Bradenham Regional Event

Level C

18th April 2021


Organiser's Comments

First rule of good organising. Organise decent weather. I think I succeeded there!

This event has been a long time coming, and with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Our first attempt was for late November but was thwarted by a COVID lockdown. We rearranged for January, but that date fell in the next lockdown. More worrying, some forestry work was underway, which we feared would put the wood out of action for maybe 12 months. So we cancelled and refunded.

But by late February, things were looking up. The forestry work was much less severe than we had feared, and the Government roadmap indicated that orienteering could resume from April. So game on?

Unfortunately, the National Trust man who had been so helpful in providing permission last last year had been a casualty of that organisation’s cuts. But the man now in charge was equally helpful, as was Mr Stubbings the tenant farmer in whose field we parked.

And with a beautiful Spring day, what could go wrong? I do have a few thank you’s.

Firstly to all of you who entered the event. It is SO pleasing to have a bumper field of entrants. It makes all the work that goes into putting on events like this all the more worthwhile. And it was so nice to see you all, and that you all demonstrated to some of the locals that orienteers really are a very decent lot.

Secondly thanks to Mark and Bob who updated the map - several times! To Peter for designing some great courses. And to Nev for controlling, ensuring we had all bases covered.

Thirdly to our Chair, Chris, who lives just off the top of the map. He handled all the negotiation with the National Trust.

Finally, big thanks to the TVOC team on the day. I hope that, like me, you felt they did a great job of making everything go smoothly.

Alun
alun.orienteering@gmail.com

Planner's Comments

It really makes the work worthwhile, when you see so many familiar faces, enjoying their run in the sun.

My thanks to my 2 controllers, First Mark Thompson, who sadly was not able to be with us and latterly Neville Baker.

Special thanks to Chris and Adam Poole for helping on the morning, Bob and Pattie Beresford for Saturday and all the teams at TVOC who help ease the workload on the Planner.

I do hope you enjoyed Bradenham and we look forward to seeing you all again next month at Hambleden.

Peter Riches

Controller's Comments

Planner, mappers, Organiser, team leaders and helpers carried out their roles with great competence. The inevitable problems were efficiently sorted out. Nothing much for me to do other than the basic checking, so all round a fine Controller experience.

Neville