Results for NOC District Event, Walesby, 18th Dec 2005

Organiser

A fine day and great team of helpers made the event run smoothly. I hope everyone enjoyed the 3-4 litres of soup and 150+ mince pies that were consumed. I wish you all and happy Xmas and great New Year.

Steve Martin

Planner

What an awesome day- amazing weather, pre-marked/bagged maps and of course, free food. With this in mind the turnout was slightly disappointing but expected with the numerous events on today. From my point of view, everything went smoothly with no SI failures, vandalism or moaning about controls allowing me to tuck into those mince pies.

Firstly the classic thank-yous- my dad (officially the world's best tripod builder as you'll agree) / Alan / Keith Streb for collecting controls with me. Keith also for being a helpful controller, updating the map and locating the pit I couldn't find in the South part of the map (no. 157) (!) . David / Pauline Olivant for travelling to update the map loads of times when I kept on finding minor changes. Jim Clarke for printing control descriptions (using the High Schools everlasting resources) and saving me time by chopping them up. And thanks to whoever made the Chicken soup.

Walesby presents many challenges and opportunities. On one hand you are given a flat, small, easy area but on the other are given no brambles (in the campsite at least), variation with open/forested areas and NOC's fastest area. My courses aimed to play to these advantages with alternating forested/open sections where the competitor is forced to change from fast, 'looking ahead' orienteering to much slower, fine navigation with reliance on the compass to keep you going in the right direction. I believe I achieved this on all courses where possible. A major issue I found with Walesby was providing interesting route choice legs since the area's lack of undergrowth/contours paves way for the 'straight is great' orienteering philosophy. My major self-criticism is the junior courses where my inexperience showed giving a yellow passing white controls- this was due to my wish for a close assembly/ start/ finish. This meant path routes were very limited from the start and into the finish. I therefore back the statement many planners make that the white is the hardest course to plan.

Finally, I am amazed that NOC struggled to find a planner for this event. The fact I thoroughly enjoyed the experience is possibly against most orienteer's stereotype of this role being all-consuming and labour intensive. Indeed, it does take up time but not many things can match the satisfaction of sitting down and watching other people run round your courses with smiles on their face. Anyone with some experience can plan an event- NOC is full of willing and dedicated helpers to guide you through the process. It would be great to see some of the satellite members step into the fray to help.

If anyone wants a spare map/wants to see a map of a different course, then I can email it to you.

Andy Llewellyn

Controller

This was Andy�s first attempt at planning a full colour coded event but you would hardly have known it. Owing to his University commitments the majority of his planning was by necessity of the armchair variety, with very little time to recce the sites. But (and it�s a small but) apart from a little naivety in anticipating, well shall we say, �older� peoples safe route choices, I think he did extremely well.

Yes I know all about the brambles and the bingo pits in Boughton Brake (and I also have the scars to prove it) however as we have lost access to the northern part of the map there was no viable alternative.

You will have read Andy�s comments re the Yellow course. I think he is being unduly harsh on himself. The course was fine according to the BOF guidelines (I have seen far far worse) and the yellow passing white is really just my own personal pet hate. However, my apologies to Alice as we hadn�t really reckoned on a dual buggy crossing the fence. As for Guy, well what can you say...

NOC has now embraced digital printing for all the obvious reasons although we have had a few adverse comments regarding legibility at previous events, we believe that these were all overcome on this occasion but I am interested in any of your comments good or bad. You can mail me via the NOC site.

Everything worked thanks to Andy and Steve. The weather conditions was perfect I heard no adverse comments throughout the day. What more could we have wished for?

I hope you all enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas

Keith Streb