Sunday 18th December 2011
2011 Club Championships - Hartlebury Common
Comments
Controller's Comments
This was the first score event I have controlled ( partly due to indifferent performances at club chamionships). I was surprised the amount of time and effort required. We need to give a big thank you to Roger for planning, with help from Dot. The burden on the organiser seemed less but he did provide useful advice. Thanks Robert.
After looking at Roger's first draft, I was worried that it was too short and I suggested that we needed more controls. We could not have more than 36 as that is the maximum most people's SI card can hold. I think that this turned out right with only a few clearing all the controls and 1 second difference in the Men's Championship and 15 seconds in the Ladies.
Watching at the start, few took the NE direction to 42, which I think was the best but more went that way after they gave the map careful consideration.. As a general rule, could the furthest reasonable starting control lead to the optimal route?
Russ Fauset (HOC)
Planner's Comments
Hartlebury Common is quite an interesting area and can be quite tricky (especially for orienteers who have not run on it before).
Brian Hughes has drawn a clear map to work from; not easy given that there are a number of small features that are borderline as to whether or not to include them on the map. The main snag with the area is that it is not particularly large and hence to support a one hour score event it was inevitable competitors had to run round it twice. The alternative would have been to use all the outlying areas which would have resulted in several road crossings which, from a risk management viewpoint, we wanted to avoid.
Given that the controls have to be sited to both challenge our most able orienteers and to offer encouragement to our budding juniors, I hope that the participants felt that the technical difficulty mix was about right.
I would like to thank Russ for his guidance and my wife for her help in the planning process. I also take off my hat to the 5 competitors who managed to clear all 36 controls within the hour, some with nearly 10 minutes to spare!!
Roger Keeling (HOC)
Organiser's Comments
I believe we achieved my objective of putting on a thoroughly enjoyable event on a delightful little area, with an excellent up-to-date map, course planning to match, and a lovely crisp day to put the icing on the cake. The newest occupants of the Common, in the form of the fearsome looking cattle, tolerated our intrusion without complaint, and didn't even eat any of the controls. We have produced worthy champions in all classes, except (I think) for the M/W 14s where there was a worrying lack of competitors. What more can I add?
Just to say that the relaxed yet efficient organisation was all down to my small team of willing helpers. It is so easy when you can just suggest that something needs doing and know that it is as good as done. Thanks to all of you for your support.
I can't finish without mentioning Brian Hughes, who devoted many hours to refining the map and wanted to experience a run on it - although declaring himself non-competitive. Suffice it to say that although not appearing in the Championship tables, he managed to register all but one of the controls in a very commendable 54 mins 34 seconds
Robert Vickers (HOC)
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