After last year's frustration of cancelling the event because of the gales, it was of considerable relief and satisfaction when finally the event was underway in bright sunshine. Apart from one control "walking" and needing replacement before the start all seemed to run very smoothly. After this year's weather the woods were unusually dry and more pleasant to run in than can be the case. The soft area near the bottom of the dam on the small reservoir near the finish will nevertheless have given at least some of you a taste of what it can be like in a wet spell.
Longer courses were able to make use of the large Western part of the area, with all courses passing through the more compact but intricate centre and eastern parts. The east in particular is quite detailed and surprisingly technical. Judging from the comments at the finish the courses were generally well received, although on reflection I agree the leg 9 - 10 on the Yellow was a bit too difficult as the paths are narrow and indistinct, especially when viewed from the head height of a young junior.
I'd like to put in a word for Emit - it makes the planner's job of sorting out controls to deploy much faster and easier. I remember doing the same job with conventional pin punches and finding it much more daunting and time-consuming. The physical assembly of a control is also much easier as it's simply a matter of hanging a kite on a single control unit. This should be a note of encouragement to all you budding planners out there.
Patrick Fishwick (BKO)
The event went smoothly and good weather was requested and achieved. No gales as per last year. One control (147 on the blue and brown courses) went missing between the time it was checked at 12:00hrs on Saturday and 8:00hrs on Sunday. This was very unusual in that the site was well off any path.
Control 105 appeared to be a bit of a mystery as it seems to have walked between two path junctions, the two paths were parallel to each other and only 10m apart. This control was only on the yellow course.
Various competitors appeared to have missed a control when they thought they had been there. Every control in the forest has a light which flashes when the card is inserted. If it does not flash, then the back-up card should show a punch hole. This is achieved by pressing the card in the control the correct way round.
On the whole the winners times were slightly faster than expected as the terrain was full of bracken. Possible these were later runners following elephant tracks.
Andy Mac-Gregor (BADO)
It wasn't raining!!! ...... and the sun shone! We feel that we have broken our Bucklebury jinx at last, to everyone's relief, I suspect, as it is much nicer standing around helping in the sun and makes for a much more pleasant day for the competitors. This was the re-run of the Event we had to cancel last year due to 80 knot winds! (As we write, they seem to be starting up again!). We hope everyone enjoyed their runs and enjoyed the setting of the event, especially the animals near Registration and on the way to the Start. I hope all those who later visited the Farm Park enjoyed themselves! The sheep did cause slight changes of plan and we apologise if it wasn't immediately obvious early on how to get from the Registration area to the Starts, but we were in danger of having the sheep eating all of our signs in the Farm area at one stage and had to have a quick rethink - thanks to Katy Stubbs and Mary Nixon for help with this! Our thanks go to all of the BKO members who helped, some of whom put in long hours on the day. Also thanks to Allan Farrington for the whole EMIT Registration setup, plus Gerry Newcombe and Mary Nixon, from SOC, for their help here (albeit they were practicing for the November Classic!). Our thanks also to the Landowner, Willie Hartley Russell and two other Landowners, Mr Dunlop, Osgood's Gully and Mr & Mrs Fleming of Briff Farm. Lastly, many thanks to Rupert Hartley Russell for the use of the Farm Park which enabled the planner to use a different perspective of Bucklebury for you all.
Alan Yeadon & Liz Turbin (BKO)