PLANNERS COMMENTS QECP 02.03.14
It was good to see you come and face the steep slopes of QECP, but at the same time a little disappointing more Orienteers did not make the event. QECP is not an easy area to plan on. The slopes are steep but there are also some nice runnable areas with very little undergrowth. Unfortunately we always have to use these for QECP events. The main constraint to planning at QECP is where the ‘junior’ courses can go, and really only the top of the hill is suitable (on the day there were only 10 junior competitors spread over 3 courses). I also wanted to try and use some different control sites that were not ‘old friends’. The winter storms destroyed a large area in the south which meant last minute changes to the blue and brown (I lost 3 good controls). Bernie (our great Controller) also suggested that my courses were long for the amount of, largely unavoidable, climb so over a Km was removed from most ‘senior’ courses. Looking at the winning times I think he had got it just about right. Some competitors looked like they hadn’t noticed the climb whilst at the other end of the results others looked to have struggled. Especially on the Green where in retrospect the last couple of legs which some did mostly uphill on the road, were a bit unimaginative. (We don’t usually get a good hilly workout in the SOC area). I received quite a few comments about the map which although updated only two years ago seems to be already in need of some changes which I will pass on to our mapping officer.
The early starters had a much more pleasant time in the forest than later. It was seriously unpleasant, very cold and rainy, when it came to packing up so I especially grateful to the helpers who did stay and collect controls Bill, Barbara, Roger, Kevin and Robin. And also to Colin H, Jillian and Clare who were in the forest early with only the mountainbikers and a few deer for company to put out all the controls.
another disaster
Picked up wrong control descriptions a beginners mistahe which made me go looking for something that was not there and went to low for No4 and somehow ran staright past No12 .....two disasters in a row now