OK Nuts Trophy Regional Event

Organiser's Report (Dick Clark)

It is difficult which to admire more - the fortitude of the competitors or the numerous helpers for defying the dreadful weather to make this event a success.

Sharing the event with The Army meant that some courses were pretty full but certainly added a stronger atmosphere to the day’s events. We are grateful to the Army for use of their land, provision of water and generator facilities. However their promise to provide toilets was somewhat less successful. I must apologise to all competitors for the personal inconvenience caused and for suffering without complaint on the day.

Tim Pugh and Chris Fry put in endless hours to make the event a success and also gave me a huge amount of help and guidance along the way. A big vote of thanks to them.

As we all know the dedication of the helpers is another big factor in making the event run smoothly – including hanging onto the tent to stop it flying off into the sky on a few occasions. As usual SLOW members gave selflessly of their time. As I write I see that provisional results are already available on our web-site.

Thanks also to St John who had little to do but were on hand to provide help on a couple of occasions.

Congratulations to the Trophy winners:-

• Mike Well-Coles Trophy - Ed Catmur (SLOW) – won for the third time following his successes in 2002 and 2003
• Heather Monro Trophy - Helen Pearce (HH), by a narrow margin from Becky Kingdon (SLOW)
• Margaret Loveless Trophy - Jonathan Crickmore (SO), for coming second on the Black Course whilst still an M16.

Honourable mentions to:

• Lucy Thraves (SO) - the defending trophy holder for a huge win on the Green Course
• Richard Purkis (SAX) for winning the Blue course.

The Coasters to course winners weren’t available on the day, but then nor were a lot of the course winners who wisely left to find a warm shower. These will be sent on by post over the next couple of weeks.

Planner's Report (Chris Fry)

To my mind, planning an event is some of the best fun to be had in orienteering. It gives you an excuse to explore an area in detail and to see it in various conditions. It is also very rewarding to see lots of people coming along and running the courses that you have spent weeks pondering over. If, in addition, you get more bouquets than brickbats from the competitors it makes it all seem worthwhile. Bramshott was only selected as the venue for the OK Nuts Trophy at the end of August after our initial booking of Hankley Common had been cancelled. We owe special thanks to BAOC’s Allan Farrington and Colin Dickson and to Guildford Orienteers for moving rapidly to secure an alternative which turned out to be every bit as good as the original choice. Thanks are also due to Roger Maher for updating the map in the short time available.

My heart sank when I first visited Bramshott in September to find that most of the yellow areas were choked with either head-high bracken or knee-high brambles. I was assured that these were usually cut in the Autumn, but it was only in the last two weeks that the mowers got to work and made the straight line route options more plausible.

In planning the courses I tried to keep you in the nicer parts of the woods and to offer you route choices through the detailed thicketed areas rather than place too many controls among them, which could have resulted in a sort of hide-and-seek (or perhaps pinball?) orienteering that I don’t personally like very much. In the absence of really detailed terrain I tried to offer you changes of terrain-type, of pace and of technique to keep you thinking. Inevitably in such an area there was quite a high control density and a few of you were caught out by this, although probably the foul weather played its part in provoking lapses of concentration. The main mispunching opportunities were at 209/210 and at 223/224. 215/216 caused problems for some – presumably those who took the path option from 217 to 215 and found 216 on the way; most checked the code and lost very little time but a couple did not. It hadn’t occurred to me that the two sites were confusable but, on reflection, perhaps a different choice of site for the Orange course control would have been wiser. The courses are now up on RouteGadget (as a few of you discovered within minutes) and I look forward to seeing your routes as they appear.

I have a lot of people to thank: control hangers Angus, Gordon, Richard, Nigel, AJ (who ran miles!) and Mike (who should really have phoned in sick); willing control collectors too numerous to mention; Dick for keeping firm control of all the details; Tim for sympathetic and constructive controlling; Alan at Print5 for a first class service; and special thanks to Judy for on-the-day coordination, support in preparing the equipment (and cleaning and drying it afterwards!) and for putting up with my preoccupied state for the last three months. Lastly, thank you all for coming to the OK Nuts and enjoying the courses in spite of the worst that the weather gods could hurl at us.

Controller's Report (Tim Pugh, GO)

The weather must be high on the list for the worst ever for an orienteering event. Like Dick, I am just amazed that competitors and officials managed to keep smiling in such dire conditions and I offer all of you my congratulations. In years to come, I am sure that the event and the day will be the subject of many “I was there stories”. It is little consolation to everyone that I spent several brilliant days on the area in the weeks before the event

Despite everything, many people seemed to enjoy the event and that made all the hard work of the last weeks seem worthwhile. So, once again, SLOW has staged a successful event and on behalf of all of the competitors, I wish to thank them for their time and efforts. It has been a pleasure to work with Chris, Dick and the club over the last months.

I believe that Chris made good use of the area and planned some excellent courses. His meticulous planning and attention to detail made my own job relatively easy. I must also thank all of the forest team for braving the elements before, during and after the event. In particular, I am grateful to Andy and Chris Robinson for their help in checking controls as dawn broke (and the rain came down!)

Dick Clark always seemed to have everything well organised and our thanks are due to him, his team leaders and all helpers. I believe that having the start, finish and car park all close together worked well and made life just a little easier on the day. I must also add my thanks to Allan Farrington and Mel Rayner for all their help in staging the event. Finally, my thanks are due to Gavin Andrews and his helpers - there always seemed to be an atmosphere of calm efficiency surrounding the computers, despite the regular need to stop the tent from taking off. The regular results lists that included names of runners still in the forest was most reassuring to me.

Congratulations to the winners - your names are added to a long list of illustrious winners of OK Nuts Trophy races, enjoy the trophies and come back to defend them next year.