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By its very nature, the Cambridge
University Club experiences rapid turnnover of members, a shortage of
experienced event officials, and a relatively small membership. Were
it not for the confidence which comes with youth, the club would not
attempt to hold a Regional Event each year.
This year preparations got
off to a slow start with land access and parking arrangements not
being finalised until late on, with a consequential concertinaing of
the planning timetable. Everything that needed to be done got done,
but more time for reflection during the process would have been
welcome and might have improved the courses.
That the event was so
successful was a credit to the small team. The courses needed few
suggestions from the Controller, and were enjoyed by the
competitors. On the day, everything was ready on time (if only
just) and everything worked. Congratulations CUOC, and on
behalf of the competitors, thanks for a good day's orienteering.
Andrew Cordle (SOS)
Firstly I would like to thank Andrew
Cordle, the controller for keeping me on track whilst planning the
event and Alan Elder for his advice on courses and help with mapping
the area.
Warren Wood posed many
challenges to me as a planner, large blocks of forest with no features
and an extensive path network make it tough to plan courses of
sufficient technical difficulty. Fortunately there is a area of
runable woodland in the eastern part of the area which is littered
with a series of depressions., I aimed to make as much use of this
area as possible with nearly all of the senior courses visiting it.
As a first time planner I
had a steep learning curve ahead of me in planning a regional event.
Parking for the event was not finalised until quite late in the
schedule and this had a knock on effect on planning the courses.
Unfortunately these factors combined and allowed a couple of errors in
the maps to slip through unnoticed until very near the event, these
were corrected as best as could be done.
In general the day ran
smoothly after some early SI technical issue were sorted. Most
finishers' comments were positive and I hope that everyone enjoyed
their run.
Ian Elder (CUOC)
First of all, I would like to thank the
over 200 competitors who attended the XXXII edition of the Icenian,
rewarding all the time and efforts put in preparing and running the
event. I am pleased to say that a combination of excellent weather,
lots of help and a little organisation went a long way towards making
the event a success. Those wishing to claim lost property (a left-hand
glove) should email me: rz227@cam.ac.uk
Organising a Regional Event
could be a daunting prospect; however I was extremely lucky to have so
much support at all times. I will be ever so grateful to Jeff Hebbs
who allowed us to use one of his fields for the parking and the
assembly area. A special mention must go to Caroline Louth (WAOC), who
managed and magically transformed all the entries into exactly what
was needed to make the event run smoothly. Thanks to all those WAOC
and CUOC members who helped on the day, and a special thanks to Steve
Hinshelwood for the logistic support, and to the 'veteran' Icenian
organiser Edmund Ward, who oversaw me during the preparation of the
event and wonderfully managed the download tent.
On top of acting as courier
and printer for the event, Ian Elder made a first class planner. In
addition to producing creative courses which were deservedly
well-received, his thorough preparation of the SI equipment ensured
the smooth running of the event. Of course, controller Andrew Cordle
was heavily involved, and his attention to detail, as well as an
uncanny ability to ask me all the questions I had not thought about,
was most welcome.
Roberto Zanchi (CUOC)
First an explanation about the problems we
encountered with control 110 that badly affected the
"on-the-day" results. The SI kit came from an event
the previous weekend with box 110 reset incorrectly as a clear
station. In checking boxes of the new kind, which are in a permanent
"dozing" state, and take a few seconds to respond when
"activated" by a dibber, I failed to notice that it was even
slower in the forest on Saturday.
After completing the check
on Sunday morning, I was perplexed that controls I had visited before
110, were not recorded on the controller read-out. Puzzled, but
unsure what might have happened, we were soon confronted by the
print-out from an early-run WAOC helper, which showed no controls
recorded until after his visit to 110.
Another early-helper run
confirmed our suspicion that 110 was clearing dibbers, so Mike
reconfigured a spare box as 110, and took it out into the forest about
half an hour after normal starts. Unfortunately, because 110 had been
configured as a clear station at the previous event (a lesson there
for all concerned), altering the number also reconfigured it as a
clear station; by the time we realised this, it was not worth changing
the box again, and we left it to run for the rest of the competition.
This left us with some
decisions to make:
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The easy one was to
postpone the prize-giving, sorry to all the winners. This will
occur at the SOS event at Baddow Ridge on Feb 18th.
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How to obtain results
that would give splits, rather than just an overall time, thus
ensuring we had confirmation about the controls each competitor
visited, and at the same time enabling us to forward these to Brit
O for ranking points.
The only option was to
interrogate each of the boxes leading up to, and including 110. This
was done at the event, and Neil Humphries took a copy back home to
work on. My thanks to Neil for all the time he willingly volunteered:
without this selfless kind of offering, many things in orienteering
would not happen - we are still a largely self-help organisation.
Some people will have a
time for visiting this control -they persisted in holding the dibber
in for an extended time; others will have no time recorded because
although realising something was wrong, removed their dibber sooner -
the first information written to the box is the card number, so these
confirm your visit, but removing the card "early" gives no
time. Well done if you used the punch, earn a Brownie point!
I know that this situation
was annoying for finishers, but everyone accepted our explanations of
their print-outs; the Planner, Mike Capper however, was particularly
affected following all the hard work he had put in, but was of course,
powerless in the face of a technical problem which no-one involved had
the experience to foresee or forestall. It is certainly the first time
I have heard of such a problem. He should take heart from the many
comments about the excellent courses which we received - it means a
lot to officials at an event to get the plaudits! As controllers of
some experience, Jenny and I have rarely had a planner who was so well
organised and kept to schedule in the way Mike did throughout this
event.
John Collyer (SOS)
I would like to thank everyone who
generously volunteered their time to help with the running of this
event. Particular thanks of course to the planner and
controllers, but also to Caroline Louth who not only managed entries
for both days but also contributed hugely to the organisation of the
event. We also need to thank Neil Humphries for working so hard
to get the results sorted out and published so quickly. I was
really pleased with the number of people who got involved for the
first time, so many thanks to them, and I am indebted to all those
regulars who just know what needs to be done and get on and do
it. Thank you all also for coming along despite the fog and the
cold and I know that from the many positive comments I have heard
about the courses that you had a good time.
Thank you all also for
supporting the quiz and the cakes stall which raised money to support
our juniors. Thank you Ultrasport for donation of the £15 prize
voucher and to everyone who worked on the cakes stall or brought
goodies for us to sell. Thank you Sue Woods for organising this.
I would also like to
express our gratitude to St John Ambulance first aiders for attending
and for the support and cooperation of the Forestry Commission and
tenants.
Steve Hinshelwood (WAOC)
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