Street-O event – Dorking

Tuesday 13 March 2007

The next Street-O will be held on Tuesday 13th March in Dorking. The base will be the Friends Provident Sports & Social club bar, on the northern edge of Dorking, grid reference TQ172506. Map link here. This venue will be familiar to many participants from events like the White Downs National Event and the Box Hill Fell Race. Facilities include toilets, hot showers, sauna, and bar.

The event will be a one hour score event, with starts between 7pm and 8pm. The map will be A4, 1:10,000 with 5m contours, pre-printed with control sites, but not waterproof, bring your transparent plastic bag to protect it.

Controls will be worth between 10 and 30 points and taking more than an hour will cost 10 points per minute. A few wrong answers will be tolerated, but points will be deducted if it looks like you are guessing.

There should be sufficient artificial light at each control location to answer the question without a torch. Nevertheless, a torch is recommended for reading the map in between street lights. No need for a fancy night-O halogen, an ordinary hand-torch will do fine.

The bar will not be providing food, but we have permission to get take-aways delivered. Options include pizzas, fish & chips, and Indian. If you want cutlery and crockery, bring your own. The organiser recommends pizza since this can be eaten with fingers out of the box it comes in.

There will be no charge and no pre-entry for this event. Nevertheless, the organiser needs to know how many maps to print, so please email ian.ditchfield at ukonline.co.uk if you are thinking about coming (with the obvious insertion of "@" in the email address). Some spare maps will be printed.

Directions

By car, Friends Provident is just off the A24 on the northern edge of Dorking. From the M25, exit at junction 9 and head south on A24 for “Dorking”. After 5 miles, reach a roundabout sign with a brown “vineyard” panel inset. Turn left (away from the vineyard), then immediately right into Friends Provident. The social club may be seen on your left as you drive in, but you must continue straight ahead and pass through barriers into the main car park before parking. If the barriers are down, stop just in front of them, press the button in the pillar on your right, and announce that you've come for the orienteering event. Security is manned 24x7 so there is no risk of getting locked in after the event. If you park on an access road, the organiser will get into trouble!

From the "cock" roundabout at the A24/A25 junction on the eastern edge of Dorking, head north on A24 for “London”. After 800 metres reach “vineyard” roundabout (see above). Turn right and right again into Friends Provident, and park as above.

By bus, the 465 from Kingston to Dorking via Surbiton, Hook and Chessington stops outside Friends Provident.

By train, both Dorking and Deepdene stations are within 5 minutes walk. Dorking station is served by two routes, from London Waterloo via Clapham Junction, Wimbledon and Epsom; and from London Victoria via Clapham Junction, Sutton and Epsom. Some of the Victoria trains continue to Horsham, but be warned that most Victoria to Horsham trains avoid Dorking. Deepdene station is on the Gatwick, Redhill, Guildford and Reading line.

Exiting Dorking station, turn left immediately into a car park (before the main road). At bottom of this car park, turn left under the railway and left again into the FP car park. From Deepdene station, turn right onto the main A24 road, then sharp right into Lincoln Road, under a railway line and then follow left into the FP car park. Train travel will give you the advantage of exploring a route which you may wish to use later!

You participate in this event at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety.

Ian Ditchfield

NB – full details of the 2006/07 SLOW Street-O series and overall results so far can be found here.

Posted 5 March 2007