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Sunday, November 04, 2007

OMM Report - Lowther Hills 27-28 Oct

I think it's fair to say we got off lightly with the weather. The forecast was for gales and rain on Saturday, but fortunately the worst of it didn't arrive until mid afternoon, so only those out later suffered unduly - for most of the day it was only the higher hills that stayed in the mist and offered little shelter from the wind. The night was wild, with continuous wind and rain; lying there listening to it, I suspect everyone was dreading having to get started on Sunday in those conditions. But again fortune was with us as by 6am the rain had stopped and by 8 am it had turned into a fine sunny day.

The Lowther Hills provided a pleasant change from some of the more physical areas typically used for the OMM, offering excellent runnability on mostly short grass, though with some steep slopes. The midcamp, used for all courses, was unusually close to the start/finish, which enabled plenty of route choice for the Score classes as well as an easy way back for those struggling after the first day. Indeed the Score classes were excellently planned, with a variety of competing options available from the start, plenty of on-the-fly route refinement needed and the all-important temptations for those extra few points. Reports seem to suggest that the B and C classes were quite tough this year, particularly as they took in some fairly high ground in the poor weather on Saturday. In fact there were 45% drop-out rates on A and B, with 30% on C.

A number of BOK members competed across most classes, although unfortunately Ifor Powell wasn't able to defend his Elite title this year. Mark Saunders and John Darby finished an excellent 6th in the A class, having been in 3rd place overnight. Alice and Tom Bedwell were 34th out of 224 starters on B and Chris Johnson and Dave Palmer were 109th out of 289 on C. In the Medium Score class, David Hunt and Chris Kelsey had an excellent second day to finish 5th overall after lying 41st overnight; Charles Daniel and Dave Kingham also had a good second day but could only rise to 32nd after incurring big penalties on Saturday; Pat and Louise Benjamin came in 85th out of 265 starters; and Martin Longhurst and Jonathan Hurford (not fully recovered from a pre-weekend cold) were 90th. On the Short Score, Alan Honey and Vince Grealy finished 14th out of 187 teams; Ashley Cooper and Steve Darling were 38th; and Helen and Ben Kelsey (following in his parents' footsteps in his first OMM) finished a very respectable 86th, despite Helen's shoe falling apart early on Day 1.

After a perfect day's weather on the hills on Sunday, the weather broke again just as most people were leaving the event - the rain was torrential by the time we'd reached the M74 and continued as far south as Kendal. All in all an excellent weekend in a fine area. Many thanks are due to Jen Longbottom and her teams for the usual efficient organisation and to the planners (including our own Andy Creber) for some excellent courses. Full results here.