I think that the last time I planned a level C event, we were still using pin punches and copying hand drawn courses from master maps. To have the luxury of Purple Pen to plan on meant I tweaked far more than was good for my co-planner's and controller's nerves. However, they were very patient and helped with positive feedback and constructive ideas for improvements to my initial plans.

One other advantage of electronics is that when I found that the woods were being thinned after I had taped all my control sites, Don Moir was able to go out and map all the changes to the forest right up to the beginning of this week. I must thank him for his commitment and keeping me up to date with work around my control sites.

I learnt something else new on the day of the event; Don't attach your locks to small trees. Vandals can uproot your control stake and push the lock up and over the top of the tree, breaking the small branches as they do so. Why someone would want to do this, then throw the control and flag into the hedge is beyond me. Apologies if their actions affected your orange run. At least the tape was still there.

Thanks to Chris Phillips for carrying all the stakes and flags as we put out the controls; he certainly lightened this planner's load. Thanks, too, to Roger Phillips, Iain Phillips, Ian Wells, Alastair Paterson and Peter Hornsby who had retrieved all the controls by 2.35pm and everyone in LEI who once again turned out to help to make the event run smoothly.

Finally, thank you to all of you for turning out to run, despite the dire forecast. The weather was actually quite decent for the end of October.

Ursula Williamson

Another successful and well attended LEI East Midlands League Event with good organisation from Howard, assisted by Iain, and the volunteer team of LEI members, together with courses that were appropriate and well planned by Ursula, assisted by Chris, that used, in the main, the better parts of Martinshaw and Ratby Woods, by trying to avoid the widespread patches of brambles and other undergrowth. These four Event Officials deserve the well-earned thanks of us all.

There were two unsung heroes , one before the Event and one on the day of the Event, each of whom played a significant part in the successful staging of the Event. The initial stages of the course planning had taken place, as had a number of site visits, before the contractors working on behalf of Woodland Trust started their thinning and felling somewhat later than expected. Don Moir undertook regular visits to keep the Planners, Organisers, and myself abreast of the work in various sections of the wood and made a number of significant amendments to the existing map during the weeks leading up the Event and for this he deserves a very real 'Thank You'. Kevin Bradley, in charge of the 'Download Team' worked his magic in his usual calm and courteous manner and, only minutes after the final competitor had downloaded before the 2.00 p.m. Course closing deadline had uploaded all of the results to enable competitors to view the full set of Results – a big 'Thank You' to Kevin too!

The expected winning times were predicated on at least two sets of past EMLE results in the same competition area and it is my belief that overall they were a little longer than expected due to the underfoot conditions of the wet, muddy and slippery paths and tracks due to the heavy periods of rain in recent weeks and days and, of course the after effects of the thinning activities, especially the brashings and other natural detritus lying in areas that would have been very runnable woodland.

Finally, in light of the storm laden weather forecasts for the southern parts of the UK including the Midlands, we were all fortunate in being able to enjoy a relatively benign day with only the occasional fleeting rain shower.

Ernie Williams

Once again I am grateful to all the members of LEI who volunteered (or were cajoled!) into helping at the event. It is a testament to the Club that so many members are always willing to lend a hand and make the events run so smoothly.

This was the first time I had organized a Level C event but I was fortunate to have Iain Phillips on hand as an Assistant Organiser to help and share in the burden. We both learnt a great deal about the process and duties of the organizer and are grateful for the advice given to us by the other members of the team but particularly Ernie for his sage input throughout.

I hope you all enjoyed the event and had the time for a bit of ‘retail therapy’ with our friends from Ultrasport. Many thanks to those of you on the Orange course who surrendered your maps when supplies were running short. In the event not all of these were actually needed so I have around half-a-dozen hard copies of this map which I can send to people if they provide me with their address . I will also email a copy of the Orange map to those of you who left me their email details.

Lost Property: One pair of size 11.5 VJ IROCK trainers (black and yellow) which were left inside the college porch at the end of the event. Please let me know if they are yours and I will get them returned to you.

Howard Alcock