As I pace my office dictating my second ‘blog' instalment, I can see grey clouds and light drizzle out of the window. Fairly miserable for May; however we need the rain as the ground is currently very dry and a bit of proper rain will save my needing to send people out watering the Cross Country Course.
Since my last update a lot has happened at Bramham, and the team downstairs has been joined by Darren who is heading up our telephone booking system - now that telephone bookings have gone ‘live'. It really is worth booking in advance because you save £5/day in parking! Our bookings are doing well; and are currently week on week ‘up' on last year, which is encouraging. Of course it does not necessarily mean that we will have a much larger crowd this year, it might just mean that more people are booking in advance.
I am pleased to announce that we have appointed a new litter contractor in the form of Wetherby Skip Services, who have incidentally handled the Estate's skip requirements for some years now. One of the key reasons we have appointed them with the Horse Trials contract is because they take the litter off site, sift through it and on average recycle 85% of what they pick up.
The trade stands positions have now been mapped, and hopefully the final site plan is in place. We have also had various meetings regarding the positioning of Crossing points (of which we have lots this year!) and Stop Points. We have had to introduce a fourth TV camera to try and see as much of the Cross Country action as possible, such that those spectators who watch from the big screens see a lot of the action although this is nothing compared to the 13 or so at Badminton!
Incidentally I had a very enjoyable visit to Badminton, although it seems like ages ago now. As ever it was an excellent weekend and proved to be a great opportunity to catch up with some of our sponsors, trade stands, contractors and officials. Camping in the rain however was slightly less fun!