It is with great sadness that we hear of the death of fellow orienteer, Simon Peck of SUFFOC. Simon was a stalwart of the East Anglian orienteering scene and will be greatly missed. On behalf of Norfolk Orienteering Club we send our condolences to Simon’s family and friends.
Jonathan Gilbert
Results: Horsford Heath: 20/09/2015
Results and Split Times
Photos
Planner’s Comments
A lovely sunny day and an excellent turnout for a level D event. I hope you all enjoyed the event despite the failing SI units, the heavy undergrowth and the standing water!
I can still remember when Horsford Heath was easily runnable, the only real problem for the orienteer being a miscount of the path crossings and a fruitless search for the control feature in the wrong block of woodland. However the heath has changed so much in the last few years with significant undergrowth across the whole area, with blanket coverage of head-high bracken in some sections of the map. This severely limited the areas of the heath that can be used for orienteering and the control sites were carefully selected to, as far as possible, avoid areas of heavy bracken and controls of a “bingo” nature.
The failing SI units were not the only problem for me personally, as I had left some of the control stakes at home and had to make an urgent call to my wife early Sunday morning to bring the remainder of the stakes to me in the forest. Those of you who have planned an event will know how much pressure you are under in the morning to get all the controls out in time and the panic that sets in if anything goes wrong.
The unexpectedly large turnout also created a problem as we had insufficient maps for the Score event. It’s difficult to judge the number of maps required for any event (we try avoid wasting maps and unnecessary cost) but clearly the fine weather encouraged more to turn out than we anticipated for a low-key event and we were light on the day. As a result we had to quickly change our plans and issue a mix of Score 1 and Score 2 maps at the start – the original plan was to issue everyone with the Score 1 map at the outset, the Score 2 map being secondary.
To some extent, those getting the Score 2 map at the Start were handicapped in having just 12 controls covering the whole area compared with the 15 on Score 1. Apologies if this reduced your enjoyment in any way.
As always, thanks are due to a number of people: Alan as usual for advice, supplying the equipment and his patience on the day in working around the failing SI units; Les Jarrald for organising the event and all the helpers he cajoled. Also, particular thanks are due to Daniel Cowley for so successfully resolving the issues with the results stemming from the failing SI units.
Along with Les, Michael Chopping and Mick Liston, Daniel also helped collecting controls at the end of the event. A big thank you to you all.
Trevor
Stragglers Relays
Two teams from Norfolk ventured South to take part in the Stragglers Relays held at Essex University on Sunday 12th July. NORty Nicholls (the Nicholls family) and eNORmouse (Phil Brown, Mick Liston, Ella Gilbert and Jonathan Gilbert) were attempting to win the trophy last won by NOR in 2012. Given that 2 members of eNORmouse were part of the winning team in 2012, hopes were high of a repeat.
The Stragglers Relays are an interesting format. Teams comprise 4 runners, and between them they have to run 2 x Light Green, 3 x Orange and 4 x Yellow courses. Each team only has one map of each course, so only 3 runners can be out at any one time. Strategy is key to make sure that each map is being used as much as possible.
There was great excitement at the finish, as Ella and Harold Wyber (CHIG) were neck and neck coming to the final controls. Harold overtook Ella with 2 to go, but after a mistake from Harold, Ella regained the lead coming in to the penultimate control. However, CHIG were not to be beaten and eventually won by 4 seconds. No disgrace to Ella, as we later found out that Harold ran the fastest time on every course, winning the Light Green by almost 4 minutes.
So close, but yet so far (and soon to be further), as both our teams were disqualified. NORty Nicholls suffered an injury, so did not run the last Orange leg; and eNORmouse mis-punch’d.
Full results can be found here.
Thanks to SOS for organising a really fun event. It would be good to get even more NOR teams next year.
Results: Ling Common: 28/06/2015
Organiser’s Comments – Julia Paul
It was disappointing that we didn’t get more entries, as there is always a certain amount of work involved in putting on any event. But it also means that nearly everyone helped! Thanks to John, Leanne and Phil for help setting up and packing up, Leanne for handling both Registration and Download with aplomb, Sam, Steve N, Phil and Michael Chopping for collecting controls, and Karen and Paul for packing up and taking everything away so I’ve now got an empty car!
Planner’s Comments – Julia Paul
All who came enjoyed this lovely area – bar one who found the man-eating bog! I think whistles may be mandatory in future, especially with a Score event where you can’t predict what route someone has taken. Legs were planned to avoid the bog, and also a very dodgy bridge with rotten planks and protruding nails.
I am very impressed that Sam found 23 out of 24 controls in the time allowed, and says it totalled 6.7km.
Not sure when this area was last used – but Sue had managed to find a map from 1986, and noticed a lot more of the bumpy bits are now mapped. Thanks to Peter Leverington (mapper) for bringing this area back into use.
