Festive period
Event reviews
Boxing Day canter- running's very elf-y, you know
Credit:
Wimborne OC
We may not have had an event during the Christmas/ New Year period, but there were some other races attended by QO members. Some were prepared to travel far and wide to get their fix, with some mulled wine and Christmas themed quizzes thrown in for good measure.
Robert Green was the top QO member at Sarum OC's New Year's Day score in the New Forest with the added accomplishment of finishing within one second of his allotted one hour! Martin Lewis was our next best on the day. Robert's son Chris took things a little easier, clocking off seven minutes earlier than dad. Chris' sister Heather also ran, as did Karen and Ollie Lewis. Ollie managed to rack up a decent number of points despite not using much of his allotted time.
Santa at the Boxing Day Canter, Ringwood
Credit: Wimborne OC
Steve Robertson finished in the top half of entrants in Sarum's mountain bike event that same day. With time-keeping almost as impressive as Robert's, he finished with less than a minute to left of his two hour allotted time.
The Shirvingtons, the Lewises and Steve Robertson ran at Devon's event at Parke on Friday 29th. Pete Shirvington pushed the leaders hard and matched the high-achieving Grierson brothers, Grey and Flurry. Answering the quiz questions correctly enabled lesser runners to challenge.
Steve getting ready for the MTB score
Credit: Shane Wilkinson
Following this strategy enabled one such runner to tie for first place with Ben Chesters, who like Pete seemed to concentrate on bagging the controls.
Amongst the 200 or so entrants at Wimborne OC's Boxing Day Canter in Doreset were the Lewises. They ran in a one hour score course especially for families at the Boxing Day Canter in Dorset. Martin's group were 6th out of the 21 families taking part.
Having your O cake & eating it
Credit: Chris P
The seasonal events were...
| Date | Venue / Links | Club / Links |
| Tue 26 Dec | Boxing Day 'score' near Ringwood Results- family course | Wimborne OC Photos |
| Fri 29 Dec | Parke Estate, Bovey Tracey- novelty event on parkland Results & event page | Devon OC |
| Mon 1 Jan | New Year's Day, Morgans Vale, N edge of New Forest Report Photos (live till Apr '18) -a traditional 'score'- Results - a Mountain bike 'score' (2 hours) -Results | Sarum OC |
Father Christmas (Will K) & elf, head off into the woods at Blackborough 2012
A Christmas tree, in situ
Credit: Wimborne OC
Score & novelty events explained
Festive events tend to also be score events, so-called because you score points based on the controls you've visited. You also get at least an element of choice as to which controls you visit and in what order. The trickier controls tend to have a higher value than others.
The novelty element often involves festive-flavoured quiz questions which score you more points. Sometimes there's a mobile control in the forest, Santa or a Christmas Tree, which scores bonus points!
There's usually a big gathering and a briefing with some bonhomie, before a mass start. If you're lucky, there might be mince pies and mulled wine available afterwards.
Mulled wine tent at our festive event, 2013
Christmasses past
To get a flavour of what a festive season novelty event is about, see the write up on Devon OC's Christmas novelty event at Escot two years ago. The mobile Christmas tree apparently burned off several elitist runners. Another reason why very good runners get beaten by seemingly average ones surprisingly regularly at these events...
At the same event, Chris Hasler finished above Devon OC's Kit Grierson (UK top 100) and current Long O champion James Jackson. Despite struggling to chase down that Christmas Tree control!