Compass Sport Cup & Trophy Final, Blidworth, 14/10/2007

Organiser

We were extremely lucky to get such excellent weather in the middle of October. If this was a result of global warming it helped offset the other effects of it on Blidworth. Since I first ran in Blidworth in 1972 the runnability has continuously deteriorated. This is also true of most other areas in Nottinghamshire, at least Blidworth has less bracken.

A new feature of this year's event were the insect bites. I understand the planners and I are not the only people to have been itching in the week following the event and I do not think this has happened at Blidworth before.

Many thanks to all the NOC helpers who willingly turned out to help. In particular I would like to thank the non-orienteering parents and friends of orienteers who helped run the event while we were competing. I suspect many clubs would struggle to organize an event with nearly 1,000 competitors, two starts, a road crossing and then expect all the competitive helpers to run top quality times I think NOC achieved this but sadly we were not quite able to wrestle the cup from OD.

I would particularly like to thank Janet Evans for carrying out the job of entries secretary so professionally. With 19 team managers and a postal strike it was a demanding task.

I regret the non-arrival of the caterer despite having confirmed arrangements in the week before the event and having spoken to him face to face at 11.30 on the day of the event when he said he was just coming. Rumour has it that the van broke down but as I was not informed of this I was not in a position to try and organize a replacement.

Next time I will try to remember the actual cup and the trophy at the prizegiving as well as the chocolates and drink!

Congratulations to FVO and OD on well deserved victories.

Mick Lucking

Planners

Whilst in the assembly field chatting to a one-time NOC member, who now runs for SLOW, he produced a 1979 version of the Blidworth map. How Tony and I yearned for the opportunity to turn the clock back 30 years or so to a time when the forest was really runnable and patches of bramble and bracken were limited. Changes in land management and the absence of hard winters have resulted in the forest we have now, which is overrun in some sections of the forest by undergrowth of all kinds thereby reducing runnability and limiting our orienteering experience. Having said that, there are some very nice sections of the forest too and we hope we were able to help you find those during your run.

Soon after volunteering to plan the event we visited the area and began to wonder at the wisdom of having made our offer! Despite having planned and controlled in Blidworth no more than 12 months ago, we found the forest to have deteriorated considerably, so much so that the white and green appeared to have swapped context! We then decided on a two part approach to the planning. Longer legs with as much path route choice as possible and shorter legs through the more runnable forest, all with lots of changes of direction. The control sites were chosen with fairness in mind and so tended to be less demanding than would be ideal; stumpbanks, vegetation changes, etc. On occasion, we even had to use paths and path junctions to give appropriate route choice. We enjoyed working with Brian Slater, the controller, who was very supportive and with Mick Lucking and his team of NOC helpers, who, from your comments, appear to have maintained, if not bettered, our reputation for excellent event organisation.

Many thanks for coming and we trust that despite the forest you enjoyed the day. At least the weather was kind.

Peter Hubberstey and Tony Horsewill