| Wessex
Night Event Saturday 3 January 2008
An
Interesting nights sport. Very many thanks to all of
you who turned out on such a cool evening. Score events
always fascinate me when analysing the routes competitors
took and the thinking behind what they are doing. One
thing I cannot comprehend though is the mindless vandalism
that perhaps spoilt the run for some of you and certainly
frustrated the fast boys. I have analysed your routes
and times and added an adjustment for what I believe
was the time any of you lost at the 'missing' controls,
plus given you credit for that control. If anyone thinks
I have got it wrong then please let me know.
We
had issues with four controls: Control 117 (7 on map
one) was visited first by Chris Branford. After a few
minutes of searching Chris was approached by a Park
worker asking if he was looking for this as he held
up the control stake. He apparently thought it had been
left over from the day event and was just tidying up!
Chris replaced it and was the only one affected by this.
Next
was control 126 (11 on map one). Although tucked in
on the inside corner of the building someone had found
it and literally smashed the plastic stake, only a small
piece of the stake was found but fortunately the box
was still around and competitors left it lying on the
ground. Where I can see your time has been affected
by this I have given you an adjustment of 10 points
for each minute lost for those that collected all controls
and 5 points for each minute lost for those that didn't
collect all the controls (I think that makes logical
sense, but do tell me if you disagree).
Next
was control 113 (3 on map two). Competitors were returning
to say it was missing and Eric went out to look and
also couldn't find it. When I went to collect controls
I found it less than 10 meters further south, discarded
on the other side of the path between the path and the
shoreline boulders. Not therefore sure I am too sympathetic
of the competitors who said they spent ages looking
for this one (but then I do have a pretty bright headlight).
Again I have credited this to those competitors who
went to the control site and given them an adjustment
as above.
Finally
control 116 (4 on map two). Of the four competitors
who visited this control, two said they could find it,
one wasted a bit of time but found it and the forth
found it with no problem. On collecting it I discovered
it had been placed by the north-western bench of the
bench pairs, 50 meters to the north of the correct bench
pair. For this my apologies (you just can't get the
staff these days!).
I
hope you appreciated why I had to make the rules a little
convoluted and challenging. The area is very limited
and there are only a certain number of times you can
run round the lake before it becomes monotonous. Dale
would probably have been round in 45 minutes with a
clean run which was about the best I could hope for.
If it had been a straight score event on a single map
then sub 25 minutes would have been possible! However
looking at the results it appears two people didn't
take on board the scoring principle and have paid the
consequences.
My
sincere thanks to helpers Tim Holder, Ian Sayer and
Eric Wapples, Eric stayed throughout the day and helped
collect in controls afterward. I hope he has thawed
out by now.
Gavin
Clegg
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