Colour Results (inc splits)    String Course

Planners Comments    Organisers Comments    Controllers comments

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Course splits

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Planner’s Comments:

The joys of orienteering – heading home into the sunset early Saturday evening after a day on the Belvoir Estate, heading east towards the event area into a stunning sunrise Sunday morning followed by a well attended event that was blessed with glorious weather, hardly any problems – especially none from the SI boxes out in the forest – and a large number of very complimentary comments on not only the courses but also the fact that the courses had been planned to avoid the very worst of the undergrowth in the all too damp and muddy areas, the latter due to three decisions made early on in the planning process.

The majority of the work for the event was literally crammed into seven weeks in February and March – due to the access agreement between LEI and the Estate - following a site meeting in early March with Mr Thompson the Agent of the Belvoir Estate and Mr Partridge the Head Gamekeeper, to whom our thanks are due for their help in getting the event up and running, especially the provision of the event area, the car park and the facilities in the car park, and the three crucial early decisions that were made following this initial site visit and meeting were:

(i) to position the Start and Finish fairly close to the Car Park and

(ii) to use the east-west escarpment as much as possible and

(iii) not to site controls in the northern part of either Church Thorns or Barkestone Wood at all!

The only fly in the proverbial ointment for planning was the substantial ‘Out of Bounds’ area between Old Park and Barkestone Woods – the shorter courses could be fitted in OK as could the longer courses but the medium length courses, particularly Course 7, had to be fitted in without a 2Km+ circuit around the OOB.  The favourable comments received seem to indicate that this was managed successfully.  For the technically minded amongst us the corrected course lengths ratios for courses 1 to 10 were based on an initial expectation of M21L competitors running at 6.25 minutes per Km over a course of approximately 9.0 Km with up to 250 metres of climb to give a winning time of about 70 minutes and a Gold Badge time of somewhere around 85 minutes – the actual on-the-day winning time of M21L which was closer to 60 minutes than 70 and a stunning performance if anyone has seen the terrain covered by the Course 11 competitors, and a Gold Badge Time of just under 80 minutes were not that far off given the unexpected dryer and faster running conditions or are orienteers of all ages just getting fitter and faster?

Apologies are needed for the lack of enough control description sheets on the day – not, I hasten to add, a ploy to turn all orienteers without access to the internet into ‘second class citizens’ but a logistical failure which is much regretted though it did open up interesting discussions and interpretations during the day regarding the wording of the new 2003 BOF Rule 6.6.2 “The control description sheet shall be printed on the map and/or provided as a separate sheet to all competitors” – the “and/or” certainly has taken some orienteers by surprise if descriptions are only to be provided on the map at some or all future events and agreement was well-nigh 100% that “provided as a separate sheet” definitely does not mean only via an internet download!!

Apologies are also needed for Course 7 maps running out but this was due to an unexpected occurrence on the day – depending on pre-entry all courses were provided either with printed or hand-drawn bagged maps with a high percentage number of spares just in case.  These numbers were then put into the entry system so that EODs could be taken up to the maximum number of maps available.  Unfortunately on Course 7 more maps were taken than the number of competitors entered, possibly by a group, and this led to the inevitable but unplanned shortfall.  Thanks are due to competitors who gave up their map for recycling and I will be personally sending copies to all who left their address at ‘Download’.

The successful working of all the SI boxes was due to the very hard work of John Cooke and Peter Hornsby who dismantled, checked batteries and connections and then re-assembled all of the boxes prior to programming – this in turn led to an event and Championships Presentation without hiccups – thank you John and Peter.

Mention of Peter Hornsby can but bring me to my personal ‘Thank You’ for the controlling of the event – Peter was consistently helpful and encouraging throughout the preparations in the weeks leading up to the event and on the day itself and will probably not forgive me for saying so but if any Club or Association is looking for an enthusiastic, knowledgeable (especially with regard to mapping, OCAD and orienteering technology) and experienced Grade 2 Controller in 2004 and beyond they have a sincere recommendation regarding this particular Controller.  Needless to say Peter the next couple of beers will be on me!

Thanks must also go to John Marriott for his organisation on the day, his helpers in the Car Park and at the road crossing, in the Download room and at the Start and Finish, together with an extra ‘thank you’ to the quintet of ‘control collectors and checkers’ after the event enabling us all to get home before the sun went down with all equipment collected, checked and packed away – apart from SI box 155 lost en-route somewhere in mid-afternoon in Old Park Wood which, more by luck than judgement, was found at Monday lunchtime by a very relieved Planner!

Finally, thanks are due to all of the competitors for attending, competing and, in many cases, expressing their enjoyment of both the area and the courses – it is very much appreciated.

Would that we could always run in sunlit woodlands!!

Ernie Williams

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Organisers comments

 I’ve always thought that the planner’s task was to plan the weather and so a thank you must go to Ernie for his efforts in that direction - a good job we didn’t need the big tent! Ernie also secured the download building and power supply so that was another couple of problems solved for me although it did look a bit squashed for those hardy souls: Kevin, Peter and Mike (and others) who all did sterling service in there throughout the day. The car park, often another trial for organisers, is not a problem at Belvoir, so this also made my task easier. Unfortunately, we had competition from a rival event but I do hope Ernie’s fine courses added something extra to Mother’s Day.

I apologise for the slight confusion with EOD at the beginning but more people turned up than I expected. Everyone seems to arrive just as registration opens when the helpers, many who were new to the process, were still trying to get to grips with all the different bits of paper and lists etc. I think there is a need to update our procedure sheets so that all helpers can get a better understanding of the tasks, although there will always be a need for some customisation.

I must thank all the other helpers, but particularly Gerry and Thelma for their work prior to the event processing the pre-entries and it was Gerry who reassured me that I could nip off for a run without the organisation collapsing. Particular thanks are also due to those who volunteered their services. Best recollections: fast empty roads on the way to Belvoir, lots of pheasants when putting out the signs and our post event drinks outside the pub in Redmile to celebrate what we thought was a successful day – I hope you did too.

Lost property

 Ultrasport Description sheet holder. Describe description sheet.

 Soft brimmed hat Describe.

 John Marriott 0116 236 4295

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Controllers Comments

When I ‘volunteered’ to control this event, I was unaware that the clocks would be going forward on the same morning. This had two consequences, firstly all the SI boxes had to be programmed in BST to allow for the change. More crucially, my 5.30am alarm call was 4.30am in body time!

Due to access restrictions the map was newly printed but a year old in survey, which did not seem to matter apart from a substantial fenced enclosure near the start migrating up the hill. Fortunately the remapping, particularly the bramble screens, was exceptionally reliable. A further complication was the February start date, again imposed, for on the ground planning, leaving a very short time for all the numerous planning tasks.

The Planner, Ernie Williams, had his arm twisted into planning at a planning conference that we were running. Ernie is a very experienced controller, but has not, apart from minor events, planned for some time. Ernie got straight in to check the sites that he had armchair planned and even emailed pictures of each site as soon as he returned from each visit. When I went out to check the sites and legs, I felt as if I already knew which would be acceptable. The courses he planned show how much we have missed his skill. His dedication and attention to detail are fantastic and his use of courses that take advantage of electronic punching without double running was excellent. On Saturday we spent the whole day in Old Park Wood fine tuning the actual kite positions for best effect. We hope nothing was hidden, but we tried to make sure that they were not too obvious either. Great courses Ernie, thanks indeed.

As Ernie has said, an early decision was made to exclude large tracts of the area due to the runnability problems. The resulting courses benefited greatly. The addition of the strip of pitted ground between Wood Lane and Old Park Wood made circular courses both practical and challenging. Not all courses benefited from this due to the position of the start and finish. But the elderberry plantation with the tripod control (120) near the finish gave a most interesting change in pace for most courses and threw a lot of orienteers. The only course to lose out from these arrangements was course seven, one of the most popular, having to turn round in Church Thorns so having the ‘grot’ without the benefit of running into the delights of Barkstone Wood. Even so, many told tales of errors in the navigation to this area by missing the path through the field!

Considerable effort was put into backup arrangements in case of major electronic punch failure.  We did have a contingency of issuing control cards at the start and had put out extra punches at the most used sites. Fortunately on the day the system worked flawlessly; thanks go to Kevin Bradley, Mike Napier, John Cooke and everyone else who toiled away. What is clearly evident is the massive amount of extra work needed for electronic punching, not least in putting out and collecting the unwieldy stakes and boxes. This is the second SI event I have controlled this year and it has become apparent that these events need at least a planner’s assistant to help with the physical tasks on the weekend.

Just a few notes on the course lengths. The courses were properly based as a ratio of the M21L course, which was calculated using the last two events on the land, both at similar times of year. As it happened the M21L course was only very slightly short (Gold standard time of 79m18s against a recommended of 80-90 minutes. There are, I think, three reasons for this (these are reasons, not excuses!) 1. The ground conditions were exceptionally benign, there having been no significant rain since the courses were finalised some three weeks before the event. 2. The decision not to use the northern part of the wood for the longest courses and 3. The decision to keep the shorter courses in the Old Park Wood Area and hence away from the slower areas. It was considered that some courses may have been slightly underdone before the event for reasons 2 and 3; but I decided to allow them, preferring possible slightly short courses at this time of year. Had the weather been normal for March then I might have been criticised for letting them be too hard/steep/dangerous! Anyway apologies for those (on the long class options) who didn’t have far enough to run.

My thanks also go to John Marriott and his teams. The organisation was just that – organised; John even had time for a run. The Belvoir Estate were more than helpful, the use of the ticket office was a nice touch. The results worked on the day and were posted on the website before all the controls had been retrieved, well done Kevin. Finally thanks to all who attended and ran in what is becoming one of our better areas.

My best memory of this event will be of running very tired back to the car park and seeing the string course competitors with heaps of smiles enjoying their run in the sun. I trust that you all wore smiles as you ran in the sunlit forest. Thank you all.

Peter Hornsby MOR

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