This year was the Biggest Moonlight Ever! We had a record 71 teams enter, 370 runners and about another 50 Catchers. Everyone had to meet at St Michael’s Church in Dalton at 9.30am so as you can imagine trying to park 370 kids in a 60-car car park. This was a nightmare but thanks to Ricko, Hugh, Mike and all the car parking staff we managed it.

After busing all the runners to the start and fitting 5 double-decker buses in a small area (It is amazing how small they go). After a fairly quick briefing, they were off (some not knowing where they were and thinking they were in Southport or Lydiate). Actually the start was at Haskayne Downholland Primary School.

When I left the start and passed most of the teams on my way back to the finish, I could see all the younger teams at the back, and all the older and fitter teams further ahead (what the neighbours thought, I don’t know). I returned to the finish with time to spare to give the briefing to the catchers. The catchers briefing gets bigger and bigger each year with more and more things to marshal and safety issues to look out for.

The Catchers were set off at 1pm giving the runners about 90mins head start. It didn’t take long before the easy first lives started to fall. After discussion, for this year’s Moonlight we decided to change certain rules. We decided to change the free time after being caught, from 10 to 30 minutes to give teams time to get away. All day I was catching teams with 20 minutes left on their cards, the teams loved this new rule and seemed to be a lot more highly spirited event than I have ever seen. One girl said to me “this is great, we actually have time to get away”. This also meant that it was a lot harder for the catchers and made them work a bit more to find the good teams. Teams were getting to the finish with fewer lives lost which kept the younger teams’ morale high but didn’t affect the more experienced teams.

Closer to the finish, we had asked one person from each catching team to come to the finish to help out with marshalling and setting up whilst other members were out cleaning up on teams close to the finish. Those that came back to help were a real godsend. Can you imagine 300-odd kids coming running towards you all aiming for an area the size of a coffee table? The Car Parking Team said it was the most intense finish they have ever seen. When those fantastic rockets from Ken Spencer went up, people just appeared from every corner and bush you could imagine. We had to stop the road both ways for the sheer number of people running in the same direction.

I have heard people saying that this was one of the best ever, if not THE best, and I would like to thank all the teams that entered. We only had approx 4 kids from 370 drop out and only 2 teams picked up after the rocket went up. One team of young scouts and their leader got in just out of time with no lives lost which is a fantastic achievement. Well done.

This year saw probably one of the freakiest things I have seen ever in Moonlight. Two teams entered the Network Section and both teams got caught at 8.20 pm so walked into the finish to hand their cards in early. Everyone who handed their cards in before the rocket we gave the same time of arrival. This meant that we couldn’t separate these teams by the last life caught so we looked at the time of the first life caught and they both said exactly the same time of 3.30pm but written by different catching teams. We could not separate the Winners so we had to have joint winners. I would have given it to The Potter Family for having a Scout, Explorer Scout and 2 Network Members in the Team but according to the rules we couldn’t. Well done to the Lynx Old boys for their efforts too.

Congratulations to the Winners and all those who took part.

Winners of the Scout Section – 53rd B

Winners of the Explorer Section – Eclipse D – Mooses

Joint Winners of the Network Section – The Potters and The Lynx Old Boys

Overall Winners of Operation Moonlight 2006 – Eclipse D – Mooses

Winners of the Catchers Prize – Billy Bush

I also have a list of thank you’s which I gave on the night, but in particular I would like to thank Mark Gilham along with Steph for helping me organise the event; Pamela Tompsett, Heather and Becky for registering a massive 71 teams; Ann and Eric Simms along with The Fellowship for the catering of the event; Ricko, Hugh and Mike for the car parking; Mike Phillips and Phil Shotton for driving the emergency vehicle and Helen, Leigh and Sue for being the first aid team. Other people that have helped to make this event happen are Liz Lomas, Ash Green, Ali Daniels, Graham Wright, Ed from Trogzs, Len Howley, Sarah Morris, Sandra Fitzsimmons, The Network and Crew for all working hard to make it a success.

Thanks guys. You can find a full list of standings follows on the related page.

A feedback form is being sent out with the badges so please feel free to tell us what you thought was good or bad about this year’s event.

Chris Phillips,
Ormskirk District Crew Chairman