Essex Stragglers Orienteering Society (SOS)Colour Coded, ESSOL and SUFFOC Club Championships |
Planner's Report | Controller's Report | Organiser's Report | SUFFOC Champs Report |
White | Yellow | Orange | Light Green | Green | Blue |
Planners Comments (Kevin Machin)
It was a bit if a steep learning curve, being both new to OCAD, for producing the laser printed maps, and Sport Ident. However I believe that everything on both fronts was all right in the end, with only a few hiccups.
As to the courses an awful lot of rain fell on the Saturday night which flooded one of the control sites on the white course, requiring a detour and provided some long jumps over some other normally dry ditches. Most of the tracks were extremely wet and muddy, and unfortunately the thriving bramble prevented many from getting off the paths. Hopefully though everybody had a good time, and judging by the state of most people's running kit, they certainly entered into the spirit of the day.
I know that there was a problem with the control in the clearing on the Green course and I apologise to those that wasted valuable time there, the confusion arose because a significant piece of bramble thicket resides within the clearing, which is not marked on the map. With hindsight that control site should not have been used.
Controller Comments (Colin West)
Of the various forms of our sport on offer, the event at Broaks seemed to come closest to white water orienteering. Kevin may not have managed to keep your feet dry, but he steered you away from the strongest currents, and gave you a chance to keep your head above water.
The courses used the better parts of the woods, which are spoilt in many areas by brambles. The more mature woodland, especially the beech (beach?) woods, is quite wonderful – but only for a couple of hundred metres at a time.
Use of electronic punching is a boon in a small area like Broaks Wood. The flexibility to allow crossover legs, whilst encouraging different route choices, permits the planner greater choice. The discipline of e punching is rigorous – a few runners found this out to their cost, having punched all the requisite controls, but not necessarily in the correct sequence! And when the download and results hardware and software work in harmony with the data input team, then the service to finishing competitors is excellent. We do need a bit more practice to ensure this – this is no criticism of the entry and results team, who worked hard to help provide a good event.
Apologies from me to those competitors on the Green course who found brambles rather than control number 9. I had not braved those brambles sufficiently to understand the fine differences between the map and the ground. Blue runners, approaching from the opposite direction, had no trouble. I've learnt another lesson.
Thanks to Kevin and Mark for their roles in providing a high standard Stragglers event, and to Steve and Andy for able e-work.
Organisers Comments (Mark Johnson 01245 442866)
I doubt that many of you will have experienced so much water and/or mud at an East Anglian Orienteering event.
I was pleased to see that the conditions failed to dampen your spirits. Indeed, many of you appeared to have (literally) thrown yourself into this event given the state of your clothing.
Kevin provided you with some interesting and challenging courses – all this on top of coming to terms with OCAD, laser printed maps and electronic punching.
Thanks to Colin for all his helpful advice.
Many thanks to all those SOS members who turned out on the day to help put on this event.
We hope that you enjoyed this event and look forward to seeing you at Hockley Woods on Saturday 9th December.
Please contact Julia Robertson on 01206 242283 if you would like to join Essex Stragglers Orienteering Society.
SUFFOC Club Championships Comments
The heavy rain the night before did not bode well for the club championships at Broaks Wood, nor did the swollen River Colne on the way down towards Braintree. It was wet, very wet. On the day the weather was initially overcast, turning to bright sunshine round about lunchtime; a cold wind was a constant reminder of the time of year.
The championship is a handicap affair with times adjusted to take account of age and gender. It is also competitive but not competitive: we all like to do well, but the event itself is not hard-fought. For various reasons (Remembrance Sunday, holidays, lack of advertising, wrong map reference), the event itself was not overscribed, so the nine Suffoc competitors hardly over-swelled the event, which was an unremarkable SOS CC event with electronic punching.
Unremarkable is perhaps a little off-target. This was an amphibious course with water and mud a main course rather than an optional extra. As the person charged with working out the scoring, unable to compete because of a bad back, the sight of so many soggy, muddy orienteers brought a tear to my eyes. Or was that a smile to my lips? Anyhow, the main course was a pretty lengthy Blue course of some 7.5 km. The other course run was a 4.5 km Green.
Despite the conditions underfoot, folks appeared to have enjoyed the experience. I suppose there's a sense or really being exercised rather than taking part as a matter of course. Be that as it may, competitors duly came and went. The experience of working out speeds etc is sufficiently complicated to ensure that concern is at a minimum: nobody really knows what you're up to, and you always have the standard "if you think you can do better.........". No real concerns about being killed in the rush there.
The winner ("whippet of the Year"), Brendan Anglim, passed through so swiftly that I did not actually see him. His time was 7.44 i.e. he completed the course at an average speed of 1 km per 7m 44s. This is pretty swift especially in the conditions: one can only presume he ran across the water rather than through it. One competitor, Yvonne McLean at 7m 20s when handicap adjustments are made, did beat his time although she will no doubt rue running past and missing checkpoint 12 on her way round the course. The full class is identified below. Times were long, but overall the results speak for themselves. The cunning betting scam of Clive and Goff where Goff was given the compass in the hope that he would ease past by other contenders sadly misfired: Goff says that the red bit on the needle was the wrong end. The futile if interesting competition by Clive and Andrew to see who could seize the wooden spoon was sabotaged to some extent by Rob Coulter who ran a shorter course because of injury and whose "no-handicap because it was a shorter course" time could be argued to have driven off Clive and Andrew's challenge. In fairness however we have to say that Andrew's time and age combined magnificently to make the day a triumph for the young whippersnappers of the club, taking the trophy and the spoon.
The subsequent retiral to the pub by a rump of ne'er-do-wells was scintillating in the range of creative but rather pathetic excuses for performance: "there was quite a lot of water around"(Paul); "I didn't have a compass" (Clive the Chair); "I stopped to help a child in a red tracksuit being followed by a sinister looking fella with big teeth in a scraggy fur coat" (Goff).
Anyhow, congratulations to all who took part: I enjoyed the day, and most of you seemed to too. And next year............
Name | Age Gp | Course | Time | Adjusted Tine |
Brendan Anglim | M21 | B | 7.44 | 7.44 |
Bill McLean | M60 | G | 19.54 | 8.24 |
Goff Hill | M55 | B | 13.12 | 9.08 |
Paul Lowe | M40 | B | 11.58 | 9.51 |
Jeremy Gray | M35 | B | 11.2 | 10.18 |
Clive Coles | M55 | B | 16.07 | 11.05 |
Andrew Elliott | M21 | B | 12.42 | 12.42 |
Hon mentions | ||||
Rab Coulter | M50 | G | 13.05 | 13.05 |
Yvonne McLean | W60 | G | 16.43 | 7.2 |
Pl Age Class | Name | Club/School | Time | |
White Course: 1.4 km & 13 Controls | ||||
1 M yr6 | Thomas King | Barnardiston Hall | 9:27 | |
2 M yr6 | Matthew Dickens | Barnardiston Hall | 11:25 | |
3 M yr6 | Christopher Moulton | Barnardiston Hall | 11:33 | |
4 M yr6 | Charlie King | Barnardiston Hall | 11:53 | |
5 M yr6 | Samuel Gregory | Barnardiston Hall | 13:26 | |
6 W Yr5 | Erin Rose | Barnardiston Hall | 14:39 | |
7 M yr6 | Elliot Swinney | Barnardiston Hall | 14:45 | |
8 M10 | Robert Barker | Ind | 15:25 | |
9 W yr6 | Christine Davies | Barnardiston Hall | 16:10 | |
10 W Yr5 | Alex Phillips | Barnardiston Hall | 17:10 | |
11 W yr4 | Georgina Czyzewicz | St Andrew | 17:55 | |
12 W Yr5 | Chloe Coles | Barnardiston Hall | 18:32 | |
13 M yr5 | Steven Leigh | Barnardiston Hall | 20:41 | |
14 W yr3 | Megan Malley | St Nicholas | 21:02 | |
==================================== Par ==================================== | ||||
W Yr5 | Tegan Paxton | Barnardiston Hall | mp | |
M Yr5 | Daniel Shaw | Barnardiston Hall | mp | |
M yr5 | Matthew Daykin | Barnardiston Hall | mp | |
M yr6 | Nathan Shaw | Barnardiston Hall | mp | |
Yellow Course: 2.0 km & 12 Controls | ||||
1 M yr7 | Peter Symes-Thompson | Barnardiston Hall | 13:26 | |
2 M yr7 | James Lyne | KEGS | 15:40 | |
3 W yr8 | Sarah Cammack | Barnardiston Hall | 19:02 | |
4 W yr7 | Nicola Barker | Barnardiston Hall | 19:58 | |
5 W yr5 | Rachel Malley | St Nicholas | 21:02 | |
6 M yr5 | Oliver Taylor | Friars Grove | 21:05 | |
7 M yr6 | David Chandler | Friars Grove | 21:58 | |
8 W yr7 | Harriet de Bretton | Barnardiston Hall | 22:21 | |
9 M12 | Nathan Czyzewicz | St Benedicts | 23:32 | |
10 W yr7 | Emily Birrell | Barnardiston Hall | 24:25 | |
================================= Par Time 25:22 ============================ | ||||
11 M yr7 | Liam Shotton | Barnardiston Hall | 26:19 | |
12 W yr8 | Rachel Irving | Barnardiston Hall | 26:36 | |
13 M45 | Alastair Howling | Ind | 28:23 | |
14 M yr7 | James Wall | Barnardiston Hall | 28:44 | |
15 M yr3 | Jonathon Dale | St Anne | 30:02 | |
16 W yr5 | Jenny Dale | St Anne | 30:07 | |
17 W yr8 | Lucy Whitlet | St Nicholas | 31:17 | |
18 W yr7 | Antonia Beamish | Barnardiston Hall | 32:46 | |
19 M12 | Adam Smith | WAOC | 36:34 | |
20 M10 | Philip Huard | HAVOC | 46:17 | |
Orange Course: 3.3 km & 11 Controls | ||||
1 W14 N/C | Helen Gardner | WAOC | 30:24 | |
2 M12 N/C | James Lyne | SOS | 35:27 | |
3 M40 | Tim Chandler | Ind | 43:52 | |
4 M50 | Robert Taylor | SOS | 44:48 | |
5 W40 | Carol Adams | Ind | 53:09 | |
6 M35 | Kevin Dale | SOS | 54:01 | |
7 M10 | Veronica/Callum Machin | SOS | 1:21:57 | |
================================= Par Time: 1:22:55 ========================= | ||||
8 M yr 7 | Matthew Johnson | CVHS | 1:23:54 | |
9 M y11/Wy6 | Daniel Chenery/Amy Pall | Leav | 1:58:00 | |
10 M yr8 | Alex Waugh/Lloyd Prior | Leav | 2:18:07 | |
W yr10 | Kiri Alford | St Mary | mp | |
Light Green Course: 3.3 km & 12 Controls | ||||
1 M35 N/C | Mark Johnson | SOS | 24:35 | |
2 W yr8 | Nina Tant | St Nich | 45:07 | |
3 W yr9 | Emma Johnson | CVHS | 47:06 | |
4 M12 | Simon Gardner | WAOC | 47:45 | |
5 M40 | W A Owen | WAOC | 47:48 | |
6 W45 | Jitka Sengerova | WAOC | 47:55 | |
7 W YR8 | Joanne West | Ipswich School | 49:10 | |
8 M45 | Alan Alford | SOS | 49:50 | |
9 M45 | Richard King | SOS | 52:10 | |
10 M40 | Colin Beattie | HH | 55:11 | |
11 M y12 | Tom Youngman | Ipswich School | 55:20 | |
12 M14 | Sebastian Pugh | SOS | 56:38 | |
13 M45 | David Brew | HAVOC | 57:37 | |
14 W35 | Helen Hampton | CHIG | 1:00:48 | |
15 W18 | Chloe Russell | SOS | 1:04:17 | |
16 W21 | Anna Engwell | HAVOC | 1:05:58 | |
17 W16 yr 12 | Bahar Mirshekar-Syahkal CCHS | 1:07:22 | ||
================================= Par Time: 1:07:40 ========================= | ||||
18 M yr 8 | Alex Machin | ColHS | 1:13:43 | |
19 W45 | Hazel Bickle | WAOC | 1:17:57 | |
20 W yr11 | Lucy Fryer | CCHS | 1:21:16 | |
21 W16 | Emily Cordle | SOS | 1:23:10 | |
22 W10 | Holly Mason | Suffoc | 1:50:49 | |
23 W21 | S Owen | WAOC | 1:51:43 | |
W yr11 | Lucy Seakins | CCHS | mp | |
Green Course: 4.5 km & 16 Controls | ||||
1 M65 | Peter Pratt | HH | 40:35 | |
2 M40 | David Birkett | SOS | 41:12 | |
3 M21 | Allen Wilton | Ind | 41:45 | |
4 W14 | Helen Gardner | WAOC | 45:47 | |
5 W14 | Hazel Tant | SOS | 46:50 | |
6 M50 | Andrew Cordle | SOS | 56:54 | |
7 M50 | Rob Coulter | Suffoc | 58:54 | |
8 M45 | Jim Graham | Ind | 1:00:03 | |
9 W21 | Sarah Lay | DFOK | 1:02:11 | |
================================= Par Time 1:06:03 ========================== | ||||
10 M45 | D Lingham | Ind | 1:09:54 | |
11 W40 | Barbara Fothergill | HAVOC | 1:12:42 | |
12 W45 | Janet Biggs | HAVOC | 1:13:49 | |
13 W45 | Brian Shepherd | SOS | 1:14:27 | |
14 W45 | Jane Howsam | WAOC | 1:17:47 | |
15 M60 | Bill McLean | Suffoc | 1:29:36 | |
16 M40 | Mike Gardner | WAOC | 1:33:41 | |
W55 | Geraldine Russell | SOS | mp | |
W60 | Yvonne McLean | Suffoc | mp | |
Blue Course: 7.5 km & 24 Controls | ||||
1 M21 | Brendan Anglim | Suffoc | 58:00 | |
2 M21 | Ian Jones | WAOC | 1:00:04 | |
3 M21 | Jonathon Creak | BAOC | 1:01:31 | |
4 M35 | Peter Lake | CHIG | 1:01:36 | |
5 M35 | Paul Beckett | HAVOC | 1:02:46 | |
6 M40 | Andy Malley | SOS | 1:04:59 | |
7 M45 | Clive Tant | SOS | 1:09:26 | |
8 M21 | Dylan Underhill | DFOK | 1:09:39 | |
9 M45 | Nick Pugh | SOS | 1:09:58 | |
10 M35 | Mark Wadeson | WAOC | 1:13:56 | |
11 M45 | D Green | WAOC | 1:14:26 | |
12 M40 | Mark Lyne | SOS | 1:15:07 | |
13 M35 | Mark Salthouse | SOS | 1:15:32 | |
14 W16 | Nicola Robertson | SOS | 1:16:29 | |
15 M50 | ike Bickle | WAOC | 1:17:27 | |
16 W16 | Suzy Robertson | SOS | 1:17:47 | |
17 M50 | Brian Straight | HAVOC | 1:20:54 | |
18 M40 | Anthony Wadeson | WAOC | 1:22:29 | |
19 M35 | J C Gray | Suffoc | 1:25:02 | |
20 M40 | Ian Smith | WAOC | 1:25:58 | |
21 M21 | Rick Bayne | HAVOC | 1:26:22 | |
22 M50 | P Howsam | WAOC | 1:26:25 | |
================================= Par Time: 1:27:00 ========================= | ||||
23 M16 | Peter Gardner | WAOC | 1:27:04 | |
24 M55 | Greg Birdseye | LOK | 1:29:05 | |
25 M40 | Paul Lowe | Suffoc | 1:29:47 | |
26 W18 | BlankaSengerova | WAOC | 1:30:39 | |
27 M40 | Andrew Eves | WAOC | 1:33:10 | |
28 M21 | Andrew Elliot | Suffoc | 1:35:15 | |
29 M21 | Gerald Engwell | HAVOC | 1:37:59 | |
30 M55 | Goff Hill | Suffoc | 1:39:05 | |
31 W45 | Nicola Gardner | WAOC | 1:39:17 | |
32 W40 | L Bewson | HAVOC | 1:48:24 | |
33 M21 | Anthony Weller | HAVOC | 1:49:32 | |
34 M50 | Anthony Biggs | HAVOC | 1:56:04 | |
35 M55 | Clive Coles | Suffoc | 2:00:55 | |
36 W35 | CatherineGalvin | LOK | 2:08:38 | |
M21 | P Johnston | HOC | mp |