Ramscombe

Controller's Comments

QO presented their event details with the words, "a small club's contribution to a major event!" I think, on reflection, that underplays the weekend’s excellent outcome. There were challenges for sure and the whole club - from W10 to M75 – all played a role, especially in the cold and dark.

Richard Sansbury had made a start on planning well before I arrived as Controller – the planning file was already at v5. By the time I arrived in terrain to vet the control sites on the ground the version numbers had gone up a couple more. I was particularly impressed with the forest. Much less brashings and bramble than one would normally expect in a SW forest. There was the issue of climb – it’s certainly not flat!

North of the public road the area is very runnable although quality features are in short supply. The use of that area required a road crossing and Richard chose to use the crossing in both directions – the volume of both vehicular and competitor traffic led to the timed out crossing. When the request arrived that the Army include their inter-corps championship that started to complicate matters with more courses needed to accommodate numbers for a sensible start window for the night event. The change of Assembly also caused a re-plan for the Galoppen. More courses were added and by the end of the planning/controlling process we had reached v13 with 18 courses!

The area was split into three areas; one unique to the night event, one to the Galoppen and the remaining area common to both events.

It was considered highly unlikely that the visit to the common area at night would assist runs in the daylight. The planning challenge was the issue of course lengths. The usual test is how fast previous runs have been and maybe were on the short side for the Galoppen. The night event best was ~7.5 min/km but generally 10 min/km was a winning speed. For the Galoppen speeds of 6.5 min/km were the order of the day for the seniors but watch for the KSODA juniors – better than 5 min/km!

The organisation of the event mostly ran smoothly with any concerns being largely hidden from the competitors. The overall co-ordinator Roger Craddock had two event Organisers with Chris Philip taking on the night and Rosie Wych the day event. The results team worked wonders on both events especially with a large EOD for the Galoppen. The Army contributed to the weekend with facilities and manpower on the night event that gave extra ambience.

Lastly, thanks to the B&B at Julia and Steve Roberston’s home where we found we had much more in common with discussions on rallying, family connections and orienteering.

Roger Hargreaves (KERNO)

Planner's comments

For the Sunday race we used the best areas of the valley in the areas known as Rectory Wood and Ashley Combe. We could afford to take longer courses across the road into some of my favourite areas. The silver birch woods and the twisted oak are excellent to run in, and offer a good navigation challenge. Courses could spread out a bit more and it was good to get a long leg of about 1.5km into the brown course - already Routegadget is showing a variety of route choices on this leg in particular.

Looking at the results it appears we underestimated your abilities, and could have made the courses a bit longer. If anyone feels it was all over too quick, I apologise.

Many thanks to Roger our controller, and to our organisers Roger, Rosie & Chris. When I first proposed we take this event it was clearly going to be an big ask for our small club, and inevitably this forced others into making epic efforts to make it work. Despite testing our limited resources to near the limit, I believe we pulled it off!

Richard Sansbury

Organiser's comments

When originally volunteering to support Roger it was not apparent that it was going to expand in to such a large undertaking! Hopefully the experience of most orienteers was positive – I can only offer heartfelt apologies to those who “drove the loop” when arriving to park. I had not felt it was my place to interfere with the army parking plan – a decision we all came to regret. As a club I think we learnt some salutary lessons about the time, care and attention to detail required to produce a large 2 day event. Thanks are due to all those who worked hard to make it a success.

Rosie Wych

Co-ordinators' comments

QO is a small club that prides itself on providing low level events for its members in Somerset. Very occasionally we are persuaded to go out of our ‘comfort zone’, and Richard Sansbury managed to persuade the Committee (before my Chairmanship!) to take on a Level B event, The Southern Night Championships, offering to plan and organise it himself! When it expanded to become a Weekend of Orienteering, it included first a Galoppen, then the Army Inter-Corps Championships which itself expanded to embrace the Reserves and OTC Championships. At this stage we realised we needed a Steering Committee to spread the load. Richard still had a massive task to plan both days especially as he needed to get to Version 13 of the courses as re-thinks on Registration areas developed. He also offered his Search and Rescue skills as Safety Officer for the weekend.

The Steering Committee produced four sub-Committees focusing on different aspects of the weekend which then reported back to the main Committee which met with the Controller Roger Hargreaves KERNO (on Skype). The site sub-Committee ensured liaison between the various landowners, QO, and the Army. The late move to the Great Woods Campsite as an Event Centre for the Galoppen proved a good idea for the organisation, apart from the parking problem for which the Army have made a public apology.

The lead-up to the Event was not without its problems. Both Chris Hasler (Volunteers Organiser) and I had major surgery before the weekend, and the local caterers pulled out in the week of the Event - fortunately the replacement ‘O’Nosh was excellent. The Army Corps units were not happy with the spread of entries we had given for their competitions, which provided an 11^th hour challenge for Andy Rimes, our long-suffering SI manager, to recalculate.

That it all worked out in the end was in large part due to the efficiency and the time given by our organizers, Chris Philip for the Southern Nights and Rosie Wych for the Galoppen as well as the excellent weather conditions. QO welcomed the co-operation of the Army, the Forest Wardens, and the Great Woods Campsite Warden providing the facilities that made it all come together.

We hope you enjoyed the Weekend and appreciated the varied terrain we have in the Quantock Hills.

Roger and Judy Craddock

Credits

Permissions: Bob Lloyd

SI manager: Andy Rimes

Volunteer Organiser: Chris Hasler

Entries Organiser: Andy Rimes

Maze Organiser: Vikki and Andrew Page

Parking: the Army

Photographer: Andy Johnson email: mlso.results at gmail.com.

Pre-event web page: Mike Kite (WIM)

Other volunteers

Who helped out during the weekend were:

Andrew Hopkins, Pete Shirvington and Sam, Bob Lloyd, Steve Elliston, Ray and Sue Toomer, Martin Longhurst, Brian Pearson, Jim Mallinson, Simon Beck, Issie and Spencer Modica, Sarah, Thomas and Eleanor Hasler, Jeff Pakes, John Trayler, Jenny Tennant, Jim Nickolls, Robert, Elaine and Heather Green, Graham Hartley, Tony Milroy, Emma, Jon and Adam Wood, Roger Dickey, Chris Cudmore, Jim Pearson, Graham Pearson, Pete Akers, Judy Nesbit, Luke Shopland, Fiona Boyd and Angela Modica.

Army issue letter of apology about car parking

The club acknowledge a letter of apology from Capt David Taylor on behalf of the army, following parking problems experienced by participants during the QWO.

Our president's message of thanks...

Roger and Judy,

A very big thank you to you and the team for coordinating everything resulting in an excellent event. I trust you are now taking a well earned rest. I seemed to find Judy everywhere I went helping out in various roles, and you were always within shouting distance (I will refrain from making the obvious comment).

You are obviously not able to send the thank you message to yourselves and so on behalf of the club and all competitors, thank you.

Mike Crockett
club president