South Common C4 – 2005

  This was the second time we have held a district event on the South Common since the old golf courses have been removed, the area is developing well & with every map update comes a few more new control sites. Today was no exception with 14 new sites used for this event.

  Looking at the finishing times I feel that overall the courses were planned to the right lengths & technicality that the Common allows, the only exception to this in my opinion would be the Blue which in hindsight could of perhaps been a little bit shorter. There were a few comments made about the distance on the Brown, however looking at times I feel the length was about right. Overall, comments received at the finish & elsewhere were very complementary, I feel the myth that the Common is just an easy city park has been proven wrong in the last 12 months & many people who came with this in mind were proven quite wrong, the amount of runners looking confused & lost was at times very amusing to say the least.

  This was the first event where we have had no problems with the SI equipment, overall mistakes were minimal, the only 2 which were brought to our attention were as follows: Control 130 on the map did not quite match with the ground, this we will look into for the next map. The grid reference put out didn't quite match with where the car park was, please accept my apologies if this affect you.

  A big thank you must go to John Bennett who controlled his first event today, one of my gripes about C4 events is the ever more common practice of controllers from the same club, I feel that over the last 2 or 3 years some events have had questionable controlling which I'm sure is the result of controllers being soft on their "mates". I made it quite clear to John that I wanted honest opinions & things done by the book, he did this to the letter & I thank him for pointing me in the right direction when needed and not being afraid to say when he saw mistakes.

  As usual the LOG machine pulled off another well organised event, it always surprises me that such a small club can put on these events as well as we do, I just hope the bubble does not burst when we attempt our first C3 next March (The East Midlands Championships, book it in!!) A big thank you therefore goes out to Karl & Richard for organising and to all club members who gave up the time to help out.

Steve Bones

Those of you that felt your course was too long can blame me. I thought that Steve's initial draft blue and brown were too short, and encouraged him to put an extra km on both. With hindsight the blue might have been a bit long, but looking at the times I think the brown was spot on today. Steve's courses made the most of the Common's assets, with lots of varied leg length, changes of direction and more technicality than some people expected. We had hoped that more would have taken the option of the footpath along the top of the Common from the south-west corner control on the brown, but some turned it into a dog-leg which was a shame. Also the omission of stiles on the map over fences on the western woods might have affected some route choice. They will go on the map asap, as will the steps on the top of the Common.

There were lots of newcomers on the day, and several youngsters went out for a second run, which is always a nice sign. In fact almost every comment I heard at the finish was complimentary about the area and the courses. There were constructive criticisms, and these are always welcomed in the spirit in which they are given. Signposting the Common is very difficult, situated in the middle of a city with the entrance on a dual-carriageway off a roundabout by traffic lights, although my biggest headache on the day was stopping the signs for the start blowing round the wrong way.

Quite a few people had to be disqualified for apparently missing controls, sadly an occupational hazard with e-punching. I've been caught out myself twice when I know that I dibbed but it didn't register, and now I try to dib that bit longer just to make sure. If it is any consolation for those affected today, apparently mis-punching this way is common amongst elite orienteers as they try to shave nano-seconds off their times!

Finally the Oscar ceremony bit. Thanks to Steve for his excellent courses and doing as he was told. Also thanks to Karl for mobilising more club members than ever before, and Ian Durrant for the impressive string course map. I can't remember an event where nothing went wrong with the SI boxes or computers, so a huge thanks to Andy Furnell and his team today. I hope that everyone that helped managed to get a run if they wanted too, and I hope you all return to South Common again soon."

John Bennett