Fordingbridge Evening event   09 April 2018

Control 138 was stolen before the first competitor reached it. We have decided to remove it from the course, but, working on the assumption that anyone who went to 138 also visited 137, we have added 10 points to the score for 137. This takes the total score back up to 500. The bonus points are now correct.

Thank you all for coming on such a foul night. The entry of 80+ was unexpectedly high and we hope this will be maintained over the rest of the summer programme.

Results

Planner’s Comments

The area is just too small for the best orienteers to have controls far enough apart to make them pushed to collect them all in the 1-hour limit, but with only 8 out of the 80 starters managing to complete the course, it was a good challenge. I think they run faster than I go around on my bike.

Control 138 was vandalised and stolen so that put a little damper on the night, along with the light drizzle but I hope you all appreciated being able to change in a dry hall.  A couple of mistakes I made for which I give my apologies. The map didn’t have the control description for the finish on it, that’s why it was on a notice pre-race. Also, when I printed the text descriptions for anyone new to our sport I left the old control values which I changed to be in line with the summer series for this year.

I blame it on the jet lag I must have still been suffering after my long holiday as I planned the event in January and only had a few days after I returned, I hope it didn’t spoil any enjoyment you had. I do find its good to have something not correct if you haven’t had a good run and then it can be someone else’s fault.

Please note we only had 50 people ask for a map for the run. Luckily, I had ordered a lot spare and you were all able to get a run but that will not always be the case so your journey will have been wasted. On most events even if you have asked for a map and then for various reasons can’t turn up you will not be charged but it would help organisers to know how many to order. If you are thinking of going to an event please advise organisers for a reserved map.

Kevin Pickering