Thoughts

Well that's another series completed and an exciting one at that, with the Male solos really not being settled to the very last moment. An amazing feat by John Houlihan in clearing the course - certainly took all competitors breath away.

So we started in the Lake District with Anthony Cooper at the helm - it was a last minute change to Hawkshead Primary, as the weather came in we got twitchy about our use of the ferry going slightly wrong. Not so worried about getting competitors across the lake more worried that we wouldn't get them back. The heavens opened but in a quirky way everyone had a great time - it wasn't too cold and comments about that BCU 2 star coming in handy were abound at registration. Thanks to all who made this flexible change over possible - most organisers would have thrown in the towel and for me it was only possible with great people about to help.

Next in line was the Peak District, Ian Hughes behind the pen on this one - it wasn't that long ago we were here so it was a little deja vu. Putting controls out proved entertaining with one being taken off by a farmer 10 minute after we put it out. Mr Hughes on the case placated what could have been a tricky situation. A control on the far side of some stepping stones also had to be moved on the day after the river rose by a meter. As ever the Peaks had some great riding no doubt we will be back but we might leave it a little more than 6 months.

Howarth was our next event - Emma Van Der Gucht's first time at event planning. Huge amount of work on her part trawling maps and speaking to landowners. It was also the most popular event of the series, with Natural England capping our numbers we had to close entries early. With Emma out of action due to a shoulder operation I set out to put controls out the week before - some really challenging weather where a pair of ski googles on the bike would have come in handy (and a set of lights!) Hey hoo it was not so bad on the day - aside from a few of you getting lost enroute to the start (lesson learned - more correx signs out when we do this). 2 weeks after we used the community hall the roof fell in and the council condemned it.

The Dales was our next foray with David Hetherington exploring the corners over the past 6 months with his dog (fit dog!) - I think he showed us that what intially appears to be a tricky event to plan with limited bridleways can have a lot of route choice (the trick was to cycle UP the road and down the bridleway). Must admit was a tricky one for us with an event the weekend before causing us quite a number of access problems. The shocker was the blue sky - great to see at an open5.

Finally we went to Wales to take on the hills around Ruthin - again a last minute venue change and a pretty challenging cycle to the start. Especially for those who had not cycled since they were at school.. eek sorry ladies. Tim Higginbottom and John Montgomery were event planners here with what was a pretty challenging run stage with controls off the normal footpath junction features - pretty much all enjoyed this change of tact to the Open5 events - I'd like to think that we can do this more with peripheral controls on events so beginners can get the easier high scoring controls yet the top guys are left hunting around for contour features.

Well we will be back after the Summer with another series of events, as mentioned at the prize giving we are still finalising locations but have already been in discussion with event planners. South Lakes (Grizedale), Peak District (Bakewell), Forest Bowland (Slaidburn), North York Moors (somewhere between Sutton Bank and Stokesly) and the Dales (Kirkby Stephen). This list could change but you can put the dates in the diary 1st Sundays in Nov, Dec, Feb, Mar and April.

A big Thankyou to Mountain Hardwear for all their support over this season.

No worries

James Thurlow