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Probably the greatest attraction of Mildenhall North is its
runnability and relative freedom from undergrowth. Unfortunately, the
area suffers from a shortage of contour features and earthworks, and
those that are present are mainly low earthwalls and shallow pits and
depressions. This causes the Planner a headache as high visibility of
the controls then becomes an issue, but by making sure as often as
possible that the optimum route was the direct one, and selecting his
control features carefully, Rolf ensured his courses were challenging.
Certainly, I have rarely heard so many people say how much they
enjoyed their course and how they welcomed the chance of navigating
cross-country. 'I hardly noticed a path,' was said more than once. We
had anticipated some very fast times and weren't disappointed, but the
considerable spread of times on some courses showed that not everyone
found the area easy going! As for the organisation, Peter and his WAOC
team are to be congratulated on making the day run so smoothly. On
behalf of all the competitors, I would like to take this opportunity
of thanking Rolf, Peter and the team for the many hours of hard work
they put into making the event so successful.
John Ward (NOR)
I must start by thanking controller John Ward, for keeping me on
track with BOF and EA rules, for suggesting improvements to courses,
and for tolerating my just-in-time approach which always seems to
accompany my planning. I thank organiser Peter Woods for arranging
parking in a less than straightforward car park, and for putting
together such an efficient team of helpers. Behind the scenes, Blanka
Sengerova coordinated between the two days to ensure the Thetford
Thrash really seemed like a double regional event, and Neil Humphries
put together the excellent website with results up within a day. And I
thank all the helpers on the day who gave a few hours to help the
cause, ensuring the event progressed without a major hitch. Bruce and
Maria Marshall were there from dawn to dusk working wizardry with the
SI computers, and Julia Wotton made my breakfast sandwiches in the
absence of a toaster. Finally, I thank all the competitors for making
all my hours spent mapping and planning so worthwhile. The day flashed
past, partly because I was shattered from the early start, but mainly
due to all the positive comments from finishers. Thanks everyone.
I only have two rules when planning. The first is to follow BOF
planning guidelines to ensure competitors know what's coming their
way. There are problems in East Anglia as the technical difficulty
simply isn't available, due to too many paths and a lack of features.
Whilst planning, John pointed out that one of my knolls was no more
than a molehill, so I didn't use that one. My second rule is provide
the competitors with "an enjoyable day out" - that's why
they keep coming back. I try to keep competitors off the paths with
variety in leg length, they enjoy that, and avoid hiding controls
behind trees when the feature is a re-entrant for example. I also like
to position controls so the feature is seen first, making for
satisfaction in navigation, but in most cases that's not possible in
Mildenhall. Nobody enjoys miss-punching so I try to avoid controls
which might catch out the odd competitor. I started by picking a start
and finish close to each other and not too far from the car park, with
a suitable path network for JMW1 and JMW2. The start and finish were
in the open as I was hoping for a bit of sunshine. The other courses
made a beeline to the more interesting parts of Mildenhall, with
longer route-choice legs between them. On John's advice I replaced
dubious clearings in the one-direction-runnable forest with tripods.
My favourite control was number 141, a new undubious clearing I found
whilst mapping the east, turning competitors before a long route
choice leg back to a couple of clearings in the centre of the map.
Rolf Crook (WAOC)
Only a few years ago at a colour coded event at Mildenhall, we used
master maps, pin punching, and were only beginning to explore the idea
of sending results by email to a small minority of competitors.
The comparisons with current technology are interesting. We have
quickly grown used to instant confirmation of times and next-day
publishing of results on the internet, but in organising I found this
time that email and the internet made a big difference in recruiting
helpers and keeping in touch with all involved.
Technology apart, the success of any event is down to the people
involved. I was particularly grateful for the number of helpers who
contacted me to volunteer to help, some for both days.
The event seemed to run itself on the day, which is a credit to the
commitment by the teams on Start, Download and Registration, as well
as the hard work done ahead of the event, particularly by Caroline in
organising the entries, also Blanka acting as coordinator and Edmund,
organising day 2. Rolf and John made life very easy for me, and after
the event the results were processed and published by Neil Humphries
as if by magic.
The use of the Forestry commission car park allowed us to make the
best use of the area, but did raise a couple of logistical
difficulties. Siting download at the Finish seemed to work well, but
made it difficult to have results on display in the car park. Also we
did not intend Wilf's to be in such an isolated position.
It seems you did not mind that we could not open one of the gates
on the route to the start due to a seized padlock, nor being squeezed
into the car park when you parked - we knew we would be getting close
to filling the main car park area but thanks to sterling efforts by
the car parking team we did not have to resort to the overflow car
park.
Similarly we did not have a need this time to print maps "on
demand" since we had sufficient pre-printed maps, but given the
trends in technology show no signs of ceasing, it's likely we will see
more on-demand printing in future.
Peter Woods (WAOC)
Considering that Cambridge University OC is a small club with a
membership that changes by about 33 percent each year they are
exceedingly enterprising to run an annual Regional Event. Even before
taking the above into consideration, plus the fact that some officials
had examinations the day after the event, I was impressed with the
professional approach taken by all of those involved - they put larger
and more established clubs to shame.
With limited experience Rosemary Dyer planned the courses well
ahead of time which, following a mandate from the Controller to change
the car parking location (for safety reasons), allowed the start/
finish to be moved and courses to be re-planned. She also made the
best use of a typical East Anglian forest that is divided into often
featureless blocks by a regular path/track network. Positive comments
were received from a number of finishers at the download.
The officials had to cope with the normal event issues - SI boxes
that refused to 'wake up', competitors remonstrating that they had
punched a control when it did not show on their print out, competitors
swearing blind that a control was missing when every other competitor
on the course had found it and one competitor who was taken to the
local hospital A&E department (not too serious).
One technical issue was the position of the finish which could have
been 'missed' by competitors who took the faster route along the main
east-west track from one of the final controls. A minor relocation of
the finish eliminated this issue for the majority of competitors -
apologies to the early starters/finishers.
A number of competitors commented negatively that the map was not
1:10,000 for the younger and more senior competitors. This has become
the norm at most Regional events and above but it is not mandatory.
The Bromehill map is not very technical or detailed and we considered
1:10,000 was not necessary although it did catch out a number of
competitors who did not realise it was 1:15,000 until well into their
course.
Well done to the whole CUOC team and in particular Edmund Ward,
Rosemary Dyer and Blanka Sengerová and I hope you all enjoyed your
run in a typical East Anglian forest.
Steve Robertson (SOS)
Thetford Forest always poses challenges to a planner - large blocks
of featureless forest and an extensive path network make it difficult
to plan interesting and technical courses, especially for the older
age groups where it is easy to end up going round in a circle on
paths. It is often hard to provide true off-path route choice,
especially where young trees make a direct route unfeasible. However,
Bromehill has an area of contour features on the west side of the map,
and I aimed to make best use of these on as many courses as I could.
The course combinations I used were those recommended to me as
usually used for Regional events in the East Anglian area. Some
courses had up to eight age classes, which meant that Course 7 in
particular was fuller than would be desirable. Also these combinations
mean that several of the older age classes, for example from W60L to
W75L, run the same course. It was pointed out to me these groups can
have very different physical requirements from a course. This is
perhaps something that needs to be considered in future.
The event officials were all planning, controlling or organising a
Regional event for the first time, and considering this I think we had
a generally successful day. I was very grateful to have a committed
and helpful controller in Steve Robertson, who suggested many
improvements to the courses, and ensured everything was done in time
to be checked before the event, and most mistakes to be corrected in
advance. Edmund Ward did an excellent job as organiser, and the rest
of CUOC were most supportive, with a good turnout to help on the day.
I would especially like to thank Blanka Sengerová, who advised
throughout the run-up to the event, and also bagged maps, helped
program controls and put some out on Saturday afternoon.
Comments that I heard at the finish were generally positive, and I
hope that everybody enjoyed their run. I certainly enjoyed planning
and would do it again, although next time I would ensure I do not have
an exam the day after the event!
Rosemary Dyer (CUOC)
Firstly, a big 'thank you' to everyone who took part in the
Thetford Thrash. With over 350 competitors on the Sunday alone, the
event really rewarded the time and effort put into preparing and
running it. Apologies to those who had difficulty finding the site due
to wind-blown signs; next year our signposts will be built to last!
Those wishing to claim lost property (blue and white O-top, blue
striped t-shirt, thumb-compass) should email me: epww2@cam.ac.uk.
Organising a Regional event could be a daunting prospect; however I
was extremely lucky to have so much support that at times I felt
guilty because there was nothing left for me to do. Blanka Sengerová
completed the mapping in good time (and then remapped the area after a
motorcycle race added some extra paths!), and also provided a vital
link coordinating between WAOC and CUOC. Peter Woods went to great
trouble to give CUOC access to everything we needed to borrow, and
also to arrange much-needed helpers for the day. A special mention
must go to Caroline Louth, who magically transformed all the entries
into exactly what was needed to make the event run smoothly. Thanks to
all those WAOC and CUOC members who helped on the day, and a special
thanks to the Haynes family for organising the string course, and to
veteran Icenian organiser Mark Collis, who found himself acting as
full-time delivery driver and managing the download tent after asking
for 'just a small job'.
On top of acting as courier, printer, and even ambulance-driver(!) for
the event, Rosemary Dyer made a first class planner. In addition to
producing creative courses which were deservedly well-received, her
thorough preparation of maps and SI equipment left the smooth running
of the event beyond doubt. Of course, controller Steve Robertson was
heavily involved, and his attention to detail, as well as an uncanny
ability to ask me all the questions I hadn't thought about, was most
welcome.
The Icenian Trophy, this year celebrating its thirtieth anniversary
(hence 'Icenian XXX' on the flyers, for those that were wondering!),
is awarded annually to the best-placed club at CUOC's annual public
event. For aficionados, this year's scoring scheme is unchanged from
last year (full details on the CUOC website), which means the lowest
overall sum of times behind the winner for a portfolio of 10 classes,
including juniors and seniors of both sexes. Third place goes to WAOC
(22:14) just behind defending champions SOS (18:53), but undisputed
champions this year are NOR (2:56). Well done! The trophy will be
presented at the LEI Compass Sport Cup event on 27 February.
Edmund Ward (CUOC)
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