Martin for all the work he’s put in for updating the map and planning some excellent courses
Colin West SOS for controlling him
everyone who helped out on the day, especially those who stepped in last minute to help collect controls, never a popular choice but easier the more volunteers we have
everyone who turned up on the day to compete
We have a number of independent competitors new to Orienteering, some of whom took on the advice to try easier course first, some who didn’t. Thankfully the two who were still out on the Blue course when the course closed at 14:30, turned up unharmed just as I was initiated a search for them.
I wish I could have organised the weather better as I’ve now got lots of damp equipment, including two soggy tents, to dry out.
There are a few ‘lessons learned’ from my first experience of using Fabian4 as a pre-entry system which I will share with other Organisers in the club.
Louise
Thank you to everyone who made the journey to East Suffolk to take part in our club’s first forest event since COVID. I’ve spent quite a lot of time in Tunstall Forest over the last two years, first updating Simon Peck’s 15 year-old map, with lots of help from LiDAR and other recent additions to the mapper’s toolkit, and then planning for this event. After COVID forced a cancelation last year, it was great to see orienteers running through the forest again.
I say “running”, but as most competitors found out, brashings and bracken make fast running quite challenging in many parts of Tunstall. I tried to route the courses through the most interesting and runnable bits, with the grain of planting/thinning where possible. Talking to people after their run, and looking at the routes so far posted on RouteGadget, it does seem that competitors generally favoured cross country route choices, which was what I had hoped. Please do post your route on RouteGadget if you’ve not yet done so. It does give the planner a lot of useful feedback.
Thank you to everyone who gave me comments after their run. There were lots of positive comments, along with a few valuable “learning points” for me to take on board next time. All much appreciated.
Our current plan is to return to Tunstall in late Autumn 2023 when the brashings should have decayed a quite a bit further. All the Suffolk Sandlings forests are of similar age, having been planted after the 1987 storm, and all are currently on a roughly 5 year thinning cycle. 2023 should be optimum for orienteering in Tunstall before the tractors move in again for another timber feast.
It was good to have a visit during the event from Forestry England’s local recreation ranger. She was very interested in how we run our events and might even be tempted to take part on a future occasion.
Many thanks to Controller Colin, Organiser Louise and all SUFFOC helpers who made the day possible.
Martin
How to make a controller’s task easier? Give him an event with a new map, planned by the mapper, good communications with the planner and organiser, and plenty of time to deliver the event. Two big pluses for me - orange ribbons were used for taping sites, it’s very visible, and I was given a Checksites code for Maprun so that I had GPS location to help me in the forest.
Tunstall is becoming good terrain. Some areas are runnable now, and the brashing and stump banks are maturing. The bracken was late in dying off this year, but December through to late spring has reduced bracken cover. Areas of heather will get more challenging over time.
Martin used the area well to offer the full range of courses. Weather on the day was mixed, but always cold.
Thanks to Louise and the team of volunteers who ran a problem -free event.
We did note that the pre-entry system, while efficient, lacks a record of car registration numbers which are helpful in accounting for missing runners, and phone numbers are not as available as with paper entry forms - something for organisers to think about going forward.
As ever a big thank you to
We have a number of independent competitors new to Orienteering, some of whom took on the advice to try easier course first, some who didn’t. Thankfully the two who were still out on the Blue course when the course closed at 14:30, turned up unharmed just as I was initiated a search for them.
I wish I could have organised the weather better as I’ve now got lots of damp equipment, including two soggy tents, to dry out.
There are a few ‘lessons learned’ from my first experience of using Fabian4 as a pre-entry system which I will share with other Organisers in the club.
Louise
Thank you to everyone who made the journey to East Suffolk to take part in our club’s first forest event since COVID. I’ve spent quite a lot of time in Tunstall Forest over the last two years, first updating Simon Peck’s 15 year-old map, with lots of help from LiDAR and other recent additions to the mapper’s toolkit, and then planning for this event. After COVID forced a cancelation last year, it was great to see orienteers running through the forest again.
I say “running”, but as most competitors found out, brashings and bracken make fast running quite challenging in many parts of Tunstall. I tried to route the courses through the most interesting and runnable bits, with the grain of planting/thinning where possible. Talking to people after their run, and looking at the routes so far posted on RouteGadget, it does seem that competitors generally favoured cross country route choices, which was what I had hoped. Please do post your route on RouteGadget if you’ve not yet done so. It does give the planner a lot of useful feedback.
Thank you to everyone who gave me comments after their run. There were lots of positive comments, along with a few valuable “learning points” for me to take on board next time. All much appreciated.
Our current plan is to return to Tunstall in late Autumn 2023 when the brashings should have decayed a quite a bit further. All the Suffolk Sandlings forests are of similar age, having been planted after the 1987 storm, and all are currently on a roughly 5 year thinning cycle. 2023 should be optimum for orienteering in Tunstall before the tractors move in again for another timber feast.
It was good to have a visit during the event from Forestry England’s local recreation ranger. She was very interested in how we run our events and might even be tempted to take part on a future occasion.
Many thanks to Controller Colin, Organiser Louise and all SUFFOC helpers who made the day possible.
Martin
How to make a controller’s task easier? Give him an event with a new map, planned by the mapper, good communications with the planner and organiser, and plenty of time to deliver the event. Two big pluses for me - orange ribbons were used for taping sites, it’s very visible, and I was given a Checksites code for Maprun so that I had GPS location to help me in the forest.
Tunstall is becoming good terrain. Some areas are runnable now, and the brashing and stump banks are maturing. The bracken was late in dying off this year, but December through to late spring has reduced bracken cover. Areas of heather will get more challenging over time.
Martin used the area well to offer the full range of courses. Weather on the day was mixed, but always cold.
Thanks to Louise and the team of volunteers who ran a problem -free event.
We did note that the pre-entry system, while efficient, lacks a record of car registration numbers which are helpful in accounting for missing runners, and phone numbers are not as available as with paper entry forms - something for organisers to think about going forward.
Colin West (SOS)