Saturday 18/01/2025 – 2025 League 1 – Mallards Pike North

This area is edged to the south by extensive felled out-of-bounds areas (because of tree disease), to the west by the creation of newly-fenced wetland environments (and a beaver enclosure), and the north-west by the privately-owned Forest Product works.

There is no overlap between the competition area for this event and those events in 2024, and limited overlap, for the longer courses only, with earlier events such as the Caddihoe Chase.

Now, in early December, the bracken has already died down well and in most areas is unlikely to be much barrier to progress. However, at present, some of the flatter areas are wetter than usual and some pits and depressions marked as dry are presently wet.

Maps are pre-printed on waterproof paper at a scale of either 1:7,500 or 1:10,000, A4 size.

Brown, Blue and Green will be at 1:10,000

Short Green, Light Green, Orange, and Yellow will be at 1:7,500

Control descriptions will be text for Yellow, pictorial for all other courses, except Orange which will have both. Loose control descriptions will be available in the start lanes.

Yellow Course. There are two substantial fallen trees blocking two paths used by the Yellow course. Both these locations have been marked on the map with the symbol “X”, a green cross signifying a “Prominent Vegetation Feature”. As both trees are within woodland with good visibility and negligible undergrowth a short taped route, equipped with smiley faces, will be provided around the fallen trees (unless these have been cleared by the date of the event).

The Start is about 100m from assembly, slightly uphill. There is an 80m taped route from the start line to the Start flag, which all runners must follow. The Finish is about 150 metres from Assembly and Download. The route to download will be taped. Please remember to download!

SI Touch free punching is enabled, but all runners must punch both Start and Finish.

Provisional course details. Note that we have provided a Light Green course for those seeking to move up in technical difficulty from Orange. Note that this is NOT a league course, so you will not earn any league points if you run it. You may however run a league course before running the Light Green, if you wish. Improvers trying Light Green after running Orange should find it a useful training experience, as they will use the same broad area, but six of the nine controls will be different.

Course details subject to final controlling. Course distances are straight line.

We will use SI Timing, in contact and touch free modes. All runners must however punch the Start and Finish controls.

You MUST go to Download even if you do not complete your course – we need to confirm that you are back safely!

Whistles must be carried by juniors running on their own and are highly recommended for all competitors. If you hear a distress whistle, please go to assist.

We hope to have a string course on the day.

In order to minimise demands on scarce volunteer resources we operate a 90 minute start window for this event, and we recognise that this can be a challenge for parents seeking split starts. We are happy to accommodate split starts provided:

• You let us know in advance that you need a split start. Do this by emailing the organiser, address in the introduction above
• You come early; the start team will normally be ready to allow very early starts up to 30 minutes before the published start time, so aim to be there with this in mind. We do not offer starts later than the published end of the start window.
• The shorter course runner goes first. We will not turn you away if you can't manage this, but it gives you both a better chance of beating the course closure time.

Entry Details

You should enter the course appropriate to your involvement in the NGOC league, if relevant, or whichever course you choose otherwise.

Please note there is a £1 increase in senior pre-entry fees, but all other fees remain as last year

Starts: 11:00 - 12:30
Courses close: 14:00, meaning that you must report to download before 14:15, or risk disqualification.

SI dibber hire: Standard dibber £1 Adults, Juniors free

Touch Free dibber: £2 Adults, £1 Juniors

Entries will open soon, and will close at midnight on Wednesday 15th January.

Entry on the day is possible only while maps last, but note the premium price to discourage this. We should be able to accept credit/debit card payments, but this is not guaranteed so bring cash just in case.

A helper discount is available for those offering to help on the day. These events don't happen without volunteers willing to help out on the day, so if you are able to do so, before signing up to enter, email Ian Prowse, Volunteer Coordinator, to let us know if you can help, and ask for the helper discount code that you can apply when entering. You don't have to be a NGOC member to help, but you do need to be a BOF member to be covered insurance wise.

As the Government has removed all restrictions on events and activities, COVID related refunds are no longer available. The standard Fabian4 terms and conditions offer an automatic refund up to 2 months before the event date, and we do not normally vary this specification. That means that in most cases no refunds are possible, as we do not publish details until less than 2 months before the date of the event.

However, for all except large events we hold entries open until only a day or so before the event, so you can delay entry if unsure whether you can run, until very close to event day.

Dogs are permitted on leads in the car park and assembly areas and under close control on the courses. It is a popular area for local members of the public to exercise their dogs.

Forestry England have recently set up a new Wallace and Gromit dog walk trail. https://www.forestryengland.uk/mallards-pike/forest-walkies/. All courses avoid this trail, as it lies to the south-west of the competition area, but it does run southwards along the parking track from a point near the finish. Please take care driving and walking along this track as there may more dogs than usual.

It was resolved at the AGM that in future, whenever reasonably possible, a toilet will be provided at all NGOC League events. It is a 1.7km walk from our assembly area to the toilets in the Forestry England visitor site at Mallard’s Pike, (too far for comfort!), so we intend to provide a hired portaloo at assembly.

The NGOC pop-up café should be present.

There is café at the Forestry England visitor site, but it is not known whether it will be open in January (check current opening hours here) As noted above, it is a 3.4km round trip on foot from assembly. It is not possible to drive there, except by leaving the event northwards and driving back to the (chargeable) public parking at the visitor centre, a drive of about 10km.

There are no covered changing facilities and competitors are reminded of the need for discretion when getting changed by their cars.

If you are interested in obtaining club kit, whilst there will not be an extensive range of sizes to try on at the event, we can have a few sizes available for specific items. You can see the options, and a size chart, on the Club Kit page. Email paul@ngoc.org.uk with details of any items, and relevant sizes, you wish to try, and we can have those available.

Orienteering is an adventure sport. All runners take part at their own risk and must take responsibility for their own safety.

In the event of wet weather, please assess risks on any steep slopes.

Everyone is advised to carry a whistle, and for Juniors it is compulsory. Full leg cover is compulsory for everyone. In the event of severe weather, a cagoule may be made compulsory; please ensure that you bring one just in case.

A first aid kit and trained first aiders will be present at Registration. Note that we are not permitted to provide epi-pens or antihistamine tablets in the event of stings. If you know you react badly to stings you should carry your own epi-pen or antihistamine tablets.

There are no public roads within the competition area. The Yellow and Orange courses have been planned to avoid crossing the track used by competitors’ cars arriving at and leaving the site. Parents should be aware, and warn young children:

• The occupants of two bungalows within the competition area access their properties by driving along forest tracks, so very occasional traffic could potentially be present on tracks used by competitors. Take care!
• The finish is some 30m from the track used for orienteers’ parking and it will be necessary for competitors to walk 150m back along the track to download. Drivers should keep to the 15mph limit and those on foot should take care!

Orienteering is a great sport for young people. If you bring children, please help us to keep to our safeguarding policy and British Orienteering’s photography policy.

By entering this event, competitors agree to abide by the British Orienteering Code of Conduct.

A comprehensive risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser and a copy will be held at Registration, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. All participants must report to download whether they finish their course or not.

When participating in our events/activities your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. To see how we look after your personal data, please read our privacy policy.

NGOC follows British Orienteering’s national guidance. This provides a sensible balance between the benefits and risks associated with the taking and use of images. If you are unsure about acceptable practice, please speak to the event organiser.