Having controlled 4 urban events I was keen to have a go at planning my first urban orienteering event in my local town. I started to think about the courses during lockdown and decided that the Abbey Gardens was just too small for a sensible M/W16- course – that is why I decided to use the Water Meadows as well, so thanks to Phil Halford for adding that section onto the map for me. I then just hoped that it wasn’t as wet as the previous Bury Urban in 2019 when I guess the water meadowns might have been underwater! We were thankfully lucky on the day.
When I decided to use that newly opened part of the Abbey Gardens east of the river for the finish I had assumed that we would be able to use the football club as a base again, so I hadn’t considered participants aiming straight for the download tent instead of the finish banner! Apologies for that.
It was great to work with Mike Capper and I learnt a lot from his extensive experience of both controlling and urban orienteering. Permissions seemed hard to pin down precisely, but after a phone call with a friendly park ranger it seemed we were good to go. Planning good urban courses is always going to be a compromise as control sites are limited to something you can securely gripple the box and kite to, so I was pleased to receive several complements and only a couple of minor grumbles. There were some last minute changes to the control sites in the southern most part of the area (Sextons Meadow) after we received concerns from one resident about using the rear parking courts there. I hope that there was still enough of a challenge there.
The gate giving access between #146 and Hatter Street was only locked since 1st October, which limited route choice. Every other time we visited the area it was open for pedestrians.
And finally a list of thank-yous:
I need to thank in particular my son Roderick for getting up early, cycling into town to put out some of the controls, and then cycling home again – I couldn’t have managed to get it all ready without help.
Thanks too to Peter for his meticulous organisation, Mike for all his useful advice, Rod and Bronwen for generally putting up with me and sorting out download on the day.
The event couldn’t have happened without all the other volunteers who helped on the day as of course without participants all that effort would have been worthless – so thanks to everyone for just being there!
Having controlled 4 urban events I was keen to have a go at planning my first urban orienteering event in my local town. I started to think about the courses during lockdown and decided that the Abbey Gardens was just too small for a sensible M/W16- course – that is why I decided to use the Water Meadows as well, so thanks to Phil Halford for adding that section onto the map for me. I then just hoped that it wasn’t as wet as the previous Bury Urban in 2019 when I guess the water meadowns might have been underwater! We were thankfully lucky on the day.
When I decided to use that newly opened part of the Abbey Gardens east of the river for the finish I had assumed that we would be able to use the football club as a base again, so I hadn’t considered participants aiming straight for the download tent instead of the finish banner! Apologies for that.
It was great to work with Mike Capper and I learnt a lot from his extensive experience of both controlling and urban orienteering. Permissions seemed hard to pin down precisely, but after a phone call with a friendly park ranger it seemed we were good to go. Planning good urban courses is always going to be a compromise as control sites are limited to something you can securely gripple the box and kite to, so I was pleased to receive several complements and only a couple of minor grumbles. There were some last minute changes to the control sites in the southern most part of the area (Sextons Meadow) after we received concerns from one resident about using the rear parking courts there. I hope that there was still enough of a challenge there.
The gate giving access between #146 and Hatter Street was only locked since 1st October, which limited route choice. Every other time we visited the area it was open for pedestrians.
And finally a list of thank-yous:
I need to thank in particular my son Roderick for getting up early, cycling into town to put out some of the controls, and then cycling home again – I couldn’t have managed to get it all ready without help.
Thanks too to Peter for his meticulous organisation, Mike for all his useful advice, Rod and Bronwen for generally putting up with me and sorting out download on the day.
The event couldn’t have happened without all the other volunteers who helped on the day as of course without participants all that effort would have been worthless – so thanks to everyone for just being there!
Sarah Mansel