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Officials' Comments Planners' Comments There are so many people to thank for the smooth running of the Caddihoe Chase this year: Firstly a big thank you to all of you the competitors for coming to the wilds of Mid Devon. Then to Roger Hargreaves and his teams of helpers who allowed the event to run so efficiently. Glyn Bradbury, Ranger with The Forestry Commission or Forest Enterprise, who was so helpful in allowing us access to the whole forest and had the Deer Meadow cut especially for us to use as the Assembly Field. Finally you all need to thank Arthur Boyt, who as Controller kept us under control and tidied up the courses so that they were at least runnable. Erik Peckett who prepared the maps and the SI team of Alan Simpson and Barry Olds also need a very big thank you for putting up with us without any complaints. Once we got off the tracks and into the forest proper we fell in love with it. Tall mature trees, so little undergrowth and in summer 2006, so bone dry! We had some favourite areas and tried to get most of you into them. As it turns out, through some rather heavy going open areas. We had not ventured into many of them during the planning process as we were usually trying to find yet another prefect control site in the runnable wood or along the stream corridors. Those of you who visited the far North East of the area had what we believe is a unique control site; we hope that you were duly appreciative of the convenience. The western part of the wood provided better running than the eastern section and we hope that we achieved a suitable challenge and some good head to head contests. We are sorry to those of you on course G that there were two controls in the middle of the course that were the same on both days – this was an unintentional error. The Deer Meadow was the only place to have the Assembly field - once we had discovered it we had to plan all the courses to finish in it and we had hoped that it would provide a social area on both days with club tents and people sitting around watching people struggling into the finish. At least on both days you knew where the last control was situated! Roger
and Susan Hateley Organiser's Comments I've done a fair bit of Organising over the last few years and one can get a bit blasé about what one has to do. It usually focuses on getting people and resources in the right place at the right time. If you can't get someone to do it you do it yourself. Cornwall and Devon Orienteering Clubs are blessed with people who come along and help; having experience and knowledge to do the jobs given to them - thanks to them all. However, it was about 1545 when Susan Hateley came to tell me that we had a missing 9 year old. I had the summary of what had been done, who was looking where and some words of wisdom from the mountain rescue world. All was being done that could be done until we got to 1645 when there was still no sign of the youngster and there was a finite time to dusk. Time for the professionals I decided. By the time we had logged the call, provided all additional details - advised that we couldn't give the map refs of the control points it was about 1700 hrs - two police cars rolled in, one a dog handler, the helicopter had taken flight - as did a car bringing in our "lost soul". Everyone was relieved. It was of course the first time I was responsible for an event where that happened. I'm glad it doesn't happen too often. As for the overdue youngster, she wasn't upset by her long time in the forest and was keen to come back the following day. As for the rest of the weekend - a SWOA AGM in an Iron Age roundhouse - the weather changes for the worse for the Chase and dried up as we put the event to bed - or at least collected all the wet stuff to take home. As I write this, the worst of it has been power washed, tents dried despite the showers. spare maps de-bagged and e-mails sent and received. Of course thanks are due to the Planners, Susan and Roger, to the Caped Controller, Arthur Boyt and lastly to Erik Pecket who coordinated the mapping revision and OCAD/PICOVER input. Thanks for the supportive and complimentary comments you made and my apologies to those expecting a String Course - I was gently reminded that I was to have one in place - I overlooked that. Roger
Hargreaves Controller’s comments Cookworthy is a lovely area with a great deal of variety, parts of it (especially with so much windblow) could be described as grotty, but then, parts of the World Masters areas in Finland this year were a bit on the grotty side too. The dog-walking fraternity in the area are a timid bunch and do not get off the tracks and make nice paths in the forest. This presents a difficulty when it comes to planning junior courses. Added to this, the area originally selected for junior courses was barred to us due to proposed forestry work. The junior courses eventually settled around the use of forest roads, rides newly added to the map and linear features such as earthwalls, ditches and the old railway line. For many this was a new experience but which was tackled very well by all. Our thanks are due to Erik Peckett, who originally realised the value of the area and obtained the use of it, for updating the map and preparing the courses with OCAD and Picover, coping the while with the controller’s late demands. Roger Hargreaves’ organisation ran, as always, without a hitch with the ready assistance from his competent and willing teams from Devon and Kerno. Susan Hateley, with Roger’s assistance, put in an enormous amount of work in the planning and in the putting out of all the controls for both days. Susan even managed it with a spell in hospital for a knee operation during the planning period. Lastly, my thanks to two young ladies, Jenny Dickin for giving us the opportunity to test our “lost competitor” procedure and for being so calm and unphased by the experience, and her younger sister, Pippy, for graciously showing me how to go round a White course. Arthur Boyt Page updated 24 Sep 07 |
