Knowing that the south of England is short of water we decided only to stop the rain early on Sunday morning and let it recommence as soon as possible after we'd cleared the field. How we implemented this decision I shall never know.

I think everything went well. OK, so we had master maps. We may do it again, or we may bow to the increasing pressure to overprint. It gave me the opportunity to set Christine and Gareth a fiendish task on the Start, with a wide variation of options on punching before/after this and that. They managed it with such successful nonchalance that I'm not sure how I can set them an even more exciting challenge next time.

GO is getting to be quite a small/select band these days. It sometimes seemed like a struggle getting "volunteers" to help on the day - so many (of the few) had other plans. But what a talented bunch of Team Leaders ... David marshalling his troops and the cars, keeping to the high ground in case the weather mantra failed ... incredibly high usefulness-to-weight ratio in the Nicholls team on Registration, with James on Download not far behind ... Julie on map sales not letting my arcane "register when you like" concept faze her (though it confused the hell out of the rest of you) ... a bijou string course by La Familia al Dentone ... exotic coloured drinks from our Chairman's family ... Keith on Finish (what an exciting job that is these SI days) ... Tim on road crossings. And last but not least Tim "no event is too big for me" Pugh who managed the smallest team (himself) putting up signs a la carte, and then popped up everywhere - as indeed did Daphne - ready to lend a hand, advice, words of calm.

But of course the stars are the planners Jim and Alastair, and Robin our relaxed Controller, who have put in the hours and miles in the last couple of months to get everything ready. Helping on all things mappish I must also mention Neil (the Pilgrim). And for me as organiser I am particularly grateful to Gary, Alastair and Roger for their support, and special laurels to Matthew, Angela and Jon on computery.

If you have read this far you have a better attention span than me, and I dare to hope I might have your attention through the next couple of paragraphs too. If you stick it out to the end you'll learn fascinating facts of mothical tales... So I'd like to continue my thankyounesses by expressing gratitude to MV and SN for holding their Club Champs at our event thereby boosting the enthusiastic attendance levels, and also to Chris Sanderson who organised the Inter Services Match at the event which also added a bit of a buzz, as well as the excuse to bring you a Black course. The event was also, of course, the competition for the OO Trophy, about which more on this link.

Usually I write a short organiser's spiel, thanking everyone in general, as it is safer that way and I can't miss anyone out. This is more fun (at least for me if not for the reader) but a risky strategy as I have not mentioned Anke's delicious meal on Sunday night - and if I mention that there is Fiona's lemon pud - and Harriette's paper skills - and ... oh dear, please forgive me all of you who did such a lot and have not been named here.

Now about those moths. Sarah Patton (SO) told me about the Southern Chestnut moth. It seems it was first discovered in Britain at Ambersham Common in 1990 and it has never been found at any of the neighbouring commons or anywhere else in Sussex. The only other colonies in Britain occur in the New Forest. The larvae feed on Cross-leaved Heath and Bell Heather and the moth is on the wing during October. That is lucky, as this November it would have been washed out of the air. They fly just after dusk on mild nights, so look out for our SENiLe event next year!

Here is a photo of a Southern Chestnut moth. Cue thanks to English Nature for their permission to run all about the SSSI. Thanks also to the Cowdray Estate, Mr Haverhals, Mr Robertson as the landowners, and Mr and Mrs Baillieu for the car park field.

Jeremy Wilde