Daniel

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Organiser’s Comments

The day started cold and crisp and without a cloud in the sky. We were fortunate to have a nice compact event centre thanks to our Planner. Setting up was a real pleasure and everything was in place well before the first starts. The courses were set and checked by the Planner and Controller in good time to get runners away in good time. I received nothing but positive comments with the regards to the various courses. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those kind people who offered their time to help in the various tasks that make this kind of event happen. I appreciate that it was very cold standing around but everyone got on and did a great job. I would also like to offer my thanks to the Kelling Heath Caravan Park for allowing us to use their splendid site and for permitting us to use the luxurious washroom facilities. We were blessed with a gorgeous day and I only hope that everyone enjoyed their orienteering at Kelling Heath.

Les Jarrold

Planner’s Comments

Kelling Heath has a mixture of areas. To the south is a dark-green wood – not very interesting, but is useful to put some length into the longer courses. In the middle is an easy runnable wood, plus the plethora of caravans, where I did note several runners were running about in all directions around the rides! The best bit is the hilly section to the north. The only problem here is people may be tempted to cross through caravan gardens. We did have a complaint at the last event here, so I tried to design courses to miss these out where I could, plus give route choices. Hopefully I have mostly succeeded.

I hope you enjoyed the event, despite the cold (-4 when I set off this morning), but it was nice in the sunshine. Thanks go to Les Jarrold for a smooth operation, and to Rob Frost for controlling. He very kindly did many amendments to the map and lots of OCAD stuff – thanks for that. And thanks also to all the other helpers who turned out in the cold. See you all again in the forest soon.

Steve Nobbs

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UPDATED! Controller’s comments and photo link have been added.

Organiser’s Comments

My job is always made easier when I get sufficient helpers for all roles, which happened in excess today. Thank you to all those who volunteered their services, but also to those who offered and were not needed.

The event today had 176 entries, although there were several pairs and groups, so the figure exceeds 200. If you are able, please add your route to Routegadget – it is interesting to see where people went, and an excellent tool to compare where you went, or would go on a different course.

It was wonderful to see so many newcomers – I hope you enjoyed your courses, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries.

Thanks also to Planner Julia and Controller Mike for keeping me on the straight and narrow, and finally thank you to the weather for being nice to me, a bit chilly towards the end, but no rain on the day (unlike my last two organised events)!

Thank you for coming.

Leanne.

Planner’s Comments

When I started planning in October the bracken was still high and strong. I started in the south-most area which has lots of contour detail, in the hope that the bracken would die down enough by the time of the event, but after Controller Mike Capper looked at the area we agreed it was better not to use it at all. With other constraints it was hard to plan long legs without dead run somewhere in them.

Rhododendrons also create issues as they keep growing, and hiding either paths or features. I took my pruning saw to one of them to expose a nice big pit hidden beneath it.

Another invisible pit was only found after talking to a dog walker. “Do you have the animal water holes on the map?” he asked. He looked at my map and said “that’s one of them! It’s still there but hidden by a fallen tree!”. With this clue I found it, and cleared it of branches and moss.

And then as I was driving to work, I saw headlights in one of My Areas – tractors! extraction! Oh no! The overall effect has been pretty neutral, as they’ve been thinning rather than demolishing areas, squashing bracken but leaving some brashings.

Having had to update the map as I went along, I tried using a handheld GPS to help me map new paths, with mixed results. I have now offered to do the job properly, although I still need an answer to the questions “how big does a rhododendron have to be to be mapped?” and “when does ‘run’ become ‘rough open with scattered trees’?”

It’s a long time since I planned an event but I really enjoyed it, and thank you for some of the nice comments on the courses. I also owe big thanks to Mike for his suggestions and guidance – and for his first visit on one of the wettest days we’ve had in a long time.

Julia.

Controller’s Comments

I hope you all enjoyed your runs at Sandringham today. On a sunny day it is a delightful area, offering some reasonably challenging orienteering for East Anglia, but the area isn’t lacking in constraints. Julia and I jointly decided that the southern-most area, around the campsite, should not be used – the bracken is extremely high and many parts are pretty unpleasant (or impossible) to run through. Elsewhere the rhododendron bushes continue to spread and sometimes impede going. Many of these new growths were added to the map for this event but not all.

The forestry work that affected mainly Blue and Brown courses had gathered apace over the last week. I hope the brashings weren’t too unpleasant or the new extraction lanes too confusing – winning times would suggest that they were not significant hindrances to running quickly!

There were several newcomers to the sport at the event today. I hope you had fun and that we will see you again.

Finally, thank you, of course, to Julia for her work in planning courses that seem to have been greatly enjoyed by most runners. The NOR organisational machine, ably led by Leanne, worked smoothly, so thank you also to all of the helpers who made the day a success.

Mike.

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Gopro headcam video with course 2 (M40+ / veteran Men) by Anthony Udris

Organiser’s Comments

The success of any event depends on the quality of the team setting it up. As a Planner, Paul Garton is renowned for the quality of his courses and that was reflected today in every leg of every course. The comments that I overheard in the Event Centre where overwhelmingly complimentary and I even heard the word ‘devilish’ used to describe one orienteers run. For the Controller, Clive Wilkinson, this was his first attempt at controlling an urban event and he told me that he had really enjoyed the experience. The weather had made the business of getting all the controls out quite a bit more difficult, so I hope that you will understand why the starts were delayed by about 15 minutes. It was a titanic effort by Paul and Clive to ensure that the delay was not greater. But a great deal of credit must go to the multitude of NOR volunteers who covered every aspect from starts to registration and marshalling. They were ably led by Alan Bedder, whose experience in organising events is invaluable.

Mick Liston

Planner’s Comments

I hope you enjoyed your run despite the fact that some of you might now be very wet. Planning in Norwich has been really enjoyable; it is a great city for an urban event. Give planning a go, it is great fun. I started very early, sometime last April, with summer evenings & weekends wandering round Norwich travelling in to the city by bus (great with a bus pass!). I found bits of Norwich I did not know existed. We particularly wanted you to see the city centre and some of the old parts of Norwich. Norwich Lower School is a good event centre, but there are not many routes out to make courses different. I hope the walk to the Castle was worth it, a lovely complicated area chosen to give courses a variety of routes from the start, before setting off in different directions into the rest of the city.

We also wanted to give juniors a genuine urban orienteering experience. This is possible, with the manned road crossings, as Norwich has extensive pedestrianised areas.

I would like to thank Clive (Controller) and the rest of the NOR team, the City Council, Cathedral, Norwich School, the housing associations and the many people who allowed me to put controls on their property and outside their front doors & shops. One reason for starting to plan early is that you need to talk with many people before courses can be settled.

Paul Garton

Controller’s Comments

Thank you all for coming across to the far east of East Anglia for the event today, especially with Storm Angus coming through. Luckily this didn’t have a major effect on the event although Paul, the planner, and I may beg to differ. It was far worse in the early hours and did have an effect on the hanging of controls which meant that the start was slightly delayed.

Paul’s courses were well received and showed that East Anglian terrain, which is sometimes seen as docile, can bite back. Two controls in particular caused problems for a few competitors, but what became clear in discussions afterwards was how many orienteers rely on getting to the centre of the circle without looking at the detail in the control description. Thank you for your constructive feedback which I will take forward to controlling future events.

Thank you to all of the NOR team who ensured that the event ran smoothly and I look forward to seeing you all at an event soon.

Clive Wilkinson