Results for DVO Badge Event, Chatsworth, 13/04/2003

Comments: Organiser, Lost Property, Planner, Controller, Computing.
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Organiser

At last we made it to Chatsworth some 18 months later than originally planned! The foot and mouth epidemic caused the initial delay but some good came out of this. Chatsworth decided to extend their opening period into the winter months to recoup lost revenue and then realised that their car park wasn't up to the required standard - the general public couldn't cope with wet grass. So an additional area of hard standing was created just out of sight of the house, and this location provided the perfect base for our event.

Many of you will know that much hard work has to be done in advance to organise an orienteering event and then one has to sit back and wait in the hope that the weather will be kind and good support will be forthcoming. Well, we were rewarded on both counts; we had a glorious sunny day and a magnificent entry. Some 750 advance entries were received which enabled us to get our map supply about right for another 200 or so who entered on the day. We believe that everyone was able to run the course of his or her choice. The string course came close to disaster - we bought 100 packets of sweets and only had 3 left at the end!

Special thanks are due as follows:-

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire
Mr. John Oliver, Estate Comptroller
Kirsty Law and the local branch of the British Red Cross
Michael Napier, computer support
Ted Smith, course planner
Andrew Gregory, controller
Roy Denney, EMOA chairman, trophy presentation
Numerous DVO helpers.

Brian and Pauling Ward

Lost Property

Lady's wrist watch
Control description holder (course 10)

Claim from the organisers. Tel. 01773 850272

Planner

I originally agreed to be the co-planner for this event when it was to be held in October 2001. Then after only a brief 'recce' to the area Foot and Mouth struck and the event was postponed indefinitely.

It was eventually rescheduled but during this time my co-planner dropped out and I was quite happy to carry on solo. In retrospect this was not the wisest decision. In view of the extra work involved with OCAD (all courses were planned using OCAD 8) and Sport Ident, together with liaison with the Chatsworth estate I felt very stretched at times. I think planning for this type of event now a days is a two-man/woman job.

My other problem was overgrowth of vegetation, mainly brambles and rhododendrons. When I visited the area last October it was horrific and I doubt whether it would now be possible to hold an event at Chatsworth in the autumn. Fortunately we were scheduled for springtime. A lot of the brambles did die back although some areas remained no go. The Chatsworth Estate also cleared a lot of the growth of rhododendrons off the steep slopes to the east of the aqueduct. There were still some very thick patches in other areas however which I tried to avoid.

This together with the other constraints meant that juggling the courses was far from easy. I am conscious that the final outcome was not perfect but judging from the general feedback most competitors took a tolerant view. We did have one problem with a miss sited control in an unmapped pit out on the moor and I'm sure that the solution of deducting times for the leg leading to this control was the fairest under the circumstances.

I should like to thank Andrew Gregory for his help and moral support as controller, Mike Godfree for his help with OCAD 8 and Sport Ident and general problems with the map and Tony Berwick for his last minute surveying.

Many thanks also to Brian and Pauline Ward as organisers for their help particularly in the negotiations with the Chatsworth Estate. Pauline certainly worked her charm on a reputedly fierce farm manager who couldn't have been more helpful.

I could list many more who smoothed my passage as well as all the helpers before and on the day but particularly my wife Liz for being so long suffering during the long hours I was glued to the computer.

Finally the Sun smiled on us on a beautiful day that saw Chatsworth at its best, and that together with the competition, was responsible, I'm sure, for all those happy faces I saw in the assembly area and around the estate. Thanks to you all for coming.

Ted Smith

Controller

Chatsworth is a difficult area on which to plan, with several disparate areas including some quite thick or brambly woodland joined by path or field runs, and the steep slope above the house traversed by numerous contouring paths. The moorland at the south of the map comprised a featureless plateau of horrendous tussock grass, and the lower slopes were covered in thick layers of dead bracken, so it was decided to avoid these for the longer courses. Within these restraints Ted Smith did a good job in fitting the complete range of courses into the area, but some courses unavoidably had a higher proportion of path or field running than desired.

Our apologies for control 114 on the moor on courses 3 and 7. Following comments from competitors I returned to the area and agreed that it had been placed in an unmapped pit about 80 metres from the mapped pit. Unfortunately both the planner and myself had found the incorrect pit and not seen the correct one. As competitors lost varying amounts of time on this control it seemed fairest to omit the times for the leg leading up to this control from the final results.

Brian and Pauline Ward as organisers did an excellent job in handling the negotiations with the Chatsworth estate and with co-ordinating an excellent team of DVO helpers, ensuring that everything worked very smoothly on the day.

Andrew Gregory (MDOC)

Computing

Thank you to all those that dibbed at the extra control as you left the download tent. You may well have wondered what it was all about.

I was testing hardware and software that will be used at forthcoming events in support of commentary. I had wanted to connect to the last control, but it was rather far away and I didn't want to leave computers unattended and out-of-sight. The next best thing was to simulate the last control by having you all dib as you left the download tent.

Michael Napier (NOC)

Any queries, errors, or omissions should in the first instance be addressed to Michael Napier, tel 0115 928 9663, e-mail mnapier@cix.co.uk

Results software provided by Michael Napier, e-mail mnapier@cix.co.uk