Course    
Brown Results Splits
Blue Results Splits
Green Results Splits
Short Green Results Splits
Light Green Results Splits
Orange Results Splits
Yellow Results Splits
White Results Splits

Planner's Comments

Thank you for the many of you who braved the winter weather to come to this event.

This was my first chance to put my planning skills to the test at a Level C event and I am thankful to have had the helpful and supportive advice of Roger Philips (Controller) throughout. The Yellow course caused me the most headaches. Aware that this course should not just be a longer white with a few controls missing I tried to achieve this by having some of the legs diagonally crossing some of the open areas at the bottom of eastern slope. This rightly concerned Roger as the guidelines state that there should be no route choice between controls. I eventually came up with many revisions and learnt a great deal in practice about the planning guidelines along the way!

The other challenge I faced was at which point within the courses would I need to ‘force’ competitors to cross over to the western side of the road (Benscliffe woods) and still keep within the course length guidelines. As a consequence the Light Green had to loop and zig-zag about a bit on the eastern side of the road whilst the Short Green was a more conventional anticlockwise loop with the two road crossings. Also to get the required length on the Brown required a back to back map and again a ‘double loop ‘ around Benscliffe hill.

Apologies to the few competitors who found that control 214 had been mysteriously moved. I can assure you that it was in the correct place at the start of the day!

As I am sure many of you know, planning at this level is both challenging and hugely rewarding knowing that your ideas and thoughts are being run on by orienteers from across the region. I hope you enjoyed the courses and I look forward to planning again at another Level C in the future (if I’m allowed!!).

Last thanks go to Tracey and the rest of the ‘organising team’ who did a brilliant job on a snowy winters day.

Howard Alcock

Organiser's Comments

We decided to go ahead with today’s event as the roads were clear and the ground was runnable. The forecast was for light snow in the morning, getting heavier mid-afternoon. They got that wrong!

The number of Orienteers who made the effort to attend was staggering. Also the positive feedback we received as a club for staging the event in those conditions made the effort well worth it.

I would like to say a big Thank You to all my helpers . Everyone of them managed to get there . Without them the event could not of run as smoothly as it did. I hope you have all thawed out.

Tracey.

Controller's Comments

It was always going to be a challenge holding an event in January due to the likely weather conditions. Two weeks ago I was worried about the amount of rain we could have and making the ground conditions even more sodden. I did have concerns about the suitability of the paths bordering the golf course. Instead snow was the order of the day.

The organiser took the decision to allow the event to continue as normal late on Saturday afternoon. This was after some very hard studying of the weather forecast. 140 brave souls proved that we can orienteer in all weather conditions.

This was Howard’s first Level C event and Charnwood Forest South presents a few challenges for any planner. The yellow course proved the most difficult for Howard, with several variations having been discussed in the planning stage. In an area like Charnwood Forest South, it is tricky to make the yellow course to the correct standard and not just a long white.

There was one issue on the day, with control 214 being moved about 10 metres, hopefully this didn’t effect too many competitors.

I would like to thank Howard & Tracey for their hard work in making the event happen and I am sure their services will be called on again to plan and organise in the not to distant future.

Roger Phillips