Organiser`s comments (Colin Welch)
A moderate 22 people ran a course on a gorgeous albeit very windy evening. Perhaps the cloudburst of the day before put people off, but it was still double the attendance of my last go at planning (11 at Ashton Plantation in 1999 when the heavens opened). There were Blue, Light Green and Yellow courses on offer plus putting them all together for a score course. I just had the one taker for the latter – a Joe Taunton of NGOC who managed to get round all 29 controls in an impressive 48 minutes. He reported that No 8 on the LG was vandalised but the flag was found later (but not the pole and stapler). He or a later runner kindly positioned the flag on the crag foot so it didn’t cause much disruption . Oldbury of course is known for vandalism, but that control I thought was fairly safe. Anticipating trouble with vandalism on the yellow course, I had asked a friend, Jules Smailes from Nailsea RC to patrol the most vulnerable sites. In spite of that precaution we still lost No 6 for a while. Unfortunately that badly affected the only taker of the Yellow course – complete newcomers. It could have been worse however, and Jo Foster managed to find the complete control later. The Blue was fairly challenging but Duncan Innes got round it in about 40minutes. At 4.7km and 100m of climb it is about as long as one can make Oldbury without having a 2nd master map The Light Green proved a little tough perhaps with most people taking an hour or longer – perhaps some of it was of Green standard.
Thanks to Katy, Jo (even after re-injuring her cut hand from Stock Hill), Gwen and Jules for control collection, and Anne for helping. Those of you who didn’t like my No.6 on the Blue, E side of crag, up a steep bank may be pleased to know I slipped back down the mud after collecting that one in and needed a quick wash in the river as result!
