Officials: Organiser: Bob Richardson Planner: Francis Shillitoe Controller: Paul Boyles
Link to Splits File
RouteGadget Please visit to upload your route and see where other runners and courses went.
Many thanks to patrons and providers of the cake stall which raised £66 for the NE Junior Squad
Planner's Comments
It seemed like a good turn out today and saw lots of smiles on people's faces. There's some nice sections of slow and fast terrain at Blagdon, so tried to incorporate some variety into the courses. The north-west of the estate is being subject to felling at the moment, so I avoided putting controls in that area. The last section on the light green to brown course involved navigating between ditches amongst the slow undergrowth near the finish. This provided entertainment for spectators and competitors alike, although there may be a few nursing scratches from the brambles. There have been some new un-crossable gates put up around the geese houses which weren't marked on the map. This did slow down some competitors who found their route blocked on the longer legs going east-west.
Some children decided to try their whistles out which unfortunately caused some competitors to be distracted and lose minutes coming to their aid. They got a stern telling off. It goes without saying that if you do hear someone blowing a whistle, then assume that someone is in genuine distress and it's not some kids mucking about.
This was my first time planning an event and have only run brown courses having got back into orienteering a couple of years ago after a long absence since childhood. Consequently, I've had to study the BOF guidelines as to what is acceptable in terms of length and technical difficulty for the shorter courses. I hope they were okay for everybody. The white and yellow were surprisingly difficult to plan. Thank you to Paul Boyles for showing me the ropes.
Francis Shillitoe
Controller Comments
A big thank you to everyone who took part today and especially the helpers on the day. It's great when events run relatively smoothly and we have no major dramas. A massive thank you to Alastair Mackenzie who sacrificed his run somewhat when he heard what he thought was a distress whistle. Alastair deviated from his run, only to find it was a false alarm, so he could then carry on. Its one of the great parts of Orienteering for me, when someone will go to someone's aid during a competition. There's probaly not many other sports around where that would happen.
I hope you all enjoyed your runs today. I thought Frank did a great job on his first planning job and produced some good challenging courses. I was a little dubious at first when I saw the finish area and all the tall vegetation around it, and wondered whether sending people into it would be a good idea. The jury is out I think for some people. I had mixed comments from people as to whether they liked it or not. It certainly added a different dimension to the end of the course and really got you thinking as there were clear runs through the vegetation but you had to pick them out. I will be very interested to see people's route choice on their final three or four controls as watching from the finish area, you could see people taking different route choices. Please put your courses up on RouteGadget. It's not only good for other Orienteers to learn and develop, but essential for planners and controllers, so we can see whether we planned the courses well.
Blagdon is a lovely area, with plenty of different challenges. We don't use the area that often and it is, for me, a great place to offer all abilities a challenge as it's great for the Junior courses as well as the longer ones. Don't know how many of you saw the diversity of the wildlife, or whether it had retreated early on, with the sound of Orienteers, but whilst I was there, I've seen Deer, Hares, Rabbits, Pheasants and a Stoat. I'm led to believe that there are otters there two, but never got the chance to see them.
Thank you very much to the people who donated the cakes and buns. We made a massive £66 for the juniors and there wasn't a bun left at the end.
Finally. We have the Kielder Event coming up soon at the end of April. I have managed to secure the Youth Hostel at Kielder for an overnight stay on the Saturday Night. There are a few spaces still left available, if anyone would like to take up the offer. It's open to all Orienteers and will be a great chance to enjoy a social evening and save travelling up on the Sunday Morning. There will also be a Junior Coaching session held on the Saturday at Kielder for those interested. Cost for the weekend will be £25 per Adult, to include Evening Meal, Overnight accommodation and Breakfast on the Sunday Morning. Juniors will be same price, but will include coaching, swimming at Leaplish and entrance to the event on Sunday. If anyone is interested or require further details, please e-mail me at boyles.pATbtinternet.com.
Hope to see you all at future events.
Paul Boyles
White (1.7 km. . 20m. climb)
1 Brown Hannah W10 NATO 19:45
2 Degnen-Porter Leo M05 NATO 35:04
3 Sanderson Ben M05 NATO 35:51
4 Hampshire-Wright Yolanda W04 NN 45:29
**************************** Colour Line
Gaines Isabel and Maria W BL mp
Yellow (2.3 km. . 20m. climb)
1 Hampshire-Wright Maya W08 NN 30:55 2 Athey Lesley W45 NATO 37:59 **************************** Colour Line 3 Hayes Nicholas M10 IND 1:00:37 4 Cookson Laune W10 NATO 1:12:55
Orange (2.5 km. . 25m. climb)
1 Sanderson Kim W35 NATO 29:48 2 Crosby Katharine W40 NATO 32:26 3 Hampshire-Wright Jeneba W10 NN 34:38 4 Hare Alexandra W12 NATO 35:10 5 Athey Thomas M16 NATO 36:19 6 Lakey Aoife W12 NATO 37:06 7 Clarke Andrew M55 NATO 38:31 8 Athey Dale M45 NATO 39:27 9 Henman Emli W12 IND 40:27 10 Athey Michael M12 NATO 41:37 11 Mason Jeff M70 NATO 43:01 **************************** Colour Line 12 Crosby Nicola W35 NATO 47:19 13 Burn Phillip M14 IND 49:43 14 Henman Finn M12 IND 1:03:57 15 Wright Robbie M10 NATO 1:07:01
Light Green (3.3 m. . 30m. climb)
1 Perry Tim M20 RAFO 34:27 2 Lamb William M14 NATO 45:38 3 Lakey Anne M50 NATO 47:09 4 Warren Saskia W12 NN 50:22 5 Egan Annette W55 NATO 52:19 6 Cooper Hilary W55 NATO 53:58 7 Nayak Sumanth M27 IND 54:43 8 Tinsley Thomas M50 NATO 54:48 9 Firth Peter M65 NATO 56:31 10 Lakey Jonathan M16 NATO 57:22 **************************** Colour Line 11 Thorns James M15 MBPS 59:18 12 Taylor David M14 MBPS 1:00:06 13 Thorns Daniel M15 MBPS 1:01:07 14 Clarke Elaine W55 NATO 1:01:45 15 Burn Alex M16 IND 1:01:57 16 Talliguchi Gustavo M14 NATO 1:02:49 17 Hardy Mike M70 CLOK 1:04:48 18 Skedge Judith W65 NATO 1:32:48 19 Marshall Roberta W50 NN 1:47:24
Short Green (2.8 km. . 20m. climb)
1 Degnen Cathrine W40 NATO 35:21 2 Lamb Jenny W16 NATO 40:48 3 Olav James M21 47:59 4 Whitworth Angela W70 BL 54:14 5 Hardy Gill W70 CLOK 56:38 6 Wilson Ruth W21 NATO 57:19 7 Wright Isabel W70 NATO 58:21 **************************** Colour Line 8 Malley Roy M80 NATO 1:00:10 9 Firth Carole W65 NATO 1:00:46 10 Campbell Ian M80 CLOK 1:05:24 11 Smith I J M80 NATO 1:15:26 12 Bedwell Eileen W80 CLOK 1:28:41 13 Lever Margaret W70 NN 1:34:30
Green (4.5 km. . 40m. climb)
1 Rigby Aidan M14 CLOK 39:44
2 Fairbairn David M55 NATO 56:24
3 Davies Patricia W55 NATO 57:42
4 Blackburn Karen W65 BL 1:00:27
5 Turner Colin M55 CLOK 1:01:13
6 Wilson Peter M50 MDDXO 1:04:53
7 Allison Dave M70 CLOK 1:05:07
8 Mackenzie Caroline W45 CLOK 1:05:25
9 Gibson Malcolm M65 CLOK 1:05:39
10 Whitworth Dick M70 BL 1:10:52
11 Floyd David M50 NATO 1:11:11
**************************** Colour Line
12 Rack Mary W50 NATO 1:11:21
13 Taylor Wendy W55 CLOK 1:14:37
14 Scott Graham M65 NATO 1:16:05
15 Richardson Bob M60 NATO 1:17:03
16 Field Richard M65 NATO 1:22:55
17 Bowden Mike M75 NN 1:24:11
18 Harrison Barry M70 CLOK 1:25:33
19 Hudson M M70 NATO 1:32:40
20 Rafferty Helen W65 NATO 1:38:18
21 Fortune Alan M65 NATO 1:56:30
Wilson Robert M50 NATO mp
Blue (6.3 m. . 55m. climb)
1 Smyth Patrick M55 NATO 51:38 2 Taylor Paul M60 CLOK 1:04:20 3 Bradford Chris M60 NATO 1:04:23 4 Petre Chris M45 CLOK 1:04:44 5 Edney Martin M45 NATO 1:05:30 6 Major Frank M65 NN 1:09:42 7 Bourgenot Cyril M21 NATO 1:13:03 8 Field Joanne W35 NATO 1:13:06 9 Jameson Paul M60 NATO 1:13:16 10 Henderson Douglas M60 RR 1:13:32 11 Restorick Stephen M55 CLOK 1:15:01 ***************************** Colour Line 12 Miller Fred M60 NATO 1:21:48 13 Scott Ian M50 CLOK 1:22:36 14 Warren Debby W45 NN 1:26:10 15 Wright Walter M70 NATO 1:26:46 16 Adamson Martin M65 CLOK 1:29:10 17 Craft Alan M65 NATO 1:41:38
Brown (9.0 km. . 75m. climb)
1 Wright Nigel M40 NN 1:04:12
2 Mackenzie Alastair M50 CLOK 1:08:05
3 Gaines Paul M40 BL 1:10:08
4 Phizacklea John M40 NATO 1:10:50
5 Poole Adam M21 RAFO 1:14:08
6 Wilson Craw Alasdair M55 NATO 1:17:13
7 Hare George M45 NATO 1:25:54
8 Blackburn Colin M50 NN 1:28:02
9 Hampshire Kate W40 NN 1:28:43
10 Cooper Bob M65 NN 1:36:38
*************************** Colour Line
11 Warren Barnaby M16 NN 1:44:04
12 Dixon John Stuart M65 NATO 1:56:12
13 Rigby Richard M45 CLOK 2:01:38
Begg Douglas M21 IND mp