A glorious autumn day, a lot of happy orienteers… here are a couple of memories of the day, from the organiser, and first a competitor.
It’s been several months since my last orienteering event but with a new dibber on my finger and a beautiful Saturday morning, I could not have asked for a better return to the sport after a long summer.
The sun was shining and Church Stretton was looking as gorgeous as ever. I ran the ‘medium-technical’ course starting from Rectory Wood Field winding my way through a housing estate, up to the bottom section of Cardingmill Valley, the cenotaph, playing fields, the town centre and finally through Rectory Woods to the finish.
It was a course of great variations: landscape types to experience, contours and ground under foot, all within the boundary of Church Stretton!
The morning was finished off with a first place position, a catch up with orienteering friends at the finish with a little bit of debriefing on our runs and a drink at a local pub afterwards, what a great return after a mini break from orienteering!
Katie
Organiser and Planner’s Report
Thank you all for coming and taking part in the inaugural Church Stretton Town Orienteering Event. The sun shone, 40 people came to participate, everyone returned safely, fastest times on all courses were as intended, no kit was interfered with, many local people saw orienteering in action and enquired about what was going on.
Church Stretton Town Council were supportive of our use of the town open spaces. Access to the National Trust owned Long Mynd and Carding Mill Valley enhanced the options for route choice in planning the courses. Thanks to both organisations.
As ever all of this only happened due to the efforts of many people. Thank you to all of them. Pete Jones surveyed and drew his first new Urban map last year and then responded patiently to my numerous recent updates and requests. Richard Rogers handled the admin of entries, download and results. Many people helped on the day, and all of this allowed the event to occur.
The four courses each had a different target audience. The short local course was planned so juniors could take part unaccompanied and remained in Rectory Woods and Field. The medium local provided a taster of Urban and Forest orienteering for newcomers. The technical courses for experienced orienteers were planned to give route choice and control finding challenges with a physical demand of some steep slopes. Well done to course winners and everyone else who took part.
The event was deliberately low key, and courses were restricted to the west side of the map leaving a greater area of Church Stretton for use in a larger event with marshals for road or rail crossings. We are hoping the map can be used to provide activities for local schools or in Scouts, Guides, U3A or WI.
Wrekin Orienteers’ next event is at Wrockwardine Wood, Telford on November 27th. Further details will be on the event page soon.
Adrian Pickles
