Hamsterley Common is not one of the most technical areas and although it is a heather moorland its run-ability is quite varied. The heather is managed by the estate for shooting purposes and is cut in rotation to give the birds some new shoots on which to feed and some older, deeper heather for cover. The northern slopes do seem to have the worst of the heather at the moment, mainly in the re-entrants, which may have made the going a bit tough, particularly for some of the older, less able competitors.

The plan was to have all the courses use the southern slopes first, where there are a number of re-entrants, small streams, trees and boulders that would give enough features to allow different first controls for all the courses. Then get competitors over to the northern slope and finish along the grassy area just north of the start for some courses. Most of the courses were contained in the area roughly to the east of the line of shooting butts, but the two longer courses ventured way out west to the South Grain Beck, which meant a tedious long slog to get back to anything interesting.

There were a lot of controls on that southern slope, but for those that may have complained about which re-entrant they were looking for, I thought that the trees were a very easy navigation feature - some may say too easy. It was debatable whether they should have been on the map, but ultimately it was the orange course which determined that they should be. This course proved the most difficult one to plan as there are few line features to act as handrails, but I wanted the juniors to feel part of the competition rather than have a separate course in the forest for them. Unfortunately they did have one tough leg, having to struggle though about 60m of rough heather half way round their course.

The weather made a big difference to the event on the day, as it had not been that good over the past few weeks, ranging from snow to sunshine. Rain, wind and mist would certainly have made a big difference in how you approached your course.

The comments I heard at download were quite varied - the tough going in the heather seemed to be a major factor for some - almost unavoidable on any heather moorland, especially if you want to get into the interesting areas. Visibility of controls was another, but in my defence I tried not to 'hide' the kites where possible, particularly in the deeper heather. There were also a few comments relating to the courses being too easy, but after reviewing the results I think that the winning times are just about right, although I think that the Green courses could have possibly been a little bit longer.

Many thanks to Chris Dicken for his helpful guidance, patience and understanding during the planning process. Also to Julian Warren for his thorough control checking on the moor. I hope you all enjoyed your day out at Hamsterley, well done to the winning teams in the competition and good luck in the final.

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Whilst only taking on the controller's job a few weeks before the event it has been a pleasure working with Rob. He had the courses well planned and, whilst there are always small points to amend and bits of advice to give, my job was made so much easier by his experience, friendliness and attention to detail. A couple of weeks before the event I went down with another virus. My thanks therefore also go to Julian Warren who kindly checked all the controls on the Saturday for me, a not insignificant task.

There were a very few comments on the day regarding the tough terrain, which a heather moorland always is, but I don't think the courses were over long (I certainly hope not). There were also one or two comments about the visibility of a few controls - again I think unavoidable on such an area - better in my opinion than "hidden" controls. However the overwhelming majority of comments were very favourable and competitors obviously enjoyed not only the challenge, but also running on such a beautiful area. Credit to Rob.

Northern Navigators are a small club, but Boris had the organisation well under control and as far as I could see there were no issues from that point of view. Well done to all the volunteers who helped out on the day.

Of course we were lucky and blessed with much better than expected weather ( it could have been pretty grim on the top under different conditions). This really helped the overall atmosphere of the day, which I consider a great success

I hope you all enjoyed this Compass Sport Cup heat - whether your team won or not.

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to follow

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Team results