Planner‘s comments (more like ramblings really):
Well, what a good turnout on a gloomy humid evening. From your comments, it seems that you enjoyed the challenge of high speed navigation around the Cramlington maze.
OK, some of you may say that you don‘t run at high speed, but you still cover the ground faster that you would in the more traditional forested or moorland terrain. That makes the navigation more difficult in itself. Add to that the number of road/paths and the number of decisions you have to make increases again. To me, that is the enjoyment I get from urban orienteering — it makes me concentrate harder than I would in our wilder terrain which I actually find easier to navigate over but provides a more physical challenge (and some nicer scenery).
As you guessed, I tried to plan so that there was no obvious route and it was interesting at the finish to hear the inventive ways you had found. The choices were compounded by also having to select which underpasses to use to get from section to section.
I‘ve included the controls visited by you all in the results for interest. If any of you would like to send me (orunner@sky.com) the order you visited them we can publish this as well.
I‘ve allowed all the numbers written down in a control box as evidence that you visited the control, although one or two were different from mine — actually, control 11 all but one was different from mine so I must check sometime if there is another lamppost there !! On reflection, it would probably have been better if I‘d included the rest of the number in the description so that you could check you had the right one - or at least the one I meant. e.g. 2. 4?996CR Middle path junction
Adrian Barnes
60 minute score:
Pos Name Class Club Score Time Penalty
Final
1 David Smyth M20 NATO 20 49.10 0 20
2 Patrick Smyth M50 NATO 20 51.10 0 20
3 John Phizacklea M35 Ind 20 56.55 0 20
4 Willard Wright M45 NATO 20 58.30 0 20
5 Bob Marshall M65 NN 17 59.40 0 17
6 Nicola Tilt W40 NATO 16 56.20 0 16
7 George Hare M45 NATO 16 62.30 3 19
8 Michael Eve M40 NATO 14 62.40 3 17
9 David McAllister M45 NATO 13 59.25 0 13
10 Oliver Wright M16 NATO 13 61.30 2 15
11 Cameron Wright + 1 M12 NATO 8 63.30 2 12
30 minute score:
1 Neil Sprot M55 NATO 9 28.45 0 9 2 Sheila Sprot W60 NATO 8 29.55 0 8 3 Helen Rafferty W65 NATO 7 27.00 0 7 4 Mary Rack W50 NATO 7 31.00 1 8 5 Paul Boyles M35 NATO 6 31.50 2 8 6 Fred Miller M60 NATO 6 33.40 4 10 7 Alexandra Hare W10 NATO 5 24.10 0 5 8 Joshua Boyles M12 NATO 4 22.10 0 4