Final Results

Wasn't it a lovely day! It all seemed to run smoothly. My thanks to the willing band of Stragglers who turned out on the day to help. I hope everybody who wanted a run got one. Anybody who says juniors never put anything back into orienteering should have seen the number included in the list of helpers. Congratulations to Chris Sellens, SOS club champion for the second time and a special well done to Hazel Tant for running him so close. She scored the same number of points but Chris wins by having the faster time. The handicap system seems to work although it seems to favour the juniors (or are the seniors just not good enough?!)

In case of queries contact Lyn West 01206 322905.

Planner's Report - Steve Robertson

From an orienteering perspective Highwoods has the problem of many bramble infested blocks of wood that limit the potential for testing route choice.

Good weather swelled the number of competitors and I am sure running in warm autumn sunshine offset any possible grumbles about the courses.

Only two comments from competitors:

1. 'Why didn't you use Electronic punching?'. SOS are using SI electronic punching at all of their events except those at Highwoods because we consider the risk of vandalism too high. This was confirmed when after the event (no competitors were affected) we found one control had been 'trashed' and the control and punches moved by 50 metres.
2. 'Control 215 on the Score was not in the right place'. Although the vegetation is indistinct in the area we pace checked the control versus features to the south and west and confirmed that it was in the correct position.

As usual there were some lessons learnt. This time we confirmed that orienteering software is not infallible and a full understanding of its capabilities and limitations is necessary prior to use. Fortunately in this case the error was identified before competitors started (one exception on Light Green – our apologies) and the control descriptions suitably amended.

Otherwise all seemed to go smoothly and thanks to Martin Sellens for supportive controlling and Lyn West for the usual professional organisation.

Controller's Report - Martin Sellens

Although High Woods has its limitations, it provides an excellent venue for a restricted colour coded event and has much to recommend it for the club championships. It is conveniently situated for most club members (the Dengie Mafia might disagree) has a choice of "event centres" with ample parking, loos and shopping opportunities, wonderful views over Colchester and perfect weather. Not to mention a well appointed room for the AGM. On the down side, it presents an interesting challenge for the planner, with a restricted area, rampant brambles, a narrow waist and the potential for control vandalisation.

Steve did his usual efficient job of providing well planned courses with no organisational glitches resulting in an easy time for yours truly and a good day's orienteering for the rest of you. Well, OK, we did discover at the last minute a discrepancy in control codes on the control descriptions for the light green and score courses, but a quick mobile phone call to the registration area allowed corrections to be made in the nick of time. Apologies to any early birds who had already registered - controller's fault.

Even a small event like this takes an enormous amount of planning time and it is amazing how Steve manages to pull off the miraculous trick of getting it all (almost) right while single handedly running Ford Europe and doing an excellent job of fixtures supremo for the club. The only "complaints" I heard on the day were that the white and yellow courses were too easy and that there was some doubt about the position of the control by the pond on the longer courses. Some would argue that, by definition, the White and Yellow cannot be too easy, only too hard, but I can see that winning times of 8 min or so might suggest poor value for money. There weren't too many planning options for these courses and I think they provided a useful and unthreatening orienteering experience for the large numbers of youngsters who gave them a go. I might concede that the control by the pond could have been a few meters too far to the west. I trust that, like me, you all enjoyed your sunlit run round the Country Park, which was surely looking at its autumnal best.

White