National Forest 10th Aniversary Event : Ratby Woodlands - 25th March 2007

Organiser’ s Comments

Around 18 months ago the club determined that we should do something special to mark the 10^th anniversary of the National Forest Trophy and when the National Forest Company generously offered a substantial amount of sponsorship it became apparent that we would be able to make a different style event happen. I believe it was Roy Denney ( that is where I am laying the blame!) who suggested we should add a Long O to the event and the setting up of the club’s Development Team provided an opportunity to open the event to those who had not tried the sport before. We thought we might get a few new faces but never expected the interest and support we got on the day. It was very pleasing to see such a large number of families with young children attending the event.

Such a large and complex event took a lot of pre-planning and I would like to thank John, Judith, Roy, Roger and Andy for all the work that they put into making the event so successful. There was also a huge input on the day from members of the club. Thank you all so very much.

Looking ahead, we have made a number of new friends and contacts for the sport and we shall be following those up. Perhaps not next year but maybe the year after we may well try something similar again.

The Long O attracted a strong field and congratulations to the winner John Duckworth of DVO who completed the 14.9Km course in 88mins.

The National Forest Trophy has been awarded to Mairead Rocke (W16) LEI for her exceptional performance in the Long O. The club would also like to congratulate Harriet Lawson (W12) DVO on Light Green and Andrew Llewellyn (M20) NOC on Blue for outstanding performances. We hope to make presentations of the Trophy and commemorative T shirts at the Bradgate C4 event on the 21^st April.

I would like to thank the Woodland Trust for allowing the use of their very attractive woodlands and the staff of Groby Community College for the help and support on the day.

Chris Phillips

Organiser.

Long-O Planners Comments

The 10^th running of the National Forest Orienteering Trophy was, I thought, a great success thanks in no small part to publicity provided by the local press.

One lapsed member who brought his young family along was amazed at the high tech nature of the sport these days. Running round with what is effectively a swipe card and getting your times and splits as soon as you finish impressed him and all the results being on the internet 33 minutes after courses closed must have come as an even greater shock.

This one-off event took a lot of forward planning and a large team on the day and is not something that could be repeated regularly but as an attempt to get a large number of families to come-and-try-it, whilst at the same time as offering something for everyone was something the club wanted to try.

Rain the previous night when controls were going out did concern me but whilst damp underfoot in places, the weather was pretty fair on the day.

Roy J Denney

Long-O Planner

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