Hylands Park ChelmsfordSun 30 Oct

SOS Colour Coded SWELL and ESSOL

Regional level event

Terrain type: Parkland & Woodland

Results

• • Results are now final
• • Routegadget available here

Report

Organiser’s Report:

Hylands Park is familiar territory to me so I was happy to be able to organise the event here, especially with Chris as Planner and Paul as Controller, whom I knew to be extremely efficient and helpful. This made the job much easier, as Chris had already thought of nearly everything and acted upon it, so not only were his courses enjoyed by everyone, he was even there to help put the download tent up!
The only thing I couldn’t organise was the weather and unfortunately the heavens opened at the beginning of the day, meaning rather a lot of mud around the download area, and an extremely wet tent, but thanks to a fabulous team of volunteers, everything worked as it should and the event went smoothly. Later runners even enjoyed a rain-free run, even if Chris the Planner had to have a complete change of clothes.
We are aware of a streaky pink area on the maps, which is being rectified, but this did not cause any problems – the main issues arising were the number of dogs being walked in the park.
I would like to thank our team of volunteers, without whom the event would not have been able to run at all, let alone being as successful as it was, as well as the sterling effort made by Chris and Paul to ensure the courses were accessible and enjoyable.
Rachel Barford

Planner’s Report:

I hope everyone enjoyed their run. A wet start for many participants but it was not long before the rain subsided and all could enjoy the picturesque grounds of Hylands Park. Navigation across the park can be surprisingly tricky as groups of trees merge into a mass of indistinct foliage, but most seemed to cope quite well and that is in spite of all the brambles.

My sincere thanks to Tim for helping to plan and set out the courses, to Kevin for considerable work in updating the maps, to Paul as controller for his thorough attention to detail adding some interesting refinement to some of the courses, and finally to Rachel for doing such a great job as organiser ensuring everything ran so smoothly. Two of my grandsons thoroughly enjoyed their first go at orienteering so I think we have two more recruits to our sport.

Chris Childs

Controller's comments:

The event ran smoothly and competitors seemed to enjoy themselves despite
the damp weather. The clocks changing confused the laptops initially, but
also provided an extra hour of daylight for preparation and Rachel's team
was ready to let some begin before the advertised start time. The parkland
venue was always going to favour the fast, direct runners who could also
keep in touch with the map , but Chris's thoughtful courses caught out a few
who struggled to distinguish between the many copses or to navigate through
the path and ditch network in the wood.

Paul Beckett

Last updated: Wed 02 November, 2022

Location Info

Near: Chelmsford
Lat,Lng: 51.71637,0.43087
Postcode: CM2 8FS
What3Words: tonic.vivid.hurray

Open an interactive map in:
GoogleMap - OpenStreetMap - BingMap (OS 50k)