Planners Comments

“What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours”……Thursday came and apart from a little bit of snow everything was fine.  Friday arrived and along came an unexpected afternoon snowstorm that deposited several inches on Stafford and was much deeper on the Chase.  Driving was very dangerous but the snow made lovely balls for throwing.  On Saturday putting out stakes took me much longer as each step was hard work in the deep snow but as I moved around it was clearly melting and disappearing.  The forecast was for warm rain to fall on Sunday.  As it turned out that prediction was wrong as well and we bathed in warm sunshine.

As for the planning there have been several comments on using 1:15,000 maps for some older classes.  The mapper said that he could not fit the area I wanted to use onto a 1:10;000 and the choice therefore came to be either to cross the Sherbrook Valley and run cross country through lovely white forest on some fine navigation legs or to run around green forest at a TD3 (Orange) level.  I chose what I would have wanted, the better course over the easy option.  I had several complaints about the map scale both before and at the event but I hope you agree that having more challenging courses was the correct option to take.

At least one person I know of disagrees with me!

On a more general note I hope you found the courses challenging both mentally and physically and above all you enjoyed them.  If you have any comments

E-mail me (raycollins@hotmail.com).

Thanks to Clive for being my controller, Rod for organising, Phil, Allan, Chris, Alison, Jon and Andy for putting equipment out and Iain, Phil, Barb, John, Doug, Andy, Bob and Lloyd for collecting it all in again.

Ray Collins

Organisers Comments.

It is the first time that WCH have used the services of Adrian Moir (Fabian4) and Judith Powell for taking entries.  It made our life so much easier and also allowed on-line entries until midnight on the Thursday before the event, of which many of you took full advantage.  83% of the entries were on-line.

Thursday’s snow was predicted and a thaw was forecast for immediately afterwards.  Friday’s snow was unexpected and did cause some anxiety but at no time did we feel we would need to cancel.  Your phone calls were more concerned about the state of the car park than the forest.

It turned out to be a lovely sunny day and the event ran without any problems.  This was, in the main, due to the team system that operates in WCH; it gives the Organiser such an easy time.  A big thank you to all the helpers who put in so much effort to make the event run so smoothly.

Thanks must go to Tim, the farmer, who could not have been more helpful. I am only sorry I did not advertise his bed & breakfast business in the final details.

Finally, thank you for coming and enjoying Cannock Chase. We hope that you all got home safely.

Lost Property

One compass

Claims to the Organiser

Rod Niven