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Controllers Comments.

Allan Williams produced two great technical courses on a small rarely used part of Cannock Chase. He made my job easy, as did Keith Ellery with his excellent organising. I know that most of you enjoyed it, while a few found it a little daunting. Well done to all.

Andy Yeates

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Planners Comments.

Thank you for taking part in the event we had excellent weather and I think the courses provided a good challenge. I wanted to use this corner of the chase as it offers a mix of terrain which is not what you may have expected from Cannock Chase. Many of the Chasers at the event commented that they didn’t know this bit. The planning process was quite straightforward as there were none of the usual constraints that white and yellow course cause. I aimed to plan the best course I could and then make small variations for the men and the women. Looking at some routes on Routegadget I can see that the early part of the courses created some route choice in the deep natural valleys. The branching re-entrants also tricked some people. Both courses crossed the middle of the area with a long leg and although most runners when straight I can see that the longer path run did tempt at least one person. I spent some of the race in the technical area near the end and enjoyed watching you come through. I was surprised that so much bunching occurred, in one case a group of four came through together representing a loss / gain of 8 minutes. The routes show that this area caught some people out as well.

The winning times were targeted to be 25 minutes and the results were quite close, both were won in less than 27 minutes. I wonder if the top runners had a perfect run, does anyone think they could have done 25 mins if they had been a bit more lucky on the day ?

Thanks to Andy for  his helpful and easy controlling. Doug updated the map in some key areas and allowed us to get full use of the best bits. Keith as organiser was very helpful and provided a good atmosphere for the race.

Allan Williams

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Organisers Comments.

In the weeks running up to the event it seemed like a nice easy event to organise. Then the issues developed, car parking venue changed, long walks to the assembly area, dead dog at the start no commentator and so it went on. Despite the limited number who managed to enter by the official closing date we were very pleased with the entry, especially with the Men’s race being fully subscribed. Many thanks to everyone who pre-entered making EOD simple. The sun shone the forest was still without too many brambles and with James Williams stepping in to do the excellent commentary at the last minute, I was really pleased with how things went.

My thanks to Allan Williams, (Planner) for his calm and measured approach to everything I queried with him. Also to Andy Yeates (Controller) for making sure everything was right before and on the day with the courses. All the team leaders – Tom Roach and Chris Earnshaw (our landscaping Start team), to David and Rosemary Thomas, Ian Turner and Sue Lynch for manning car parks and crossing points. To Rod Niven, Elaine Dunn and Dorothy Wilson oppressed in to serve at the Registration and finally to Neil Lawford, Mike Barnby and Alison Yeates for the Results processing and Heather Barnby (our spy in the forest) for the info for James. Thanks to Forest Enterprise and Rowan Clarke for her support in arranging access and for permission to use the area.

Finally thanks to all of the competitors and supporters for your appreciative comments on the event and for making the clearing up job amazingly easy. I went back Sunday morning to collect the taped route from the car park and you’d never know anyone had been there. That’s what every organiser dreams about.

Keith Ellery.