Honley Old Woods

Controller's Comments.

Ian and Julie must be the most professional planners I have had the pleasure to work with. Everything was done in a proficient and timely fashion leaving me with very little to do.

My main concern when I saw their proposed courses was the fact that they all, including the White and Yellow, crossed the fairly busy Honley to Meltham road. In order to deal with this unusual circumstance, it was agreed to have a fully manned road crossing. Thanks to the two sets of three people who stood on the top of the exposed hill all day to keep you all safe.

Most comments I heard were favourable, but as usual there were a few minor crumbles. One was caused by the fact that, due to the inevitable cross-overs, the line between 8 and 9 on the Brown course went very close to number 5. This meant some people went from 5 to 9 by mistake. I can't see a solution to this other than perhaps a bigger break in the line. Apologies to those affected.
Another issue worth a mention was the course lengths. No one complained that these were too short, but looking at winning times on Blue and Brown, I feel that perhaps they were, in theory at least. It doesn't help having the top ranked orienteer in the country turning up to your event in this respect! The guidelines say the Brown course should be 0.77 of a nominal Black course planned to be won in 67 mins by the likes of Matt Crane. On that basis the Brown course needed to be about 8.5km and the Blue 6.2km. I note there is one minor crumble on the messageboard about the Green being too long. This is not the case according to the guideline, but perhaps there is a case for the guideline to include a shorter TD5 course (Short Green?). This is something which the new event structure starting in the New Year will hopefully address.

We had one potentially serious injury. A gentleman fell from a crag and hit his head. Best wishes to him for a full recovery.

Charlie Adams