Planners/Organisers comments

Question & Answer events are the easiest to plan, provided the map already exists, as there are no controls to put out and collect in, and no worry about them being nicked. Although I did worry whether the temporary notice at control 35 would last until the event (it did, despite the monsoon 24 hours before), and apparently the owner of control number 25 left her front door open, which made it hard to determine the colour!

The last couple of Dorking street events have been in the dark, and I have confined them to locations with at least token street lighting. It was good to plan a summer event again, and so be able to use the more rural footpaths. I put Deepdene Terrace and Glory Woods (the two southerly hills) back on the map, and extended it in the other direction into Denbies Vineyard for the first time. This also had the advantage of making the start/finish slightly more central.

I particularly like the footpath through the vineyard with views of Box Hill to one side and Ranmore Common to the other, which I first experienced some 40 years ago as a spotty schoolboy on cross-country runs from what is now Ashcombe School. I didn't enjoy it in then; we only got sent out on cross-countries when the playing fields were too muddy or too frozen for football, and in those days Denbies was a cattle farm, so plain mud was the nicer stuff to get splashed around. It is a tribute to the quality of teaching in those days that they managed to put me off running for nearly twenty years!

I tried to place the higher points controls firstly to encourage you to visit the 'summer only' bits of the map, and then to provide opportunities for those wanting only a short distance to still get a reasonable score. The lower points controls at the far end of the map were really only intended to occupy any elite athlete who might turn up; with a World Champion's parents living only 15 miles away, a visit from the stars is always possible.

It was interesting to see that each control received at least two visits. Nick Green visited the most, 23 out of the 30, but Mike Garvin almost matched him for points visiting only 18, and then Nick lost 2 points for being late. So congratulations to Mike, but the real winners are everybody who enjoyed being out a beautiful summer evening - I hope that was all of you.
 

On the night, I only recorded counts of 1, 2, and 3 point questions successfully answered, and the time (in minutes, rounded up). Some of you left your question sheets with me, and for those, I have expanded the results to show which controls were visited.
 

The only disappointment for me was the fiasco with the food. I had promised that we would get a takeaway delivered, but after choosing from the selected menu, this turned out to be somebody's in-house menu with no telephone number. We then chose from a different menu, and rang a Dorking company, only to be told that delivery would take 45 minutes. 

Abandoning that, those remaining walked into town, and to the Pizza Express, who took one look at us and decided to close 40 minutes before their advertised time! So we dispersed, visiting various call-in takeaways on the way home.
 

We were fortunate with the weather, a very pleasant evening for walking or running, or just sitting outside the bar waiting for you to come back. My thanks to Friends Provident for providing an excellent venue, as always. Thank you all for coming, and giving me an excuse to spend a lazy evening in the bar!
 

Ian Ditchfield