Sunday 27th May 2012
Brown Clee Hill
Regional Event
Malvern Mini League 2011/12 Final Round 8
COMMENTS
Planner
I first ran on Brown Clee at the 1973 Midland Champs, which I enjoyed so much I can still remember it. Since then though I hadn't been back all that often, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to plan this event. I like the variety of terrain within the area, so I planned each course to experience as much of this, especially the contrasts between open and forest. On the longer courses I tried to offer some route choices, as this isn't always possible on other areas. The longish walk to the start was to avoid climb on the shorter courses, and take everybody into the technical bits of the Northern summit. On the day it seems some of you would have rather stayed in the forest, while others said they would have liked more of the really technical stuff! Although interestingly the latter runners then made some errors when moving onto the easier forest legs.
Looking at the results and from peoples' comments, the courses were "about right". Although perhaps the Blue could have had a little more. While the combination of the technical first part and the heat did cause some long times, especially on the shorter 'grown-up' courses. When I was tagging control sites in March, the weather back then was more like May. So there was every chance of a reverse on the day - not the high summer we actually got!
Thanks to :
Ray the controller for his advice; I'm still learning things even after all those years;
Colin the mapper for making the changes I found and preparing the maps for printing as I was away;
Charlie for organising so efficiently and building the robust stiles;
And to the eight control collectors who spared my legs at the end of a long weekend!
Clive Caffall (HOC)
Controller
Ray Collins (WCH)
Organiser
Charlie Nelson, (HOC)
Organising this event, once again, proved to be a fairly straight forward process made all the more easy by the willing band of HOC helpers and their efficient team leaders. Thanks to them.
Mike Felstead and Steve Bramwell deserve special thank for assembling and dismantling the stiles. These tasks involved a long trek with 6 plastic crates.
We are greatly indebted to Viscount Boyne for permitting us to compete on such wonderful terrain and for making the process so straight forward.
Apologies to the competitor who somehow drifted off the taped route to the start - it was some distance but it is essential to get most of you into the "technical bit". Finally Barry Houghton (HOC) has asked me to pass on this thanks to the competitor who helped to retrieve him from a swamp.
Charlie Nelson (HOC)
Lost Property
1 thumb compass left at the drinks point.
A pink hair band