The Harvester Relays 2015

at Rushmore on 28 June

I have a lot of WIM and WSX members to thank for helping to make it such a success.  Particular thanks must go to Ian Sayer for planning both the night relays and the day courses and John Whittingham for all his SI work in making the relay gaffle courses work.

Saturday was a busy day with many club members helping with setting up and helping the 39 teams to park and set up camp.  Then at midnight the action started  with the 7  leg relays to  be followed by the 5 leg relays at 1.30am.  Just before 8am we sent off the last 2 runners in a mini-mass start and then had prize-giving (while enjoying bacon butties from Tom and Julie).

Then it was a quick move everything round ready for the day event and by 1pm we were collecting in controls and packing up.
WIM had 2 teams competing in the B relays and our best result was 15th (Gavin Robinson/John Oakes/Darren Whittingham/Andy French/Chris Turner).  The Ladies unfortunately missed a control on one of the legs but still had a respectable time very similar to the men (Kirsty Staunton/Karen French/Becky Whittingham/Wendy Bullen/Becca Ellis).

Chris Branford

    

Results      Photos by Chris Branford

Organiser’s Report

At rather short notice for an event of this nature WIM and WSX  agreed to stage the Harvester Relay as a joint venture.  We were lucky to have the support of the Rushmore Estate who were more than happy to accommodate us.                                            

As Organiser I had an excellent team in Ian Sayer (Planner) John Whittingham (Computers) and Geoff Ellis (Controller) which enabled us to put everything together in such a short timescale. 

Over the weekend we had tremendous support for many WIM and WSX club members helping to make the event such a success.

I must also thank my wife, Lynn and son, Simon who kept me in order and made sure I did things correctly and observed the rules.

Finally a big thank you to all of you (over 200) for supporting the event and leaving me with such a clean field that I did not manage to find a single piece of rubbish afterwards.

Long may the Harvester event continue!

Chris Branford WIM

Planner's Comments

Wimborne and Wessex only agreed to a joint bid for organising the Harvester Relay in early November 2014 as it looked as though the event may not happen at all. So once permissions for use of the area were obtained the only time to visit potential control sites was during the winter and spring when the vegetation was relatively low. However even 3 weeks before the event when Chris Branford and I test ran two course at night the vegetation still did not cause us undue concern. It was only when putting out the controls that I realised the effect that the previous 3 weeks of sun and rain had on the vegetation, hence the comments on the Map Corrections. The same with the two moved towers, they were there 3 weeks previously.

However I hope that now the stinging has died down you will have pleasant memories of your runs in a very beautiful forest.

I must mention the invaluable help which both Chris and John Whittingham gave to the planning process, without their knowledge and computer experience I would not have coped.

Ian Sayer

Wessex Orienteering Club.

Controller Comments

I was approached by Chris Branford at the Compass Sport Cup Final to see if I would mind Controlling the Harvester Relay.  I was grateful for the opportunity to develop as a Controller and looked forward the challenge of the infamous night relay.  Undertaking such an activity requires thorough planning; I am not referring to course setting, rather the recognition of how the courses are going to hang together fairly from a gaffling perspective.  I was hearted to learn that Chris and Ian had this firmly in hand before even looking at the map and had specifically enlisted the assistance of John Whittingham who had the requisite experience.  Ian produced some nice courses from the outset and I hope you appreciated them.  My input was centred mostly around a few clarification questions which were quickly answered.  I went into the event confident.  As I started visiting control sites I got to enjoy an enduring tingling sensation from all the nettles that had sprung up in the last few weeks.  This was also true for the increase in scratchy plants and I hope that this did not detract from your enjoyment.  In addition to the increase in undergrowth we did suffer from a few map corrections being required.  As Rushmore is a private estate some very recent forestry works have taken place as well as a novel concept in mobile towers!  We have taken note of some of the map updates that need to be made.

I hope that you will all agree that these observations are really quite trivial and therefore testament to the efforts of Chris, Ian and John.  They all made my task most straightforward and have given me the motivation to take on further Controlling challenges.

Geoff Ellis