Event 1 Plymouth City comments
Planner's Comments
When initially asked if I would like to Plan an urban event in Plymouth I thought great having lived here all my life I know loads of nooks and crannies, I have also enjoyed the urban sprints at the JK’s and enjoyed the Tavistock event 2 years ago.
Then progressively it was dawning on me the enormity of the task, no suitable map, the size and creditability of the event and my very limited experience. Of all areas of Plymouth, the Hoe foreshore and Barbican looked like the most interesting places with limited traffic flow, then with the kind permission of the Commanding officer of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery to use the Citadel we had the icing on the cake.
After many hours of site and map recce by Andy Reynolds and myself passing on snippets of information to Roger Hargreaves 60 miles away in Truro for Roger’s inclusion on the evolving map. T hen once Roger had completed a final confirmation recce I was ready to go with only a few final tweaks needed.
The intention of all the courses was to show off the sights of Plymouth and have varied difficulty and yet be challenging. The Barbican was hopefully runnable even with the people enjoying their Saturday night out. The Citadel was made more technical than I had imagined by all the vehicles lined up for the early off on exercise the next day. I could not have asked for the truck across the tunnel to have been parked in a better place! The foreshore turned navigating into a 3d affair and made more sense if you looked up from the map at the steps and pathway formations.
Thank you to all those within both clubs who gave me the guidance and confidence to plan this event.
Roger Hargreaves for rules, regulations, mapping etc.
Alan Simpson Additional support and advice on what I was supposed to do.
Andy Reynolds organiser, John Moody Controller it was a pleasure to work with you.
All the team behind the scene that made the event happen and helped me collect controls until 2245.
I hope you enjoyed the challenge of the event and had the time to look up and see the sites of Plymouth in such good weather, and all your mistakes have been put into suitable perspective.
Congratulations to the winners and any feedback would be welcomed to enhance future events.
Steve Edmonds (DEVON)
Event 2 Davidstow comments
Planner's Comments
Devon was unable to provide a suitable area for this day owing to Dartmoor being out of use for the ground nesting bird season and a number of our forested areas subject to thinning or wind damage. So thanks to KERNO for making this new area available. Looking ahead DEVON are hopeful that Braunton Burrows will be available for larger events if a lower key event this June is satisfactory from the land agent’s perspective.
As you found it is a very open area with generally fast running. The ground had dried out a lot in the last few months although freshened up by a thunderstorm on the Saturday night.
It is not ideal to have a long walk from the finish but I wanted the courses to access different aspects of the area. Thankfully the weather was favourable on the day.
Course lengths were planned on BOF guidelines based on a previous event. The blue and short green courses were slightly longer in order to make the most of the area. Given some of the winning times perhaps the courses could have been even longer although I know some people found them a bit long.
Many thanks to Arthur Boyt for his guidance as controller and who cycled through the area to visit all controls on the day. Thanks also to Ivor and the KERNO organising team for their support.
Finally to Roger Green for getting courses on three different map scales.
Nicholas Maxwell (Devon)
Event 3 Mt Edgcumbe Comments
Controller's Comments
Many thanks to Mark for all of his work in planning at Mt. Edgcumbe; the outcome of which provided 10 good, middle distance courses, making the most of the terrain and with winning times for the more technical courses pleasingly close to the 30 -35 minutes target, despite recent, rapid, vegetation growth. As some people reasonably pointed out, we recognise that parts of the map need updating. The club currently have this in hand, using LIDAR, although the task is someway off completion. The setting, of course, was superb - as was the weather. Please take the time to see some of Mark's stunning photographs!
Bryan Smith (Devon)