Ah, I see. The 2-stop controls will stay open until all the southbound riders have passed through. So if you're late heading north as far as Brampton, you're fine.
It's after Moffat that things become a bit tighter.
Apologies if that wasn't clear.
If its any help, the St Ives control on the way back officially closes at 3am (I think). There is no way that Phil D and I would suggest any of our crew, who will have fed and otherwise cared for 1000 riders in the previous 24 hours, should attempt to travel home at that point, so my current plan, subject to confirmation is to tidy up the control the following morning, and so we'll probably have food on for late stragglers, if nothing else because the crew will need to eat.
Last time, at Barnard Castle, we did start to wind things down, because we had a fixed time to exit the school that was the control, but what we did was gradually tidy up the kitchen and keep hot food on (it was quite damp and dreary as I recall) for the late arrivals. This included one rider arriving a couple of hours out of time who was cold and wet and so relished the first bowl of stew that he had declined, that he finished a second one.
I think that was something we got right at Barnie last time and will mention at the next controllers meeting when we discuss food. I doubt that there would be a general advertisement or guarantee of helping riders who are out of time, and there may be some places where the need to hand the premises back requires a prompt close, but I'd like to think most controllers would want to help riders who are struggling at the end of their limits/tether/etc, even if it was (as the hungry rider at Barnie) just giving them something to get their wits together so that they could find a B&B.
