The first of the Wessex Region Summer Series took place yesterday evening in Fordingbridge, courtesy of WIM. There was an amazing turnout considering the poor weather – over 80 people ! WSX members did us proud by having 4 people in the top 10 – and taking the first 3 places:

Alan Blanchflower 1st (by 47 secs); Dale Paget 2nd (by 3 secs!); James Crickmore  3rd. John Cook came 6th. Well done to you all.

I, personally, came way down the list and managed to get to the Finish with only 9 seconds to spare! I had failed to start my watch immediately, only realising my mistake after studying the map (that makes a change!) before I set off. I reckoned I had taken a minute for this, but it must have been quite a bit more, as I thought I had a good minute to spare at the end. I failed to get a tricky 40-pointer which was at the end of a long dead-end in the middle of the map and that made a real difference to my final position. But then I’d have been way over time. Only 8 people got all the controls within the time, so that shows it was a well planned course, by Kevin Pickering. A great start to the Summer (?!) series of events. Next one is in Salisbury on Saturday morning – full details on Sarum website.

Don’t forget to let WIM know if you’re going to the WIM/WSX Informal and Presentation event on April 28th. Details on WIM website.