Potteries Orienteering Club

It was a small, select band of POTOC members and visitors from other clubs who gathered for this event. Being in the middle of the holiday period did not help, but perhaps the urban score format does not appeal to everyone. This was the second event at Stone and the assembly area had been moved to Stone Common to allow juniors to run on separate linear courses. BOF have ruled that juniors under 16 are ineligible on safety grounds for an event where roads are crossed.

Planning the event was fitted round a full work commitment and competing at the Scottish 6 Days the week before. I came home a day early from the 6 days as I was fearful that planning would not be completed in time. It really was up to the wire with the Stone map file only sent to John Heaton for printing late on Friday. I am grateful to John for coping with this.

As usual the weighting of the scores for the furthest controls was designed to tempt competitors to “extend” themselves. The results show that local knowledge was an advantage with Henry Morgan and Gerry Riley coming 1^st and 3^rd respectively. Jeff Colbert from SYO who came 2^nd managed this despite a punitive 50 point time penalty. Unfortunately at least one competitor was disadvantaged by being held up on the wrong side of a level crossing when a train was due. I am afraid this is the luck of the draw and difficult to compensate for.

The weather was very pleasant in the morning, but heavy showers as the results were being put up forced a hurried end to the event.

Thanks are owed to all the POTOC members who assisted before, during and after the event. Particular thanks to Gerry Riley who put out and collected all the controls on the Common, Gareth Lloyd and the whole Lloyd family for organising the event, and to Ralph Phipps who gathered in half the controls scattered around the town.

Geoff Hollins