Results for NOC District Event, Harlow Wood, 17/03/2013

Planner

What an experience planning was! The recent thinning led to the loss of the original parking and the loss of a number of control sites (hence the tripods) which certainly combined to make the last two weeks quite interesting. In an ideal world, I would have had time to adjust the courses for the thinning and found proper alternatives to just dumping a tripod in the original control site. All of this was soon forgotten once the first competitors had returned and all seemed to have a thoroughly enjoyable time. I was really impressed with the way everyone embraced the brashings, mud and snow (!). I only received positive comments about the courses and many recognised the improvements in both the runability and visibility of the wood. We had a great turnout of c250 which did leave to us running out of blue maps so apologies for that.

I tried to plan the courses to keep off the paths as much as possible whilst adding in a couple of route choice legs. From looking at routegadget, there was a myriad of routes taken and on both the main route choice legs (across the green 56>49 and earthbanks 37>65) it does appear that straight was indeed great.

Thanks must go to Dave Cooke for controlling. Dave has a great eye for detail which was very much appreciated given the rush I found myself in at times and I look forward to planning under him in the future. Julie Webster organised the event like clockwork as well as providing manpower in the form of children and husband! Thanks to my Mum as well for doing all the admin planning jobs diligently and without complaint - some commented on the posh tags for the control sites which were all her work.

I'm grateful for any feedback you may have - ANDYLLEWELLYN [AT] GMAIL.COM

Thanks and hopefully see you all at Walesby in December where I will be planning again.

Andy Llewellyn