Culm Davy

Just like buses- you've waited years for another chance to run on that terrain again and then two events there come along at once. Well almost...

It's not often we have QOFLs just nine months apart at the same venue, but that's what's happened this year with Culm Davy & Culmstock Beacon. Permissions finally were gained to run on the slopes of Blackdown Common, an area not used for years, and it was given a fresh airing in January.

Link to the January 2019 event review

Plus, this time, we were able to secure very practical car parking adjacent to the area.

Culm Davy was a replacement for the original area, Cothelstone. It was actually down to be a JOG, also to be planned by Martin Lewis, but we swapped it to Sunday for a QOFL. Assisted by Bill Vigar, Martin took on the challenge and the many positive comments received on Sunday suggest that the Lewis-Vigar team did a very good job.

- Jeff Pakes

Planner's comments

Everyone seemed happy with their courses and for my first event of this kind, I feel I couldn’t have done much better.

Bill [Vigar] tells me the winning times are about right. Which is a bonus.

As the two biggest clubs in the area were somewhere else, it was a reasonable turnout.

- Martin Lewis

Competitor comments

Really enjoyed Sunday's course, albeit having to visit a control twice (unsurprisingly I was the fastest to it second time around!)

- Phil Sorrell

Organiser's comments

Well I have cut my teeth as an organiser. Firstly, I would like to thank all the helpers, they did an amazing job and made it the success that it was. Thank you very much to Andrew (permissions) who managed to cope with the last minute demands and got the permissions through. Thanks very much to Roger and Judy for chasing down the owners and getting their signatures on the last minute required documents and for getting the parking field.

I thoroughly enjoyed the organising of the Culm Davy event. I might be a natural at bossing people about!! The most difficult bit was getting the gear and the kids in my car. There is a lot of stuff required. On saying that, I was supported by Roger and Judy and they gave me prompts and pointers where necessary.

I met and had a chat with the owners of Keepers Cottage. They were not disturbed by the event, they were quite happy for us to be there and appreciated the letter forewarning them.

I was very worried about the bull issue and had taken steps to arrange people to ensure the safety of the kids. The bull and I had a reasonable relationship and he did seem relatively harmless. However, this problem was removed the week before and I can quite honestly say that was a great relief.

I don’t think I could have done a better job – but I am open to suggestions.

- Karen Lewis

It seems fair to say, Karen organised well - and no bull.

Photography at Culm Davy

Three autumns ago QO member Jim Nickolls lugged his tripod and special prop (a control flag!) around last Sunday's venue. This was in a kind response to a plea from myself to illustrate some of the best QO terrain prominently, on what was then our new website. A few of these images are still in our home page "slideshow", a marker of how well they capture the forested area's nicely spaced trees and long earth banks.

Link here to Jim's shots plus some more great pictures of the area

My thanks again to Jim for his work...and of course to the other Jim (Pearson) for his brilliantly framed action pictures today!

- Jeff Pakes