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Essex Stragglers Orienteering SocietyColour Coded and Schools League (ESSOL)Highwoods Country Park, Colchester21st November 1999Results |
| Photographs taken at the event (takes a couple of minutes to download) | |||||
| Organiser's Comments | Controller's Comments | Planner's Comments | |||
| White | Yellow | Orange | Light Green | Green | Blue |
Fine weather, a ever helpful band of helpers to nurse me through my first event as Organiser, one hundred and eleven control cards issued ( though considerably more bodies than that roamed the parkland and woods) all added up to a successful event.
The new start procedure lead to the unique sight of a queue awaiting their start allocation and a steady flow of competitors passing through the start gate as opposed to the old system where the starters often had periods of inactivity, this new system leads to a more evenly balanced running of competition.
The distance from Registration to Start added an extra element of navigation to the day however no real complaints were heard other than a few friendly mutterings from my helpers/pack horses who had to carry the Start and Finish equipment. This also presented a communication problem between registration and the course, which was overcome by an act of delegation.
Apologies to any competitors who found the rogue grid reference on some publicity to be a problem. Hopefully you found Michael's excellent strategically placed maps useful.
Given the constraints of the start and finish, the White course was longer than guidelines and the Yellow perhaps a little harder. The shape of the woods and path layout make planning interesting longer courses difficult, but I hope that you will agree that Steve did an excellent job. I hope that those competitors on the Yellow and Blue courses who came across a vandalised control were not too disadvantaged. In an area so frequented by the public it is not possible to entirely prevent such occurrences.
With so many club members at the British schools championships, Michael and his small team of helpers seemed to ensure that registration, the start and finish all ran smoothly. In my brief visit to registration, Lyn's information point appeared well used.
If you have any views about the experimental system of not allocating times until the start, please contact any of the Committee.
I was pleasantly surprised at the number of positive comments on the longer courses at the finish since High Woods is unable to provide a challenge for the experienced orienteer. Presumably the changes in terrain from open grassland to knee deep brambles together with the undergrowth changes since the map was printed provided sufficient variety, and the crisp dry weather certainly helped!
We suffered some control vandalism, primarily missing punches on the shorter courses in the open areas. Fortunately most of these controls had two punches and I think the only competitors affected were on the Blue course where one control, that was well off the beaten track, walked off into the undergrowth - fortunately only a couple of competitors were inconvenienced before it was replaced.
I was concerned that the shorter courses might have proved too demanding, particularly the Orange, but all were successfully completed. Even the Orange competitors managed to navigate the 'indistinct' path to the path/ditch junction.
Thanks to Mike Powell-Davies who, on his first outing as a Controller ( I think ), provided helpful advice and comments, and successfully prevented me from leaving everything to the last minute. The panic free operation on the day was undoubtedly down to his thoroughness
Thanks for a smooth problem free day also goes to Michael Sansom who had his arm twisted by me and stepped in as a first time organiser when the previous organiser was posted to the other end of the country.
Usual thanks to the Stragglers helpers on the day who helped collect in the controls after the event - a thankless task that has to be done.