Shoal Hill District

Controllers Comments.

Everything appeared to be going well today until the first runner from the Blue/brown
course came back. Control 179 was missing and later reported in the adjacent depression
and this was how we found it. How did it get there?

When the controls were checked this morning it was in the correct place. We temporarily
placed an alternative control in the right place and later removed the incorrect control
and put it in the correct place. The only answer we can suggest is vandalism. I
therefore took the decision to make it an 'optional control' whereby nobody suffered for
not finding it or punching either of the alternative controls which were out at some
point. Apologies if this upset anybody's run but I felt it was a good option.

Everything appeared to run well on the junior courses and I believe an enjoyable day was
had by all.

Thank you to Jim for his good courses and to everybody who helped.

Sheena Williams

Planners Comments

For a small area Shoal Hill has a mixture of different terrain, including the fast open moorland, the complex path network in the South and the more technical, but very littered wood in the North East. The re-opening of the quarry has restricted access to and from this latter area to the same path and so I only used it for the Blue and Brown courses.

Winning times on some of the courses were a bit faster than expected, perhaps aided by some very good competition on the Yvette Baker Trophy courses and that the shorter courses were kept mainly to the moorland and surrounding paths.

Sheena has noted the one problem that occurred on the day, with control 179 growing legs after being put out and checked. I hope it did not cause problems for too many competitors.

Thanks for Sheena for her help during the planning process and to Allan and the planning team members who helped put out and collect controls on the day. I hope that you all enjoyed your courses.

Jim Preston

Organisers Comments.

This event was all about encouraging young people to participate in orienteering and it was great to see so many competing today. Jim Preston and Sheena Williams ensured that we had a quality event befitting the YBT competition. The YBT was a close fought battle between Chasers, DEE and HOC which added to the excitement. I hope that you all enjoyed the event.

As ever, the smooth running Chaser's team sprang into action which makes the Organisers life so easy. My thanks go to the Team Leaders and the band of volunteers who made the event such a success.

I was very concerned about the route to the Start/Finish area from the Assembly field as the traffic along the road travels quickly and there was the added volume from the car boot sale further down the road. My special thanks to Dave Thomas who manned the road crossing for four hours without complaint so that competitor safety was more than adequately covered.

Events such as this cannot take place without the cooperation of people outside the orienteering fraternity; I appreciated the help and contribution from the assembly field landowner, Robin Bhageerutty, and Bob Collet, Ranger for Shoal Hill.

Finally, the Colour Standard times are as follows:

Brown: 76:48
Blue: 70:24
Green: 47:46
Lt Green: 42:25
Orange: 35:15
Red: 46:04
Yellow: 23:57
White: 74:35

Tom Roach