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Planner’s Report

It was great to see105 entries for today’s event at Whitekirk Hill; when we take into account that some entries included more than one person this means that there were around 130 people taking part. I’m not sure if this gives us any bragging rights for the highest attendance at a local ELO event this year, given that this is the only one we’ve held, but it will be great for the sport in East Lothian if these sorts of numbers are kept up. We were lucky with the weather which remained dry for most of the time although the wind was quite testing, especially on the exposed south facing slopes.

Just over 20 individuals and groups took part in the White (TD1) Course, they were certainly tested by the wind over the first few controls, and the ground underfoot was very wet and boggy. Whilst White courses are designed to make navigation easy, there were several parts of the route that demanded correct route selection; the course took participants through open hillside, woodland as well as around the ever delightful gorse. Many of those who did the White course also did the Yellow which was good to see.

The Yellow (TD2) Course is a step up from White, with more route selection decisions being needed; at this level making decisions by having a clearer understanding of the ground starts to become important as does having the confidence to proceed even when a control is not visible. Around 24 people ran this course.

The 23 or so people stepping up to the next level of complexity, the Orange (TD3) course, found some more difficult route selection with less obvious features. Routes were off linear features and demanded careful consideration of catching features – especially when the best routes were across open ground off track looking for controls in old golf bunkers or deciding exactly which gorse bush was being run to. An example was the leg from Control 6 to 7, about 300m of steady uphill and comparatively featureless terrain to a control in a pit. The big wood provided a different challenge and called for attention to detail; again, I tried to make sure there were different router options to decide on.

For the 36 people doing the Green (TD5) course I tried to introduce several different challenges. A mix of long and short legs demands good route selection and attention to detail. I tried to use the fenced gorse area to confuse participants over which way they were headed. Sheila’s adage of thumbing the map really comes into play in such an intricate are. Control 1 was confused with the first control on the Orange course by a few people, I also know some were caught out at 12 to 13 and heading to the wrong pond to the north of open ground; as an evil planner I get a strange satisfaction out of this! Thank you to those that pointed out the low wire entanglement masquerading as a fence close to Control 8, apologies for that but it was not deliberate.

It is a sign of the respect that orienteers have for each other, as well as their sense of responsibility, that when one participant became unwell on their course, orienteers that were close by sacrificed their time to assist. This approach is important and I am grateful to Laura and Saartje for assisting. I am delighted to confirm that the ‘casualty’ was well enough after a short while and I was able to walk back to registration with him. Our sport does take place in areas that are sometimes remote and isolated and such incidents, whilst rare, are not unique, I am always grateful to those orienteers I have come across who drop everything to assist casualties when necessary.

Finally, I would like to thank all those that helped make today a success. Robin, Sheila, Alex and Emily at registration and download; Pete and Saartje helping set up and at Starts, Jeff who helped set out the controls and at the Start, Michael and Jennifer who helped at the Finish and to Andrew, Jonathon, Ben, David and Stef who collected in the controls. Apologies if I have missed anyone out! I also cannot get away without saying thank you to Arlene Wynn and the team at Whitekirk Hill, who not only allow us to use the area, but also agreed we could use the Reception area for registration and download. I hope everyone enjoyed taking part in today’s event and I hope to see many of you at Binning Wood towards the end of February.

Jamie Wilson

Results

• Simple results are here.
• Routegadget allows you to plot your route, either by hand or by downloading a gpx file from a watch or phone and to look where you and others went.
• Winsplits Online gives another way of comparing your times for each leg.
• British Orienteering collect results from all events and publish ranking scores for larger events.