Laurie Bradley New Year Score Event

Over the last week I've done a bit more training - been to the gym for only the second time and then went out for a bike ride on Saturday (51.27) which was my slowest time yet but to be fair the conditions were awful - loads of crud on the road surface and large ponds developing in the road where the water hadn't drained. Then there was the wind which was pretty bad as well.

Anyway, today was the Laurie Bradley Score Event held by POTOC on Tittensor Chase. I ended up being Club Captain for the day (jointly with Dave Thomas), having to make sure everyone is on the team declaration and adding scores up etc.

I ended up getting all 27 controls in 52.08 (8 mins to spare) so I suppose I came joint 1st (I think there were five others who got the maximum score). I felt quite fresh in the legs all the way round which was promising (maybe the two weeks of training is already beginning to pay dividends?!). Strangely for me I didn't have too many navigational blunders (briefly lost contact with the map in the block of forest containing 19, 25 and 7 (ended up punching 25 in box 7 and vice versa as I wasn't sure where I was!), and a small error at 19 when I went to the wrong end of the feature and had to fight my way through the undergrowth). It was only after I had finished that I realised that the control code letters (AB etc) were printed on the back! D'oh!

The only annoying thing about the event was the lack of pin punches. Quite a few controls only had 1 which was a joke having to wait your turn in the queue.

Looking at the map I thought my route was pretty decent. Perhaps 20 should have been my first control, but I think any time loss would have been negligible. I ended up reaching 20 as my first control before most others had reached it as their first! Only other questionable route would have been to leave 25 until later on, but it was easier to get on the down slope then contour along to 7, rather than wait until later on and climb up from the track to the East. Any views on my route?

After the finish it was then time to add everyone's score up which took ages (please bring in SI next year!). In the end Chaser's came third, well behind OD and just a little behind HOC. For me it was a really good start to the year and hope I can continue this form well into 2007.

Oh yes, did I mention that there were not enough pin punches?

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