Cracker apology

First of all thank you to those who have sent me a message offering to disqualify themselves after my comments about taking a short cut over or through the uncrossable wall marked on the map. I think I have replied to everyone individually, but for anyone else interested I have decided to leave the results unchanged for the following reasons:

• The purple overprint is difficult to discern and could reasonably have been missed
• There is a gap in the wall where people could easily cross, without climbing the wall (I was unaware of this)
• The adjacent crossing point symbol, meant to show a way through the other wall at right angles to the wall in question, may have mislead some to believe this was an "official" crossing point
• I could have highlighted the uncrossable wall issue at the pre-start briefing
• I could have planned that part of the course differently to remove any temptation to cross the wall
• Most importantly this was a fun event and disqualifying half the field would tend to spoil that aspect!

Lastly to anyone who read the map correctly and went round, thereby suffering a time disadvantage, I hope this didn't spoil your enjoyment of the rest of the event.

Chris Roberts. New Year Cracker planner and organiser.