Festive Frolic: Levenhall Links
Saturday 29 December 2018

Levenhall Links, Musselburgh

Results

Hopefully, final results
Routegadget
Contact me if you think there is anything not right  robinstrain at gmail dot com.

Prizewinners

“Everyone is a winner!” they say.

Although it took longer to work out the results than we had hoped, we were able to present some prizes to people who were still around on Saturday. We were a bit vague about the rules, as we weren’t sure how it was going to work out until you had started finishing. We have produced a second set of results (V2) in which a penalty was calculated for those who spent more than 10 minutes working out the puzzle and this did change the leaders in various categories.

There was some significant variation in the two lists, in particular:.

• Rachel Brown – jumped up from 3rd on V1 to 1st overall on V2
• Andrew Lindsay – 1st man on V2 having jumped up from 6th on V1
• Paul Caban – 3rd place, 1st Vet man having jumped from 8th on V1
• Duncan Edmondson – 3rd man, 2nd vet man on V2 from 11th on V1

whereas

• Ben Stansfield – 1st on V1 but dropped to 19th on V2 as he spent some extra time on the puzzle
• Oli Warlow – 2nd on V1 but dropped to 17th on V2

Below you can see both sets of prizewinners. We could justify both being “the official list” so we have tried, or will try, to distribute the (small) edible prizes to all named.

Report

Well done to everyone who came along to Levenhall today, and especially welcome to visitors from elsewhere and particularly those from foreign parts. Despite the wet forecast in the middle of the week we were able to enjoy wonderful weather, although running back westwards into the wind was harder, perhaps more exhilarating, than running out eastwards.

We are sorry that combining the results of the orienteering scores and the puzzle scores took longer than anticipated and that most people had drifted away before we could hold the prizegiving. A list of winners will be posted soon. We were a bit overstretched at registration and download. On Friday morning we had 37 pre-entries. When entries closed in the evening it had more than doubled to over 80, then almost 40 entries on the day took us up to an amazing, but slightly overwhelming, 120.

We hope the results are now final although perhaps not perfect. Two of you didn’t put any identification on your puzzle so they had to be ignored. Not all of you punched both the units at the end of the run and at the end of the puzzle time so we invented some times for you. Although we said there was a maximum time to complete the puzzles we decided not to penalise those who took longer. However, congratulations to Rachel who would be the winner overall if we had taken a hard line.

Thank you to everyone who helped out in any way. Organising anything at this time of year when several of our regular team are away is always a bit more of a challenge but this year we were also affected with people succumbing to germs and other things. Lots of people from other clubs helped in various ways so thank you to all, but special mention to Paul Caban who collected in many of the controls, Heather Thomson and Steve who went for Santa Panda and the tree decorations; and Paul Gregson and Kirsten who helped in many ways. From within the club, Trina and Neil helped put out the controls, Jamie Wilson helped with setting up and did car parking, Ian Rowland and Julie collected the other half of the controls and Tim and Jonny Harding did loads of work, under pressure, on registration and results. Trina again did the supervising of the puzzle tables and a lot of tidying up. Robin, of course, worked his socks off on the IT but had also done the layout and printing of the puzzle sheets.

I did enjoy making up the puzzle but apologies for the slight mistake on the grid, in the number for the A in Cormorant.

A big thank you to Val Harding and Saartje Drijver for baking and for setting up the hot drinks and cakes, for Janet Clark and (we think) Judy Bell for bringing contributions to the cake table, and to Jonny Harding for looking after the drinks. £45 was donated and will go to Mary’s Meals.

The visitors from Turkey asked us to pass on information about the Istanbul Five Day Orienteering. See their club website, iog.org.tr

Lost property: A key was found which may or may not belong to one of you.

Sheila

Pre-event information

Levenhall Links is an interesting area in that the whole of the western part, the main section of the map, has been built up over the years from the ash from Cockenzie Power Station. Old maps show the racecourse as being on the shore originally. The sea wall was built and then the lagoons were filled with the ash slurry which was pumped from Cockenzie and sprayed out. As the sections were filled, they were landscaped, forming the pond and the bird sanctuary (the out of bounds area just east of the pond). Now that the power station has closed and been demolished, the remaining dark ashy bits are gradually becoming more attractive.

The map includes the old Morrison’s Haven, a once-thriving harbour which was infilled for safety reasons after it fell into disuse in the early twentieth century. Prior to that, the area around the harbour was an industrial site with chemical based factories, making sulphuric acid, soap, glass etc.

The Festive Frolic is a chance to burn off some of that Christmas turkey in a fun event with a festive twist. As usual there will be a score orienteering event (find as many controls as possible within an hour) which is open to all! There will be a mass start at 11am.

As ever, there will be a twist so that just visiting the controls isn’t the only way to gain points and win prizes. What will Sheila have devised for us this year?

There might be a few more details here nearer the event, but don’t expect the whole story!

General Information

Type of event:

This is a score event with a mass-start. This means that you have a maximum time of 60 minutes to visit as many controls as possible. You don’t have to stay out for all 60 minutes, but if you arrive back late you will get penalty points. Most people will start together at 11am although a few can start a little later
There will be other ways of earning points. Please bring a pen with you.

Terrain:

A mix of open areas with shelter belts of thick woodland
While some of the grass is cut, much has been left to grow for the use of ground nesting birds. As the cutting varies from time to time, it may not all be correctly mapped.
There is a good network of paths so navigation is not very challenging
The east-most and west-most former lagoon areas are still owned by Scottish Power and the ground surface has been treated to stabilise the as and allow vegetation to take hold. We do not have permission to cross these areas and they are mapped as out of bounds.

Other Users:

The area is used by the general public. Please respect their right to be there at the same time as you are orienteering. You must not enter any out of bounds areas.

Dogs:

Area is used by dog walkers so dogs are welcome.

Location

Nearest town: Musselburgh
Grid Ref: NT 348 734
Postcode: EH21 7SRH

Directions:

Assembly and registration is in the base of the East Lothian Council Outdoor Learning Service at the west end of the area on the north western side of the racecourse complex.

Parking:

There is quite a bit of parking at the building, later arrivals will have to park on the streets.

Registration and Start Time:

Registration

Registration is from 10:15am
Pre-entry is preferable, saving both you and us a lot of trouble on the day and will remain open until about 10pm the evening before.

It will help us if groups intending going round together could pre-enter one member of the group here and come to registration on the morning to give us details of the others and pay a small supplement for extra maps.

If you have problems with the online system or you really can’t decide until the morning if you are going to come, entry on the day remains an option.

Course Information

Start and Finish:

Start is approx 800m from Registration. Finish is close to Registration.

Map:

The map is printed at 1:10,000 with 5m contours and has seen some minor revisions. Note that the east-most area of the map is printed separately, with some overlap.

Timing:

SPORTident (SI) electronic timing will be used – we will have SIs for hire free of charge but there is a £30 charge if lost. Controls will be enabled for contactless punching.

Courses:

There will not be a White course, but we can suggest a suitable choice of controls for beginners.
The optimum route to visit every control is approx 8 km.

Entry Charges

Seniors – £7
Juniors – £3
Groups – Adults + children – add £2 per additional adult and £1 per additional child to the above, payable on the day (but only submit one entry online).

Safety and Risk

• A comprehensive risk assessment has been carried out by the organisers, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event
• Parents with small children should note that there are landscaped ponds in the competition area
• Short remnants of ruined fences create potential trip hazards.

Medical Conditions

If you, or anyone in your group (including juniors), have a medical condition that first-aiders or health professionals should know about in the event of accident or illness during the course of the event please print off the Medical Form, complete it fully and bring it along to the event.   You should complete a separate copy for each individual who has a medical condition.  Please leave the completed Medical Form at Event Registration.  If it is not in a labelled sealed envelope, it will be put in one and will be opened only in an emergency.  It will be shredded immediately after the event if you do not claim it back.

Privacy

When entering our events your name will appear in the results section of this website and may appear in newspaper reports.
We may also take photographs at the event for publicity purposes – please let us know if you do not want us to use your photograph in this way.
Read our privacy policy.

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