I am hoping that you will all use Route Gadget as I would very much like to see all the different routes you took, which I will probably not even have thought about. Comments, good and critical, would also be helpful.
Jim Morris
Waggoners Wells offers a wide variety of terrain, both wooded and open, and I thought that Jim's courses made good use of the area and provided you with a good physical as well as mental challenge.
I must apologise to all of those on the Blue and Brown courses who were affected by the impassable path on Ludshott Common - I had not been along it myself and the heather and gorse must have grown rapidly since the map was drawn - and I hope it did not spoil your day too much.
Congratulations to James and the rest of his organising team for their efficient and effective management of the event, and thank you all for coming on what was quite a damp weekend.
Mark Collis (DRONGO)
The place: a remote part of Bramshott Common
Cast: organiser of tomorrow's GO District Event and Wife
Act 1
Saturday afternoon waiting for the toilets to arrive. It’s raining cats and dogs.
I thought it was sensible to test the car park field.
Wife “I’m not driving in there”
Organiser (WMOC 2008 Sprint Gold) “We need to see if it’s usable”
Wife “It’s not”
Organiser “We need to check”
Wife “It’s not usable, we’ll get stuck, there’s no one around”
Organiser “Possibly. But I’ve driven in loads of wet car parks before. Get in, I’ll do it. You change gear.” (I’ve a bust left arm.)
I drive in, do a small circuit and get stuck.
I remember the words blithering, idiot and moron but I think there were other naughty words.
With a bit of skilled manoeuvring and exquisite clutch control (or lucky b*****d as family unit number 1 put it) we escaped back on to the tarmac.
Which by now was wide stream. Sloshed up and down the tarmac and decided that there was sufficient space to squeeze in the anticipated numbers on the verges.
Toilets arrived and we put them on an elevated bank above the (by now) small river.
Act 2
Sunday 7.30am. Water all gone. Don’t know where. Field wet but stands up to some exploratory circuits (not by me, wife in the vicinity. By Alastair in his Honda Jazz, wife miles away).
Back to plan A.
Thank you for coming. My apologies to those who had to create the path so that the ground reflected the map. Amazing how quickly it can get out of date. This and other changes noted we’ll remap for the future.
A small team manned by the clubs devotees ensured you parked, got valuable exercise and departed safely. Mark kept us on the straight and narrow with a light touch on the tiller. My thanks to them all.
James
(the one with the WMOC gold medal).
James Crawford
Guildford Orienteers would like to thank the National Trust and Landmarc for land permissions.