ITOC – PLANNER'S COMMENTARY

T1. (C) Intended to provide maximum confusion! An extremely complex area (thus the 1:2000 scale), a sector of view, tape separated clusters plus extra kites (cluster no.5). The line-up of kites was also intended as a distractor, with A being well out of the line of sight to the control circle centre; the placement of B close to and below the decision point was also intended to mislead in sighting the kite order.

T2. (C) The confusing layout carried over to this control, with kite A of T1 visually interfering. The decision point was placed so that A, B and C were close together visually in the hope that B would be chosen as “middle”, whereas the circle covered kites A, C and D.

1. (C) The move to 1:4000 in such a complex area was intended to confuse and the closeness of circles 1 and 5 overlaid an extra level of complication. To resolve this control it was necessary to see that the ends of the wall were equal distances inside the circle thus confirming that the control centre would be the middle point of the wall. The decision point was located so that, if you were looking at the correct kite from it, kite A would be well outside your line of sight and thus possibly be overlooked.

2. (B) This control was testing your ability to distinguish between isolate trees and thickets. Although all three kites appeared to be on similar vegetation features C was, in fact, on the side of a tree (green circle), thus placing B on the south-eastern thicket.

3. (Z) This control was using, as a distractor, the fact that features mapped with two different symbols (green circle and green dot) are, nevertheless, described by the same control description symbol. The three kites were set up between three large trees, with B providing additional confusion due to its placement within the largest tree. However the tiny tree was the western end of the relevant line and no flag was placed there.

4. (D) The only rock feature on the course had the complication of being "Z"-shaped rather than a higher and lower crag – at least, that's how the mapper saw it. The kites were set up to lead concentration on to the left-hand portion, compounded by having none on the right-hand portion. Kites A and B were at the mid-point of the left-hand face, C was at the northern end of that face, whilst D was at the measured mid-point of the full configuration, taking into account both portions and the connecting section.

5. (Z) This control returned from the relative simplicity of the arboretum into the complexity of the sunken garden. The movement restriction was to ensure that the bottoms of some of the flags were obscured by the banking, hopefully leading to a concentration on those flowerbeds, while the unflagged centre of the circle was on a bed which was partially obscured on the map by the black circle of the eagle statue.

6. (E) This was a simple control technically, using the elongated field of view to introduce some anxiety in assigning letters to kites correctly.

7. (A) Control 6 was, in fact, a distractor for this control with intention of having you pass the lines of sight for no.7 before you had reached no.6. Kites A and B were placed in parallax, swapping places only one metre from the decision point.

8. (A) This control was set up so that one of the four kites visible from the track was out of sight from the decision point and therefore not in cluster 8 (it was in cluster 12). Here it was necessary, by reference to the map, to define the extent of the two hills that the control was between. The left-hand hill consisted only of a form line which came to the edge of the undergrowth area; the right-hand hill was two contours high so its edge was the right-hand side of the col. This placed the “between” point on the left-hand bank of the col, which was counter-intuitive to the apparent mid point being the centre of the col (kite C) Additionally kites A and B were set in parallax.

9. (D) A simple exercise in recognising the difference between small trees and thickets. The latter was composed of two different varieties of tree/bush which made it look like two separate features. However as their canopies were touching they were mapped as a thicket.

10. (D) When planned, it was not expected that this control would be in the car park field! The track to the right of the decision point was blocked to prevent a view being taken along the fence – too easy! Kites A and B were placed at a prominent fence post to give the appearance of a corner, but solving this came down to distance judgement along a perpendicular feature, helped by the lines of sight along the sides of the admissions hut.

11. (C) A trailO planner's dream control site! A non-representational map symbol (elongated knoll) for a feature whose highest point was not at its geographic centre. It was the latter (C) that was being asked for. If B was to be the given answer the description would have been “knoll, top”.

12. (B) Using the same kites as control 8 (that was intended as a distractor) plus one. Here the solution was the location to which the eye was drawn. Parallax was in use to catch out the unwary.

13. (B) Viewing this cluster was made (intentionally) awkward by having the decision point beyond the tree by the track. If you went back to look from the higher and clearer viewpoint then C and D would have swapped places. Two kites were on the distinct vegetation boundary so could not be in a “part” of the open area. The nearest kite was clearly not in the northern part but was doing a good job as a parallax distractor.

14. (C) A rare opportunity to provide a land form control in this terrain. The solution was straightforward if you identified the line of sight from the the decision point as passing to the left of the isolate tree. This was mapped by a green circle but looked like a candidate for a green dot. However its base (not visible from the road) was the fallen trunk of a very large tree.

15. (Z) A classic parallel feature control, simple if you were reading the veg. boundary changes off the map, not so if you had relaxed your concentration.

16. (A) A test in identifying lines of sight to place the centre of the circle in the terrain.

17. (B) To resolve this control it was necessary to realise that the control circle (6mm in diameter) touched the wall of the building thus, at 1:4000, placing its centre at 12metres from the building in the terrain.