very frustrating. The print run was for pre-registered numbers, plus 50%. We did say entry on the day was limited until maps ran out, but our system at Registration failed to detect the numbers of maps left at the start (this is no slight on the staff at Registration who coped with you all admirably).

Pleased to see many of you took the opportunity to make the most of the grounds and the good weather, with picnics and social gatherings, I even had the offer of a glass of cool white wine (which I refused, of course)!

Lots of good words about the standard of courses (the efforts were worth it, Peter!) and thanks to Andy for his professional approach as Controller. Lastly, it’s not often we hear comments about the quality of the String Course, but a few of you asked me to convey your appreciation – so thanks to Roger Kelly, ably assisted by Daniel and Amy.

What an amazing area! Peter assured me early on that the map hid the area's true nature well, and that the courses were planned on the short side to take account of it. After running around the area, I quickly saw what he was saying. We worked hard to make the courses as interesting and challenging as we could. I was particularly concerned that the White and Yellow courses, though interesting, might be too challenging; paths not quite as clear as I would like, fallen trees across the path in a few places, even barbed wire obstructions! Peter took all my comments to heart and taped the sections I asked for, removed obstructions where necessary, and replanned when I asked for it. I must thank him for taking it all in his stride. Big kudos goes to the young lad who entered the White, but was disqualified because although he had visited more controls than he needed, he was missing 3 controls from his course. Showing his splits to his dad, his sister spotted he had picked up the wrong map and actually run the Yellow. Upon checking the controls, he had run the Yellow. Perfectly!He was quickly transferred to that course. Well done to him. I made me feel that the time and effort Peter and I put in was all worth while.

And now to the apologies section. The first is to those who entered and then found there ware no maps available at the start. Andy Portsmouth has already mentioned it in his comments, so I'll say no more. The second is to those on course F who were directed into the wrong start box. You should have started in the woods, the same as courses A, B, C, and E. If you thought it was odd, you were right. Sorry. Finally, and the one I feel most keenly about, I must apologise to the competitors on course H whose control 10 was down as 162 in their descriptions, whereas the control was actually 161. You have not been penalised if you didn't punch at this control. Thanks to Barbara and Elaine for not beating me up when I explained it to them.

JM1	JM2	JM3	JM4	JM5L	JM5M	JM5S
JW1	JW2	JW3	JW4	JW5L		JW5S
M21L	M21S	M21V		W21L	W21S	W21V
M35L	M35S			W35L	W35S
M40L	M40S			W40L	W40S
M45L	M45S			W45L	W45S
M50L	M50S			W50L	W50S
M55L	M55S			W55L	W55S
M60L	M60S			W60L	W60S
M65L	M65S			W65L	W65S
M70L	M70S			W70L	W70S
M75L	M75S			W75L	W75S

Course A	M21L Black
Course B	M35L M40L Brown
Course C	JM5L M45L M50L M21S W21L
Course D	JM5M M55L M60L M35S M40S JW5L W35L W40L Blue
Course E	M65L M21V M45S M50S W45L W50L W21S
Course F	M70L JM5S M55S W55L W60L JW5S W35S W40S Green
Course G	M75L M60S M65S W65L W70L W21V W45S
Course H	M70S M75S W75L W50S W55S W60S W65S W70S W75S
Course I	JM4 JW4 Light Green
Course J	JM3 JW3 Orange
Course K	JM2 JW2 Yellow
Course L	JM1 JW1 White