Results for JK Relays, Hopwas, 28/03/2005

Organiser

The logistics of using Hopwas Woods was quite challenging. Permission to use the area was never an issue, however in the 30 months leading up to the event location of assembly and parking always seemed an unsolvable issue. In 2003 a lot of time was spent in one-way conversations attempting to gain access to adjacent fields. Eventually the courses were planned to use the change-over that we used on the day (which worked extremely well and was just that little bit different). In February Peter Guillaume concluded negotiations with the Army for parking - even then arrangements were altered in the fortnight prior to the event. We are particularly grateful to Allan Williams (WCH) of Gills Cables who supplied additional parking at nearby Packington Hall.

As the Easter weekend commenced marquees, toilets and the skip were in place in the Wood. After their run at Cannock Chase on Easter Sunday the OD membership arrived at Hopwas to built the relay site - efficiently set-up within a couple of hours. It was the same after the relay prize giving - by 4 pm only the marquee's were left (and Michael Napier uploading your results). The teams of helpers were well lead and well rehearsed starting from relay entries through to City of Birmingham's farewell from the parking field.

Bob Brandon (OD)

Planner

It's a bit daunting to be planning a major event like the JK relays, when previous experience has concentrated on local and district events. However, it has certainly been a challenge, that could not have been met successfully without the help and support of others, especially Bruce, with mapping, advising and all the computer work. And not to forget the invaluable advice and experience of Mike Richardson - I hope he has suffered me kindly!.

Hopwas is not the most technical of areas, but you have to keep your wits about you in moving between very fast runnable and then much slower through all the saplings and small brashings that can easily knock you off course.

My main aim was to promote head-to-head running, so that if runners met at a control, they would know that they were the same way through the course, and then keeping the last loop after the spectator control the same. Winning times appear to be about right, getting quicker through the legs as elephant tracks appear. The important issue is the enjoyability, and as far as I can see, with the sun coming out during the event, this was had by (nearly) all, with some being annoyed with themselves for not realising the importance of using the pinpunch if a unit doesn't register - fortunately, only the 1 control (117) failed early in the race, but was replaced as soon as this was brought to our attention. 2 controls failed before the start. Perhaps this is another advantage of the Emit system, where a punch appears on the card even if the unit fails, without having to think of anything else.

A big thankyou to all my helpers who put out controls, patrolled the areas to prevent vandalism (and 100% successful they were - Hopwas has been prone to this in the past) and collecting controls in, contributing to a very enjoyable day, if tiring, for all.

Tony Feltbower (OD)

Controller

I had no previous experience of running at Hopwas, but my first impressions were that it was an ideal relay area, not too large and with an interesting variety of terrain. The old quarry area in the SE corner presented some potential safety problems but courses were planned to avoid the worst parts; however, my biggest worry was about vulnerability to vandalism, both here and at other parts of the wood used by the public. Thanks to the teams who patrolled the area throughout the event we had no problems of this nature, but it was unfortunate that one control unit failed early on in the event. Most competitors followed instructions to punch their maps, but about 10% did not and were disqualified.

Tony is to be congratulated on his first effort at planning a major event, ably assisted by Bruce; it was good to work with them both together as Bruce was able to make minor changes to the map until quite a late stage. They should be pleased with the winning times, which were almost all in line with recommendations, the main exception being courses j0 and j1. These were about 20% below recommended times, largely because of constraints imposed by the path network. I certainly overheard many favourable comments from competitors.

Looking back over previous JK Relays it can be seen that there has been significant variation in the allocation of courses to classes, and also in the number of course variants planned. This year was no exception, and a total of 26 variants were used as against only 18 last year. Also, in order to balance control usage, different course c variants were provided for classes A/F and C/G; extra variants of courses d and e were also planned.

From an early site meeting with Bob and his team, it was clear that the organisation would be of a high standard, and so it proved to be; again I heard nothing but praise for the woodland setting. Overall it has been a pleasure working with the whole of the OD team.

Michael Richardson (DEE)