Northaw Great Wood District Event, nr Cuffley, 23/04/06.

Event Details - Mardley Heath Local Event, nr Woolmer Green, 06/05/06.

Results without splits (including par times).
Results with splits.
String Course Results.

Comments from the Organiser, Planners and Controller.
If you have any queries about the results please contact Mike Currie,

Organiser's Comments

This was our first event at Northaw since 1994 and at one stage it looked as if it might be several more years before we held an event there.. Finding a suitable car park was always going to be a problem and when the plug was pulled on our promised car park only a few weeks before the event it looked as if we might have to cancel. This also meant that publicity for the event was perhaps rather late and sparse. Fortunately our request to use Tolmer's Scout Camp proved successful and apart from the 1km walk to the Start it proved ideal. It's not often that Registration takes place in such luxurious surroundings, the marquee proving a blessing in the rather damp conditions.

My thanks to the Scout Camp and also to the various landowners: Welwyn Hatfield District Council, Hatfield House, James Barham and Cuffley Camp. As usual Happy Herts members volunteered to help and the event seemed to run pretty smoothly.

It seems that the days of copying courses from master maps are now just about over and for competitors the benefits of overprinted maps are obvious. However, the organiser and planners now have to guess how many are likely to turn up on the day; we almost got it right for the longer courses but printed too many for the shorter courses. Apologies to a few on the Brown course who were asked to donate their maps to later starters; we hope that they will have received copies through the post. Two SI boxes including a Finish box misbehaved and some times have been slightly readjusted as a result.

Those competitors I spoke to seemed appreciative of a beautiful and runnable piece of woodland, and now that the area has been remapped we hope that several more events will follow, and that word will spread of the quality orienteering to be had at Northaw Great Wood.

Lost property: One control description holder. Please contact the organiser on 01707 266030 or at .

Robin Barris

Planners' Comments

From the comments received on the day, it would appear that most competitors enjoyed their courses, despite the map being distinctly "broad brush" in some areas. The longer legs, and opportunity for significant route choice, appear to have been particularly appreciated. As we anticipated the area was very fast and despite course lengths towards the top end of the guidelines winning times are possibly still a little fast, although the spread suggests that we succeeded in providing you with a good challenge. Northaw is a difficult area for juniors progressing towards longer courses and used to simpler SE areas and this is reflected in some of their times.

Finally our thanks to Robin Barris, who stepped in as organiser at a particularly low point when both parking, parts of the land access were in some doubt, and to the many HH volunteers who made the event work on the day. We'd also like to thank our Controller Janet Biggs who managed to appear very undemanding and tolerant, while simultaneously contributing a wealth of suggestions and comments that contributed significantly to the final courses. And finally the club committee who invited us to plan on such an attractive, and recently unused, area.

Graham and Kevin Parkes

Controller's Comments

The event on Sunday at Northaw Great Wood went smoothly. Unfortunately the weather was not so good. However,from the officials' point of view this was compensated by the compliments about the courses and the area in general received from the competitors. The only real criticism was about some of the features missing from the map. However, it was pleasing to see that so many people did manage to complete their course.

Thanks go to Kevin and Graham for providing the good courses and for their efficiency, thus making the controller's job easy. Also, thanks to Robin and his teams for keeping the wheels in motion on the day.

Janet Biggs ( HAVOC )

String Course

James Errington          HH      M8     2.14
Peter Errington          HH      M7     6.31
Alban Rigby             IND      M4     8.40
Benedict Rigby          IND      M2     8.50
Gemma Gostick            HH      W5     3.48
Daniel Figg              HH      M7     5.28
Martine Juillan         IND      W6     4.37
Joe Seddon               HH      W2    15.27
Ellen Walsh            SMOC      W9     2.02
Peter Errington          HH      M7     7.53
Gemma Gostick            HH      W5     3.56
James Errington          HH      M8     1.55