COMMENTS FROM THE OFFICIALS

We hope you all enjoyed our event on Chobham Common in the glorious autumn sunshine. We have to say we were not expecting 460 competitors, the number far exceeded our expectations. Due to the event being at the same time as the Original Mountain Marathon (formerly KIMM) and it being the end of half term, we were stretched to provide enough people for the teams at this event and we have to thank Southern Navigators for providing helpers to fill the gaps we could not fill. Our thanks go to the GO members who helped on the day, many of whom gave up their run.

There were a few glitches which needed ironing out. Perhaps the most memorable was the lack of cups at the finish, so some resorted to using their map bags for beakers. Very enterprising or perhaps desperate measures on a warm day. The cups did eventually turn up, so our apologies for those who finished their run and could not have a drink. The other problems are covered in the Planners and Controllers comments.

Finally, our thanks to Surrey Wildlife Trust who gave their consent for use of the common, and in particular to Andy Wragg, the ranger, for his help and advice.

Christine Kiddier and Gareth Davis, Organisers

and Planner...

English Heath land is becoming increasingly difficult to use for Orienteering. There are rare species, both flora and fauna on Chobham Common and the increasing power of the Conservation groups will probably preclude organized sports on these areas before long, so we may not use Chobham again. "Good!" some may say as the extremely high vegetation growth this summer made running hard work, The tussock grass in particular is higher than ever, plus the gorse is returning with a vengeance. Nonetheless I hope that most got something out of their courses on a sunny October day.

We had a problem on the yellow course between 7 & 8 with a dog-legged path; the paths in this area have changed in the last two years, but we should have spotted this one. Also we had problems with our printer, which appears not to like being moved around the events. The print quality was inconsistent; I thought that I had removed all the bad copies, but I missed some. Apologies to all who had dodgy prints. I still think that it is a good plan to try to print on the day. We had approximately 150 more competitors than we were expecting and if we had outsourced the printing then we would undoubtedly have run out of maps and been turning people away. We would not have planned to waste 200-300 maps at £0.50 a time.

Our club resources were pretty stretched on the day, with an event that took more organising than a lot of regionals. Many thanks to the Southern Navigators, Paul, Matt and Ross who helped with controls, both before and after and to Brian for Controlling and directing me away from losing all of the Orange Course competitors in the bogs of Gracious Pond.

Thank you for coming.

Neil Harwood, Planner

and Controller...

Brown Course
The attendance was much higher than expected, and runners who had maps which had to be printed on the day, would have noted the colour wasn't up to the usual standard. The feature inside control circle 208 wasn't clear at all and those who found the control are to be congratulated.

Yellow Course leg 7-8
A few a points were brought to my attention during the event. Namely the path running due south wasn't quite true to the map. Therefore it was decided to tape approximately 10-15 metres from control 7 to the actual path in question.

A comment received from one team leader about this particular leg, was quite happy that the leg stood, but if earlier runners were disadvantaged then the leg should be void. As there were no further objections on the day then the leg should stand. This relates only to runners competing for the Yvette Baker competition.

The overall comments from competitors were positive. They had enjoyed the day in the warm Autumn sunshine even though some parts were tough and running through the heather made it even tougher.

It has been a pleasure to work with Neil, Christine and all the helpers from GO and thank you to fellow SN club members who volunteered to help on the day as quite a number of key GO members were taking part in the OMM (ex KIMM).

Brian Pilling (SN), Controller