Results and Split Times
WinSplits
RouteGadget
Organiser’s Comments
Thank you to all the volunteers for their help today in such inclement weather. There’s a Scottish word that describes it well: dreech. But it could have been colder, wetter, windier so I hope you all enjoyed your runs.
Thanks also to the people who have taken soggy equipment away to get dry before the next event.
Events don’t happen without helpers so next time we shout out, please consider giving up an hour of your time. Don’t forget helpers get a discount on entry fees too!.
I look forward to seeing you at the next one.
Julia
Planner’s Comments
I was asked to plan at Swafham just before Christmas, and first went to look for my Christmas morning walk in the sunshine. The forest looked OK so I sketched out possible courses. However, I had only looked at the Northern part of Swaffham. When I went back I headed for a block mapped with many clearings which I intending to use with several controls only to find head high bracken with the clearings indistinguishable. A walk round the rest of Swaffham showed a similar picture for the south & west, the central and northern blocks being the runnable parts. But with no point features tripods became the order of the day. The new fence, an admirable 5 year project by the Forestry Commission to find die back resistant ash trees, along with some new tracks made this area good for junior courses, The taped route solved the problem of linking this area to the start and it was good to discover that the woodland it passed through was not as thick as the 2014 map I started with indicated.
Having planned a LIGHT GREEN course I realised that a SHORT GREEN of approximately the same length would be not much different with the lack of technicality available. As the runnable areas available meant that the GREEN course was shorter than usual I came to the conclusion that Light Green or Green would be good alternatives for those who usually run Short Green. The thicker part with the taped route has many clearings and given more time (a couple more weeks) these could be mapped, providing more intricate orienteering and a basis for a Short Green course of greater difficulty.
Having stayed until almost dark on Saturday, fortunately I had put out nearly all the controls as I awoke to snow on Sunday morning. Driving along the A47, also covered in snow, I did wonder if anyone was going to drive to Swaffham in these conditions. However after Dereham the snow stopped and I could see the road surface. It did not take long to complete the setting up tasks thanks to Julia’s excellent organisation and Kim’s very good controlling (and the refuge of warm camper van)
I hope you enjoyed the courses despite the clear need for a Swaffham map update. Finally, thank you helpers and particularly control collectors.
Paul Garton
P.S. Do have a go at planning; it is fun to do.
Controller’s Comments
First of all I would like to thank all the people who turned up to orienteer at Swaffham Heath on such a cold, damp, snowy, rainy day! The work which is done to put on these local colour coded events prior to the day is immense.
The Planner, Paul Garton, spent many hours in the forest making numerous map corrections as well as trying to get interesting courses from White to Brown! This was achieved by the map corrections, creating a number of extra control sites (tripods) and a taped route for White, Yellow, and Orange. The yellow course was one of the best I’ve seen with lots of variety.
The majority of people I spoke to said they really enjoyed the course they had completed with lots of navigation challenges. A couple of young ladies, new to orienteering, completed the yellow and then went out on the orange course. Due to the bad weather I was amazed we had new comers, hopefully they will come along again.
This made us feel it had been well worth the effort of putting the event on. I must say thanks to Julia Paul for being our organiser on the day, she did an excellent job as always! A big thank you to all the helpers on the day without which the event would not happen.
My congratulations to our Planner, Paul Garton, for producing a decent updated map and for all the good courses.
Next NOR event is at Holt Country Park 5 March.
See you there!!
Kim Eden
