The results from this evenings Sprint and Yellow are HERE

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Sprint. I’ve planned here on several occasions and decided to make the most of Lindsey’s remapping to take you to sites I’ve never used before. Starting on the west side of the road also allowed me to use a bit of forest that hasn’t been used for sprints before. It also lent itself nicely to producing a Yellow course that went through the Sprint area. Seb commented on seeing his dad several times on his way round. The view from the start area was quite spectacular but it was also bitterly cold due to being on the windy side of the forest.

As everyone on the Sprint course was warned I’d made the original course too long. However, some work with tippex, a black and a purple marker seemed to do the trick of removing two controls from the course. What I hadn’t expected was turning up to put out the controls on Wednesday afternoon to find tree-felling machines hard at work in two places right in the middle of my courses. Fortunately, they stopped work by 4.30 and I was able to get into the area and found that my control sites were still intact and able to be used.

Welcome to newcomers Max, Isla and Ian. Max and Isla enjoyed their yellow courses. Max chose to cut through the forest when he could while Isla sensibly stuck to the paths. It looks like we have some future orienteering talent here. Ian came along because he was keen to try orienteering. He was very much thrown in at the deep end with the map, the mystery of pictorial control descriptions and all to be managed while sprinting. I do hope he’ll come back!

Thank you to Lindsey for managing registration and bringing in controls. Thanks also to Rob for collecting controls. Finally, thanks to Catherine. I met her doing some compass work with Barry when I was checking controls sites and she gave me some useful help with control 104 on the yellow course – a future planner?

Next up is The Hirsel on 1 May.

Pauline