Results for NOC District Event, Byron's Walk, 26/10/2003

Comments: Organiser, Planner, Controller
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Organiser

Many thanks to all team leaders for doing a great job before and on the day, and to all helpers for contributing to making evertything run smoothly. My job on the day was certainly easy due to all your efforts.

Apologies to all for the roadside parking, you will probably notice from the hand-out that we had arranged a good off-road location, but the owners reneged on us at the last minute. Still, you all saved �1 per car!

Other points raised were the brambles (I think you missed the worst!) and the string course crossing the path to the start. Both are a result of the constraints of the area, I think on balance it was good to have start and finish close to the Registration.

Thanks to all competitors for taking due regard to our safety notice, and hope you enjoyed the event.

Steve Wright

Planner

What a difference three weeks makes! Having watched the vegetation grow vigorously all summer and had planning visits into the forest when I fought through bracken literally over my head, I had my doubts that the area would ever give us navigable territory by today. But three weeks in September changed all that - the bracken started to wilt and areas I had last seen in May revealed themselves again. Then autumn mercifully arrived in earnest and we got reasonable visibility after all.

This was my first venture into Planning and it was therefore with some trepidation that I submitted the draft courses to my experienced Controller "for consideration". My anxiety was well placed - when the "Herewith my initial, brutal, comments" returned, I could see that the learning curve would indeed be a steep one.

However out of the brutal comments came a lot of constructive help - how to avoid dog-legs, how to describe control positions properly, the Rule of 11... . I quickly learned how difficult accurate mapping actually is, what a vegetation boundary is and isn't, and my east from my west. Thanks Ray for the patient steering hand.

On terrain, I endeavoured to avoid as many of the truly grotty areas as I could - yes there were actually several areas which were worse than those some of you found (and did anyone see any signs of the Planner's machete trails?). In some cases, avoiding the worst of the undergrowth was a question of route choice, so my sympathies to those of you who struggled through the bad patches.

On technical difficulty, orange and light green were at their technical limits. Using the southern section of the area "this side of the road" for the first time made green a challenge which many seemed to enjoy even though this meant fighting with the trees rather than the undergrowth. Over the road, the TD5 controls 129 and 160 seemed to give some difficulty, but were found eventually.

In addition to the Controller's considerable support, a particular thank you from me to Steve for his calm organising in the face of last minute car parking problems, to John and Matthew for helping me to put the controls out at an unenviable hour in the morning, to Tony and Peter who deputised in my absence from my normal Finish Team role, and to all other helpers who made the day a success. However a special thank you to all of you who came, participated and, for the most part, enjoyed.

So, did I enjoy it? Yes - it was stimulating work and the feedback and constructive comments I got made the effort very worthwhile. Would I encourage other new prospective planners to have a go? Most certainly if you like a mental challenge. Would I do it again? Yes in a bit, but don't tell the better half that just yet.

David Winser

Controller

The sun shone, the leaves were beautiful, and some of you on the longer courses were lulled into a belief that everything would be easy. David found some challenging control sites, all of which I could find easily at walking pace from different directions.

The undergrowth is harsh, but no control was embedded within a bramble patch. Many of you seem to have always gone straight when the best option was usually round. Why do so few people wear leg protection these days?

Moving the Results tent into the forest from the original car park caused some of you a final navigation error. So apologies if you arrived at the results tent believing it to be the Finish.

David refers to my tongue in cheek 'brutal comments'. His original junior courses were transformed into the full specification versions, complete with the more tricky stuff towards the end of the Yellow and Orange. The longer courses were adjusted to give a more even pattern of length - but even so the vegetation affected Blue and especially Green much more than anticipated from comparing other events results. David has been the most meticulous planner in his paperwork and tagging - and doubtless will go on to plan again starting high on the learning curve (better half permitting).

Finally a note about forest fires. Just what is it about Byron's Walk and fires? At the last event, the controller and planner discovered a blaze during control collection and had to call in the Fire Brigade. Same this time, except it was one afternoon whilst I was site checking that I found a smouldering area behind the Finish. A whole tender tank of water failed to extinguish the fire (although it appeared to be out) because a couple of days later David discovered a vast area inside the forest between Start and Finish where the undergrowth had completely gone. Perhaps we were lucky to have had an event at all! Does anyone know how to burn brambles without doing any other environmental damage?

Ray Barnes

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