67 people braved the chilly and really wet conditions to participate in the Night-O and Search & Destroy-O at Cricket Holler, followed by the traditional potluck party.

The rules were simple: a mass start at 6pm, with 1 hour to punch as many controls (out of 20) as you cared to find. Unfortunately, after many years of faithful service, our air horn gave its last blast at 6pm. So at 7pm, Ben yelled Go! and the event turned into the Search & Destroy-O, where the object was to collect and bring back all the controls you could find. Each control returned was worth 1 point. 3 of the controls also used the white controls stands, and each stand was worth 1 point on Search & Destroy-O. Again this year, one group pulled the control off the stand, leaving it behind for another group to find and get the point.

The course was designed by Ben Bond, who made it just as difficult this year. There were a few challenges - not only was number 1 the furthest control away in the far southwest corner, it was in thick undergrowth. Some controls were easy to find if you came on one direction on a trail, but really tricky if you came in the opposite direction. With the rain, it made things extra slippery - lots of people almost fell getting to number 7.

We did not institute the "Matt Bond" rule again this year, mainly because we forgot about it, but it's coming back next year. Once again he cleared all 20 controls in 48 minutes. There were 3 groups that could have possibly beat him in points, so maybe we'll do the rule again where we hold him back for some period of time. He did have some issues picking up controls this year and was only able to retrieve 3, even though he tried to get number 1. He also suffered an injury when he stepped on a nail that went throught his shoe and deep into his foot, while trying to find more controls to bring in.

There were some groups that were overtime, and lost points - 1 point for every minute over 1 hour. We also had 1 group that misinterpreted instructions, and brought 3 controls in early. And 1 group completely misinterpreted the concept of punching controls - they asked to borrow a pen and then left with it. Instead of punching, they made an X in the box. Unfortunately, that is not a punch, so they got no credit. The meet director is currently making plans for how to avoid these situations next year.