Potteries Orienteering Club

The course name in the first column is a link to the full results for that course.

course		winner	club		class	time
Yellow		Holly Craig	WCH		W10	35:47		(split times)
Orange		Heather Craig	WCH		W12	34:41		(split times)
Light Green		Nathan Townsend	POTOC		M55	33:39		(split times)
Short Green		Colin Spears	HOC		M70	47:11		(split times)
Green		Mike Hampton	OD		M65	48:22		(split times)
Blue		Chris Owens	DEE		M18	49:37		(split times)
Brown		Martin Pigott	POTOC		M35	83:44		(split times)

The event seemed to go very smoothly with no problems that I'm aware of. Unfortunately it is necessary to use the rather physical moorland area for the longer courses and, with hindsight, the Short Green was probably too arduous. However, winning times on all the courses were reasonable. John, Andy and myself only had a relatively short time to complete the planning, maybe with more time we could have fine-tuned the courses.

Thanks to the POTOC team who did a great job on the day, even to the extent of the weather being somewhat better than forecast!

Dave Mawdsley and Andy Thornton (MDOC)

Firstly apologies to Short Green competitors, many found it more physically demanding than I anticipated. It seems that negotiating steep sided stream gullies caused the most grief. It was tough for everyone. I did, however see at least two in this class undertakes an awkward, illegal fence crossing near the start. I knew of others who had crossed fences, some not realising it was not permitted. Obviously instructions on a piece of paper were not enough — I should have had it printed bold on the maps!

The area has a multitude of stiles to facilitate the military. There were too many potential crossing points to mark so I doubled the size if the symbol.

The report on the WOC in Focus stated a failing of British competitors was too much emphasis on going straight. This applied to many of the legs at this event. I listened in on Green competitors comparing splits and route choice on a long leg: the quicker times were by those who took longer routes to avoid steep steam crossings and deeper undergrowth. I also heard of the same outcome on a short Blue leg.

The Brown was below minimum course length, but I still think too long even though a meaningful appraisal of the winning times cannot be made due to the low turnout. Yellow course had a disappointing failure rate, but this was almost the same course as 2006 event (the area offered no other options) and that had only one MP, a W3!

Thanks to all the collecting in volunteers, I was left with just 6 of the very closest to do. Thanks to Dave and assistant Andy for stepping in as controller a very late stage.

John Heaton

The Planner and Controllers have said it all. A remarkable amount was achieved by them in a very short time.

My biggest concern about this area is always the weather due to the height and exposure of the terrain. Bad weather on this area would make the event very unpleasant and potentially dangerous. We brought the event date forward by 3 weeks to try to minimise the risk, but the forecast on Saturday had me in despair. The weather on the day was a pleasant surprise and I can still claim an unbroken record good weather for all the events I have organised.

Thanks to all the Help Team, almost every available person in the Club turned out, whether running or not, and did their usual excellent job. I especially want to thank John Heaton who in addition to Planning the event was invaluable for his contact with the Area Warden, Landmarc and military personnel in the week before the event.

I also particularly want to thank Les Riley, the tenant at Noon Sun Farm who provided the parking field. He was as helpful as possible in every way in facilitating the event. I regret that the rain on Saturday meant that we left the car park field in rather a mess.

I enjoyed running the Blue course, experience from the 2006 event told me that running straight over the heather was rarely the best option and picking the easiest, albeit not the shortest route, was the key.

Finally a note of apology for omitting to add sanitising fluid to the emergency toilets. Transporting them in my car to empty after the event was an unforgettable experience.

Geoff Hollins