Bramley Fall & Hawksworth Woods

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Organisers Report

I think the event was an overall success, though not without it’s hiccoughs. We were fortunate in the weather and the facilities, both the brand new Kirkstall Forge site and the 100+ year old Munitions Factory buildings that make up the scout hut. If it had been wet, as it was so recently, having hard standing for parking and a dry weather-proof building, hard by the competition area, for registration/download would have been an absolute boon. There are some apologies to make. I managed, to my great embarrassment to mislay the keys after we had opened the scout hut but before I had opened the toilet block. We were saved by the helpful staff in KIrkstall Forge office block who allowed use of their facilities but apologies for the additional walk. The keys were in our car all the time. Because I got into a flap about the keys, I forgot to put up the sign at the splitting of the way to the two starts. The registration team tried to give instructions on the routes but were overwhelmed by the numbers registering. Apologies to those who had to come back to the hut to ask for directions. Equally, apologies about the delay in the starts. Bramley’s “Scallies” are a bit well known and we have lost controls during previous events. We decided that controls would go out in the morning. Unfortunately, putting out, grippling and controlling 61 of them across the two areas, between first light and 10:30, beat the planner and controller despite their best efforts - and judging by their state when they came in they had been running pretty hard! Finally, we did manage to run out of maps on some courses. That’s encouraging for the numbers (see below) but of course frustrating for competitors. Maps are a significant expense and we don’t want to throw them away so judging how many to print is always difficult. My thanks to those who agreed to run another course and apologies to those who had to wait for a returned map. There seemed to be a good number of pluses, judging by the comments I was given or overheard. As Tim says in his notes, Chris Burden’s map linking the new area of Hawksworth Woods to Bramley Fall made for a much more interesting event, welcomed by everyone. People liked the courses and the bigger area meant the longer courses didn’t have to go everywhere twice. No-one seemed to mind the run down the road and through the station. The car parking also seemed to be welcomed, despite the walk to registration. It was certainly much easier for everyone than trying to park in the very confined area around the scout hut. Quite a few people cycled and some apparently used the train service which is great. Hopefully next time the train services will have increased to every 30 mins or better. Butler’s cafe clearly went down well and the cafe appeared to have people inside all the time. Apparently around 100 people used it during the event and the Butler’s staff were pleased too. We had another encouraging January turnout with 261 runs which represented well over 280 runners taking into account the pairs (and 3s, 4s & 5s!). Most encouragingly, that included 18 people, mostly adult novices, running the Red/Long Orange course and 15 juniors 10 or under doing the White with another 17 on Yellow. That is a great number of potential or actual new recruits to orienteering. Together they represent one in six of the competitors. Thanks are due to Tim & Richard as Planner and Controller, to Chris for the map and general support, and to all the Aire Helpers who made it possible. Thanks also to CEG (owners of Kirkstall Forge) for their enthusiasm and willingness to help, especially Emma, Rebecca and the Security Team on duty on the day, and to Butler’s Cafe who provided the excellent hot drinks in comfortable surroundings. Thanks finally to all the competitors for coming to the event. We had M/W80s down to M/W8s - and even the Planner’s W1.8 who ran the string course. Thank you for your comments and criticism (it helps us get better). You make it worthwhile. Ken Patterson

Planners Report

Firstly a big thank you to Chris Burden for producing the new extended map. I think linking the two areas together has created a great new map for events of this size. I know a lot of people had not previously orienteered in Hawksworth woods, so hope they found this enjoyable. As this was the first event with the new map, I deliberately planned all routes that used both areas to run down through the new Kirkstall forge complex and over the train station bridge as I think it is a fairly scenic run (one I do fairly regularly if I’m late for the train…) – however the map allows for a longer loop round the Crag Hill woods and over Pollard lane bridge – so future events can create even more new course layouts. All the feedback I had from competitors on the day was positive – I think it was the most positive feedback I’ve received for an event I’ve planned. It helped having mild and dry weather which made the courses a bit quicker than expected – certainly they were easier than back in October and November when I planned them in the rain and mud, and when the brambles were still at full height! Looking at the results and the route gadget traces that have been uploaded, everyone seems to have taken different routes, which is always my aim when planning. I’ll take it as a success that every competitor on the Brown had at least one ‘mistake’ per the WinSplits results display. Those of you who’ve run my courses before will probably know I try to add lots of route choice and decision points in to the legs, as well as adding a few long run legs along the way. The legs from the station control into Bramley woods on the Green, Blue and Brown are good examples of this – I hope you enjoyed them! It was very pleasing to see so many people run the Long Orange and the junior courses. I hope you enjoyed these and the courses were the right balance of distance, challenge and fun. Any feedback from anyone who ran is appreciated (good or bad) as its always interesting to know what people thought to try and improve for future.

Tim Patterson

Pre Event Info

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