I thought it worthwhile reminding myself of the duties of a meet leader, as stated in the club handbook, before writing my report.

Encourage Associate members and beginners. I would have thought ending next to the pub would have been encouragement enough, but to actually provide maps as well to help those who find following their noses difficult, I believe means I fully discharged this duty. Shame the map wasn't too clear, or so some people claimed, or simply left everyone over-confident, as navigation still proved to be a real challenge - see later. Associate members were few and far between; in fact the one we had chose to miss out check points and drink coffee enroute, hence missing out on the prestigious best newcomer award. Welcome new members and guests. Again, this didn't seem to pose much of a problem, with no less than 8 guests taking part, some admittedly taking time off from Sale Harriers, but great to see them all the same. Supposed to give them relevant info on club matters, but couldn't catch them - they were too fast!

Report any serious incidents to the committee. Aha - this is where life starts getting a bit more interesting. Various reports of rules (such as no scaling fences and walls) being broken were received anonymously after the event, but by all accounts such practice was sufficiently widespread to cause havoc with the computerised scoring and handicapping system, so it is best left to the prey endlessly on the minds of the perpetrators for all time. Suffice it to say that Jim at least had the decency to scale one of the walls concerned on behalf of a good few people to register at the check point on the far side.

Be responsible for leaving everything in good order. No problem, the vultures picked the bones of those few bodies we left scattered around.

Details of new climbs. Only Jim's, so far as I know.

So what of the participants and results. Here goes. Note only members were given handicaps

All of which says congratulations to Al Metelko for winning the fastest competitor cup, Dave Wylie for taking the fastest handicap Sheila Manning Trophy, and Michelle Harvie for lifting the fastest lady competitor cup for the third year running. Mary said something about cups not being suitable for coffee, but I didn't understand that.

Nearly last but certainly not least, many thanks to the 3 willing checkpointers, Lorna, Keith and Ken. If you have any views as to timing or location of next year's race, please let us know. This was an experiment - what do you think?

Mark