Hodgemoor SCOA League & YBT/S Qualifier

Level C

21st April 2024

RouteGadget Please do add your route; the planner is always keen to see where competitors went, and competitors find it useful to see where others went.

Please refer any queries with these results to Alun Jones

Yvette Baker Trophy and Shield results
Trophy team results
Shield team results

Organiser's Comments

Thank you for coming along to Hodgemoor. I hope that you got to enjoy some of the fantastic bluebells in the woods, even if only briefly during your course!

This was my first time organising a Level C event, so I'm very happy that all the preparations seemed to have paid off (and that the weather was kind, although a bit chilly in the wind). We decided to cap entries at 350 in order to try to get all vehicles parked on the PerkinElmer site, but we knew it would be tight. I'm therefore very grateful to those of you who were able to share lifts or take public transport, so that we succeeded in our aim.

As a newbie organiser, I'm very grateful for the help, advice and support of many people, including Mark Thompson for planning, Mike Bennett for controlling, Alun Jones for sorting out entries & results (including the Yvette Baker competition scoring) and Janusz Holender for finance. I want to say a big thank you to the TVOC teams for planning and getting on with tasks before and during the day (team leaders and team members), which made my job on the day so much easier.

Congratulations to HH juniors for winning the qualifying round and getting through to the Yvette Baker Trophy Final in July.

There is one piece of lost property – a black cap found near the finish with the name ‘Maragna’ in it - let me know if it's yours.

Paul Taylor

Planner's Comments

Thank you all for coming to a lovely day admiring the carpets of bluebells, and for the early arrivals - hearing the first cuckoo of spring.

First time organiser Paul did a fantastic job. Watch out mate you’ll be sought after for the next Chiltern Challenge.

A big thanks to controller Mike. Once again a delight to be part of a planning/controlling team.

Hodgemoor has lots of paths and I tried to offer route choice. Direct was best as many paths had subparallel paths cut to avoid the mud so were confusing in places. Too many to map.

Thanks for all the nice feedback. I hope you all enjoyed your day.

Mark

Controller's Comments

Hodgemoor was at its best today. Even a fortnight ago the paths in the South East part of the area, where we had to have start and finish, were pretty unpleasant. A fortnight from now, the leaves will be reducing visibility and the undergrowth will be on its way up. And today there were bluebells, wild garlic, deer, squirrels, some of us even heard a cuckoo.

It sounds like a platitude to say it has been a pleasure working with Paul, Mark and the TVOC team, but I really mean it. For a first time organiser at this level Paul got a great number of things right without prompting. Mark's courses were a good test of navigation skills at each of the technical difficulty levels, just right for an inter-club competition. And it's really refreshing working with a Planner who's also an experienced Controller, you can have an adult conversation about what works, what needs thinking twice about.

Thanks to those runners who told us of the missing control box at 123. We decided to reinstate the few early runners who had nothing to punch / swipe, the navigational challenge was identical. If this happens to you at a future event, remember that's what the pin punch is there for!

Mike