Planner Report

We were lucky that the sun came out and that you were able to see Holmwood (and the views of the North Downs) at their best.  On Saturday afternoon, when we started putting the controls out, we had squelched round in the mud, water and rain. 

 

I tried to give all of the courses the opportunity to experience the middle band of the map, which was the most interesting and runnable area of the Common.  This necessitated a slightly longer walk from the car park. 

 

Holmwood is never going to be a technical area, but it does give the planner the opportunity to build in route choice to his courses.  I hope that you spotted the options and took a moment to think through which was going to be the quickest route for you.

 

One apology.  For those on the trail runs where we had promised you a course where shorts could be worn, I had naively assumed that runners would take the path round rather than running through brambles.  Next time I’ll know to assume nothing and I apologise to those that drew blood.

 

Finally, the general impression that Jon Coles (the controller) and I received at the end was that you had enjoyed the courses.  I hope that this was the case.  This was my first experience of planning, it hasn’t put me off, and thanks to Jon for his counsel throughout.

 

John Dowty

 

Organiser Report

OK so things didn't quite go to plan. We got you on the common for your run in brilliant sunshine but we weren't quite up to speed with the software for the downloads. We did get the splits printer working in the end but we apologise to those of you that are used to this service but didn't get your print out. I hope getting the results with the splits up on the web on the same day makes up for this. Thanks to Mike Elliot for helping us out at the end as well as all the other loyal SLOW helpers who turned out on the day.  A special thanks to Charlie Turner and Mike Murray, who’s local knowledge, efforts before the event and the use of their outside water tap and kettle respectively, saved the day.  Other thanks go to the National Trust for land permission and to Holmwood Scout Group for the use of the scout hut. 

It was my decision in the end to allow the copying of the master maps for all courses in the hut.  I felt this would have been justified in the event of bad weather and for beginners to have a chance to talk about their course to someone else.  There was a risk that more experienced competitors would plan their routes on the walk up to the start but I thought that they probably wouldn’t bother.  I know that other clubs have allowed this advanced copying of maps but I would appreciate some feedback on what competitors thought about this.

We also experimented with on line pre-entry.  The idea is good but some of the detail could be improved (like including the green course and allowing competitors to edit their entry if they want to change the details).  Again some feedback would be helpful.

Andrew (not the organiser) Trimble

Controller Report

 Holmwood saved its best weather for the morning of the event (just ask the control hangers), and judging by comments heard at the finish, you seemed to enjoy yourselves with John's courses quite rightly being well received. The amount of green on the new map came as a bit of a shock as I vaguely remembered the 'old' Holmwood being thick and wet, but overall really quite pleasant. This was the first event that I've controlled using a combination of OCAD's planning module and email, which made life a lot simpler for both the planner and controller.

 

Jon Coles (MV)

 

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