Caddihoe 2021
hosted by Wimborne Orienteers and Wessex Orienteering Club
at Godshill and Ashley Walk, 18th - 19th September
Day 1 - Godshill
Controller’s Comments
Some days ago, Julie Astin, Day 1 Organiser, assured me that she had arranged good weather for the event. Didn’t she just! What a glorious autumn day to be running in the New Forest.
I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a Level B event that has had such a challenging timescale. In the five weeks since receiving the go-ahead, the map has been updated, courses planned, Village Hall booked, catering and car-parking arranged, volunteers recruited and procedures to support Forest England Environmental Monitoring developed and implemented, all to bring you a Caddihoe Weekend event that seems to have been very well received.
The main officials have put on this event against a very compressed schedule while managing other commitments. I trust you will agree that they have done an extremely good job in the circumstances. A few days ago, a significant area of bracken was mown where the shorter courses left the woodland and headed southwards towards the valley. This made the paths less obvious than they had been, but competitors seem to have coped with this thanks to the map change shown on the maps in the start lanes. On the morning of the event, it was discovered that three controls in the valley north of the finish had been relocated by persons unknown. Tapes and notices to the start were also rearranged. A helper with an early start reported an issue with one of the first controls. This resulted in start times being put back to allow the problem to be resolved. We hope this didn’t inconvenience anyone.
One competitor drew my attention to a line between controls 7 and 8 on Course 5 that obscured a section of path. I must apologise for not spotting that one and hope other competitors were not disadvantaged.
I heard many complimentary remarks about the courses that Ian provided for you and would like to thank him for politely and positively responding to my comments and suggestions.
As the competitor’s representative and on your behalf, I would like to thank Ian for his planning, Julie for her organising, Kevin for his coordinating and all members of their teams for an event that has been a challenge to put on but has given a large number of people a very enjoyable day’s orienteering in glorious sunshine in the Forest.
Thank you all!
Terry Smith, SOC
Planner’s Comments
You will know that we had an extremely tight deadline to plan and organise this event. However I am not going to use that as an excuse for putting control 43 in the wrong place resulting in a slight delay to the start. That was entirely my fault for which I apologise. And my thanks to Jolyon and the Start Team for coping with that so well and getting the event back on track.
Car Parking was one of the more difficult problems but the field which Eamon found for us was perfect although this did mean a rather long walk to the Day One area.
But hopefully when you got out into the forest and onto the heathland the walk was soon forgotten. I believe the courses were the right length for a Middle distance event and the times seem to bear this out.
At the very least I hope that everyone who came had an enjoyable (if tiring) weekend.
Ian Sayer, WSX
Day 1 Results Day 1 Routegadget
Day 1 photos by Adam Cooke - album on flickr
Day 2 - Ashley Walk
Organiser’s comments
Organising a large event in 4 weeks after permissions were granted late was a bit of a rush but possibly it concentrated the mind to get it all done.
The Caddihoe was supposed to be WIMs 50th birthday event in 2020. It was delayed, so this year, once permissions were granted, we had one week to try to do as many map updates as we could before the finalising of the courses. One of our WIM members, Brian Johnson, who was one of our main mappers, sadly passed away earlier in the year. He had previously updated the areas so before the event, we concentrated on updating along the courses expected routes as best we could. Orienteers however, being what they are, often choose routes that no one expects them to take, even if it is not the best possible route and time choice. We are sorry if you were one of those people where we hadn’t updated your route. It is a good learning experience for us all.
However, we hope that as well as the courses, a good car park, lots of toilets (ladies even had specially laid carpets in theirs), great refreshments, a pub opposite the event and lots of smiling competitors in lovely sunshine made it an enjoyable event for you.
Thank you for all your kind comments and thank you to all the help we received from the officials, WSX and WIM members and the Royal Signals, some of whom enjoyed extra time at the pub as they locked their keys in the car and had to spend extra time waiting for replacement keys.
We look forward to hosting you again at an event in the New Forest.
Kevin Pickering WIM
Caddihoe 2021 Organiser
IT Comments
I'm still recovering from the week before the event (lots of emails because I was Entries Sec for both events) and the computing over the weekend. As a club, I don't think we've ever has nearly 500 runners to an event since electronic punching came in. It all worked perfectly, mainly I think because Tim Houlder and I took the decision to pool our resources, to set up early on Saturday, and to keep everything set up for the weekend, rather than use WSX kit on Sat & WIM kit on the Sunday. Add the IT professional knowledge of Tim, Alan Hooper & James Crickmore on Saturday and Adam Cooke on both days and we not only had a slick download system set up but live results available on the internet, and viewable on people's phones in the parking field.
I think both clubs can be pretty happy with the end product. Eamon Staunton, who has been round the area taking photos of the control sites after the event, as per the Forestry England requests, reports that there was little sign of our activities other than around a pond, where the trampling was no more than might be seen from when a couple of ponies have taken a drink at the pond. Lets hope that FE are of the same opinion.
Dick Keighley
Day 2 Results Day 2 Routegadget
Day 2 photos by Mike Kite - album on flickr
Day 2 Short Green course
SW Champions 2021
Background photograph: Day 2 Start