Harvester 2011

[Freefall]

After midnight - just thought I would watch the race on GPS.very impressive but is my club really sitting still? (FVO)

[Freefall]

Looks like it will be a long night for RAFO

[Mrs H]

Back home already. I would just like to say a massive congratulations to ShUOC for an extremely well organised Harvester full of fun and spectacle. An enormous amount of thought and work had gone into the presentation of the event and it was much appreciated.

What a credit to themselves and the sport these young people are

[LostAgain]

Yes, well done ShUOC for a great event.

Tracking was fun to watch and the extensive mapping of the Holly Bushes certainly made it interesting at night. I'm not sure AWK enjoyed himself in the bushes!

SYO took 4 trophies on home turf. Open Mens, Open Womens, 7 leg Hdcp and Juniors.
Is this a record?

[Homer]

ShUOC

Very impressive. I can't quite imagine the ShUOC of my day managing such a good job.

I really hope the obvious hard work isn't counter-productive in that it puts off potential organisers for next year. GPS tracking isn't compulsory, despite being very well appreciated.

[ifor]

Yes a good event and the reflectors on the flags in the holly were very apreciated in the night.

Good effort.

Ifor

[awk]

Tracking was fun to watch and the extensive mapping of the Holly Bushes certainly made it interesting at night. I'm not sure AWK enjoyed himself in the bushes!

No I didn't!
I thoroughly enjoyed the event: excellent organisation, excellent area, accurate map (difficult to read on occasions with so much on it - but that's an eyesight issue), good shapes to the courses, a superb night all round. However, I felt a number of control sites were unfair and should not have been used for night orienteering, especially after the pack on leg 1 had demolished controls, several of which were left lying on the ground, thus forcing reliance even more on finding the feature rather than the reflective tape, and that the controller should have exercised tighter control here - I'm sure though that he and the planners will disagree with me!

Having said that, the cause of my having to run most of leg 1 behind the pack was totally my own fault, and nothing to do with the above. It's only once I was solo orienteering did the issues arise so, to that extent, I only have myself to blame. I think the time comparisons between leg 1 and the other legs really show up the advantage of being in a pack on a course like that!

BUT! I don't want this one thing, which others may well disagree with, to detract from the fact that the entire ShUOC team produced a superb event. It is sad that there are now so few university clubs that are thriving at present, because one of their significant contributions to the sport is the organisation of some top notch events. The sport would be seriously the poorer without them (and is the poorer in that there are so few active uni clubs).

[Barny of Blandford]

Thanks for a brilliant and well organised weekend

Really enjoyed it and hope we will have many more Harvesters like it in the future

Well done to you all

[Mrs H]

The funny thing about the thickets was the fact that despite being paranoid about them before hand - I hardly noticed them at all in the dark - either on the map or the ground
As Spookster suggested - it was the minor path junctions that did for me - if it hadn't been fr the reflective tape I might still be out there - and of course the attack of the killer wasps that did for my team. I hope the elder Miss Lumpy can sit down tomorrow (well she was certainly fairly lumpy when I saw her)

[Simon]

A few photos

[buzz]

Magnificent event. The enthusiasm for orienteering shone through, coupled with obvious hard work and attention to detail made for a top class racing and a fun night.

[mark2]

I felt a number of control sites were unfair and should not have been used for night orienteering, especially after the pack on leg 1 had demolished controls, several of which were left lying on the ground

I may not have had any of the control sites AWK refers to, but certainly on my night course it looked like there had been quite a lot of care taken over things like control sites and the actual position of the flags - controls not stuck right at the bottom of holes, not hidden hard behind boulders etc, area immediately around site clear of vegetation and so on.

I too was worried when I saw the map before, that all the bits of finely mapped green might make things a lottery, particularly at night. Glad to say that in practice, at least from what I experienced, this was not the case.

Also worth commenting on the control codes being printed on the maps - common in relays abroad . It would be good to see that replicated at other major relays in the UK. I am sure it must help reduce the number of miss punches.

Many thanks to all involved for a really excellent event.

[Adventure Racer]

A really enjoyable event. I like night O and I like relays, so Harvester is always a winner for me, but that really went down well - nice map, nice courses and very well organised - I particularly liked the airport effect at the changeover. Didn't notice any particular issues with control sites, not even the ones I missed. Very unexpected to set off on my ungaffled leg together with a couple of people I reckoned I ought to be able to stay with, having not really experienced head to head running at previous events.

My only slight gripe is that whilst most of my mistakes were all my own fault, I got very confused on one leg to find myself at an unexpected path junction, only discovering on getting my map back in daylight that it was mapped but almost completely hidden under a red line.

[Paul T]

Really enjoyed the event - consistent map, considerately hung flags and well planned courses.

On-line tracking definitely added to the whole experience. When they have recovered, it would be interesting have some feedback from the organisers about what was involved in getting it all together, how much work it takes and roughly what the costs were. It would be great to see it at other big events, but only if the costs and effort are reasonable.

[Arnold]

So everyone who attended thought it was brilliant, and rightly so.

But only few actually attended (about 400 in total). And that was for a central location with a whole load of great extra stuff attached. So why is that?

Don't want to run at night?
Courses too long/hard?
Wrong time of the year?
Don't like relays?

While this Harvester was brilliant it will continue to be difficult to find clubs willing to put in all the hard work for only 400 people, so if only we could increase that!