| Planner’s
Comments After
discarding Saltram and the River Dart Country
Park for various reasons as venues for this event
we decided to use Parke. There was already
a permanent course here using a map produced by
Lew Bean. As Lew produced it specifically for a
permanent course it is lacking in detail in areas
away from tracks, paths and fences. Those of you
who went ‘off piste’ had some
interesting experiences! I don’t think the
area is worth mapping in great detail for
ordinary events owing to the limited river
crossing points and innumerable fences. However
it seemed quite suitable for a novelty event.
These events are planned so that nobody gets to
visit all the controls but as usual a few élite
competitors managed to do this. I reckoned it
would be about 7.5 km if you went to 1 -9 first
and then worked out your optimum route including
a bit of cross country/cross fences running.
I think the event went well
in spite of indifferent weather. I was surprised
at the minimal response to Anthony’s
questions on carols, but I had been to about 5
carol concerts/services in the last fortnight and
even then I couldn’t recognise all of them!
It is hard to switch the brain from navigating to
answering nerdy questions. The traditional mulled
wine and mince pies was provided by Anthony’s
family and went down well.
You may have noticed my
rather dirty apparel at the end of the event.
This was entirely due to the reckless driving of
Santa Claus. His scooter may have had off-road
capability but it didn’t have four wheel
drive. Suddenly Santa drove off the tarmac access
road and directly down the slope towards control
3 – easy peasy! How about getting back up
the muddy slope then? After tacking along the
slope trying to gain a little height with little
success there was nothing else but to push him up
the slope. The rest was standard slapstick.
Pushing from behind I was spattered with mud from
head to foot from the spinning back wheels. But I
got him up in the end which I was quite pleased
about. Peter Flick might be invited back
next year to be Santa Claus. I’ll think
about it.
Thanks to all those who
helped to gather in the controls after the event.
Roger Green
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