Paul Taunton writes:
What a shame about the very low turnout, only 79 orienteers, compared to our recent average of 143! Clashing with the British Night Championships and Chiltern Challenge certainly lost us quite a few runners, as did the change of date, and I expect the somewhat pessimistic weather forecast too. But weren’t we lucky with the weather on the day? It was almost completely dry and even pleasantly sunny in the afternoon.
When I was hanging the controls I saw plenty of evidence of the recent storms. I hope yellow course runners were not put off too much by the large tree across the (rather indistinct) path on the leg between controls 8 and 9? Control 55, visited by runners on the green, blue and brown courses was a lot harder to reach than planned, as instead of just one nearby windblown tree to negotiate, the control was almost surrounded by them! Some routes along paths and rides were unpleasantly muddy but I was pleased to see that most of the forest areas remained good underfoot.
A couple of runners on Short Green said that on leg 10 they didn’t find an indistinct path that was shown on the map. I must apologise for failing to notice that its southern end had become completely overgrown – I can’t blame the storms for that!
There were a few comments on New Year’s Day about the lack of toilet facilities so, unusually for a Local event, we provided a toilet. I hope you appreciated it!
I’d like to thank John Freeman of Forest Products for allowing us to use his yard for parking. It seemed to work well, and the use of the building with electric power for registration and download was very helpful. Also I’d like to thank Josh Beard, secretary of the Royal Forest of Dean Angling Club, for arranging with his anglers to give us a clear walking route back from the finish along the edge of their pond. The Forestry Commission also deserve our thanks for agreeing to the new date quickly, so that arrangements for the event could be put in place.
Finally, I would also like to thank the large team of NGOC helpers who helped on the day and without whom our events could not happen.
Thanks everybody,
Paul Taunton