We were lucky ... very lucky!! In the week leading up to the event the weather was pretty grim, but the BBC "5 day forecast" suggested that Saturday and Sunday might be half decent. As we hung controls on a rather grey and damp Saturday afternoon I was starting to have my doubts as to whether they had got it right (the large logs near the car park entrance are a legacy of the 1987 breeze that didn't really happen!!), but a clear night on Saturday and blue skies on Sunday made for the best day as far as the weather goes of the year so far.
Thank you all for coming along and as a club we hope you enjoyed the experience. We are very lucky to have such a good car parking field so close to the common which we have used now on several occasions. It does limit the shape of the courses and perhaps next time we will try and find a new venue to give more folk a taste of the other side of the commons that only the longer courses get to see. The organisers report really is a chance to say thanks to a lot of folk for making the event happen. GO is not a big club, but I think it would be fair to say we punch above our weight when it comes to holding good events. A dedicated band of Gophers all worked hard to ensure that you would have the best day's sport we could put together, so thanks to each and every club member who worked so hard to make it happen. I will mention names as they deserve credit where credit is due. So I guess in order of play I would like to say a big thank you to Sue Gardner (ably assisted by her husband Tony) for planning some excellent courses. Sue fitted this in with a major house move just before the event!! To Mike Murray for Controlling in his very relaxed way and for giving somebody else a chance to win the OO Trophy this year!! Onto the rest of the team ... Keith Tonkin - Pre-entries, EOD and other tasks, Jeremy Wilde - Land Access, IT, big tables, a generator that gave us headaches!!, results, web pages ... the list goes on and on, Neil Harwood - everything to do with maps, OCAD, Safety ... you name it, Neil does it, Iain Cairns - excellent Signing that helped get you there, Ian Brown - very slick Parking, Tim Pugh - Registration, EOD, Download etc, Jim Morris - Start, Hilary Gower - Finish and Squash, Jon and Angela Darley - String, plus the control hangers and collectors James Crawford, Gary Strowbridge, Iain Cairns and Ian Brown who were still on the common as the light faded on Sunday afternoon. As well as the team leaders mentioned, they were all assisted by very willing helpers on the day to who I would also like to say thanks. Hopefully I haven't missed anyone and apologies if I have.
Finally we need to say thanks to the National Trust and Landmarc for permission to use their land for this orienteering event, as well as Natural England for permission to run through the very extensive SSSI and Mr G F C Mellstrom for the splendid field used for car parking.
There were some items of lost property ...
You can see images on the web. Call Alastair on 01428 724297 if these are yours so that we can try and get them back to you.
We look forward to seeing you at the next GO event in October.
Alastair Doyle, Organiser
and Planner...
Approaching the top of the ridge on Bramshott in the quiet early morning light, an orange glow in the sky promising a fine day, my thoughts were, yes I do enjoy doing this!
I hope I am better at planning then writing...
It takes an immense amount of time to plan a large event and I could not have completed the task without the help of Neil Harwood who took over the final map preparation and printing. Everything became quite fraught when we ended up moving house on the 8th December (definitely not good planning).
Thanks also to Mike for his guidance and helpful hints throughout, to Tony for his patience and help with the computing side of things, calculating height and control hanging and to the many club members who turned out on Saturday and/or Sunday to hang controls, SI units and collect them all in again (Iain, James, Ian, Gary, Geoff and Alastair).
I set out to plan challenging courses that tempted the straight line route. Feedback has been generally good and the winning times within guidelines, so hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
So it is “never again” (well at least for the next 10 years!).
Sue Gardner, Planner
and Controller...
Yes the map was out of date, particularly in the semi open area E of the start and finish. I thought Sue did well to devise safe courses for the juniors in a nebulous area of tracks, rides and newly mown swathes of heathland. Seniors entering this area at the end of their courses as did all those visiting 197, the veg boundary, met a bewildering amount of scrub on leaving the control site but with reassurance of a metalled road immediately to the south. Perhaps we should have overprinted this new growth on the map.
Similarly the new path to the N of 196, the depression. This track ran E - W halfway up the hill and was met by all going to the flag at the top of the hill. Sorry - didn't see it until the day of competition.
So thanks to all of GO who made it such a good day. Sue's courses needed little improvement - well done and Alastair kept us all focussed and then organised a wonderful weather window.
Mike Murray (SLOW), Controller