District Event – Holmwood Common

Sunday 22 March 2009

Organiser’s Comments

As this was my first foray in to organising an orienteering event, I was very fortunate to have a tried and tested formula to follow when running an event on Holmwood Common. In addition to this I was flanked by a fantastic team of helpers. Happily the weather on the day was as we had ordered it – sunny and clear – and everything ran smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that I may even be lured in to organising another event at some point in the future!

Many thanks in particular to Mike Murray and Charlie Turner for all their help particularly with arranging land permissions and the use of the scout hut for registration and download, the members of registration and download team who were really fantastic and worked really hard, and the volunteers who helped with hanging and collecting in controls.

I would also like to report that John Faller who became unwell upon arriving at download after completing his course is now fine. Many thanks to all those who leapt to John's assistance and ensured he received the medical attention he needed as quickly as possible.

Ruth King

Planner’s Comments

I agreed to plan on Holmwood Common before I’d seen a map of the area and so was quite shocked to get such a green-dominated area to work with. However, exploring the inner life of Holmwood revealed quite a few nice control sites that could be stitched together to create some challenging courses. I really feel sorry for those who got given track running-dominated courses in the past, but I planned a Red course to accommodate those who prefer running to navigating and tracks to brambles and holly bushes as well just in case. The snowy and wet winter provided some challenging conditions during the map updating and planning period and I was very happy to see a sunlit and almost dry forest during the weekend of the competition.

Thanks to Don McKerrow for helping with the map update and Vince for timely and thorough controlling as well as invaluable assistance on the day.

Anne Straube

Controller’s Comments

For those of you who prefer your orienteering to be at the tougher end of the scale Holmwood presents some challenging undergrowth and Anne’s courses gave you the opportunity to run straight if you dared. So with very little run forest on the map your choice was either round the paths or through slow run or walk with varying degrees of undergrowth. Not everyone’s idea of ‘running in sunlit forests’ but I think Anne did a good job and her courses were tough but fair.

The organisation by Ruth sensibly adopted a tried and tested format used for previous events here.

Thank you to those involved in very quickly summoning an ambulance for John Faller who became ill after finishing his run.

Vince Joyce