Organiser's Comments: It was so exciting to finally be able to put on our first "Real" event; The logistics and the short December day were a challenge, but comments from competitors more than compensated:
"REAL CONTROLS. Fantastic to be back orienteering traditional style"
"Fantastic fun, great course and amazing organisation. I give it 10/10"
"Lovely to have brief and socially-distanced catch-ups with many of my orienteering family; I miss that".
"Thanks to everybody involved. Thoroughly enjoyed the Green Course".
I couldn't have put it better myself! Sincere and grateful thanks to one and all
JanetClark
STOP PRESS: TRAVEL UPDATES & FINAL DETAILS & AND START LIST now available.
PLANNER’S COMMENTS: Alison Cunningham writes - Planning the courses on Corstorphine Hill was fun and I hope you all enjoyed the Hill nearly as much as I do. I tried to keep you in the nicest bits but inevitably there had to be slippy, hilly and brambly parts, although the weather and the paths were about the best I have seen in recent weeks! What fun I had creating a path through the brambles in a blizzard and sliding down the slopes backwards during storm Ciara! As much as I loved the planning I found the computer techie bit much more difficult and my huge thanks to Martin for all his help and patience in creating such a pretty map which was printed on time! Although slightly embarrassed by the enormous size of the map and equally enormous size of the control circles I only heard favourable comments about the clarity of this - many thanks to those who didn’t have a moan!
My apologies to the wee ones on the white course who spent most of their course in the full force of the cold Westerly breeze and to those working on the start which also had little shelter. I was interested to hear all the different course route choices and even some I hadn’t thought of - apparently the mid-green vegetation wasn’t too bad to get through even if it looked pretty awful to me; although some will fight through anything to avoid losing height! I was sad that nobody I had spoken to had spotted the wallabies from the crag on LG/Bl/Br courses but was delighted by the many really favourable comments - there are some lovely wooded areas on the map at this time of year. All participants were accounted for at the end, which is always a good thing, although to the 3 who finished after some considerable time on the LG course - don’t assume No 7 will be in the same place at the CATI event on the 14th March!
Many thanks to Anne for hassle free and beautiful organisation and for a really lovely string course in an area of the woods that I have never ventured into and was really pretty. And many thanks to Martin and Ken for helping put out the controls and to Helena, Hanne, Dave, Crawford, Sally, Katy, Alastair and Peter for collecting controls in. Special thanks of course to Ken for checking my courses and keeping my right throughout.
While I was putting the controls out I realised just how much I love seeing a control kite sited in the woods and as I sat and watched everyone dashing about around me was reminded what a great sport for all orienteering is.
ORGANISER’S COMMENTS from Jayne MacGregor: It was very wet in Broxburn this morning so a special mention to the helpers who had early shift, but thanks to every ESOC member who helped. It seems the poor weather this morning didn’t put off those who hadn’t entered and we had a bumper crop of EODs.
The early arrivals at the Event Centre had to contend with an unexpected parade by the local ATC (RAF Air Cadets) unit and the resulting rolling traffic light closure by the police escort.
One item of Lost Property - Craghoppers dark grey fleece size M. Text 07979901151 to claim
CONTROLLER’S COMMENTS from Blair Young, TINTO: Always a pleasure to be involved with a well planned and organised event which is exactly what ESOC provided for an enthusiastic but disappointingly low number of competitors.
I have to admit that Broxburn was a revelation to me as, having only passed through on a very few occasions, I didn’t expect it to provide such variety and route options.
These were optimised by Katy’s excellent planning which I am glad to say was well received by everyone.
The main talking point seemed to be the route choice around Broxburn Academy made all the more difficult, at least initially, by the fact that we were unable to draw a line between the two controls due to the campus being out of bounds. The measured distance of the leg only varied by about 10m between the two routes, so as long as you made your decision quickly there was little difference.
Jayne took over the Organising at short notice but she did a great job leading the very experienced and efficient ESOC team, many of whom remained cheery despite the often inclement weather, particularly early on. Well done to everyone who helped.
Provisional results are here All runners who were affected by the missing controls have been sorted, and the technical issues have been cleared up.
Many people will know about some timing boxes being stolen/removed from controls during the event. As you might imagine, this causes problems for our timing gurus as well as a significant financial loss to ESOC.
ORGANISER'S COMMENTS: This is a good place for a dark November afternoon. The rain held off and there was a lovely atmosphere inside the Sports Hub; though a bit chaotic at peak times. It was good to see three groups of relative beginners from Cubs, Boys Brigade and Mary Erskine School; this is an ideal area to gain confidence on White and Yellow courses. The new concept of a Short White course was much remarked on, and we'll try this again at the next suitable event. The Light Green had an ingenious route choice leg; and everyone enjoyed the good visibilty through the bare trees.
Thank you to everyone who came, everyone who worked hard to make it happen, David McPhillips for his Bake Sale in aid of "Habitat for Humanity" and Serge at The Hub for providing a warm and welcoming venue.
Next event is at Cammo on 18th January 2020. See you there......
Janet Clark Organiser 0131 225 7771
Lost property; One nice black "Rab" thermal glove
An area especially suitable for newcomers and beginners and something will also be provided for experienced orienteers. Added Extra - coaching available at 1pm for beginners and those needing a bit of encouragement.
