SALCEY FOREST OFFICIALS COMMENTS
Last
year SMOC put in place a group
of team leaders for our events. A good job we did as I spent most of January
in bed. Well, that’s my excuse for any rough edges on the day and late
arrival of the finalised results. That
it went well is in no small
part due to the volunteers and I’d like to again thank them all for their
help.
Other
than Keith’s electronic gremlins [see below] the main issue was with the
entries. Late entry is becoming an increasing problem at Regional events and
we were no exception. Of the 250 who paid, only 70 had entered by the
closing date. This makes purchasing the maps a total lottery and a financial
hazard. Most had the courtesy to telephone or email beforehand and we
accommodated those. But if, as some did, you turned up around 11.00am and
seemed surprised that we hadn’t predicted your arrival and course
requirements what can I say?
Salcey
needed to be completely remapped for the event and I hoped you enjoyed our
efforts on that front. Thanks to Robert Dove and his team for their work.
And
a final thank you to Keith and Ian. An efficient and personable pair to work
with – what more can you ask for in a winter forest?
John Shaw (SMOC)
It
was over 15 years ago that the former NVO club mapped Salcey and since that
time the area has been little used for orienteering; however, the thick
thorns and brambles of that time have lingered on in memories of those who
ran there all that time ago. In the intervening years the Forestry
Commission has been active in managing the forest and many of the former
areas of fight have been opened up whilst some of the few runnable areas of
that time are now thick with brambles. My aim was to keep you away from the
worst areas and at the same time avoid long track runs by keeping you in the
forest as much as possible. In most cases the direct route was the best,
avoiding the areas mapped as fight.
The
results of over a decade ago gave little guidance of expected winning times
and the small number of competitors in some classes will not help future
planners. However, I think distances were about right, although I know some
of you found routes through some of the thorns and brambles that I had tried
to avoid.
Unfortunately
I did cause a small problem with punched start times which was rectified
with the assistance of Steve Robertson from SOS (Many thanks, Steve), all
times on the day have been corrected. The technical problem that caused the
delay in posting the results to the web is due to my PC disk-drive’s
temperamentality which meant times had to be sent by snail-mail to the
web-master for posting.
The
other problem which came as a surprise was the vandalism of the final
control on Courses 2& 3. The control was in a part of the forest little
visited except by orienteers and the damage was early in the day before many
of the public had arrived. I hope it did not inconvenience too many of you.
My
thanks to Ian for his helpful controlling and to Robert Dove and John Lewis
who helped put out controls
When Keith asked me if I would control the event, he talked about Salcey, and his words included “There are some nice bits!” That comment filled me with woe.
Well, when I visited the forest, I was pleasantly surprised. There were lots of ‘nice’ bits.
Talking to finishers on the day, most people were in agreement, with bad route choice being given as the main reason for getting brambled.
The map was superb, and any little error was put right when brought to the attention of Robert.
Keith planned some very good courses within the constraints of the thick blocks of forest, and the bramble areas. So much so, that I had very little input.
John and his team were superbly organised, and apart from the download glitch, everything ran very smoothly.
Thank you SMOC.
My only sadness on the day was that my 4-legged assistant controller of 11 years, who’d investigated most corners of the forest (to ensure your safety, of course), passed away on the eve of the event.