At last, I'm finished. Comments (other than Nick's) copied from SN's webpage, where the colour coded results are. Included mainly because they want to convey their thanks to those that stayed behind to look for the fella that went walkabout (fortunately found). Also makes interesting reading, too. If you lost a watch at the Saturday Night Event, contact Major Bateson on 94 321 2314, as he has it. Additionally, for those that don't know, the Saturday night wouldn't have been as good if it wasn't for the kind assistance of Hugh Drummond helping me and Steve Halligan to check the courses so that AF couldn't be accused of cheating by me showing him!
My Comments - Major Nick Bateson
Many thanks to those who acknowledged our effort and my thanks to Southern Navigators, SSgt Halligan (Day 1 Planner), SSgt Pellett (Admin) and as always to Andrew.
Steve Halligan did a great job on the Bordon planning and I enjoyed running around the area in the daylight far more than checking the controls in the gathering gloom on Saturday. A few people were sceptical about 8 kilometres at night but I'm glad that the winning time probably justified the distance. In retrospect the B Course could have been a kilometre shorter but we didn't know that Sarah wouldn't be running !!
I initially made the mistake by mixing up the course allocation for the Green and Light Green. In the lead up to the event including the final details this was published incorrectly. The final - final details pushed out on Saturday evening contained the correct allocation, but unfortunately on Sunday morning the registration found the out of date final (one only, not final - final) details among the control descriptions. Water and bridges spring immediately to mind, but I have to get it off my chest. You can still blame me !!
All planning on Sunday was courtesy of SN but we did help them putting out controls. All sites were dual SI / Emit and were positioned on Saturday, by coincidence control 222 by myself. The controllers then visited flags at 0745hrs and the "Live" SI units were added. So what happened to the rogue 222 on the Green 2? This control was also visited by the Brown 1 competitors, which will be of no consolation to the Small Corps Teams, but at least the hundred or so runners on our Brown 2 were not effected. Luckily it was located on an unambiguous lump of green that should have meant competitors would more rapidly assume that the control had been removed (very easy to say without the aid of adrenaline and a good sweat !!). It was reported missing by the 10.04 hrs starter and the majority of our runners had already visited the site by the time it was replaced. The only possible explanation is that the whole shooting match including the blue planners tape were removed between the controllers check and the start. Hard to believe, especially as it was one of the more remote parts of the forest. Sorry if it spoiled your day it did mine, but not half as much as the missing civilian competitor's ageing husband who was finally found on the A3 at 1730hrs after getting lost on his stroll to Wisely village !!
Orienteering …….just visit all the controls in the red circle ……it
can't be that difficult ?
Colour Coded Event Organiser's Comments
Well, I enjoyed my run and I hope that you did, too. That I could take time off for a run with a clear conscience is entirely due to my fellow Club Members from SN who helped on the event and worked hard to make it a success for you. My, and I am sure your, grateful thanks to them all and also to:
Dave Williams of the Black Swan for permission to use their field for car parking
and assembly
Chris Norman of Poynters Farm for permitting competitors to cross his fields
on the way to the start
Surrey CountyCouncil for permission for us to hold the event on Wisley and Ockham
Commons and particularly to their Ranger, David Boddy for all his help and guidance
Chris Rowley and his team from the British Red Cross, Surrey Branch for all
they did – of which more later.
We were pleased that orienteers from far and wide came to the event – there
was quite an international flavour to pre event phone calls, with enquiries
from Italian and New Zealand orienteers, amongst other ‘foreigners’
from Clubs such as BOK. What most of you will have missed was a little drama
at the end of the Event. A gentleman of fairly advanced years, who was unfortunately
suffering from short term memory loss, had accompanied an orienteer to the event.
He went missing from their car and we had to launch a search. The Red Cross
team in their Land Rover ambulance and some 20 to 30 orienteers from SN and
from the Army went to look for him. The search was co-ordinated by Alan Wallis
of SN, who was Safety Officer for the event, working with Tim Pugh (Controller)
and Paul Fox (Planner). As the search was not immediately successful we advised
the Police. They called in a dog team and a helicopter but we were all worried
that darkness was setting in. Fortunately the gentleman was eventually spotted
(by a SN member) over 7 miles away, walking along the A3 towards Guildford!
He was recovered by the Red Cross ambulance and there was a happy reunion over
hot drinks supplied by the Black Swan. All’s well that ends well!
Again, special thanks to all who joined in the search
Planner's Comments
Wisley is an area better suited to short, fast racing. We took an early decision to downgrade from a Badge Event to a high quality colour coded, and I think the level of participation and enjoyment justified the decision. Perhaps we should not get so hung up on the "badge event" label.
When I started planning the courses in August, many blocks were impenetrable due to bracken. We didn't finalise the map and the undergrowth screen until 3 weeks before the event, but the runnability continued to improve weekly and the winning times on the day showed how fast the area can be. The vegetation and minor paths change every year on this area, and I think we need a new feature called "seasonal gully" - they seem to come and go depending on the angle of approach, the angle of the sun (if it shines) and the amount of vegetation!
Technically the area is not that challenging, and you can't avoid the dead running to cross the motorways. I tried to give all competitors on the longer courses some choices where well executed direct routes would be faster than the safer path options. I hope the blue and brown participants enjoyed the contrast of the more open western area, and their brief excursion north of the M25 into woodland which is little used.
The things I could control went well, despite the steep technological learning curve. We used a beta (development) version of OCAD 8, which allowed us to plot the courses (and pictorial descriptions) as part of the OCAD map. Printing was so simple as a result, direct to colour laser, through a commercial printer at less than 40p per map - no problems with alignment, and colour priorities set so that black and brown detail was not totally obscured by the purple. Feedback on the appearance and legibility would be welcomed as we would like to use this method for all events up to badge level (E-mail: paul.fox@johncrane.co.uk). The other learning curve was with the Sport Ident kit - it is actually very simple from the Planner's viewpoint, but a lot more nerve-wracking until all the little boxes woke up on schedule with a collective bleep and flash at 6.30 on Sunday morning!
The things I couldn't control were just plain annoying! The complete disappearance of control 222 (including my little bit of blue tape!) between the controller's visit at 8.30 and the first competitor at 10.20 spoilt my morning. If you think you saw it lying in the bracken somewhere please let us know. Later on, control 253 got bored waiting for its next visitor and "went to sleep" for no apparent reason - post mortem still ongoing! I was also lucky enough to do my final checking 4 days before the event in the glorious autumn colours under a cloudless sky - sorry we couldn't provide that on Sunday too.
Thanks to everyone who helped me before and during the weekend. In particular: Colin, Jane and Amelia for map bagging and sealing; Steve Keyes for OCAD tuition, map editing and forest patrol; Steve McKinley for supporting my wish to use Sport Ident before we'd even had our kit delivered; Gill for working all weekend in the forest with me, and putting up with my more stressful moments; Nick Bateson for his help with the Emit forest kit; Tim for his experience and advice as Controller. You were all great, and I couldn't have done it without you.
Paul Fox (SN)
Controller's Comments
Yet again, SN has staged a successful event and on behalf of all of the competitors, I wish to thank them for their time and efforts. From comments at the finish from young and old, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Wisley is known for fast running. It was much faster than we expected as the bracken dropped so quickly, it seems just a few weeks ago that we were discussing the need to organise "bracken beating" parties. However, it is not an easy area for the planner with the need to use the bridges and avoid several fields. With this in mind, I believe that Paul planned some excellent courses making maximum use of the terrain. That together with all of his work in producing bagged overprinted maps was a major task. He was given considerable help by Steve Keyes who also made light of many minor map changes.
The use of SI for the civilian courses and EMIT for the Army courses made the event easier for all competitors but even more difficult for Paul. I thank him on your behalf for all of his efforts.
Equally, SI requires a dedicated computer team and they need to keep cool heads and warm fingers. Steve McKinley ably led this team and he managed to answer virtually every request that we put to him, thanks Steve.
As always, John seemed to have everything well organised and our thanks are due to him, his team leaders and all helpers. I must add my own thanks to Jeremy Wilde (GO), the assistant Controller.
We were always concerned that controls would be vandalised and had patrols in the forest all morning. However, Paul and I were amazed that one of the most remote controls (222) could go missing without trace after final checking and before the first starters arrived at the site. To competitors on Brown and Green 2 (used by the Army), we apologise and hope that it did not totally ruin your day. The brown results show actual recorded times, competitors may wish to look at the split times to confirm their own estimates of the amount of time lost at that control. In the circumstances, I have decided that there cannot be a par time for brown
Finally, I must add my own thanks to each and every person who joined the successful search at the end of the day. We needed a little luck and we did get it at the right time. That so many people, many with long distances to travel, were prepared to respond to our requests speaks volumes. The Police were most impressed with our own efforts. Perhaps, more clubs need to adopt the SN policy of appointing an Event Safety Officer, thanks Alan.
Tim Pugh (GO)
And now... The Results!
That's it, all done. Apparently, the Infantry have lodged a protest, well I heard it was an AGC runner myself, because there is just NO WAY that the RLC could have won, is there? The various final results are below, complete with D Course chop out on Day 2 - just goes to show that Emit proves its worth: with a little effort, a course can be rescued unlike the lack of Brown par time on the colour coded, eh? I stopped your time at 4 and this became your time at control 6 (the new Control 4). Length was also reduced by 1100m to give true mins:secs per km. All other splits then shift left by 2 places. I think you'll agree that it is better to do that than voiding the course. For those with nothing else to do, I've also included the DSQ results BEFORE the chop just to let you see who looked... and who didn't! Places did jump around quite a bit, but just remember, they're there for interest only and do not form part of the results. Click the link in this paragraph to get it, as it would cause confusion if included in the list below. Wade through the various sections, and I hope you'll see that I can't just produce huge event results that look pretty, instantly - worth the wait, eh, Mickey?!
Day One
Individual Summary
Individual Splits
Team
Day Two
Individual Summary
Individual Splits
Team
Combined