Birches Valley recreational popularity,in particular by cyclists and more recently by the Go Ape high-zip-wire activity has made the safe planning of orienteering courses more difficult and rendered large chunks of area "out-of-bounds". This was why the Planner guided all TD3+ runners carefully through the "pinch-point" area south-west of the start.
Credit therefore goes to today's principals:firstly Dave Brown (Organisor) for his professional but low-key approach to managing the risks and for overseeing Chaser's efficient teams in delivering a successful event;secondly to Christine Collins (Planner) for producing a range of testing and fair courses , despite being hampered by the Forestry Commission's daily programme of tree-felling and bracken clearance.
The course winning times were generally fast and as expected; the exception being the Orange course;after examining the split-times it is probably explained by the 100m  of climb,in particular the legs from control 4 to control 5 and the (unfortunate) "dead-run" leg from control no 7 back to the finish.
Overall, the combination of lovely weather,smiling faces and lots of participating youngsters made it an enjoyable day for me too.

Dave Thomas