Essex Stragglers Orienteering Society (SOS)

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Regional (Level C) event incorporating ESSOL
Highwoods Country Park
Sunday 17th June 2018
Provisional Results

Officials' Comments

Organisers - Eddie Banks & Steven Partridge, banksy.eddie@gmail.com

Eddie Banks -

The organisation for Highwoods was shared between Steven Partridge and myself, given that I could not commit to being in Colchester this weekend. As it turned out it was a pleasure for me to be able to relax on the registration desk and then test out the green course as Steven took the reins as ‘organiser on the day’ and the team of dedicated volunteer helpers made everything run smoothly. Thank you to Chris and Colin for ensuring such good courses.

We had about 120 participants, which I think is about par for an event in June. It was also the culmination of the ESSOL series, so medals were presented to the children. Julie Laver deserves huge recognition for her organisation of this throughout the year.

The use of the gym at Highwoods Leisureworld hugely simplified the organiser’s task, solving at a stroke the requirements for parking, toilets, power, tables & chairs and shelter. Thank you to Jon and Paul at the sports centre for their support.

Thank you also to the staff at Highwoods Country Park for their continuing support and encouragement to orienteering.

Planner - Chris Childs

In spite of some hectic early morning reinstatement of the controls following overnight vandalism we just about managed to get the event started on time. The weather was good and I think most people enjoyed the courses including a few first timers who managed pretty well. Never the less some more experienced competitors missed controls showing High Woods should not be underestimated. Some areas are quite tricky.

Thanks for all the help, in particular – Steve for his guidance in planning the White and Yellow courses, the smiley faces were a great success with the younger competitors, Kevin for the enormous number of map changes, Andrew for guiding me through the complexities of the computer system, Eddie for his overall management of the event, and Colin for his support and hard work as Controller.

Controller - Colin West

The event was planned well by Chris, who sought advice on his draft courses and implemented several modifications to deliver appropriate and enjoyable runs. Chris also arranged for dozens of map corrections which helped a lot.

Control 109 caused some unresolved discussion - is there a qualifier description for ‘centre of’ when the control site is within a tree? Or if it’s not N, S, E, or W side, where else is it?

Four controls were vandalised overnight, three needing fresh stakes and kites - fortunately no SI boxes were lost.

The vegetation was in full flush, with possible route choice including battling long grass.

Highwoods is apparently simple terrain, but the vegetation needs focus from the runner or errors can creep in. In addition to losing time from being lost, there were a number of mispunches or missed controls - there was always a challenge to be faced.

Thanks to Eddie and his assistants for enabling a successful event.

Naughty Numbers

Results

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