I hope you all enjoyed your runs in an area that hasn’t been used on many previous occasions. Although there wasn’t a significant climb recorded for all the courses, the underfoot conditions made it a much more challenging event.

It appears from the winning times that the courses were about the right length and from comments received, most of you appeared to have enjoyed the challenge that this area presented (apart from the wet feet!).

It was interesting to plan courses that covered the three quite distinct areas: more traditional woodland to the north, the young plantation to the south west, and the area around the start and finish including the mapped water features.

I apologise for not being able to adequately represent the bulrushes that have grown up in some of the water features making the visibility of the water difficult. However, I understand that it didn’t stop some of you ignoring them and ploughing straight through rather than navigate around as I had assumed. I also apologise to those competitors who were confused by the recent work being carried out on the path adjacent to the old railway line north of the road crossing. This should have been included in map corrections.

We decided not to send the divers out to try and recover the dibber lost by the competitor who tried to cross the hazardous marsh/pond at control 167 and ended up waist high in mud with a very muddy map and no dibber!!

I would like to thank Steve for his thoughtful guidance and suggestions in controlling this event which contributed to a trouble free, successful day.

Simon Ford