With sub zero temperatures, clear blue skies and firm white ground just under a hundred competitors explored Burbage Common and Woods using the newly updated map. Good to see so many turning out when the weather was rather challenging as the effort behind the scenes is the same regardless of the number of competitiors.

I am very grateful to all who helped on the day. The Planner and Controller were out in the early hours when temperatures were incredibly low, certainly a day for us all to remember. Thanks to them both for an enjoyable event.

The visitors centre was a welcome indoor base for the registration and results teams, and had the additional bonus of hot drinks for general purchase. The initial results certainly generated some curious times but as you see they have now available for you.

Thankfully the sun shone constantly on the start lanes. The various members of the Start team did a superb job and wrapped up well to brave the cold. Thanks too to those who helped collect in the controls. This enabled the us to leave the site just as the sun was setting and the tempertures started to drop further.

Alison Hardy

It's half past five on a Sunday morning and the outside temperature gauge is showing -10C. I must be mad going out orienteering. … Those whose lunacy led them to Burbage found woodland which looked very different to normal. Routes which a week earlier had been uncrossable were now viable. The whole runability of the area changed, though as at least one LEI runner found, a bog shown on the map is still a bog beneath that coating of ice. I hope you found the new map a help in this complex area. Thanks to Pete Leake for delivering on time. Thanks also to Bob for his controlling influence and to Alison for her organisation. Finally a big thank-you to all you competitors who braved the cold and beat down some wonderful routes through the woods which made our task collecting in the controls later so much easier.

Simon Starkey

What a difference a day makes. The previous weekend, Burbage was its usual wintertime wet and muddy self, but the dusting of snow and heavy frost certainly transformed the area, making the going much faster for those that braved the cold weather. After setting off in the dark with my headtorch to check controls (and the ones that had been out all night started OK!), it seemed quite pleasant standing in the sun to watch the event proceed (even though the temperature was still below zero). As Simon has indicated, the area has been completely remapped and so no doubt looked a bit different even to those who have orienteered there on many occasions. Simon planned some excellent courses to use the different types of terrain to best advantage for different complexity of courses and used the (relatively small) area well to incorporate the longer courses. Thanks are also due to Alison, as Organiser, for looking after the organisation so well, and it was also nice to have the visitor centre for registration and download. We had a timing issue on the day as we had amalgamated two sets of controls for the event and some were still on British Summer Time. Many thanks to Kevin Bradley who spotted the problem and changed start and finish times as competitors came in to at least give sensible start and finish times to all. As usual, lessons are always learnt at an event.

Bob Haskins