Rishworth Event

Planners comments!

Firstly a big thank you, to all of you, the competitors who turned up! When putting out the controls on Saturday I had every sympathy with the OMM! It was touch and go for the junior courses yesterday!

Secondly a big thank you to all the helpers, especially those in exposed places!

Thanks to my assistant planner Siarlot Lloyd W14, whose mantra was "No dad you can't send people down there, over there, on that bit, are you mad?!" She visited every control site, and more besides, and ran/walked most of all the legs that were out there today!

And the biggest thank you to my controllers and organiser, Mike Pownall, Brian Mellor, Anthony Greenwood, and Dick Spendlove.

Down to the courses, Rishworth is a hard place to plan. You may find it hard to believe but I DID avoid the worst of the tussocks. I wanted all the senior courses to visit the intricate area which you did, some of you visited twice!

I was gladdened to see some of you scratching heads, and pondering.

Everyone visited all of the moor except courses 6,7, and 8!

I tried to vary leg lengths and give you route choice options. I wanted to give all courses at least one long leg. By the way staying up high was quicker! I also put in some fine navigation, and tried to confuse you in places with indistinct features. I think I managed that. On Route Gadget I am hoping to put on optimum routes for your interest.

My biggest disapointment were the 3 most junior courses, the path that had been churned up by the scrambling motorbikes was a morrass!! That will have slowed shorter legs! JW/M3 was the best I could do, there are so little line features to follow other than paths, and where there were, the tussocks were waste high. It was a compromise. Sorry if it was not the best, but it WAS the > best I could do all things considered.

On course 4 some of you felt it was a bit long, I actually shortened all the courses by between 500 to 800m. But then again some competitors thanked me on course 4 saying they appreciated the extra 600m.

On some courses the times looked about right at 1.30 pm, but now looking at them all, perhaps some winning times were little longer, but if it were drier you would have been around much quicker.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed your courses and will come to an EPOC area like this again in better weather!

Graham Lloyd