Trail-O

JK TrailO 2013 – the Controller's tale

My JK began on Thursday morning, a day earlier than most club members, setting off from close to Dorset's Hambledon Hill to drive to Hambleden in Bucks. I was putting out the second half of the Day2 TrailO course controls in the beautiful (and flat) part of the Hambleden estate they call Lime Avenue, which contains their three-day-event course, in the bottom left hand corner of the map, visited over the weekend only by the TrailO competitors and some of the longer courses on Relay day. I was hanging controls, with the help of the JK's Hambleden access officer, John Dalton, rather than checking their correct positions, as my duty of controller would usually require, because Charles Bromley-Gardner, of BAOC, the planner, had been posted to...er, abroad.. the week before the event.

The JK TrailO competition this year had a difficult inception. Originally SCOA said they didn't want to include it because they didn't have any TrailO expertise, or any Trail Orienteers. Then, when told by BOF that they had to, rather reluctantly they came up with possible areas, but left it to the BOF TrailO Committee and its friends, to put on the event. No helpers from the region were to be made available to us: all were apparently required for other jobs in the JK organisation.

To complicate matters further, Hambleden was virtually out of bounds to anyone until the shooting season was over at the end of January, and Reading University authorities were insisting that all flags had to be hung on trestles because spikes, canes, stakes etc. might damage their underground cables and pipes around the campus (not that they knew where any of these went!). As most TrailO control sites have up to five flags, the thought of all those trestles was rather alarming. Eventually they relented and allowed canes and tent pegs to a maximum depth of six inches – phew! By the beginning of 2013, we had agreed the TrailO areas and I had persuaded Charles B-G and Philip Cooper to plan, and found a race-day organiser, fellow TrailO committee member Anne Braggins of WAOC.

Hambleden on Thursday afternoon was glorious – we saw nothing except the FootO planners also hanging controls, the odd muntjac and the ever present Red Kites. And of course the occasional flurry of snow: it snowed on me every day I visited Hambleden from early March onwards. Eventually John and I finished for the day, even though the course wasn't completely laid out, because I had to leave enough canes, flags and punches to put out for the Day 1 course at Reading Whiteknights campus the following day.

Then it was back to Reading, home of the red traffic light, and Leighton Park School, to discover the room I had been allocated was locked and that I was to use a small common room with a 'guest' bed instead. But the room was fine, and the food and friendly service in the school's restaurant was excellent. Just before I went to bed, the power supply of my laptop expired. I hoped it wasn't an omen.

Friday morning dawned fine, if cold, and by 9.15, joined by planner Philip Cooper and Simon Branford, (barred from running competitively in the Sprint event because he works on the campus), we layed out the Day1TrailO course on the soggy parkland around the north and west sides of the lake. By the time competitors began to walk past us on the walk from the Shinfield car park to the Sprint assembly area we were ready for action. Staffed by club members from WAOC and WIM (thanks, folks) the TrailO competition was open throughout the sprint race. After a quiet start, trade picked up in the afternoon and we had around 50 competitors in all, par for the course, and good considering how cold it was. Philip's courses attracted much praise.

Occasionally, lost souls from the Sprint race would run towards us and the lake, before it dawned that they had run off their map, and they would reverse their steps. A few had to be rescued and pointed in the correct direction, (one baffled Irish lady twice). Having packed up the tent and collected in the course, Anne & I were back at Leighton Park in time for dinner, followed by a two hour session inputting the results into my old laptop: good job I had remembered to bring it as backup.

I was back at Hambledon by 8.00 am the next morning to put out the first eight controls, using the kit from Day 1. It was wonderfully sunny, even warm out of the breeze. It took longer than I'd hoped to do this, principally because on the open hillside north of the track, the heavy rain the week before had washed away some of the spray paint blobs showing the flag positions and the muntjac had eaten Charles' marker posts. Eventually everything was put out, and I had time to check the flags put out on Thursday. A couple had blown over in the strong breeze: a few others had been knocked down by the deer.

Back in the field, the tent was up, and we were ready to start on time, again assisted by our faithful club members. By this time the sun had largely disappeared, the breeze got up and it was colder than when I started work in the early morning. This, and the long trek across from assembly, seems to have deterred the Novice course competitors, but we had lots of people on the Elite course to make up for it. Charles' courses were declared excellent, if technically tough, by the early finishers. 

Although we had stated that the TrailO course would be open later than the FootO courses, to allow those people with an unavoidable late FootO start time to do the TrailO as well, and this was clearly displayed on the JK website, the Day 2 FootO Organisers had thrown a spanner into the works by requesting, two weeks before the event, that we close our courses at the same time as the FootO at 16.00, so that they could stand down their helpers and tidy the site.

Although we compromised and got a 30 minute extension, there were still people arriving at our start at 16.00 for a course with a two hour completion time, having been given late FootO starts, even though they had specifically requested early ones. Plan B went into operation, with early controls being collected in as soon as the last competitor had visited them, with a couple of us using my car as the equivalent of cycling's 'broom wagon', sweeping up behind the last man.

Eventually the forest was clear, we had all finishers in, the BOF TrailO kit had largely been handed over to Ian Ditchfield for him to use for BTOC 2013, and we left the site at 17.45, just before they locked the gate, and made it back just in time for a late dinner and another marathon laptop session sorting results.

For the controller these made pleasing reading. The overall winner, John Kewley from MDOC, had got 37 controls correct out of a possible 38, placed second, Anne Straube of OD, a former world champion had 36, the third place 34, there were three competitors on 33, all GB TrailO internationals. So we had pitched the courses at the right level of difficulty and fairness. I had always thought the planners had got it right, but its was a relief to see this confirmed.

I didn't go to Cold Ash on the Sunday: I wasn't competing and anyway I was far too tired. But a results and prizewinners list were dispatched to JK enquiries by a volunteer recruited over Sunday breakfast. The prizes were handed out in the afternoon, on time and to the correct recipients, at the main prize-giving.

It was a pleasure to return to Hambleden on Monday as a mere spectator, to shout on our relay teams to victory, visit the traders and generally mingle, something I'd not had time to do previously.

There is however, no rest for the wicked. I'm already working on the TrailO for JK2014.

Dick Keighley