With apologies for the changes to course lengths at the last minute and for the use of only part of the area that we promised in the event details. The former was us worrying about the interpretation of the BO course planning guidelines and the latter because the snow extended the shooting season, because the clay pigeon and target shooting imposed too many restrictions on the area we could use and because, again the snow, delayed Roger with the mapping. It was a pleasure though using Roger’s new map to plan on, not only because of its legibility and accuracy but also because he found so many details in the terrain it was never difficult finding control sites.
Tim Denton planned the long courses. I was despairing of fitting a Brown course on what I thought was too small an area. Tim showed me what was possible - a real eye opener. Having warned that the terrain was going to be tough I suspect you were not disappointed! But the huge number of positive comments showed that you thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. With tracks, rides and streams in abundance our main aim was to give lots of route choice and it seems we achieved this. Do please use Route Gadget to show where you went. From comments at the finish you certainly went every which way.
Congratulations to all the SEOA Long Distance champions. Jonathon Crickmore won M21 with a time that was only a minute or two outside the BO guideline time for the Brown course. Congratulations to Tim and myself for shortening the courses at the last minute!!
We used 77 controls. The GO team who helped put these out and collect them in were truly great. No fuss, done quickly and reassurance about the terrain were really appreciated.
If we can link up the area used today, the south scarp slope we wanted to use and then the rest of Bexley Hill we will have an area to rival the west side of the main road used a couple of years ago for the British Champs. Watch this space.
Thank you all for coming.
Jim Morris
I could have been in a tough Scottish forest on Saturday afternoon as I hung controls, and the haggis and pseudo Burns supper on Saturday evening made me feel even more like I had just been out in a good 6 day area. I hope you felt the same as you ran through Verdley.
Thank you all for coming and making our event a success ... well I hope you will agree that it was. I know some of you felt we perhaps under sold the event by painting the area as being pretty rough, but from the comments I heard, the vast majority of people seemed to enjoy the area and found it far more runnable than they expected. To be able to run in a brand new unused area in Southern England is a real treat, and we are very fortunate in GO to have a few more candidates tucked up our sleeves for future years.
Jim and Tim did a excellent job of planning some challenging courses on a great new Roger Maher map, but there were times in early January when we had some serious doubts about the event, as the unusual snowfall for the South of England caused real problems for Roger and the map. There were also issues with the southern part of the area which ended up not being mapped and used this time, but rest assured there is plenty more rough tough forest waiting to welcome you in future years.
An event like this just can’t happen without a well oiled team of helpers, and it wouldn’t be right for me not to try and thank them by name. Hopefully I won’t miss too many, but apologies if I do. In alphabetical order so as not to offend anyone (I hope) ...
and last but not least Timmy Denton and Jim Morris for some excellent courses and Andy Cottrell our Controller on the day.
We had one casualty who I am pleased to report is ok and on the mend. Niger Saker from SLOW took a nasty tumble pretty early on on his course, but luckily was able to find his way back to assembly ok. At first he though he may have broken his arm, but a trip to casualty revealed the injury to be a dislocated elbow which with some pain to Nigel, was put back into place. I would like to express my thanks to the young lady from BAOC (I don’t know your name, but you will know who you are) who very gallantly offered to help Nigel back, but he felt he could manage on his own, to Sarah Rollins who very kindly took a look at Nigel’s arm to try and assess the damage, and finally to Sarah Brown and Paul Street who got Nigel home to Kingston and casualty to get the dislocation sorted. We hope you are back out running again before too long Nigel and will have another chance to get the better of Verdley Wood.
Finally thanks to Lord Cowdray, & R Windle of the Cowdray Estate for permission to use Verdley Wood and Ted Liddle from Protec for use of the car parking area.
We hope to see you all again at the next GO events later in the year which will be listed on the web site a bit nearer the time.
Alastair Doyle
Once again, I was really happy to work with Guildford Orienteers and also to work with the two planners Jim and Tim.
First impressions of the area were that it would be good for the planners, if not a little bit difficult due to the brashings. When the first courses were sent to me, it really brought the area to life. The map was still being worked on, and well done to Roger for producing a very professional map. The Ocad 10 viewer was very easy to use having not worked with it before. I have to thank the planners for listening to my suggestions and producing (from what feedback I had) some very good courses. I would also like to thank all of the club members who were able to help not only on the day, but over the weekend, as we all know that no event could ever happen without it. It just leaves me to say it would be a pleasure to work with the club again in the future.
Andy Cottrell (SN)
Guildford Orienteers would like to thank the Cowdray Estate for use of their land.