Ashclyst Forest
Back to the woods
Seventeen of us made the short hop south to Devon OC's event and took on some physical but partly runnable terrain. Contrasting nicely with the open though rather featureless St Audries last week, there was a maze of earthbanks and numerous point features.
Most of these were windblown trees! Those with long legs were at an advantage in vaulting (pictured) the numerous horizontal branches and tree trunks that formed a challenging assault course.
The top result was probably Bill Vigar finishing runner-up on Short Green.
Pete Shirvington got off to a flier on Brown and was at one stage 5th. The middle section of his route is shown. He can be seen making good use of the runnable bits of forest to keep him off the muddy paths and does a nice bit of contouring on his way to no.10 and 12 to avoid climb and to keep in the right direction.
A technique known as the "Ashclyst Vault"
Credit: Devon OC
On Blue, Brian Fletcher was a few minutes behind the runner-up, Andrew Howard of Wimborne OC. Chris Green was again the top QO on Green, two minutes ahead of his dad Robert and 11th out of 27 overall. Martin Lewis continued his step up from Light Green, and finished ahead of a third of all the runners. Another who might be looking for promotion is Heather Green. Like Martin, Heather has displayed consistency on Light Green this season, rarely failing to get round in less than the hour.
A fourth Green, Elaine made the 'podium' on the Orange course, which Louise McTighe and Izzy Lewis also entered. But not Karen Lewis - she's now managing what can be the most difficult transition, from Orange (mainly path based) to Light Green (mainly forest based).
Jacob Shirvington headed a trio of QO youngsters on Yellow.