Thank you to everyone for coming to this year's relay.  I hope you all enjoyed the event, the run through and commentary hopefully made it exciting for everyone.  We have to apologise to the  GO Bananas 2 team who actually won the Day Break relay, we hope you enjoyed the chocolates and will find a good time to re-present the trophy to you.  SUFFOC were 2nd rather than 3rd in the Norwich trophy. Also apologies to LOC Coniston, who were 3rd in the Joan George - they will be receiving their chocolates shortly!

A huge thank you to everyone involved in staging the event but especially Jacky Dakin for organising, Nick Lightfoot for planning and Ranald Macdonald for controlling.  Their comments are below

Results, Splits Routegadget & Photos are available on the link above (Note the Day Break Lap 3 and Lap 5 'relays' list the second and third runners on the Yellow course). Many thanks to Rob Lines for his excellent photos. Ben O'Donnell (EMJOS Electrons) has very kindly produced a video, which is a great record of the event too - click here to watch.

The Final Podiums

Peter Palmer Trophy	Joan George Trophy	Norwich Trophy	DayBreak 'Bowl'
1 - WCOC The Incredibles	1 - SYO Killer Bees	1 - GO Bananas 1	1 - GO Bananas 2
2 - OD Octavian Juniors	2 - BOK Rox	2 - SUFFOC Juniors	2 - SYO Honey Bees
3 - No DEEtour	3 - LOC Coniston	3 - SOS Handbags at Dawn	3 - SYO Carpenter Bees

Photo Credits: Rob Lines

Next year's Peter Palmer Relays: East Grinstead, 7/8 September 2019 

Organisers Comments

It was only in January of this year that SYO were confirmed as the host club for the event, and I became aware that I would be wearing the Organiser's Hat ( I still don't recall actually agreeing, it just happened)

Whilst Tankersley Wood was an obvious choice for the Relays, securing suitable accommodation within walking distance of an Arena was a challenge. The Sports Hall at Paces was the only viable option, albeit recognising the limitation on the size of the changing facilities. Being adjacent to quality football pitches was an added bonus.

I hope that everyone will agree that the woodland Arena worked well; it added to the atmosphere to be in the centre of the competition area, and enabled a 'run through' ( or 2) for all courses. The setting did, however, require a number of access & logistical issues to be overcome.

Commentary & radio controls were also added for this event; a huge 'thank you' to Pete Tryner for all his work beforehand, and in the woods into the early hours of Sunday morning setting everything up - as well as running SI on the day.

Thank you to all the Team Managers, teams & supporters who attended; it was wonderful to have so many team entries, from all parts of the country, and I hope that you all enjoyed the competition. The DayBreak Relay was introduced on a trial basis this year. The first leg runners did indeed set off as it was just getting light, and I trust that this new relay lived up to expectations - any feedback very welcome.

Thank you also to all the volunteers ( SYO & others) who helped in any way before, during, or after the event. It's not possible to list you all, but I am extremely grateful; the event couldn't have taken place without your help.

Jacky Dakin

Planners Comments

I hope that the idea of a compact forest arena with multiple loops added something to what is already a great annual event. It proved challenging to deliver but I hope the extra effort was worthwhile. We were concerned that the competitors wouldn’t understand the nonstandard course layouts, but in practice it was quite a simple concept and once the event got going everyone appeared to get the hang of it.

Planning overnight relay courses interesting enough to entertain our elite juniors, but easy enough for novices, is tricky. I suspect we erred on the challenging side but I think that fits with the spirit of the event and I hope the slightly longer running times didn’t spoil the event.

The commentary was a key component of the original concept but the multiple loops and shared radio controls added to the complexity of producing results for the standard Peter Palmer format. Despite a few problems we managed to get just enough information for the commentary team to keep up with the action. Thank you to everyone for filling out the Bios and to Sam and Graham for their help.

I’d like to thank Ranald who ‘got’ the concept straight away and was supportive throughout adding an attention to detail, experience, and knowledge of the rules, to my enthusiasm. Jacky’s experience as team manager at recent Peter Palmers was vital in shaping the concept, and she worked tirelessly to deliver the event coping well when SYOs resources on the day were spread thin due to commitments elsewhere.

Nick Lightfoot

Lost Property

We have the following items of lost property, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it....

• Dark brown zipped hoodie 'TU', size 14 years ( on chair in Reception area)
• Navy sweatshirt, Blue Harbour M&S, size Small ( mens') ( in kitchenette, Drivers' Room)
• Light Blue Towel . Name tape 'Ben Wetherill'
• Elastic wriststrap for dibber ( Reception area)
• Decathlon Trail Shoes, size 4, in Tesco carrier bag.
• Cutlery knife ( Breakfast tent)
• Waterbottle: black plastic, lime green writing 'Slazenger'
• Headtorch, 'Cree' written on headband. Rechargeable battery pack incorporated on headband.

Information