Simpson Ground

[DM]

Todays SROC event at Simpson ground suffered from low cloud, or was it just simple rain. The area was overall good but suffered from (at least on the Brown) too much on unrunnable recent felling. The rest was enjoyable even if hard work, errors were costly in time. Pity about the weather, it would have been much nicer in the dry.

Interested to hear what other people felt about the courses.

[King Penguin]

You should have been at Bentley Woods. Wonderful running weather, one of the most runnable woods I have ever been in and the opportunity to see the final results in the FCC unfolding.

[NeilC]

At the risk of changing the topic of this thread completely I'd like to echo King Penguin's comment, and also add what a wonderful three weekends of British Orienteering I've just experienced.

Separating the FCC and public race finishes yesterday resulted in a select audience for the FCC final but this worked well, especially when combined with the basic commentary and download systems. I suspect that many of us spectators were in awe of the skill and competitiveness of many of what we hope really will be champions of the future.

On the other hand the JM5M splits showed the downside of trying to follow someone without attempting to map read when:
1) You miss the fact the fact that the person you are following has punched at a control and/or
2) You lose them and then have no idea what to do.

[RichT]

Simpson Ground is rough in the best parts, never mind the areas of recent felling. And the torrential rain made underfoot conditions very tricky - I only managed the one bad fall .
Having said all of that its a superb technical area. Maybe the times wouldn't have been so long if we'd managed to share the London Marathon weather.

[Adventure Racer]

Took surprisingly little effort to find who you were referring to, Neil

[NeilC]

Less easy to spot were the three Southern M45+ runners who all ended up going from number 3 to number 9 together in the middle race. Still at least we had a nice little chat about it during the next few legs.

[HOCOLITE]

Have to echo King Penguin. I have run at Bentley three times and enjoyed it more each time. That is no down to performance either. I had a few Mares so was near the bottom but still enjoyed being able to go direct and to run in the woods. Bluebells just enhanced it.
Super run in to I love it when I can show a clean pair of heels to the rest of the class and today the course as well

[DM]

On the other hand the JM5M splits showed the downside of trying to follow someone without attempting to map read when:
1) You miss the fact the fact that the person you are following has punched at a control and/or
2) You lose them and then have no idea what to do.

Looks like a combination of both the above. Looking at the photos of the forest on the website you would need to try pretty hard to not see someone punch, visibility looks pretty high...none of that at Simpson Ground, even if the cloud had lifted. Anyone more than 20 sec away was just a noise in the undergrowth.

[awk]

The variety of orienteering.....because we were at Hollin Head near Ripon, a very different area again - a mixture of bluebell woods, tank training terrain, scrappy thorn scrub, runnable pinewood slopes, densely pitted conifer, all interlaced with army training tracks. Not the most prepossessing area at first glance, but really well planned to make the most of the terrain; a very enjoyable run, and it was pleasantly dry too! Thanks to Claro for a very enjoyable local (district) event, a breathing space in amongst all these big weekends away.

[Mrs H]

Must agree with Neil - the FCC has provided us with a roller coaster of a spring - and some great races I probably would not have gone to without that imperative - it's emotional stuff at times - I never got to have my run at Bentley yesterday having seen young Neville limping heavily through the spectator control - I knew i couldn't go.

Neil - that was strange that corner of the middle final wasn't it - I went to one control totally confident everything was right (crag on right hand side of left fork in re-entrant - number on control descriptions) only to discover later that I had come in a bit high and had missed one out and had to do the whole loop all over again I wasn't the only one either.

We are very lucky people

[woodpecker]

Sunday 22nd - what a choice of events!
Had entered Bentley in advance and paid mi' dues, but a few days ago Rog L. rang and asked why I wasn't going to Simpson Ground. We both live equidistant between the two areas - I suppose 2 hours to Nuneaton and 1 1/2 to Kendal. In the end opted to forfeit the Bentley entry and go to Lakes even knowing about recent felling.
As it turned out probably made the right decision (but marginal). The Simpson Ground terrain was superb at least on the Blue course, but the weather was ugh - claggy, cold and constant drizzle. Got our money's worth, though - 69 minutes winning time! And I reckon I did more orienteering in every 5 minutes of Simpson Ground than I would have done in the whole course at Bentley....
Hollin Head? Avoided it because of past remembrances of mud and gorse, but my memory was probably playing tricks.
PS Long live LONGER winning times.

[LostAgain]

Hollin Head (Claro) was nice at this time of year. Luckily it was dry else the tank training area would have been a nightmare.
Still pickung thorns out of my head though, white runnable had a lot of hawthron bushes in it!
Brown, Green, Lt Green, Yellow and White were well planned. with some tricky navigation in places amonst the wet bomb craters!

[eagh]

Woodpecker -

" And I reckon I did more orienteering in every 5 minutes of Simpson Ground than I would have done in the whole course at Bentley.... "

presume you have seen the course you would have run at Bentley to make this judgement?

[Nails]

Bentley's not very hard though is it? Nice fair enough but its so open that you can see for miles.

[EddieH]

And up here we had a great C4 on a largely new area. Brown winning time 77 mins and pretty warm and dry. Great planning - well done GRAMP.