| Planner's Comments Holne Moor is the area on which I
attended my first ever Orienteering event. I was
just 7 and followed my Dad around the Green
Course, and all I could think about was how much
my legs ached. But, there must have been
something I enjoyed about it! Consequently, it
was with enthusiasm that I accepted the offer to
plan on the area, as it seemed like an
appropriate place for me to plan an event.
Holne Moor is a large area,
and my first draft of the courses was very
different to the ones you ran, as I utilised the
whole area on the reservoir side of the road.
Originally, there were a couple of my trade mark
long legs on the Green, Blue and Brown (including
an epic 2.5km leg on the Brown!), as well as
considerable use of the mine workings for short
legs. At this stage, I was unaware of the
restrictions placed on orienteering events at
Holne Moor due to the sensitive nature of the
ancient field boundaries in the out-of-bounds
area marked on the competition maps. Fortunately,
the mine workings remained in-bounds, but a re-plan
was still required and, to my disappointment, the
long legs had to go! Despite this, with the use
of electronic punching, I was easily able to
squeeze the courses into the available area,
still have some long-ish legs, and retain the use
of the mine workings.
Some would argue that the
weather was ideal for an event on Dartmoor. To a
certain extent, I’m one of those people (although
I also love a clear sunny day on the moor)! So, I
very much enjoyed my run around all the controls
before the first people started – despite
hanging the controls the previous day, I still
had to orienteer properly to avoid mistakes!
Whilst out on the area during the event, it was
interesting to see individual’s different
ways of coping with what were very challenging
conditions. Some were carefully picking safe
routes, others were running fast on a bearing and
hoping to relocate near the control. Some people
were deliberately hunting in packs, while others
who had got into a group tried to sneakily punch
the control without anyone noticing in an effort
to ‘escape’ from the group! All very
interesting to watch!
Thanks are due to all those
who helped at the event, and made sure it ran
smoothly. Particular thanks must go to Bill for
his helpful comments as controller, and also to
the athletes from Torquay Boys Grammar School who
helped collect all 52 controls.
Despite not being able to
enjoy the views normally on offer at Holne Moor (which
I can assure you are fantastic!), I hope you all
enjoyed your courses and felt that the trip to
Dartmoor was worthwhile.
Ben
Chesters.
|
|
