Burbage Summer Sharpener 2

Burbage Summer Sharpener 2 on Wed 6th Jul 2016

The aim was to give you a run of controls coming thick and fast in the valley bottom, meaning you had to tackle them at speed while paying careful control to the micro-navigation as you homed in your destination. Then you had one big decision about whether to take in the distant control below Millstone Edge to the west, or that pit in the middle of the moor to the east. And for good measure you could do them in any order – do you hit the valley bottom downhill while your legs and your mind are fresh, or do you stride out to the distant control first, and then bag the rest on the home run? People's decisions are shown in the results, but once again it was ace orienteer Neil who showed us the way by hitting all the valley controls spot-on at speed, and then spotting a line over to the ruin in the woods that had eluded everyone else, (including me when I set out the controls). Many people went down towards Surprise View, swinging round and below the main Millstone Edge, but Neil went up to Winyards Nick and then nipped in to the control below Over Owler Tor. He took with him a small posse of followers, who all grabbed a big time advantage and came home inside fifty minutes. Control nine involved exactly the same distance, but the results of those who went there suggest that it must have been a much slower route. Thanks to all who came, and I hope you enjoyed it despite all the potentially maddening decisions.

DH