Bovington North Sept 30th
Final results now available including the string. Please note that the winner of the Green course was Tom Butt & not Liam Howlett. Tom was using an SI card formerly registered to Liam which confused the system!
Please let me know of any other errors. Many thanks to WSX for their help with the IT.
Dick Keighley
Organiser's Comments
Just a few weeks ago this event had one massive problem -
no IT team! Then Wessex agreed to a co-operative venture and brows were
gratefully mopped. On the day it worked very well, perhaps unsurprisingly as WIM
& WSX have quite a history of friendly collaboration. Many thanks to Alan and
Bill, and also Ian Sayer who clearly and carefully controlled the event.
As a first time organiser, I was struck time and again by the willingness and
resourcefulness of the Wimborne helpers. We are indeed a fortunate club to have
people like these, and I thank them all for their superb hard work. The weather
was kind (just as well on terrain like Bovington!) and David & Judith must be
pleased with their planning. 258 runners enjoyed the day which was, in all, a
very successful occasion. Thank you for coming - we look forward to seeing you
again soon.
Mike Kite
Planner's Comments
Listening to the rain beating down on Sunday evening we realised how lucky we had been with the weather for the event. As Ian has said it was almost perfect weather for orienteering and, with the compact car parking and registration area, an ideal day for socialising afterwards. We hope you enjoyed the courses and despite the tough going underfoot in places times were for the most part within the guidelines. The design of the three longer course had to be amended fairly late in the day when the Marines, who control the Explosives Area, placed a large area out of bounds due to ongoing construction works. With the constraint of the fences and the large lake / marsh area it meant that these courses contained either a length of dead running or passed through areas which had been visited on the outward legs. The intention had been to use the technical woodland area on the southern slopes. However from talking to competitors it seemed that most enjoyed their courses.
An apology is due to any late starters who were distracted by 4 trail bike riders who appeared within the Explosives Area late in the day. We were supposed to have sole access to the area. In particular apologies to, we think, Pat Benjamin of BOK who as a result of their activities missed punching a control. For those on the Brown Course control 12, box 127, was not quite synchronised resulting in a gap in the printed splits. This did not affect the overall timings.
Finally we would like to thank Ian Sayer for his sympathetic and efficient controlling of the event and for lending us some of Wessex OC’s equipment and IT experts. Also to Mike Kite for all his work in organising the event and to those club members who put out boxes in the morning and helped collected controls after the event.
David & Judith Bland
Controller’s Comments
It was interesting on the day to stand at one or two vantage points and look across the open areas to see numerous orienteers heading in all directions towards the controls dotted around. The difference between those who hesitate, study the map for what seems like ages, move a few paces and then stop and look again and those more confident ones who run in a more or less straight line towards where they are sure the control is just shows why there is such a range of times. It is interesting to note that the faster runners, even if they don’t hit the control straight on first time quickly check the map, make a decision and head off again in a matter of seconds. I think people lose more time than they realise by not being decisive.
David and Judith’s courses seemed to be well received by those I spoke to and I was pleased that there were no retirals or disqualifications on either the White or Yellow courses, always difficult to get the level right on these. The Wimborne team worked well and it was heartening to once again see such close co-operation between Wimborne and Wessex who provided the IT “Expertise” as most of the Wimborne specialists were away for the weekend.
The weather was almost perfect for orienteering as it was cool but not cold and overcast so no glare form the sun. All in all a good day.
Ian Sayer