At 8 o’clock on Saturday morning, I began to wonder how much of an effect the high temperatures would have on my target winning times of 27-28 minutes. The men got close but the women were a bit slower than I had expected. The planning of short courses does not allow for track running and the bilberry growth in the forest over the last fortnight obviously added to the physical demands that Holmbury offers.

The OOB area near the finish was only advised two weeks before the event so I decided to avoid it by incorporating a taped route from the spectator control. These are all possible elements of big international races so I felt the experience would be worthwhile. The appearance of the landowner at the start with a video camera also added to the "big race atmosphere".

My thanks to everyone involved in the event: Anne Leaney who put together a great competition, Tim Pribul for his efficient and unobtrusive controlling, Karen French whose first go at organising was this non-standard event, Helen Errington for steering Karen throughout the process, Andrew Leaney for co-ordinating the SportIdent equipment, Mick Lucking for overprinting and especially for coping admirably with the late changes caused by the new OOB, Nick, Matthew and many other LOKkies for helping me on the day hanging controls etc, members of other SE Clubs such as HH, SLOW and GO, Ronan for his advice and calming influence, as always and especially to you for travelling long distances to compete. I hope you felt it was worthwhile.

Julie Cleary (LOK)

This event certainly had attractions when I was approached. A demanding area, a map which I had found to be very acceptable at JK99 and even more so when out on the area checking detail. A very capable planner in Julie with the shadowy form of Ronan lurking in the background and an organisation team that would have cut its teeth on the Southern Express.

When running the courses three weeks prior on a damp cold day wearing gloves and woolly hat and very wet under foot, I wondered whether you would appreciate the quality of the terrain and Julie’s courses quite so much, but how very different on the day! Good, dry running conditions, no slipperiness, maybe a little warm. The only problem was the late introduction of the taped route due to environmental concerns and this needed policing during the competition. Instructions on control description sheets must not be ignored.

One could not be expected to find a more picturesque finish area and it created an ideal location for post event analysis. The availability of split times adds that extra frisson to the discussions. This was the first event I have controlled using SportIdent and it certainly made life easier from a checking point of view. That is not to ignore the extra effort necessitated at the planning stage, preparing the readers for the day of the event and the setting up of the finish systems.

On your behalf I would like to thank all of those involved in putting on such a quality event, especially Julie (and Ronan)Cleary, Karen French and Anne & Andrew Leaney, the members of LOK and SLOW and other SE clubs.

Tim Pribul (CHIG)

For my first go at helping to organise an orienteering event I felt I was very lucky. Firstly, I couldn’t have asked for better weather although for those running a little less heat would probably have been appreciated. It did however mean that people stayed longer to give their support to the events on the day.

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and that we managed to give everyone a run, even if it was just picking up controls at the end.

Secondly, I would like to express grateful thanks to Helen Errington, Julie Cleary and Anne Leaney for all their guidance and encouragement. The event would also not have been successful without the merry band of volunteers who gave up their Saturday to help out. To you I am most grateful and hope we can rely on your help in the future.

Karen French (LOK)

Even with lots of paths, out of bounds areas and the fact that nearly all the competitors had run on the area just over a year ago at the JK in 1999, giving me additional self imposed constraints, Winterfold is still a great area on which to plan. I hope that you enjoyed the courses, I tried to make them as physically and technically challenging, as possible, I’m sure you appreciated the wonderful terrain if not the uphill finish! The FCC guidelines require a winning time of between 55 and 65 minutes for both courses – Hannah was 6 seconds too fast and the men should have run just a bit faster! Thanks to Tim and Tim for all their advice it certainly helped improve the courses. Thanks also to Roger Jackson and David Rosen from the Northwest for sorting out the SI kit which by midday Monday was on its way to the British Champs. Hopefully the Southeast will buy its own SI kit soon!

Andrew Leaney (SLOW)

It was good to see so many competitors and coaches making the long journeys to the south of England. I do hope that everyone has good memories of a weekend that included in the words of one of the officials - "the hottest day of the century".

Winterfold is at its very best for orienteering at this time of year and can provide one of the stiffest challenges in southern England. I believe that Andrew made excellent use of the terrain with memorable courses. I trust that the experience of running in a forest with very few other competitors was enjoyable. I hope that it will also have helped preparations for JWOC and even bigger races in the years to come.

While Andrew was preparing the excellent courses, Anne was efficiently organising experienced officials to run the event. I thank them all on your behalf for the smooth and efficient organisation on the day.

Finally, I must express my thanks to Tim Denton. His general advice and also his experience of JK99 planning on Winterfold were a great help in the weeks leading up to the event. On the day, I could not have done checked all the controls without him, thank you Tim.

Tim Pugh (GO)

I’m pleased to report that I got my main task right – the weather – which, although a bit warm for racing, made this a sociable event for spectators and competitors alike.

We tried to give the flavour of a World Class Elite competition with a ‘silent’ start run by the team who had set Yvette Baker off on her World Champs Gold medal race last summer. The use of Sport-Ident went very smoothly thanks to the preparation by the results team, and thanks also to Julie and Ronan who helped Andrew with the setting up of the equipment over the weekend.

You may have seen Peter Haynes, the Hurtwood Control warden for Holmbury out with his video recorder at the Short race on Saturday. He is compiling a video about the different uses made of the area by the public and was delighted to get a shot of three runners racing across a track in front of some more sedentary walkers, who were probably oblivious to our presence.

My thanks go to everyone who helped over the weekend and also to all those from SLOW and other clubs who kindly offered to assist both on the day and beforehand.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to be involved in such an important event and we took great care to make sure we got it right. It meant a few sleepless nights (mainly wondering if anyone would run off with the toilets!) but it was worth it.

Anne Leaney (SLOW)