Well, no chance of suing the organiser’s under the Trades Description Act – it was a gloriously sunny weekend! The first event was in Abbots Wood north of Eastbourne and I was determined not to continue my run of poor results due to going to wrong controls, missing controls etc. I set off a couple of minutes after Carolyn Dent and had caught up with her by control 2. So far so good. Then I saw Sue Hands, who was a minute after me, running towards me as I was going to 3 in, what I considered to be the wrong route choice to control 2. Great! Controls 5-7 went pretty well too and I was feeling much better about things. Controls 6-9 were all on shallow ditch junctions and as I was going to control 8, I glanced at my map and, for some reason, thought I hadn’t actually been to control 7 so turned back to get it (for the 2nd time, as it turned out!)  I made a few errors on numbers 10 and 13 but at least I had got all the controls this time. It was only when I looked at my splits that I realised that I had gone to 7 twice, wasting about 6 minutes or so. After the event I tried to rationalise my decision and I can sort of see what I did – I mistook control 9 for 6, saw that it was close to 7 and thought “I don’t remember doing that leg!” Needless to say, Carolyn had beaten me  – but I beat Sue Hands. But I was furious with myself for making such a stupid error. I was 32nd/58.

 

However, by the evening I had reconciled myself to the situation and was ready for a run around Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne. It is a lovely area and the weather was cool but sunny. Some complicated routes at times and everyone had to cross the lock gates which, fortunately, were crossable when I arrived there. There was a timed control on either side so you had 3 minutes to cross, just in case the gates were open. The only control I had a slight blip on was one on a fence corner on the harbour’s edge (control 6) but I went up the steps to a wall corner which was just above it. It was difficult to tell the difference from the position of the circle but I should have checked the control description more closely. I think several people had an issue with that one. But overall I was pleased with my result (3rd/8 WUV) and some of us ended the evening with an Italian meal nearby.

The following day’s event was in Friston Wood. Again, a glorious day and the wild flowers in the field near assembly were fabulous. Quite a climb up to the start but soon after the start there was a steep slope down and I had 3 controls along the slope, the first 2 of which (a platform and a shallow depression) I didn’t get cleanly. But after that I had no real issues and in fact there was some lovely runnable forest which was really enjoyable. The undergrowth wasn’t too bad apart from towards the end – control 15 – 17 – where it was pretty grotty and impossible for me to run at all. I was 27th/57,about par for the course. So, hopefully, I’ve ended my bad spell of messing up controls. 

 

 

 

A bit of a long way to go but there were 3 of us in the car so didn’t feel so guilty! The start was is in a pretty park and my course took me past a bandstand and a lake into the nearby streets. It seemed to be fairly new housing with some lovely patches of open and several alleyways. I had a fairly decent run (8th/24) but I lost at least a minute on control 4 because I wasn’t sure if the wall marked on the map near it was crossable or not – it was mapped like the walls on a non-urban map. So I took a longer route there to find that the wall was sort-of crossable – it had vertical slabs on the top which had to be negotiated. Not easy, apparently, according to the Branfords! But it was an enjoyable event with Ian having a storming run, coming 6th/43. Sheila and Rob were also there with decent results.