NGOC League at Mallards Pike. 6km blue.
Cold still not quite gone yet but found it was brashings that were my biggest problem with getting any speed - was pretty bad through first 4 controls, thinking such a new map should be showing these given how much it affected runnability - getting to 2 wasn't very nice at all (and it was hidden inside a fallen tree, but I've been to that "clearing" in the dark before so knew what to look out for.
Kept going ok until 6 where I ran straight to the depression with the tag in, which in some ways was a shame, as given it didn't have the control in, I then had no idea where to look. To make things more interesting there were plenty of unmapped depressions around that could have hidden a control. Eventually Andy Stott found it for the growing group of us - 100m to the south, 7 mins after I first found the tag.
Lost heart a bit from here, having had quite a lot of people catch up, and brashings/windblow weren't great going in to 9 either - hence large detour. Had to pick up the pace towards the end to try and keep Scott behind me. Very lucky on bingo control 11 as there were so many people looking for it, our group happened to arrive just as somebody came close to finding it. Pushed the path route around bottom of New Fancy to 12 and seems to have been much quicker than what everybody else did as was waiting a couple of minutes at the finish.
Suspect there'll be some debate on yet another mis-placed control in a league. Will expect a move to more formal controlling at some point (today's "advisor" did check all the tags in advance, but not that the controls were put out next to tags on the day).
Still was a nice day, and bits of the wood were pretty good. Think the less brashed bits of MP are being saved for May.
https://www.strava.com/activities/271840261
Followed this by checking all 56 control sites in Gloucester, measuring up required gripple lengths, only managed to photo 55 due to mis-timing, arrived at a lamppost just as a large group of kids decided there were going to sit down around it...