Deptford & New Cross Street-O Results

These are the Results from the first Street-O of the 2013-14 series, held in Deptford and New Cross on Tuesday 10 September 2013.

Planner’s comments

Thanks to everyone who attended the race this evening. I hope you all enjoyed it, even though it was raining on many of you.

I have lived in Deptford for eight years now and it seemed a logical place to plan a race. Naturally I wanted to try to incorporate some of the more interesting sights in Deptford, but I think in an O race it is more important to ensure the control locations you choose are quickly and clearly visible, so I couldn’t include as many as I would have liked. Many runners still got to see the famous ancient skull and crossbone pier caps at St Nicholas’s church, the Laban Dance Centre, Deptford Creek, as well as the monuments to Peter the Great and John Evelyn, both of whom lived in Deptford for a time.

Like much of South London, Deptford and New Cross are split by railway viaducts, which can make orienteering in these areas unexpectedly interesting, as often you find there are infrequent crossing points. This is the case with the line to Croyden through New Cross Gate station towards the west of the map. I also noticed straight away that the private housing estates east and west of this railway line presented a good opportunity for some more intricate orienteering and set about making sure they were mapped as accurately as possible. At the same time I wanted people to have to run quite a distance for big points. I hope the race challenged competitors on both fronts.

A special thanks to all who helped out on the night: Don, Ben, George, Carys and Ollie. Much appreciated. The maps left behind will be brought to the next race in the series at Kennington on Tuesday 8 October.

Eoin O’Callaghan