What went well
The 85 controls for Day 1 and the 94 used for Day 2 were all in the right place and none went missing, during the competition at least.
Despite the fears of the planning/controlling team about recent vegetation growth (particular in the south) slowing runners significantly, many courses were won in times close to the target times with some, indeed, beating the target by a good margin.
On Day 2, fifteen of the senior classes were won in a time within the target 30 to 35 minute bracket - a remarkable success!
The Controller and the two Planners worked well as a team, especially at the control placing/checking stage where the Planners put out all sites between them over a three day period, the Controller checked them all during this period, and all control boxes were "dibbed" on the morning of each race. It was a big task ...
Liaison with the two Day organisers (Matthew Owen and Pat McLeod) was excellent and helped smooth the development of the two Kenfig races. Site meetings were conducted at an early stage and logistics for the arena plan and Start arrangements were finalised well on schedule.
What could have been improved
Some of the supplied control stakes were already marked on their side with a control code which did not match the code given on the control descriptions, so the planners covered these numbers over with sticky labels. These proved to be not quite 100% opaque, so the (wrong) number underneath showed through as a ghostly grey. A few competitors approached the site, read the wrong code and then went away, losing a few minutes before eventually punching the SI box.
Although no competitor made an official Complaint about this, the site (control 186) was visited at the end of the competition and photographs of the control assembly taken. Whilst there was sympathy for the few competitors affected by this, the view of a group of experienced orienteers was that there should have been little or no cause for mistaking the code as
(a) the site was at the bottom of a depression and the (correct) number on the SI unit would have been clearly visible from above
(b) the Event Programme stated "the SI boxes will be on the top of stakes with the control number", i.e. the control code is officially the one on the top
(c) the "wrong" code only showed through as a faint grey whereas the "right" one was in strong black. The photograph shows this, although it has to be admitted that the camera has made "42" fainter than it appeared to the naked eye.
However, none of this would have happened had the number 42 been totally masked.
What went wrong
Course 13 (Orange; M/W12A; M/W14B) was clearly too hard and many competitors took much more time than they should have done. In particular, leg 6 to 7 on Day 1 was of TD4 standard and should never have slipped through the net. As Controller, the buck stops with me on this issue and I take full responsibility for the error. I fully apologise for what obviously went very wrong.
Updating the map
The first draft we had to work to came in February this year and showed Kenfig in winter conditions. We knew that the terrain would have a lot of seasonal water but we didn't appreciate just how much disappears in the summer until around Easter time. So we asked Dave Peel to come back and map it in summer conditions and this gave us the map you ran on.
The maps below show the original and final versions, left and right, with a section of the Day 1 M21L course visible. We were pleased with the number of long route choice legs we could design using the lakes as irregularly shaped "barriers" (e.g. 6 - 7), but frustrated when the water went and the leg became much more ordinary! Come back to Kenfig in the winter and have a new challenge!!
The Planners
Many, many thanks go to the two Planners (Alan Honey, Day 1 and Richard Cronin, Day 2) whose combined experience of previous planning and controlling was invaluable and which took a load off my own load.
Despite challenges of tapes not surviving, undergrowth springing up unexpectedly and the sheer amount of extra time needed in complex terrain such as Kenfig to check and re-check that each site is taped correctly, they never stinted and completed the tasks superbly and on time too.
It was a pleasure working with them.
David May (SLOW, Controller for Days 1 and 2)