East Pennine Orienteering Club

Controller’s Comments
This should have been a quite straightforward but there were a number of complications which in the event led to 2 controls being hung in the wrong locations. I can only apologise for this and hope that voiding small sections of 4 courses will lead to meaningful results.
Rightly or wrongly we chose to offer the full set of 11 courses for a superleague event. As a result we probably spent far too much time studying the courses on the computer than looking at the actual sites in the forest. My biggest mistake however was worrying about the complex area straight after the start where I was really concerned that the almost total lack of clear paths would make the short courses especially Yellow and Orange too hard. As a result I concentrated on that area and the area east of the stream to the north and left Juliet to look and agree the control sites at the extreme north west of the map. In the event the results showed that Yellow and Orange were difficult but OK.
Control hanging was a potential problem as Rod Shaw, the planner, had said from the start the he would be away on the day so we had to recruit control hangers who had no detailed knowledge of the area.
My second mistake was that on the day, to ease transport I arranged to take Juliet to the south, Emma to the north east leaving me to do the controls in the north west (the only area I hadn’t previously visited). Just as in proof reading, you see what you expect to see. I found all the controls, woke them up and checked the numbers. They all appeared in the right order on the route I took so I gave the go ahead to start. Obviously 2 were wrong.
I must say that at download the overwhelming comments were lovely wood – no brambles, great course – and these things happen. I am very sorry but it should not have happened and if I do control again…..?

David Morgan ably assisted by Juliet