It was good to see everyone get some Dumbbells – the minimum being 3 and the max being 12.  Martin and Lucy visited most controls – 34 each – with Sam (M14!) and Amanda visiting 32 each – all very impressive.  But it was the dumbbells that won the day – Kim visiting 12 of the 13 and Paul B, Mark C and Sam visiting 10 each.  Some of you broke a dumbbell chain whilst others, notably Kim and Paul B, obviously realising the additional ‘accumulator’ style bonuses, opted to string as long a chain as possible together.  It paid off mightily for Kim with an emphatic win and I suspect Paul B will be very pleased with his second place (having gone home before the results were announced).  Martin’s strategy to use the first half as a straightforward score and the second half for dumbbells might have paid off if he’d been able to start the sequence one or two dumbbells earlier and finish the sequence but it wasn’t to be.  Mark C on the other hand got the tactics right but the execution wrong – getting confused and breaking the sequence.

So despite the rather complicated instructions most of you seemed to understand the scoring and I hope you enjoyed this rather unique event.  I’d hoped it would allow the less fit people to treat it as a normal score with some bonuses which seemed to be what a lot of people did so I think it worked out in the end. 

The children all seemed to get around the course ok and there was some fast running going on by many of them. Well done to all of them.

A big thanks to Ian Cooper for printing the maps and collecting controls, Monika for helping to prepare food and run the children’s finish, Charlie, Nick L, Mark C and Mo for collecting controls, Melinda for helping at the Start, Paul N for marshalling the children over the road crossing and everyone for coming and bring buffet contributions, without whom it wouldn’t have been such an enjoyable BBQ afterwards.

Congrats to all the class winners (Open = under 45, Vet 50-55, Super Vet 60+). Apologies for not announcing Melinda as women’s super vet winner.  And apologies to Jacky, Sue and ?? for finding 3 controls being carried by Charlie rather than hung where they should have been – we didn’t think anyone would venture back into Crookes Valley after Weston Park – just shows how unpredictable folk are when orienteering.