Controller's Comments

What a difference a day makes!  Checking controls on Saturday afternoon reduced both of us to shivering wrecks in the icy gale.  Sunday saw families picknicking on the grass, lambs gambolling in the fields and red kites effortlessly soaring overhead. 

There was also the small matter of the event and Peter designed a set of fair yet demanding courses and the results were very much as expected.  Generally the area has very good visibility though the recent forestry works provided an unwelcome number of new brashings.  Unfortunately these affected much of the older age group courses.  The ornamental woodlands around the start and finish also gave some problems to those who had switched off thinking they were nearly home.

My only concern lay with the Orange course as the circumstances of the CompassSport cup can lead to clubs encouraging inexperienced youngsters to "run up" to make up team numbers.  This happened here and there were some longish times.  Not a problem given Sunday's weather but perhaps the rules need revisiting with the events being scheduled for early Spring each year.

As always the AIRE organisation worked well and it was good to be told that all competitors had finished well before final course closing time.

Finally thanks to my wife Juliet for visiting all the sites with me in advance and then checking many of them over the weekend.

Congratulations to the winning teams

David Morgan  East Pennine O C