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Essex Stragglers Orienteering Society (SOS)

Colour Coded, ESSOL and SUFFOC Club Championships
Broaks Woods
12th November 2000


Organiser Mark Johnson 01245 442866

Final Results (Splits are here).

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............

NameAge GpCourseTimeAdjusted Tine
Brendan AnglimM21B7.447.44
Bill McLeanM60G19.548.24
Goff HillM55B13.129.08
Paul LoweM40B11.589.51
Jeremy GrayM35B11.210.18
Clive ColesM55B16.0711.05
Andrew ElliottM21B12.4212.42
Hon mentions
Rab CoulterM50G13.0513.05
Yvonne McLeanW60G16.437.2

Pl Age ClassNameClub/SchoolTime
 
White Course: 1.4 km & 13 Controls
 
1 M yr6Thomas KingBarnardiston Hall9:27
2 M yr6Matthew DickensBarnardiston Hall11:25
3 M yr6Christopher MoultonBarnardiston Hall11:33
4 M yr6Charlie KingBarnardiston Hall11:53
5 M yr6Samuel GregoryBarnardiston Hall13:26
6 W Yr5Erin RoseBarnardiston Hall14:39
7 M yr6Elliot SwinneyBarnardiston Hall14:45
8 M10Robert BarkerInd15:25
9 W yr6Christine DaviesBarnardiston Hall16:10
10 W Yr5Alex PhillipsBarnardiston Hall17:10
11 W yr4Georgina CzyzewiczSt Andrew17:55
12 W Yr5Chloe ColesBarnardiston Hall18:32
13 M yr5Steven LeighBarnardiston Hall20:41
14 W yr3Megan MalleySt Nicholas21:02
==================================== Par ====================================
W Yr5Tegan PaxtonBarnardiston Hallmp
M Yr5Daniel ShawBarnardiston Hallmp
M yr5Matthew DaykinBarnardiston Hallmp
M yr6Nathan ShawBarnardiston Hallmp
 
Yellow Course: 2.0 km & 12 Controls
 
1 M yr7Peter Symes-ThompsonBarnardiston Hall13:26
2 M yr7James LyneKEGS15:40
3 W yr8Sarah CammackBarnardiston Hall19:02
4 W yr7Nicola BarkerBarnardiston Hall19:58
5 W yr5Rachel MalleySt Nicholas21:02
6 M yr5Oliver TaylorFriars Grove21:05
7 M yr6David ChandlerFriars Grove 21:58
8 W yr7Harriet de BrettonBarnardiston Hall22:21
9 M12Nathan CzyzewiczSt Benedicts23:32
10 W yr7Emily BirrellBarnardiston Hall24:25
================================= Par Time 25:22 ============================
11 M yr7Liam ShottonBarnardiston Hall26:19
12 W yr8Rachel IrvingBarnardiston Hall26:36
13 M45Alastair HowlingInd28:23
14 M yr7James WallBarnardiston Hall28:44
15 M yr3Jonathon DaleSt Anne30:02
16 W yr5Jenny DaleSt Anne30:07
17 W yr8Lucy WhitletSt Nicholas31:17
18 W yr7Antonia BeamishBarnardiston Hall32:46
19 M12Adam SmithWAOC36:34
20 M10Philip HuardHAVOC46:17
 
Orange Course: 3.3 km & 11 Controls
 
1 W14 N/CHelen GardnerWAOC30:24
2 M12 N/CJames LyneSOS35:27
3 M40Tim ChandlerInd43:52
4 M50Robert TaylorSOS44:48
5 W40Carol AdamsInd53:09
6 M35Kevin DaleSOS54:01
7 M10Veronica/Callum MachinSOS1:21:57
================================= Par Time: 1:22:55 =========================
8 M yr 7Matthew JohnsonCVHS1:23:54
9 M y11/Wy6 Daniel Chenery/Amy PallLeav1:58:00
10 M yr8Alex Waugh/Lloyd PriorLeav2:18:07
 
W yr10Kiri AlfordSt Marymp
 
Light Green Course: 3.3 km & 12 Controls
 
1 M35 N/C Mark JohnsonSOS24:35
2 W yr8Nina TantSt Nich45:07
3 W yr9Emma JohnsonCVHS47:06
4 M12Simon GardnerWAOC47:45
5 M40W A OwenWAOC47:48
6 W45Jitka SengerovaWAOC47:55
7 W YR8Joanne WestIpswich School49:10
8 M45Alan AlfordSOS49:50
9 M45Richard KingSOS52:10
10 M40Colin BeattieHH55:11
11 M y12Tom YoungmanIpswich School55:20
12 M14Sebastian PughSOS56:38
13 M45David BrewHAVOC57:37
14 W35Helen HamptonCHIG1:00:48
15 W18Chloe RussellSOS1:04:17
16 W21Anna EngwellHAVOC1:05:58
17 W16 yr 12Bahar Mirshekar-Syahkal CCHS1:07:22
================================= Par Time: 1:07:40 =========================
18 M yr 8Alex MachinColHS1:13:43
19 W45Hazel BickleWAOC1:17:57
20 W yr11Lucy FryerCCHS1:21:16
21 W16Emily CordleSOS1:23:10
22 W10Holly MasonSuffoc1:50:49
23 W21S OwenWAOC1:51:43
 
W yr11Lucy SeakinsCCHSmp
 
Green Course: 4.5 km & 16 Controls
 
1 M65Peter PrattHH40:35
2 M40David BirkettSOS41:12
3 M21Allen WiltonInd41:45
4 W14Helen GardnerWAOC45:47
5 W14Hazel TantSOS46:50
6 M50Andrew CordleSOS56:54
7 M50Rob CoulterSuffoc58:54
8 M45Jim GrahamInd1:00:03
9 W21Sarah LayDFOK1:02:11
================================= Par Time 1:06:03 ==========================
10 M45D LinghamInd1:09:54
11 W40Barbara FothergillHAVOC1:12:42
12 W45Janet BiggsHAVOC1:13:49
13 W45Brian ShepherdSOS1:14:27
14 W45Jane HowsamWAOC1:17:47
15 M60Bill McLean Suffoc1:29:36
16 M40Mike GardnerWAOC1:33:41
 
W55Geraldine RussellSOSmp
W60Yvonne McLeanSuffocmp
 
Blue Course: 7.5 km & 24 Controls
 
1 M21Brendan AnglimSuffoc58:00
2 M21Ian JonesWAOC1:00:04
3 M21Jonathon CreakBAOC1:01:31
4 M35Peter LakeCHIG1:01:36
5 M35Paul BeckettHAVOC1:02:46
6 M40Andy MalleySOS1:04:59
7 M45Clive TantSOS1:09:26
8 M21Dylan UnderhillDFOK1:09:39
9 M45Nick PughSOS1:09:58
10 M35Mark WadesonWAOC1:13:56
11 M45D GreenWAOC 1:14:26
12 M40Mark LyneSOS1:15:07
13 M35Mark SalthouseSOS1:15:32
14 W16Nicola RobertsonSOS1:16:29
15 M50ike BickleWAOC1:17:27
16 W16Suzy RobertsonSOS1:17:47
17 M50Brian StraightHAVOC1:20:54
18 M40Anthony WadesonWAOC1:22:29
19 M35J C GraySuffoc1:25:02
20 M40Ian SmithWAOC1:25:58
21 M21Rick BayneHAVOC1:26:22
22 M50P HowsamWAOC1:26:25
================================= Par Time: 1:27:00 =========================
23 M16Peter GardnerWAOC1:27:04
24 M55Greg BirdseyeLOK1:29:05
25 M40Paul LoweSuffoc1:29:47
26 W18BlankaSengerovaWAOC1:30:39
27 M40Andrew EvesWAOC1:33:10
28 M21Andrew ElliotSuffoc1:35:15
29 M21Gerald EngwellHAVOC1:37:59
30 M55Goff HillSuffoc1:39:05
31 W45Nicola GardnerWAOC1:39:17
32 W40L BewsonHAVOC1:48:24
33 M21Anthony WellerHAVOC1:49:32
34 M50Anthony BiggsHAVOC1:56:04
35 M55Clive ColesSuffoc2:00:55
36 W35CatherineGalvinLOK2:08:38
 
 M21P JohnstonHOCmp