Results and Split Times
Routegadget & Splitsbrowser
WinSplits
Organiser’s Comments
Thank you to everyone for turning out on what at first seemed like a drizzly and cold winter evening, but once everyone arrived and the lights went on, the evening also seemed to warm up and it was lovely to see such a mixture of old and young, new and experienced orienteers; many of whom were running a night o for the first time. Indeed it was our first night event for a good few years and I think it could well become a regular fixture judging by the feedback. Oliver flew round the green and won by a clear 5+ minutes giving our older men no doubt something to ponder, and Marcus Richardson likewise made short work on the yellow course. For me though the star of the evening was Rodney – M85 and successfully completing the orange with a big grin, oozing with positivity.
Massive thanks to all the officials and volunteers, most of whom did not have a run. Having such a capable bunch makes the job of organiser so much easier. I would also like to thank Felmingham PC for use of this lovely area, and the Webster Family for a splendid parking area and allowing us to cross their garden to get to the heath.
Nicky
Planner’s Comments
I think the relative uniqueness of the area, the format (much more of a ‘middle distance’ event than the traditional ‘long’) and of course being in the dark did a lot of the legwork in terms of the enjoyment of the event that I think most people shared; however there’s always that trepidation that you’ve planned a bit of a turkey until the finishers start coming in, so I’m most pleased that the consensus seems to be a Saturday evening up in North Norfolk well spent – thank you for coming along and taking part, no matter where you ended up in the final results.
My two biggest considerations when planning the courses, were making sure that those with restrictions on the number of decision points per leg (Yellow, and to an extent Orange) kept within those rules, and conversely that the longer/harder Green had enough decision points not to make it a procession – there are only so many ‘long’ legs possible in such a small area! So there were a few gambles; 5-6 on the Yellow (with the path junction coming in behind the direction of running) and 6 on the Orange (using the elongated depression as a linear feature), especially as some of the paths in the woodland to the North West seemed to get less distinct as the event day approached. I didn’t want to start taping routes, as the size of the map meant they’d also be routes for other courses, and would make them too simple, so that ruled out some other potential legs. 10-11-12 was a bit clunky on the Green – the intention being to stop 10 being an in-and-out and to get you rotated for the next loop of the Heath.
With no injuries sustained on some of the remains of the cut gorse, and everyone successfully back, plus your comments post-run, makes all the recent trips back and forth to update the vegetation (which is being constantly altered, with the aim of increasing biodiversity) worthwhile. My personal thanks to my assistant control hanger – two hands really does make it much easier, at least in this compact area – to Jonathan for covering Download all night, Katharine/Philip/Emma/Ben for going out for another loop of the Heath at the end of the event and speedily collecting all the controls so that they could all be sorted ready to go out early Sunday morning for the Hockering event, and to Tim for his Controlling guidance.
Daniel.