WEST WIGHT DOWNS
Sunday 16th June 2007
Planners Report
Planning this event was a real pleasure as it allowed me to see the downs and the spectacular views from them in a variety of their many moods. My first visit was on a baking hot sunny day with beautiful views of the needles over a flat blue sea. On my next visit, fog meant that I couldnąt see the sea at all. The next time it was strong winds and scudding clouds with shafts of sunlight turning the cliffs gold for a few seconds above the foaming sea. What, I wondered, was the weather going to be like on the day? The answer: perfect for orienteering, dry and bright but not too hot.
The reason for all these visits of course was to try to
provide an event with a variety of interesting and challenging courses. To make the longer courses a bit
different, I decided to use some large circles drawn with the aid of a 1p coin
and each containing three controls.
The exact position of these controls was NOT shown so that competitors
had to look closely at the map and decide on likely places to look. These courses had a favourable
reception from all who took part.
For the shorter courses the terrain allowed for the use of
more adventurous features. On the
yellow for example I was able to replace the usual long list of path junctions
with some vegetation changes, earth banks and a depression. The orange course spanned the whole
length of the area without too much climb. Oh yes, climb! Itąs
very hard to avoid climb in this area on the longer courses. I was exhausted after putting out and
collecting controls.
On the day everything seemed to go very smoothly and people
said how much they enjoyed taking part.
There was a good turnout and with some much appreciated help the event
was safely packed away before the downs showed us another of its moods, pouring
rain.
Many thanks to the Allen family for planning the string
event, setting it out on Sunday morning and collecting it in again
afterwards. Thanks to Glynn and
Sue Williams for collecting in controls, Chris and her team at registration and
Glynn and Nikki for the finish.
And thanks to YOU for turning up to support this event.