November 9th - Norfolk

Thetford Forest always proves to be a popular location for Questars, not only for its wildlife and beauty but also for the abundance of tracks and firewalls running through the vast area and once again the feedback on this Norfolk course was very positive.

The testing of the EMIT scoring system was also met with a good response particularly due to the immediate results it was able to provide and the visibility of the 'kites' when out orienteering. Thank you to Allan Farrington for coming and setting up the system for us.

The day started at the transition point in High Lodge car park with teams needing to either run or bike over to the canoe station, a couple of kilometres away. It was left up to teams to choose what discipline they wanted to attempt first. On arrival at the River, teams were greeted with the Quarter Final Rugby scores before making their tactical decisions as whether to paddle up or down stream first. Due to the dry Summer the water levels were particularly low, forcing canoeists into a small portage if they were attempting all four checkpoints. The canoeing stage provided the various onlookers with differing degrees of entertainment - particularly the Barley brothers whose continual banter, I am sure could be heard up at checkpoint 4!

As always it was good to see a few new faces and in particular Kevin Stephens, The Hillbilly who gave the men's solos a run for their money. Kevin came first in his category with 760 points.

The overall battle though was incredibly close, with the Men's team winners, Team 10 finishing with 775 points and The Dark Horse with 750 points.

There are a few in the Novice category that are particularly deserving of a mention this time:-

• Firstly congratulations to the HP team for winning the novice category with 600 points at their very first adventure race - certainly a team to be watched next season.
• To Heidi Getrost, Ben Robinson and Dan Hooper for actually making it to the start unlike the remainder of their teams
• To Joe Darcy for making it back to the finish having had to go out alone in the absence of an injured Teresa.
• And to the mixed team Millennium Falcons for providing the most masculine looking Hermione seen in a while.

Congratulations also to Suffolk & Slow who although were the only Vets category entrants, finished with a very credible 695 points and to Team New Zealand B once again putting in a strong performance and winning the Mixed category with 690 points.

This race was the last of the season and brought to a close the 2003 Series, the results of which will be announced in due course. Thank you to you all for your continued support and in particular the Goodmans who have competed in every event this year. Also to Sacha Course Ltd, Supper Stars, Have a Go Heroes, David Hunt, Dan Straw, The Cotswolds Outdoor.com team, Flying Buttresses and No Threat for making the vast majority of the races.

We do hope that the different locations have provided some variety and have all been enjoyable in their own right. The 2004 Questars series has been provisionally set and will be visiting some new locations as well as some of the old favourites. The diary will be published on the website in the next couple of weeks.

Mens Solo :

	Time	Total Points	Penalties	TOTAL	Position
Keven Stephens Hillbilly	05:52:50	760	0	760	1st
David Hunt The Dark Horse	05:53:47	750	0	750	2nd
Jonathan Fairhurst Team Fairhurst	05:59:19	660	0	660	3rd
Graham Crabtree Have a Go Heroes	06:08:22	615	90	525	4th

Mens Team:

Mixed Teams:

Veterans:

Novices: