Controller's Comments

Firstly, can I express my satisfaction that the event took place - up to a week and a half ago permissions for the event to go ahead were still being finalised with Leicestershire County Council, which made things just a little bit more hectic than would have been wished, especially as a large part of the area had only just been opened up to the public due to FMD restrictions in the area and had lain unused and unvisited for the last four months at least.

Thanks are due to the County Council, The Woodland Trust, The National Forest Company, the Bagworth and District Angling Club, and Bagworth W. M. C. - without the latter we would not have been able to comply with the County Council's request for toilet provision to be available as part of the short notice permission agreement.

Roger Kelly worked wonders in getting everything efficiently organised on the day, particularly with helpers at one point pre-event being a bit thin on the ground. Roy Denney's help was also invaluable.

Chris Phillips, realising that, with very little orienteering in the past few months in the Midlands and with the multi-day events in Scotland and in Europe on the near horizon, some of you would appreciate a testing, not to say strenuous run, made every effort to give you just that - no doubt some of you might be wishing that he hadn't tried so hard! Control 153 was a problem control, being put in to give a more reasonable shape to the courses for Green and Blue, and was sited on the extreme eastern edge of the re-entrant so as to avoid the very heavy and impenetrable undergrowth - the control description should have read 'Re-entrant, eastern edge' which I had in my very first notes and apologies are due for the omission of the 'eastern edge' which is, I appreciate, of little consolation to those very brave orienteers who made their way into the undergrowth in search of the elusive control.

The area was last mapped in the late 90's and, in some parts, it showed but the good news is that experienced LEI Club mapper Don Moir has agreed to take on Bagworth, including extensions in the north-east and south-east and a major re-survey of the eastern slopes of the spoil heap and the ever-growing copses and thickets, as his next mapping project - I look forward to it as I'm sure you all will.

Thanks for coming - and good luck if you are participating at a multi-day event as I am sure you will feel the benefit of, as one starter put it, "Just feeling the buzz of having a map in my hand and waiting for the start - it has been a long time without O on a Sunday - I'm glad we're back"! I thoroughly agree - Welcome back indeed!!

Ernie Williams

Planners Comments

Because of the Foot and Mouth restriction full access to the area was only granted three weeks before the event therefore the normal leisurely planning process had to condensed into a much foreshortened time scale. It did however have the advantage of giving an accurate picture of the likely height of the vegetation on the day of the event. In planning the longer courses I did endeavour to keep competitors out of the worst of thistles and nettles. Having the car park in the middle of the area does give the east side of the area a major pinch point which is hard to work round.

At first glance a disused colliery and former agricultural land does not seem to give much scope for Orienteering. However those of us who have run here on LEI Summer League events over the last three years have come to realise that we have a gem of an area that is getting better year by year and a second generation map, to be produced this winter, of the extended area will produce event better competition. Those of you who thought of Leicestershire as flat will have found we do have a few hills!

My thanks to Ernie for his help and patience, especially when time appeared to be beating us and thanks to Roy and Roger for help putting out and collecting controls.

Organiser’s Comments

This has proved a surprisingly difficult event to bring to fruition but I trust those who took part were pleasantly surprised by the area. This is in fact four different blocks of land. Centenary Woods is a long linear slope recently planted by the Woodland Trust with a grant from the National Forest as also was the next door Royal Tigers Woods. This block of mature copses and newer planting interspersed with meadows is a memorial to members of The Royal Tigers Regiment. Leicestershire County Council own the other two blocks which again were both supported by the National Forest. Bagworth New Wood is a fairly recent planting maturing nicely but Bagworth Heath Wood is old mining land and slag heap which is taking longer to develop. The whole area provides a good mixture of terrains with not a little climb.

The three officials spent many anxious weeks working on the event with no certainty that it would go ahead as it was released from Foot and Mouth restrictions in three waves the last only two weeks before the event.

The National Forest Trophy for 2001 will be awarded to the best performance in class once the results have been verified which seems entirely appropriate given the level of support they have provided for this area.

My thanks are due to Roger Kelly. In the final build up to the event I was called away from the area and he carried out the nuts and bolts of my function up to and including the day of the event although I was back in time to be present and monitor the situation. His work was complicated by last minute requirements imposed upon us by LCC regarding toilet and parking provisions but he did an excellent job negotiating with nearby facilities.

I would like to thank Chris Phillips for his planning which had to change several times as different bits of the area were made available and Ernie Williams the controller who suffered the same continual re-evaluations.

Roy Denney

On-the-day Organiser’s Comments