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Organiser’s Comments

I was very pleased with the turnout for this event given it is a busy time of year for most people and my thanks go to Neil for organising the publicity.

In common with many smaller clubs we aim to put on quality events with a relatively small but dedicated band of helpers and would appreciate feedback, especially from first-timers, to help us achieve this. You can provide feedback by following the link: https://forms.office.com/r/YCT54BUFRa

You will have noticed that the main car park was unavailable to us and I would like to mention the support we received from Forestry England regarding alternative arrangements.

Finally, I would like to thank our controller Clive (SUFFOC), the local landowner and the NOR volunteers who ensured the event ran smoothly.

John Ward.

Planner’s Comments

Owing to an unavoidable change of Planner, my first visit to the wood was in mid-September. I left feeling very deflated! The bracken was 100ft tall, the map was massively out of date, the rhododendron had taken over some of the nice bits, and several areas were a sea of wind-blown. Over a period of weeks a set of courses did come together. I elected not to use the western end (as had been suggested by the pre-plan by the original Planner) but to concentrate courses in the trickier part of the wood. I tried hard to make the courses challenging and, thankfully, the feedback suggested that worked. The map updates made a huge difference, but I accept that some areas show a need for a comprehensive re-draw. Something to add to the NOR list of jobs to do…

Thanks to the team who made the event a success. There are lots of them. Particularly thanks to Controller Clive for his patience with our challenges and his level-headed approach.

I hope all those who ran enjoyed their time in the wood today.

Ben Bethell.

Controller’s Comments

I hope those of you who had a late run and those who picked up controls at the end have dried out. Those of you who finished before the rain – well done!!

It was a pleasure as always to work with the Norfolk team. From comments received, Ben’s courses were enjoyed and they used the area well and allowed for options of cutting across the grain as well as path running. It was appreciated that even after the very last minute map changes that more will be required in the future. In terms of control sites it was hard to evaluate how quickly the bracken would die back in certain areas but it was noticeably easier to get through on the day than it was when I checked tapes two weeks ago; it was worth holding firm on the chosen sites.

Thanks to Ben, John and the team and see you in the forest soon.

Clive.

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This event was also the NOR Club Championships, see Glen’s Planner’s comments below to learn who the 2023 winners are!

NOR’s next event is Shouldham Warren, 10th December. Before then we’re off to contest the CompassSport Trophy on 12th November. If you’re not joining us, keep an eye out for the results on the Bristol OC website.

Organiser’s Comments

Thank you to everyone that came to the Cawston and Marsham Heath event. We were very lucky that the weather was probably the best day we have had for several days and made competing in the forest more enjoyable.

A lot of work went on behind the scenes to enable the event to go ahead which most competitors are not aware of, from permissions to use the areas, finding helpers for the day and collecting and returning equipment. Glen the Planner did a great job and Kim assisted by Tim had everything under control as Controllers.

A special thank you to all the helpers, without who the event would not go ahead. From the car park marshals who managed to get everyone parked safely and stop the general public from using the O carpark, the crew on the starts, my Mum who helped me on registration, the people who volunteered to collect controls and finally John and Daniel who manned SI.

Everything went smoothly until we had reports that there were controls missing on the yellow course, in total we had 2 SI boxes and 3 control kites that went missing. Luckily this was quite late on and only a few competitors were affected.

Finally, I must thank the landowners, Cawston and Marsham Heath trustees for giving us permission to hold the event.

Here’s looking forward to the next event at Shouldham Warren. If you could help please get in touch as without volunteers these events can’t take place.

Karen.

Planner’s Comments

It is always a pleasure planning orienteering courses. While finding time in our busy lives to fit in recce visits might seem like a chore, I always find I enjoy the opportunity to stroll round an area and appreciate it, rather than charging round with sweat in my eyes. I particularly enjoyed my visits to Cawston & Marsham as it is a wonderfully varied area, with lots of wildlife, and it was full of colour a month ago.

I was determined that the TD5 courses should experience the full variety of terrain, including the contour features in the woods as well as the heathland. My first visit showed me that using the open bits of Marsham Heath (the eastern half) would be most challenging. After my legs had been turned into pin cushions, I realised I couldn’t really put controls out in the heath. But I know some people like the challenge of such difficult terrain, so instead, I made a few legs that gave the option of following the purple line through the heath, or going round the long way on the path. Speaking to finishers, it seems that quite a few did opt for the straight line route. But those who opted for the path run generally got there quicker.

Well done to everyone who completed their first orienteering course today. And congratulations to the NOR Club Champions for 2023 – Ian Renfrew and Gill Pilgrim.

Glen.

Controller’s Comments

Just like to thank everyone who came to Cawston and Marsham Heaths today. Glen had some challenging courses which I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks to Karen for organising the event, and to all the helpers, it went very smoothly to start with, unfortunately 3 controls on the yellow course were vandalised later on in the morning, we managed to retrieve all the stakes and kites but lost 2 control boxes. I think this only affected 2 entrants, so sorry this happened, we think it was some kids on bikes.

Apart from that the event went very well and thanks to Glen for planning. We were very lucky with the weather, so nice to run in sunlit woods!!</p?

Kim.

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NOR Junior Champions (age classes & overall) will be announced & presented at Cawston & Marsham Heaths, Sunday 29th October – NOR’s next event.  Enter now, here.

Officials’ Comments

None (as yet)

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Upcoming NOR events:
15th October: Blickling NT Estate
29th October: Cawston & Marsham Heaths
10th December: Shouldham Warren

Also, for NOR members, the trip to the CompassSport Trophy Final, 12th November. Check your emails for a message from Club Captain Glen and get in touch if you fancy joining in or learning more – all are valued & welcome regardless of actual or perceived experience or ability.

Organiser’s Comments

Welcome to the people who were new to orienteering, we hope you had fun and will come back!

As always I am very grateful to those who offered their help in running the event, both in advance, and to those who filled in the gaps on the day; without helpers we couldn’t run events.
I can’t take any credit for the weather, but the sunshine makes it all easier, even if the wind managed to disrupt some of the road signs. Thank you all for parking considerately.

I hope to see you all again at our next event.

Julia.

Planner’s Comments

Having planned at Holt a few times over the years I was more than happy to give it another go this year. My only slight reservation was how early in the season the event was planned and therefore the amount of likely undergrowth I would encounter.

I first visited the area in September 2022 to get an idea of what the undergrowth was like at this time of year. My first impressions were how high the bracken and gorse were and how on earth was I going to be able to plan any technical courses without having the controls totally engulfed by vegetation. The one saving grace was that the blocks of wood in the Country Park did appear a lot more runnable than I had seen them in years so I felt that might offer me a few more options. Unfortunately even this positive disappeared when the Country Park advised me that most of these blocks of wood would not be accessible due to new planting, ecological reasons and other out of bounds reasons.

I next visited at Easter to find significant areas of the Lowes had been mown and opened up, which meant I potentially had a lot more options available for my courses.

Finally, I visited again in June to discover that all the mown areas had already totally grown over again with bracken over head height – back to the drawing board again!

In the end I tried to plan the courses so that the worst of the undergrowth was avoided and although there were sections of path running, these were used as a means to get competitors to nicer areas where I could group together three or four controls in slightly more technical terrain.

Hopefully I managed to come up with some courses which provided a decent enough challenge for everyone whilst avoiding the worst of the undergrowth.

I must place on record my thanks to Jonathan Gilbert and David Sparshott for their willingness to make numerous visits to Holt to produce an accurate map for me to plan on, and to make regular changes to the map at short notice whenever I came back from a visit to the area having found yet more undergrowth to add!

Paul.

Controller’s Comments

Holt Country Park and the Lowes are becoming an increasingly difficult area to plan on due to the restrictions in using the forest blocks in the Park and the ever-expanding growth of gorse on the Lowes. However, I think Paul made excellent use of the area available and produced interesting courses, which some competitors found quite challenging. Some of the legs on the longer courses would have had more route choice had it not been for the late growth of bracken, which meant updating the map to remove some overgrown paths.

Thank you to Paul and Karen for Planning and making minor map updates, and to David and Jonathan for the time spent in updating the map to show the new areas of gorse. Also, thanks to Julia for getting the land access permissions in place and organising the event. A special thanks to Kim for assisting me in the initial survey of the area and for checking controls on the day. It is becoming more and more difficult to get around all the control sites on the morning of the event while giving the Planner time to put them all out.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the event, we got a lot of positive comments at the finish and several newcomers who are all planning to come to future events.

Tim.