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.
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
Medal haul in London for NOR members
Fifteen NOR members took part in the 8th London City Race on Saturday bringing home medals of every colour. Over 900 competitors from the UK and overseas took part in the race which was based in Wapping with the longer courses extending into the city and around the Tower of London. The sun truly shone on a day of fantastic racing.
Steven Denby became our first ever winner at this event, beating an international field to win the M16 race, despite still being an M14 himself; he was a full 2.5 mins clear of his nearest rival.Ella Gilbert was runner up in the Euro Youth Women’s class comprising W18/20 age groups, and Glen Richardson took third place in the M35 Vets class missing top spot by only 36 seconds. Glen also gained a podium place coming 3rd in the Night Sprint event at Imperial College on the Friday evening.
Special mention should also go to Jonathan Gilbert for his 22nd position out of 177 competitors in the hugely popular M50 class, and to Sam Nicholls and Matt Jefford who finished only 15 seconds apart after covering an actual distance of about 12k in the Euro Youth Mens class, Matt taking the honours in a time of 69.07 in 14th position.Car Share
We have several members without transport who live in Norwich,and who have asked if anyone would be prepared to give them a lift to events. If you would be willing to offer a lift, please contact Nicky Nicholls via e-mail and I will put you in touch.
