Results for NOC District Event, Harlow Wood, 21/11/2004

Organisers

We have little to say really since the impressive NOC machine rolled into action and produced a very smooth, efficient event. We owe this entirely to all of the volunteer helpers, both experienced and novice, who helped out on the day. Sincere thanks to all involved; it made our day, busy as it was, a lot less stressful! The most difficult task? For us, the problem of fitting all of the orienteering equipment into one car occupied by two adults and two children.

To all prospective organisers; please help the club and our sport out by volunteering your services for future events. It makes for a busy day, but the NOC system of team helpers makes life a lot easier, and at the end of the day, a very satisfying feeling when everything has gone (more or less) to plan.

Chris and Tony Horsewill

Planner

This event was the fourth colour coded/District event we have held in Harlow Wood since this area was first made available to us, so it was time for a change in terms of parking, start and finish locations. Moving these to the south of the wood meant that the juniors could run in what was effectively a new area for them whilst the seniors could deal with the traumas of the stumpbank region without having to dodge parked cars.

On my first trip to the forest, I was horrified to find de-forestation in full flight and could only hope that we would be left with some area to run in! The square kilometer of extraction has not in fact removed many control features but I planned the courses to keep out of this as much as possible, as I did the large "forest run" area in the northwest, which is anything but. The map now needs an urgent update! The idea had also been that no-one should have needed to cross or run along the main car parking track - however some of you still managed that ...

With the various OOBs and unsuitable areas, planning proved quite a challenge in certain sectors of the wood. Kevin's patient controlling helped to teach me to "turn in squares", but I apologise for control 19 on the brown course which proved to be more of a dog-leg than I had bargained for. The stumpbank area seemed to continue to provide its usual difficulties for you, and the debate of running the leg in a straight line (counting on fingers and toes as you go) versus taking the longer path route around continues.

Although course lengths for the senior courses were 200 - 300m more than average to date for the wood, these remained well within the guidelines and do not appear to have distorted the range of finish times.

In addition to the Controller's considerable support, I would like to record a special thank you to Matthew and Peter for sorting out all the controls and helping to hang most of these before the pre-dawn persistent drizzle finally gave way to the eerie mist which rolled around for much of the morning. Finding white tags against a snowy background was not what I had had in mind!

Thank you also to all of you who came, participated and, from many of the comments we received, seemingly enjoyed the event. That certainly made my planning time feel well spent. I did my best to ensure that most of you would have the opportunity to go through the beautiful stretch of beeches this wood has as some compensation for the stumpbank traumas!

David Winser

Controller

...

Kevin King