| Poacher 2 took place at Elsham starting for the first time from the War Games Centre. This not only provided excellent parking but some unusual features in the first part of the wood, features not normally encountered on an orienteering course. Fortunately hostilities ceased for the evening. Halo webmaster Pete Shew designed some excellent courses - the long in particular was as technical as the area allowed with full utilisation of the runnable areas and twice making competitors scale the northern slope. The newcomers course was entirely in the war games area. The Long course provided a stunning victory for current Masters Champion (M40+) Neil Harvatt who put the young guns to the sword, finishing 50 seconds ahead of the joint second placers - Martin Kullich (HALO) and Liam Harrington (LOG) with Zac Field the new British under 17 middle distance champion in fourth. Registration guru Brian Slater broke into the top half of the field with his best run for some time. Some competitors on the long course somehow found themselves on an island in the middle of a large pond but fortunately managed to extricate themselves without resorting to the breaststroke. The Short Course was dominated by runners from Caistor Grammar with three in the first six including the winner Sam Offler, the 2009 Junior Champion who was a mere 10 seconds up on Kirmington farmer William Sowerby. The newcomers course was again won by the Mead family from Grasby. Next week the Willingham event will assemble at the picnic area and NOT as originally state on the fixture list. NB: Will 2009 winners please return their trophies to me as soon as possible. Pete Kullich |