At some events the work of a controller can be an onerous task. This
certainly not one of them. With draft courses ready in early November, a new map
and the area on my doorstep this was an easy task. The courses you ran hardly
had any changes from the courses I saw last year. Nigel produces some excellent
courses, which from standing at the finish seemed to be enjoyed by
all. The use of EMIT made controlling even easier, I was able to check about a
quarter of the controls on Saturday night, and the rest in an hour and a half on
Sunday morning.
The organisation was up to the usual BKO high standards, and we got a free pen!
Pete Jones (SN)
I hope you all enjoyed your run at Swinley - most of the comments I heard at
the finish suggested that you did.
This is the first time I have planned an event using electronic punching with
overprinted courses, and from a planner's point of view it certainly made life
easier. There was a slight problem
with the start triangle not being very clear, because it was overprinted on dark
green, but hopefully the extra maps in the start lanes avoided any confusion
this might have caused.
I'd like to apologise to those people who had to copy down their courses when we
ran out of maps on several courses - it's always hard to estimate numbers at an
"entry on the day" event,
but at least you were able to copy the course before the start. I'd also like to
apologise for the wet conditions on the white and yellow courses - I had hoped
that the rides would have
dried out somewhat by now, but unfortunately this was not to be.
I'd like to thank Pete for his helpful comments on my courses, Alain for his
efficient organisation, and last but not least those club members who helped me
put out and bring in the controls -
one drawback of electronic punching is that emit units are a lot heavier to
carry round than the traditional punches and canes!
Nigel Hoult
It never ceases to amaze me how efficient BKO helpers are – and how they create order from potential chaos. So my thanks first and foremost to those helpers who turned out on the day - and then turned their hands to whatever was needed.
My major worry was parking. At Christmas the rides were so flooded that I thought we might have to cancel. Even a fortnight before the event I was warning the Red Cross of the same. Fortunately after this the weather relented and we had just about enough space to park – although some cars still needed pushing out.
Apologies to those of you who failed to get an overprinted map. Despite scanning a dozen or so sets of results we underestimated the numbers on some courses. The Brown was certainly more popular at this event than many others.
The pens, which were to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Concorde Chase, seemed to be well received especially by the juniors.
Thanks as always to the Red Cross and Crown Estates. Particular thanks to Allan Farrington and Andy Hensman who set up and ran the EMIT registration and downloading. I know for many this was their first experience of EMIT.
See you at next year’s Concorde Chase.
Alain Wilkes