Officials & Comments

Coordinator - Trevor Roberts (MDOC)

Day 1 - Swindale North (Border Liners BL with Pendle Forest PFO)

Organiser - Dick Whitworth (BL)
Planners - Chris Lates (BL) (Courses 1 to 11) Raymond Wren (BL) (Courses 12 to 22)
Controller - Roger Smith (LOC)

Day 2 - Tarn Hows South & Guards Wood (Lakeland LOC with South East Lancs SELOC)

Organisers - Ann Smith (LOC), Norma Atherton (LOC)
Planners - Steve Buckley (LOC), Richard Tilley (LOC)
Controller - Andrew Tarr (DEE)

Day 3 - Harrop Tarn (Cancelled) (West Cumberland WCOC)

Organiser - Ged Hagan (WCOC)
Planners - Rob Holder (WCOC), Bab Barnby (WCOC)
Controller - Tony Richardson (LOC)

Day 4 - Caw (Deeside DEE)

Organiser - Norman Hall (DEE)
Planners - Bob Verity (DEE), Pete Owens (DEE)
Controller - Andy Quickfall (SROC)

Day 5 - Helsington Barrows (South Ribble SROC)

Organiser - Sue Denmark (SROC)
Planners - Dick Collins (SROC), Brian Jackson (SROC)
Controller - Dick Towler (LOC)

Training Courses

Skellghyl Woods - Martin Bagness (Warrier WAROC)
Torver Back Common - Mathew Cochrane (Merseyside MEROC)
Eggerslack Woods - Julian Lailey (SROC)

Central organisation - Entries, Enquiries, Computing, Sponsorship & Prizes etc. (Manchester MDOC)

Organiser - Sue Birkinshaw (MDOC)
Computing - Eddie Speak (MDOC)
Entries - Grahame Crawshaw (MDOC)
Equipment coordination - Peter Lomas (MDOC)
String courses coordination - Marie Roberts (MDOC)
Treasurer - Dave Mawdsley (MDOC)

Printing

Iain Smith Ward (LOC) - Maps for days 1, 2 and 3
Steve Lang (MDOC) - Maps for days 4, 5 and the training areas
Dave Mawdsley (MDOC) - Maps printed at the event.

Coniston Urban/Rural event

Clare Evans (Ulverston Victoria High School)

Trevor Roberts (Coordinator)
It is encouraging to receive the excellent feedback on the Lakes 5 despite the disappointment of missing one day through the enforced cancellation of day 3. Our aim was to provide a challenging competition on a variety of good terrain. We did manage to provide four good competitions and an exciting urban/rural event with a complex twist at the end. Harrop Tarn would have added to the experience but sadly the heavy rain on one day dictated that it was not to be. Thank you all for coming and contributing to the event’s success. The Lake District has a lot to offer outdoor people so I hope you made good use of your extra free time.

My sincere thanks go to all of the officials and helpers who worked tirelessly to make this event happen. I am proud to have had the privilege to coordinate such an excellent team.

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Dick Whitworth (Day 1 Organiser)
A competitor found a ( ladies ) ring on the road, about 50m before the turn off for Naddle farm, and handed it in to my official who was patrolling the main road at that point. I now have the ring. If anyone has lost it, would they please tel/e-mail me 01228 535420/ dick.w@talktalk.net by Sept 14th, giving a description of the ring. After that date, I will hand it in to the police.

Chris Lates & Raymond Wren (Day 1 Planners)
It has been a pleasure to plan on Swindale. The long hours spent on it were rewarded on Sunday by the many positive comments that we heard.

Our thanks go to the helpers who made things run so smoothly on the day, Dick Whitworth for coping with the organisational problems, and Roger Smith for his constructive help as controller. It really was a team effort.

Thanks also go to the landowner, United Utilities, the Swindale commoners, and particularly to Eddie Eastham of Naddle Farm through whose farmyard you trooped twice, and whose land was used for the finish.

Roger Smith (Day 1 Controller)
I am so pleased that, when I agreed to control one of the 5 Days, that I got Swindale. The whole team was good to work with and Swindale is a great place to be. Not the easiest of areas to plan courses on: a long way from the carpark and the most technical terrrain being in the far west. I think the planners got the best out of the area and I know that they spent many, many hours up on the fell to ensure this. Well done to Dick, too, for tolerating the beaurocracy involved with H & S, Emergency Planning, etc.

The only negative thing to say is that the average age of the Organiser, Planners and Controller was over 65. It worked well, but there will come a time when we are all too old. We must bring on the youngsters.

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Ann Smith (Day 2 Organiser)
I would like to thank everyone who worked so tirelessly to make Angela's Day happen. I have never run an event where I haven't had to telephone anyone to ask for help, and it must be remembered that for most of LOC it was a normal working weekday, not a holiday.

Andrew Tarr (Day 2 Controller)
I think Day 2 was the wettest event I have controlled since 1987. I usually get decent weather, but not this time. Despite that, many people expressed their enjoyment. I should have spotted the faulty class combinations on several course maps - I hope no-one suffered because of this. A tentative complaint was also made about the siting of control 124 on course 1, but it was not supported by other runners I consulted.
As I expected, courses 1 to 9 were rather too long, partly due to the weather, but mainly because of slower terrain in the eastern wood. We had tried to allow for that, but any courses longer than 5k. had to go there, which then meant they should be about 1k. shorter! Guards Wood was already 'busy' with the shorter courses, so no easy compromise was available.

On your behalf I must thank Steve and Richard (planners) and Ann (organiser) for all the work they put in, preparing for Angela's Day. I believe nearly everyone except Eddie Speak (who was whisked off by ambulance) went home wet but happy.

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Ged Hagan (Day 3 Organiser)
At this point I should have been penning a summary of a well run event that you all enjoyed having competed on our latest map of Harrop Tarn. The planners (Rob Holder and Bob Barnby) would have been giving you their thoughts reflecting on the comments they would have received following the event. But as you know, Day 3 was hit by the inclement weather earlier in the week which rendered the car parking field unusable, so the event never happened. Much has been said (and posted on forums) since Day 3 – and I would like to thank the people who were sympathetic. Of course, there were a few negative comments which I’d like to think were a reflection of people’s disappointment at not being able to run on a fine area.

The car park field has been used for regional events in the past and we were confident that it could accommodate the event. The field is no better or worse than any other in the area insomuch as it would have been usable if the rain in the preceding days had not been so heavy. Our initial ‘wet weather’ plan was to park along the lakeside road in linear fashion – not ideal, but it would have allowed the event to take place. This was shared with the Safety Advisory Group and as long as we met certain conditions was acceptable to all. Unfortunately the SAG is attended by the county constabulary, not the local police (who objected very late in the day when they learned of the wet weather plan). We considered other options such as car sharing, park and ride, etc. but there was no real viable alternative. As the police explained to us that they would need to use the lakeside road in the event of an unexpected closure to the A591, we had to state that if the car park field was unusable that the event would have to be cancelled.

The rest you know. If there had been heavy rain during the weekend before, we would have known on Day 1 that the event would be cancelled and given early notice. Day 1 was fine however, and the forecasts were not definitive enough for us to make a call for the Tuesday. By the end of Monday we knew that the field would not be dry enough for Tuesday so we postponed until Wednesday. On Tuesday morning, the landowners inspected the field and decided that because they could not risk mud flowing through the watercourses into the head of the lake, that they reluctantly withdrew permission to use the field at all during the week. Other late options were considered, but again were not feasible.

Between the organising club and the L5D organising committee we did everything that we could to try to make the event happen, but when the landowner withdrew permission to use the field there was little else we could do.

The worst thing for us was that all of the hard work had been done. All of the organisation, planning, setting out, etc. was completed by close of play Monday. Timetables were set and helpers had arranged leave from work. When we postponed to the Wednesday, competitors had to be informed, road signs erected, helpers reorganised, toilets and marquees retained and discussions opened up with landowners – all at very short notice. And it all had to be addressed again when the event was eventually cancelled. Tuesday was a sad day for us when we went up to the area to collect in controls and the start and finish. Ironically, the sun was shining!

Personally, I’d like to thank everyone who helped to get everything ready for the competition and the helpers who’d had jobs allocated and were on standby. I really feel for the planners and the controller (Tony Richardson) who put so much time and effort into the event. Hopefully we can use the courses in the future. I also feel very sorry for the 1600+ competitors who lost out on running what would have been a memorable event.

I’d also like to thank the many people who by email or face to face conversation have expressed their condolences that the event was cancelled. I’m sure on reflection there will be lessons that we can learn from, so that we can continue to improve the experience of big event orienteering.

Tony Richardson (Day 3 Controller)
I'm sorry that competitors were denied the opportunity to run the fine courses planned by Bob and Rob at Harrop. All the TD5 courses had significant proportions of their length on runnable undulating fell with good contour and crag features with courses 1 to 9 visiting the newly mapped extension on to Armboth Fell. The latter portion of all courses were carefully planned to pass only through the good area of forest available. I'm sure that both planners, like myself, thoroughly enjoyed their time spent here. Unfortunately there was no such compensation for organiser Ged who had competently taken on board all the exceptional demands placed on him during the build up to this event, only to have his contingency car parking plan thwarted at the eleventh hour.

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Norman Hall (Day 4 Organiser)
Having only organised a closed club event previously, I agreed to take on this job unaware of what would be involved in achieving a successful day. The lack of available parking close to the Caw Fells unfortunately meant a long walk in for competitors but the view from the Assembly /parking area was spectacular. I was grateful for the good weather and so avoided potential bad condition problems that could have arisen with such an exposed area so far from the assembly area.

A hitch regarding access to the fells through private land arose on the Monday before the event but the generosity of the owners of Capelrigg allowed proceedings to go ahead as planned.
My thanks go to John Kirkbride for his friendly and helpful approach with regards to the parking fields and to Mr Pennefather and Mr Nicholson for permission to use their land for the orienteering. Thanks also go to Graham Walkden and Rick Browne for their local liaison work.

As always these events would not happen if it was not for the hard work and time given by orienteers and Deeside members are no exception. Their willingness to help and dedication meant that on the day everything worked as intended. Special thanks must go to my compatriot Alan Mullock who did a mountain of work in the days before and on the day of the event. Planners Bob Verity and Pete Owens worked tirelessly to provide good courses over very technical terrain.

Pete Owens (Day 4 Planner)
I hope you all enjoyed Caw as much as I did. We had a fine day out setting up controls, enjoying the views over Morecambe Bay. On the day of the event we sat on the hill near the start and could watch the runners fanning out over the hillside.

Different parts of the area offer different orienteering challenges. The western area lent itself to long fast legs, keeping contact while weaving through the hills and cols. The longer courses had big route choice legs over or round the main hill. All the courses descended through the complex rocky terrain on the southern slopes of Caw.

The main constraint to planning was the extensive bracken on the lower slopes, and this pretty much dictated the shape of the shortest courses. It was a bit tricky getting the courses down into the lower fields, with the choice limited to a narrow, enclosed path or a very steep, rough slope.

Many thanks to the dedicated army of Deeside volunteers, setting up controls in the furthest reaches of the area, dragging sacks of equipment over the hillside, going up the hill again after their runs to collect controls.

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Sue Denmark (Day 5 Organiser)
The good weather and fantastic venue made our job very easy on the day.
A big thankyou is due to Brian Bowness, farmer, for his advise and help, particularly with the putting out and collecting in of the stiles, 13 in total. Also to MDOC for taking on all the central organisation and to members of our own club, SROC, for their hard work to make the day possible. The courses seem to have been well received so well done to the planning team and to the controller, Dick Towler of LOC.

I know some competitors were a bit disgruntled about our decision to insist on full leg cover. Apart from the gorse and bramble we had been informed by local people that the tick infestation was particularly bad this year. We therefore felt this decision was justified

Finally thank you to all those who came and competed. The parking field was left in good order and the sheep were back in there grazing by 6.30pm

Dick Collins & Brian Jackson (Day 5 Planners)
Helsington makes for fast furious times and Day 5’s event did not disappoint.
As we expected most of the winning times were on the short side but we did not think anyone would complain as it was the last day.

Being the last day we wanted to have an arena finish and have the start and car parking close by. All we needed then was sunny weather and we got that too.

The main difference between this and previous events on Helsington was large numbers of competitors. Normally we put up a couple of stiles only. This time we needed more to avoid congestion at the kissing gates. We went for broke and put up a total of 8 stiles, some of them doubles. This enabled us to use the area differently.

As well as the walls the other main constraints are butterfly habitats. Whilst they are not no-go areas we limited traffic through them by keeping controls out of them. This affected the lower part of the middle area and the southern wooded enclosure.

From seeing competitors out on the fell and looking at the results it seemed that the courses were effective in rewarding the better orienteers with fast times. Others found the terrain subtly confusing and lost time.

All in all it was very hard work but extremely enjoyable, particularly the time spent out on the area. As ever it was fun working with Sue and John Denmark on the organising side but also fun and a new experience working with Dick Towler the controller. Not to be outdone by Sue’s mulit-tasking skills he did much of the controlling work whilst sailing his boat from the Medway to Pembroke. Many thanks to all of them, to Brian Bowness the farmer who transported the stiles, and all SROC members (including one MDOC member) who erected the stiles and collected in controls.

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