Brighouse Controller’s Comments
This was our first experience of controlling an urban event and we quickly found that there were many differences to doing the same for a forest event. Firstly, the control sites; some excellent ones had to be rejected because whilst the site was there and obvious, there was nowhere to safely gripple a control marker. Secondly no through routes. Over the years, a number of minor ginnels and pathways have been blocked off at one end or another. These were shown on Richard’s map, but you did need good eyesight to spot them, so Neil had to amend courses in some areas to avoid the risk of costly errors.
Brighouse is a tricky area with some good town centre areas and housing to North and South. Without the 2 underpasses and the traffic light-controlled crossing to and from Wellholme Park it would have been problematical. There were no complaints from the locals, though we were slightly concerned when we went to collect the control on the station steps as there were 2 gents in orange jackets there. It turned out they were there to meet the Grand Central Train from London and were very intrigued to see how we would remove the control.
Neil’s courses received a high level of praise – just a shame that a few more did not turn up. The winning times were just about spot on and it was good to see some of our faster members shaking their heads in amazement. At least 2 members were highly complimentary about the prices of the beer in the club which made a splendid event centre – well done Jean and Neil.
It was EPOC’s first SIAC event, congratulations to the IT team of Jackie, Stephen, Anthony and Ian for a huge amount of work setting up the programmes and proceedures.
Just one final point, checking and collecting controls could almost entirely be done by car. We drove about 15km and walked 1. We had the car boot to put the kit in on the way back.
David and Juliet Morgan. |
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