The spring results have been posted on the Polaris website

Congratulations to Aidan and Stephen on their victory! We were at checkpoint 6 (I think) at the top of a very large hill and watched Gary legging it up the hillside closely followed by Aidan and Stephen. They literally didn't stop, punched and were off down the opposite side of the valley to the next check point. By the time we left No.6, they were out of sight.

Guys, I take my hat off to you and commend your fitness levels and ability to keep going. HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Hi
If you want to analyse your routes and compare with the winners visit Joe Lee's web site
http://www.joelee.co.uk/resindex.html
His results will not include the manual amendments done by me to account for stolen controls and failed punches.
For those of you who are intereseted the electronic system we had one control box stolen, one data tag lost and one data tag failure which was not bad for a new system.
A few teams had a number of punches fail to register but that may be application rather than the system.
We will, however, be trying out the SportIdent system in summer to see how the 2 systems compare.

Hi, I just want to thank Graham and all the other organisers for a fantastic event. And well done for ordering the sunshine on the second day ;-)
It was my first polaris event, and certainly won't be my last.

Congratulations to everyone. The description of the top guys going to checkpoint 6 reinforces my decision to give up after Wark Forest.

Now where did I put my slippers and that cup of cocoa?

I'd strongly echo the thoughts above and elsewhere many thanks to all the organisers.

One small matter, looking at our final figure for saturday and that originally published suggests there must have been a software problem with the original penalty points calculations? No complaints over the final figure.

Was used to the tag system from the KIMM and it generally works well, though occassionally takes a wee bit longer to register (seconds though over 7 & 5 hrs ain't much!)

Great weekend, only regret that is that we were walking back during the sunny last 2 hours after a major tyre blowout.

My first Polaris too and again won't be my last.

no complaints about the electronic system, but where was the emergency number?

One small criticism, reading the results on the Polaris site is a nightmare, you can either see your name, or your points, but not both and you have to run up and down using 2 side bars to find the top and bottom arrows. It can't be just my PC settings. I believe this is due to excesive use of frames technology for the sake of it( a bit like a Whyte come to think of it....) ;-)
David

Would that be the same Whyte bike that won the event?

Funny that, the two most unconventional bike designs coming first and second though almost being at opposite ends of the design spectrum

Sorry about the page width for the results - I'll play with it over the weekend and make it a little more user friendly

The Graphical Route data file has now been amended - the one I put up on my site on Monday didn't have the start times in it due to a cockup on my part (new program, got to earn a living, not enough time, etc etc).

Get the latest copy at http://www.joelee.co.uk/2002/polaris/routes.html

Because some of the clocks got corrupted before they were set out I had to add in a correction to the recorded times - this didn't work exactly as planned so the file will also be updated sometime in the middle of next week when I get the controls back and can add in the real corrections to the clocks in each control. Routes still show where most people went though.

The results shown in my routes program don't have the stolen control (04) in - not much I can do about this without spending more time than I've got. I also mis-computed the penalty points over the weekend so they aren't right either! (I understood the specification of the penalties to be absolute, not graded, thus (eg) I computed 31 mins overtime as 5*AllMinutesOverTime penalty points).

I rather fancy that the riders won the event (Well done to all)and probably still would have if mounted on my old Trek. Still, I believe that confidence and love of your equipment if you think that it gives you the edge can make a measureable difference, my mate tells me this is the reason for engraving and hand tooling on good shotguns like Purdys and Hollands. BTW I seriously looked at getting a front end like a Whyte on my motorbike a good 10 years ago so please don't mark me down as a total Luddite. Mind you I have put smaller wheels on the other one.
David

You can see the results in a window on their own if you go to Results and choose the relevant page. You still need quite a big window to see all of the columns, but at least you can use your full screen width.

Purdys et all don't last half the amount of cartridges that a top range prody shotgun does either.
I've only had one wholly valid complaint.
A few inexperienced riders [Jon Brooke] cut the corner west of 33, using a perfectly legal bridleway through a farmyard.
Unfortunately it hadn't occurred to me that riders would seek to cut 500 metres of tarmac utilising a field bridleway of some few hundred metres so I hadn't warned the farmer/ put up no entry signs.
They were lambing and the situation was not helped by one rider calling the farmer a miserable git.
As Jon's fiancee Nicky said to me
'But it made absolutely no sense to use that route'
There again she found 34.
The farmer was far less angry than I would have been and I'm taking him over some recompense.
My thanks to the supervet who alerted me to this and had taken the chaps telephone number.
Spirit of the event prize?

Maybe Jon had got so lost at 34 that he was still looking for it along the bridleway towards 33?

Ooh that stings!