2007 November Classic, Sunday 4th November
Results from Saturday's 40th aniversary event
Results from November Classic including String Course
Photographs from Sunday's event

Organisers Comments
Wow! What a weekend and what wonderful weather. We hope you all enjoyed the forest in its glorious autumn colours as well as your runs. We think the assembly in the forest clearing worked well and gave the event a lovely atmosphere. It complemented well the previous day's re-run of the Original Classic, which had something approaching a party atmosphere!

With an expected entry of 1000+, we knew we had to find parking for over 500 cars, always a tall order in the New Forest. We are very grateful to the FC for their help and co-operation to solve the various issues around such an event and were delighted that they accepted our invitation to open up their information point especially for the event. As the New Forest is now a National Park, we were also very pleased that the National Park staff wanted to be involved too. We hope that you found time to visit both information stands and learned a little more about this beautiful 'forest'. As we had decided to mark this 40th event with prizes, we were also really pleased that Mike Seddon, Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest was able to present them.

In light of the demographics of BOF members, we decided this year to split some of the class combinations by adding more courses. This enabled us to accommodate all entries without the need, as in 2006, to extend the start period or to declare courses 'full'. It also kept the event within a shorter time frame, allowing us to have a prize-giving at 2pm and to collect in all the controls before it was dark. As usual, 65% of entrants requested a middle start time. To meet the demand we set the middle start period to cover 90 minutes (10.15 -11.45) and the early and late periods just 45 minutes each (09.30-10.14 and 11.46 - 12.30), so a few people were surprised by their allocated start times.

There are still a number of prizes that were not collected (list below). We will aim to have them available at forthcoming events in the south. Please try to arrange collection, as they are rather heavy to post.

I owe a big THANKYOU to SOC members, past and present. Over the weekend, 80 members of SOC volunteered their time to stage this event (and yet more helped to put on the Saturday event). But work to produce the map started years ago: since the first Classic's use of an OS map, a large number of volunteers have been involved in surveying and refining the mapped detail of this area. Perhaps it is this commitment of club members that makes the event what it is and why it has maintained its status for 40 years.

Di Smith (Organiser) tel 02380 845787 or email di@ntrees.co.uk

Mike Johnson with Bill Davidson at the Assembly area for the 40th aniversary event on 3rd November. Mike was a founder member of SOC and a member of Merryoak Meanderers.