ESOA Championships 2006
ESOA Championships Results
Officials’ Comments
Organiser’s Comments
This was my first time organising an orienteering event other than local “Come and Try Events” and the task was made relatively easy by the experienced team that I had around me. Lindsey took care of all the computing and mapping arrangements while John provided and transported all the equipment that was needed.
Buccleuch Estates were very helpful allowing us to use the courtyard at Bowhill as a base, which made things more comfortable with indoor registration and download as well as toilet facilities. This did however compromise Rob’s courses as he had planned to use the open hill as much as possible and resulted in us starting high up on the hill and using the steeper parts of the forest in order to reach this area without having an overly long walk to the start.
My only major problem was car parking with the main car park behind Bowhill house ruled out late on and the forest roads very muddy, latecomers (and some of you were very late) had to park a bit further away than I would have liked but had an easy flat walk to registration on hard roads.
Thanks to Rob and John Biggar for ensuring that the courses all ran without a hitch, Karen for the string course and all the usual volunteers from Roxburgh Reivers (especially the car park team).
Ian Maxwell (Roxburgh Reivers)
Planner’s Comments
Yet again it was a privilege to plan on Bowhill. The area is pretty much on my route from work to home, so many of my planning forays were done in the early evening after work and proved an enjoyable distraction after a day at the “chalkface”. These trips were a delight. In early September the wood is a mycologist’s treat with an amazing variety of fungi. Unfortunately dense undergrowth in some parts of the area make it a little less wonderful for orienteers.
My initial plan was to try to take the courses onto as much of the open hill as possible. However, this would have entailed a long walk to the start from the preferred area chosen for car parking and registration. So I compromised and the senior courses featured a mixture of running on the open hill and in the woodland. I hope this gave a variety of terrain to run on and tested a range of orienteering techniques, and perhaps you visited parts of the hill that were new to you too.
Some of the going was tough but I hoped by offering some long legs that competitors would have the choice between taking the more runnable paths option or the rougher more direct route. Standing at the finish it was pleasing to hear that various routes had been taken on certain legs. Your comments at the finish were (mostly) very generous and I was grateful to receive them. The spread of times on most of the courses was about right, with the exception of the Green course where times were longer than I would have liked. Green course competitors – I can only apologise if you found your course too physical. Further comments from runners on all courses are most welcome.
Thank you to-
Yet again Roxburgh Reivers members came out in force to help on the day but I also had much help in the lead up to the event. Lindsey Knox was particularly outstanding in this respect; guiding me through the basics of using the Condes program and making the final preparations of the maps using OCAD and Condes before they went to the printers. Lindsey also organised the SI side of the event, taking entries and processing results and also helped to put out controls. Many others helped by either acting as “guinea pigs” on my courses, or in the placing and in the collecting of controls. John Tullie helped with all three aspects and I also had help from Ian & Kirstin Maxwell, Andrew Tullie, Paul McGreal, Judy & Alan McNeilly and Bill Bruce. Truly a team effort.
Ian Maxwell was the organiser and though this was the first sizeable event he had organised you wouldn’t have known it, as he took everything in his stride and seemed to have everything under control. David Wild of Buccleuch Estates was friendly and helpful in arranging access to the forest and use of the Bowhill facilities.
Finally, controller John Biggar put in a lot of work checking courses and control sites (and collecting controls too) and keeping me right in a relaxed and friendly manner.
Robert Cranston (Roxburgh Reivers)
Controller’s Comments
…coming soon
