Results for Fineshade, Fineshade, 18/01/2004

It is said of the legendary All Blacks Rugby Teams that they “got their retaliation in first” – in my case it is my excuses, no – make that my apologies for any shortcomings that there might have been.

I came very late to the event and felt myself to be as much a ‘last minute adviser’ as Controller and found that planning and organising was well advanced with my first act being to check Simon Ford’s courses and able to make a few observations which, in the main, were in connection with the course lengths and the BOF Guidelines.

The first opportunity I had to go to Fineshade itself was on the Tuesday before the event with the intention of checking the shorter courses on the ground and some of the more technical control sites in the forest and by this time I was aware that Organisers Gary and Mary Boothroyd had made every effort to arrange some suitable parking but to no avail. On the Tuesday a lot of my energies went into the car parking rather than into the course checking though I did manage some if not all that I had originally planned to undertake.

Mr. Inglis, the Northants District Forester of Forest Enterprise was understanding about our predicament but because of other visitors (walkers, dog owners, mountain bikers etc.) could not let us use any of the roads or forest tracks and, because of the size of the available visitor car park opposite the Caravan Club Site, suggested that we try to find alternative parking.

There were three alternatives – the closed-down for the winter Caravan Club Site car park area (which had been used a couple of times within the past year or two by the Siberian Husky Club), the sloping field to the left of the approach road which I was assured was not at all usable in winter months, especially with recent wet weather and the Wakerley Woods car park. Other groups, some as large if not larger than ours, have used Wakerley and on-site toilets in the recent past before walking over to Fineshade and we would be able to do the same together with having the toilet block opened for us on Sunday morning.

As a member of the Caravan Club for nearly 30 years, I contacted the Caravan Club Head Office in East Grinstead and requested the name of the Regional Manager for the Midlands and East Anglia, his/her Office address and telephone number – this request was refused on three separate occasions, and having left my home telephone number and full information regarding not only our parking needs but also details of the multi-million pounds BOF Third Party Insurance, I received later in the day a very blunt refusal similar in nature to that received earlier by Mary. Needless to say, I contacted Mr. Inglis and took him up on his offer of the use of Wakerley and must thank him for the use of both Fineshade and Wakerley and his help with our car parking problem.

It is also said that every cloud has a silver lining, in this case the prompt action of Kevin Bradley in offering to provide a 17 seater minibus for transport on the day. The silver lining was even more enhanced by the excellent voluntary work of Sue Bradley in driving competitors to and from the start throughout the day – I said a very sincere ‘Thank You’ to Sue during the day on behalf of the Club and am happy to repeat it again – “Thank you Sue – I hope you realise just how much your work was appreciated”.

The quiet and well arranged organisation of Gary and Mary together with their small but dedicated band of helpers ensured a good event not only at Registration but also at the Start and Finish.

Simon planned a well-rounded selection of courses and control sites that used the area to the full and he received a number of generous comments about his planning including some on the excellence of the mid-range of courses. Comments made by competitors on the need for the area to be re-mapped before future District Colour Coded or Regional Badge events take place will be brought to the attention of the LEI Committee, particularly with regard to vegetation, runnability and a small selection of point and line features that gave rise to some ‘in-competition frustration’. At the end of the day the offer of help from Ian Wells to collect in SI stakes, boxes and control kites was particularly welcome – thank you Ian.

On the whole, I believe that overall the day was a success, the weather stayed reasonably clement until the chill started to set in during the afternoon and some good, competitive orienteering took place, albeit with some hiccups on the way.

D-10: Despite weeks of trying, still unable to contact local rep of Caravan Club re use of their empty Fineshade site for parking.

D-6: Use of CC site refused and use of Fineshade forest roads and car park vetoed, with alternative offer of use of Wakerley with potential long walk and dangerous road crossing instead.

D-4: Secured minibus for safe transfer of competitors between registration and start/finish.

D-Day: Arrived at 8.40 am to find the Wakerley access gates locked … It’s quite exciting being organisers!

But the sun shone, the frost melted and the LEI helpers did a sterling job. Many, many thanks to all those who gladly agreed to help on the day, especially those who arrived to help but did not run. Thanks also to Andy and Kevin for running the computer operation so smoothly, to Sue for ferrying the bus back and forth and to Roger Kelly and the Cawleys for the excellent string course.

Simon Ford and Ernie Williams - you were great, helping to make the transfer to Wakerley workable and successful.

Finally thanks to all you competitors for supporting our event; we hope all that vindictive vegetation didn’t detract from the enjoyment of your run.

I tried to avoid most of the brambles and thorny bits - but if you made a wrong route choice you may well have found some!! Unfortunately Fineshade is like that!

The map does need a serious redraw and apologies to those of you who experienced its inaccuracies in looking for one or two controls.

My thanks to Ernie for standing in at the last minute and ensuring that as many guidelines as possible were followed. My thanks also to my wife for helping me put out control stakes on Saturday and to Andy and Ernie in putting out the Si units on a frosty Sunday morning. Also to Ernie and Ian Wells in collecting in at the end of Sunday before it got dark.

What has been written before about planners assistants is so true - it is impossible to do even a small event like this without help, the weight of the control stakes limits the carrying of large numbers to distant parts of the area.

Results for Fineshade District Event, 18/01/2004