BORTHWOOD

16^th December 2007

Report

Christmas O-time again and we are once more grateful to Mr Eric Young, of Queen Bower Farm for letting us use his camping field for parking. As there were 130 people at the event, there must have been at least 40 cars there and it would have been virtually impossible for them to have parked in the narrow Alverstone roads.

People arrived early, clad in their Christmas finery, hats and tinsel. It almost kept registration warm looking at them. Not an easy thing to do as the field is always several degrees colder than down in the sheltered copse.

It takes a good team of helpers to put on the Christmas event and Brian Bailey was first on the job, out early to put out the 27 Score Course control. Alistair Drover was not much later, laying out the String Course and its controls. Frank Winter and Lesley Curran soon arrived to set out the road signs and carry tables, mince pies, etc., down into the wood to be ready for the first finishers. Mother Christmas must have had a trouble-free journey from Lapland as she soon came, ready to go down into the copse with her pocketful of gold stars. Beryl Dimmick arrived to help with registration of those who were crowding around. The hats made by Kate Stead were inserted into the hatbox and were soon being tried on for size. Eileen and Iris set up the finish and settled down to wait for the first comers. And then came the competitors, many loaded up with mince pies and other Christmas nibbles. Last but not least Glyn carried the squash container down to finish as if it were featherweight.

Many thanks to all those helpers and apologies to anyone inadvertently left out. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the courses. Brian apologises for some controls being among the brambles and hopes that it did not deter you too much. Brambles are, unfortunately, a feature of Island orienteering.

We also apologise to anyone who was too late for mince pie. We didnπt expect quite such a big turn out and, maybe, some people enjoyed the pies so much that they had more then one! Another time we shall have to say ≥One Only≤, until we see how they go. Maybe, the answer is to arrive early! Hopefully, also, the little children all found their chocolate Santaπs in Santaπs sack. There seemed to be a lot of little ones around so Wight-O should have plenty of members in the years to come.

On the Long Score course four people scored the maximum on the course controls of 400 points but three apparently introduced their balloons to the holly leaving Ian Ralph the winner with an un-burst balloon. At the other end of the results, Nigel and Lorraine Smith evidently enjoyed themselves as they found most of the controls but had an awesome time penalty of 335 points!!

About half of the competitors got a gold star from Mother Christmas as she wandered round the copse. Sorry about those who failed to meet her. She was there the whole time but said that some people were concentrating so hard on their navigation that they did not see her.

On the Short Score Course five people scored 100 on the course controls and kept their balloons safe but time penalties separated them.

Ten little children followed the string to the Christmassy controls and, hopefully, enjoyed themselves and will come again.

Then came the clearing up, and many thanks to all those who made their way up from the copse loaded with what looked like the remains of a jumble sale. Thanks also to Kevin, Vanessa and Sophie who wound up the string and to Alistair, Glyn and Sue who collected in the main controls. Another Christmas O-event is over and we are now looking forward to seeing you all in 2008 at then next normal O-event, in Firestone Copse on January 13^th.