WESTOVER PLANTATION - 12^TH November 2006

PLANNERS REPORT

My first visit to Westover to plan this event revealed the problem I was going to have. Brambles! Many paths were not just overgrown, all trace had disappeared. Some features that I had hoped to use were completely inaccessible. So, as with all event planning, most of my initial ideas were out of the window and it was back to the drawing board. A few visits to the West Wight and a few re-thinks later I had the makings of some reasonable courses. I had to make the white and yellow courses a bit longer than usual in order to avoid the brambles and use some more interesting areas.

For once I had most of the pre event organisation completed well in advance. This included allocating markers to control sites, attaching punches, writing the control descriptions, drawing the master maps and double checking everything amongst other things.

I like to put out the more remote controls the day before the event as this takes the pressure off in the morning and so I found myself scrambling down the side of Mottistone Down to find a platform in the dark. What better way is there to spend a Saturday evening?

The weather on Sunday morning was beautiful and I saw a remarkably large number of pheasants sunning themselves by the road as I drove west. By 9 oπclock all the controls were out and we had plenty of time to set up the start and registration. Many thanks to the National Trust for allowing us to park the registration cars on the down which made things a lot more pleasant.

The day seemed to be a great success with a good turnout and many satisfied customers. Thirteen, however is definitely an unlucky number because I put control number 13 on the green course in completely the wrong place. Many apologies to all those who were affected by this.

The day was made for me by a lady walking past with her dog. She came over and took a great interest in what we were doing. She had never heard of orienteering and was full of praise for the club and what we were doing. We all got a warm glow of satisfaction from that.

As usual I could not have done it without a lot of help. Thanks to Chris and her team on registration, Iris for organising the string course, Steve and Tony for helping me collect in the controls and Nikki and Ray for collecting the string. Incidentally, Nikki and Ray also came across a violet in flower while winding up the string.

And finally, Wight-O prides itself on introducing new ideas and we came across a first on Sunday. Competitors who are lost or stuck used their mobiles to phone up relatives or friends at the start for help! I will have to check with B.O.F. to see what the rules say about this. This gave Steve the idea of holding a Phone-O event where competitors without maps are guided round by a team mate back at base. Perhaps we could encourage more teenagers into the sport by running a Text-O. More suggestions on a postcard please!

Dave Mackett, Planner