OO Trophy Results

OO Trophies are awarded to the best senior and junior M and W runner, calculated using SE league points system.  The trophies celebrate the name of Occasional Orienteers, a long established orienteering club in the south east which is now incorporated within Guildford Orienteers

The first three in each class this year are:

Junior Men

1.         Ralph Street                  SLOW  M12A    91.0

2.         Tom Bray                      SN        M16A    81.6

3.         Luke Parker                   SO       M16A    70.5

Senior Men

1.         Mike Murray                  SLOW  M55L    98.3

2.         Clive Hallett                   BOK     M35L    96.7

3.         Jack Hutchison              SOC     M55L    95.8

Junior Women

1.         Amy Pennington            SOC     W18A   91.2

2.         Laura Parkes                 HH        W10A   85.4

3.         Bryony Crickmore          SO       W12A   77.1

Senior Women

1.         Carol Pearce                 CHIG    W55L    95.3

2.         Christine Robinson         SLOW  W45L    89.5

3.         Woo Allen                     BAOC   W35L    89.1

Trophies (suitably engraved), and certificates for the four class winners can be collected at the national event at Burnham Beeches on 10 February.  Details will be at enquiries. 

Unfortunately this year’s winners will only have the trophies for a short while as the 2002 OO Trophy is on 3 March 2002 at Ambersham Common, Sussex.

Planners Comments

It is about 10 years since I last planned a Badge Event and whilst the requirement for good courses has remained the processes behind the courses is completely different. Map drawing, printing, overprinting of courses and control punching all require a level of computer expertise which I do not possess. I am therefore hugely indebted to the team who helped me. Neil Harwood probably spent more time on the event than I did updating the map, doing all the OCAD overprinting work, arranging the printing and helping me bag maps and put out controls. Pete Nicholls and Jon and Angela Darley handled the entire electronic punching arrangements. There was also of course a very willing team of Guildford Orienteers who helped bag maps and put out and take in controls. It really was a team effort and thank you to you all.

Philip Gristwood’s input was thorough and invaluable. I believe it was the first Badge Event  he has controlled and he undoubtedly improved the courses. Thank you Philip.

It would appear that despite my reservations most course lengths were not too long except for Course 1. Course 1 was always likely to be too long once the decision had been taken for that course to go on to the very steep and physical Hascombe Heath at the far east of the area.

Thank you also to organiser Tim Stansfeld for his help and support.

I probably shouldn’t leave it 10 years before I plan another Badge Event!

Mark Smith

Controllers Report

Yet again it was a pleasure to control a GO event. The downside was that I was not able to run competitively on a new area, although I did have the benefit of going round all the areas when not full of competitors. Early on the Sunday morning there were actually deer to be seen. Last winter, when the event was being planned, the area was quite different when snow covered.

The map was produced 2 years ago and with the Foot and Mouth crisis the delay meant that parts of it were not absolutely up to date as the vegetation changes quickly in parts. Using digital printing meant that GO were able to make essential updates right up til the week before the event. Unfortunately clearing work took place recently and we lost one of the first control sites from the east start meaning that everyone had to visit the same first control. Unexpectedly even more work took place in the days preceding the event making another control rather easy. The new map and digital printing were generally very well received although there were some minor reservations expressed, some of the pale green areas were not very obvious on the map.

Mark planned challenging courses which needed very little input from me. The best was made of even the dead legs, which people thought were not as bad as expected. Use of e-punching and double sided maps meant that maximum use could be made of Hydons Ball for all of the shorter courses. I spoke with many competitors and without exception there were favourable comments about the courses and the new areas. Some of the courses had gold standard times longer than the guidelines but this did not seem to be a problem.

Tim's organisation worked well, despite the adverse effects of having to make all the arrangements a second time after the postponement. He was fortunate in getting the new parking field with only half a days notice. A very good turnout for a SE event made everybody's hard work worthwhile.

Philip Gristwood (MV)

Organisers comments

Thank you all for coming to this new area for orienteering in a hidden corner of West Surrey.  I often use this area for my training runs, so it felt like inviting you into my back yard!

Firstly an explanation about the parking.  As many of you guessed, and Philip alludes to in his report, my intention all along had been to use a field nearer the farm as a car park / assembly area.  Unfortunately a week of frost followed by the thaw made this far too wet, and I am extremely grateful to the farm tenant, Freddie Simpson, for letting us use his gallops at very short notice as a much drier alternative.  Even so I know a small number of you were originally directed to a muddy parking area, and many more of you went home with muddy cars (unless you took advantage of the jet wash at the farm!).  Parking on the gallops also meant some of you had a slightly longer walk to the event facilities, but I’m afraid this was unavoidable.

I heard from the start teams of seven people going to the wrong start.  My apologies for this.  It just shows you can’t have too many reminder signs.  Then for some reason once you were out in the forest you kept the first aiders busier than usual, with five cases, including one competitor who had to be carried from the competition area on a stretcher.  The first aid team found that nothing was broken though, I’m pleased to say.

Other than these points I was pleased with the smooth way the event organisation went, and I hope you were too.  This was down to all the very experienced helpers from GO.  They did all the work on the day!  I would particularly like to thank Jon and Angela Darley who processed all the pre-entries and then handled all the SI download and results on the day.

One final thought.  Only those of you with late starts will have seen what a pretty corner of Surrey this is.  For the rest of you who were peering through the fog, come back the next time we have an event here and see for yourselves!

Tim Stansfeld

Lost property handed in to me:

1 pr childrens green wellingtons  - size 35

1 pr red and black VJ orienteering shoes size 3 ish (too muddy to tell!).

1 white patterned ladies head scarf 

To reclaim please contact me.

Tim Stansfeld

Thanks / Acknowledgements

Land permission:           Hascombe Estate / Cluttons

National Trust

Car parking:                   Hascombe Estate / Freddie Simpson

First Aid:                       Colin Pocklington

Toilets:                          Site Equip