Maize Maze

[Stodgetta]

Routegadget up & running at http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/gadget/cgi-bin/reitti.pl, photos to follow.

Need to stop cheesey songs going round my head before I sleep tonight

[Spookster]

Amazing event, thanks!

Trying to put my route on routegadget is about as hard as running it in the first place.

We need to do more of these...

[ba-ba]

getting thrashed to the tune of 10mins by 12-year-olds can wait until next year for me!
Still had great fun though - was going quite well in the dark until I went for a lap of the maze looking for 19 on the B - my starting point for the lap was from pretty much next to the control!
Wurzels was an inspired choice.

[Wayward-O]

The Maize Maze Association, (yes, there really is one) lists 23 maize mazes in 2009, including 1 in Scotland, 1 in N Ireland and 1 in Jersey. I wonder how many of these will be mapped for orienteering in 2010.

[Marco Polo]

Wurzels was an inspired choice.

and "A maize in (g) race" and the orienteering song of course..

[ba-ba]

'A-maizin (g) race' had to be explained to be - both for that an 'I once was lost but now am found'
plenty of corn-y songs though

[Mrs H]

I really hope Chasers re-run this event next year - I was very sorry to miss it but we had already arranged to go and check up on the elder Miss H as she settles in at Sheffield and I can only manage to go up and down the motorway so many times in a weekend. Young Neville was very impressed and showed us the maps on Sunday - he was just kicking himself he messed up the final. I was struggling to work out some of the route choices sitting in day light with my glasses on - heaven knows what it must have been like on the move in the dark!

Full marks for enterprise and originality I say.

[King Penguin]

Wurzels was an inspired choice.

and "A maize in (g) race" and the orienteering song of course..

and I thought "Mission Impossible" was truely appropriate !

[tokoloshe]

Did I hear 'The Great Escape'?

[Stodgetta]

The full song list was

A Maizing Race
Chariots of fire
The Great Escape
Mission Impossible
Flight of the Bumblebees
You & Me (Nicola Manfredi)
Orienteering, It’s My Life (Norwegian orienteering students singing falsetto!)
The Distance (Cake)
Breakout aka the Hanny Alston Song (Per Fosberg)
I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harester (The Wurzels with The Muppetts)

It was fun coming up with them, tracking them down etc - I was just missing one song which is being sent over from Eastern Europe smewhere (I think) with the lyrics "Run, run, run, orienteering is fun" - all I could find of it on the web was a 25 second sample...

I was amused to hear of someone humming one of the songs in the food queue (for those who weren't there, there was a tannoy system around the maize and I had 30 minutes or so of songs playing across the maze on a loop for about 6 hours )

BTW, if you rotate the map you see why there was a Wild West theme about the place - a shillouette of a howling wolf & cactus become clear at the top of the field, and you can make out a Red Indian in a full head dress in the main part. Shame magnetic north didn't line up with the field!

Don't worry, Mrs H, it will be back next year (already exchanging emails with the farmer!).

Photos from the event are up at http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/gallery/2009/MaizeMazeO/index.html

[andypat]

Amazing event, thanks!

Trying to put my route on routegadget is about as hard as running it in the first place.

We need to do more of these...

Thats worth looking at on routegadget just for the entertainment. The planner must have had a laugh setting that up!

[Stodgetta]

I did!

I did have some scruples, though...it was suggested I play out this soundtrack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZu1cTg-xUM during the night finals

[AndyC]

Any Chance of avoiding a clash with the October Oddysey next year?

[Stodgetta]

I don't know - this year we had no choice as to when the event was on. It had to be a Saturday, and the Maize closed to the public the previous weekend, having been open only weekends in September, & until 10.30 on Saturday nights. Ordinarily, the maize would have been harvested in the week, the toilets collected etc, so it took some negotiating to be allowed in when we were. It meant the clash with the October Oddessy, and more locally with an OD charity score event & the DVO club champs & dinner.

Thinking about next year, it would be great to get in before the public, which would be June sometime, or possibly early July (it would also mean the maize was a bit less windblown & dying off because of autumn), but would mean the night-O bit would not be a possibility. Or maybe 2 events, one early & one late...whatever we end up with, we need to fit it in around the farm.

[andy]

that's awesome, we need more novel events like this