Sunday 19th
June 2010
This was the
first event I have planned and although feeling confident enough to plan
courses of normal colour standards I must admit I had been struggling for ideas
on how to adequately challenge all levels and abilities using only 2 courses,
and also to make it something a little bit different from the usual courses and
to avoid 'quiz style' events of which there are a few planned over the coming
months. I decided to try to split the standard of the courses at a level where
those who are very confident on Orange colour courses would be able to complete
the longer/Special Score Course, with a view of encouraging people to try
something different. The idea was to get people thinking whilst on the move by
not showing a circle for the 'special control sites' but by making competitors
find the site by using rough direction and to pay attention to scale and distance
on the map.
I decided to leave any planning until the last minute as I knew the
vegetation around the Mottistone Common area was rampant in the Summer with
ferns and gorse taking over many of the runnable areas from the Winter. About
10 days before the event date I managed to persuade my Mum (Sue Williams) to
take a gentle stroll around the area with me and get any major changes mapped.
This didn't take much more than an afternoon including finding around 50
potential control sites which weren't too overgrown and updating the map in
OCAD. Some of the control sites for the 'Special Score' were a little bit over
grown come the event day but they were all accessible in shorts when updating
and planning 10 days prior, and I had tried to pre-empt this in planning by
chosing the control sites with attack points very close to them which were
visible from a fair distance.
The event itself couldn't have been blessed with any better weather, all
controls went out in under 2 hours on Saturday afternoon with no problems, the
registration equipment arrived courtesy of Frank Winter and drinks and road
signs by Dad (Glyn Williams)... Just something missing from the picture - a
rush of competitors ready to enjoy the fantastic views of the sun setting from
Mottistone Common whilst pitting themselves against the clock and finding as
many controls as possible within the given time limits. Slowly but surely
myself and Emma could hear person-after-person, group-after-group coming up the
path - "Is this the start?"... and it was nice to also see some
new-to-orienteering faces at their first event too!
The results don't fully reflect the numbers attending as many went round
in groups and who could blame them on this warm Saturday evening. It seems
everyone did enjoy themselves and no-one should feel put off by the results! I
implemented the time limits on a basis of 'as many controls as you can within
the time' and put a harsh points penalty on going over time which doesn't truly
reflect how many controls some people found.
So all-in-all it seemed the event went smoothly and was enjoyed by all.
Special thanks to Frank for bringing registration as Chris was unable to
attend, to Mum for help putting out, mapping, collecting controls etc.., to Dad
for sorting the road signs, doing the drinks and showing it was possible to get
all controls within the time limit and to everyone that came along and made it
an enjoyable event!