West Midlands Schools

Controllers Comments.

I am happy to say that this event has probably been the easiest that I have controlled so far. I had 2 experienced people planning and organising. We had a very useful meeting on the area, about 6 weeks prior to the event, where most of the finer details were ironed out.

I think John did a good job of planning the courses, although he did think that perhaps they were a little easy. After the first 30 minutes he came and told me that “he was going to have a lie down, as he could not believe how many of the children were running the wrong way”. If you have a look at the results, you will see that we had a fair number of mispunched and disqualified children. This is a real shame and I hope it has not put them off. It really is important that they go to at least 2 events, off their school sites, before they compete in the school champs. This would really help them get around the courses successfully.

Ian also did a good job in the organising. As he found out, it is not like any other event that he will ever organise. There are lots of concerns to do with safety and Ian managed to get lots of helpers out on course, to keep an eye on all areas. He also had a good support team on car park, enquiries, start and finish.

I think the event was a success, I hope you feel the same.

Hope to see you at next years` event, or maybe before, if you feel that a little extra practice might improve your schools chances of a better result.

S. Henry Morgan

Planners Comments

Organisers Comments.

This was my first attempt at organising a schools event and I think it went as planned though not without a few problems on the day. It was as Henry said very different from any other event I have organised before.

As organiser I am indebted to all the excellent help and support from the many club members who turned out to help on the many tasks needed to make an event such as this a success. I was particularly pleased how we coped with some last minute changes and how we were able to accommodate a coach of late arrivals.

I am particularly grateful for the help provided by Andy Yeates who managed all the entries as well as all my requests for various spreadsheets for the start and registration teams which made their work a lot easier.

One of my biggest challenges was to ensure that the correct SI cards were allocated to the correct competitor for the right course and timeslot. There were several opinions on how this could best be done but I think the method we chose worked well on the day. If I was ever rash enough to volunteer to organise a similar event in the future I would be happy to use the same system.

Health and safety of competitors is always important especially where children are concerned and the marshalling worked well and helped deal quickly and effectively with a serious injury. The availability and use of radios clearly helped sort out this problem quickly and perhaps more clubs should invest in these.

I hope everyone enjoyed the event and the courses and we look forward to welcoming you back for other events on Cannock chase in the future.

Ian Jones