Esthwaite
- Saturday, 13 April 2013
Organisers report Esthwaite Intake 13/4/2013
Many thanks to everyone that came and took part in the event we hoped you enjoyed it we nearly got the weather right just the last few got wet.
The things I could have improved on were putting the time of the walk to the start ( some may have appreciated the nice long warm up!)on the flyers, although some did ring about this and I hope we sorted you out and also the distance should have been on the info, we learn something every time we do a job.
Organisers job probably the easiest of the lot most done by the time the event happens just the tidying up at the end and this time as it was a two day event had a man to do this. Thank you Roger.
Worked with Roger Smith on the overall organising which proved to be very good what I forgot he remembered and Vic versa and we didn’t fall out once
The courses were well planned( that’s the competitors comments)well done Richard and Andy who had some awful weather to content with on the run up to the event.
Thanks go to the farmer Richard Walker who gave us permission and just let us get on with it, hopefully we left the field as we found it , so we can use it again. apart from the odd rut for the sheep to trundle in. Forestry commission and Graythwiate estate for use of their brilliant land
Christine Isherwood did a great job on the string course and thanks to the Thornton family for allowing us use of their land and looking after the equipment we left up on Saturday evening.
If you are thinking of being an organiser go for it with a team like LOC behind you its easy, we have people who decide on areas, get permission, register the event, someone to take entries( thanks Janet) a brilliant team to sort out computing and the full team of helpers who turn up and just do the job they are allocated.
Thanks to all
Sue Butterfield
Esthwaite Intake – Richard Tiley
Planning has been interesting given the changing considerations during the last six months. The start area was settled early as affording shelter from any inclement weather within pre-start, together with the ability to mask the direction of exit by competitors behind a small ridge. The finish was originally to the south –east of where it was positioned but the exit from the forest back to the fire trail was appalling. The finish site was eventually determined by the expedient of how best to get competitors out of the forest!
The planning cycle started with the normal range of courses for a middle race, plus an additional two for the proposed new Junior Champions Cup. These additional courses were only to have 25mins winning time against 35mins for the rest, but I planned these first to make best use of the area. I tried to avoid too much climb on courses by not taking competitors down the slope to the east to the road. The rest of the courses were then fitted in. I did try to leave the short and very short green with a loop in the main technical slope and then head back towards the finish with a minimum of physicality.
I quickly recognised that it was near impossible to plan a Yellow course, especially when considering the considerable walk to and from the area. I did plan an Orange but on reflection decided that this would be too hard. I was able to use the lower Graythwaite slopes to provide both of these courses.
The Light Green provoked most discussion between Controller Andy Quickfall and myself, as to what was appropriate. I tried to give people very simple first couple of controls to gain some confidence before gradually raising the difficulty of sites. Looking at the spread of times I believe we managed to judge this reasonably well.
Six weeks before the event, after a similar period of chasing the organiser of the proposed new Junior Cup, we made the decision to cancel these courses. Unfortunately I now had the two best shaped courses no longer being used. With some changes they became the womens brown.
I tried to avoid taking people through the greener areas too often, although this was forced on me to get people into the finish. Originally I had a control site deep in the windblown area to the south east of the finish for the longer courses to use, but decided I wouldn’t get any thanks for this. So I moved the control (#121) to the re-entrant on the edge of the windblow and it afforded me a leg into the pen-ultimate control across the double-green hatching. Those of you who were still planning ahead at the end of your course will hopefully have realised that following the red line down the re-entrant was not a good move.
My thanks to Andy (Controller) and Sue (Organiser) for all of their help, and to the many kind comments received over the weekend.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 30 April 2013