Organiser's Comments

Thanks for coming to Waddesdon for our, now seemingly annual, Hallowe'en spooky orienteering! Apologies for the long queues to register today. As you will have gathered, we were overwhelmed by the number of people who came to sample our Spooky-O. I had lots of extra maps printed, but we still ran out slightly on some courses, and the wait for timing dibbers did cause some queues. Despite this, we very much hope you enjoyed the opportunity to walk or run round Waddesdon's lovely grounds.

Planning the courses was challenging this year, as some new sheep fencing had appeared which meant that some of the estate that I'd used for previous years was now out of bounds. Plus I only discovered this two weeks before the event! I did rediscover the caves in the northern part of the manor grounds though, so had to take the opportunity for a control up there, complete with skeleton! Setting up all the Hallowe'en props is also quite a challenge, starting at sunrise on the day, and I actually ran out of time to complete all the props, meaning some were left in my car. I also only realised after the event that I'd left the spooky chocolates at home... many apologies to anyone who was expecting them after your run. I'll be eating chocolate skeletons until the New Year now...

Many thanks also to those of you who gave up their maps after your run so that someone else could use it. Please see the pdf course map links above, if you'd like to download a copy of your map. Thanks too, for all the great feedback and your photos of the event left on the Facebook event page. Thanks to Waddesdon (especially Sarah, Richard and Garth) for allowing us to hold the event again, and credit to Andrew for producing and updating the map. And a huge thank you for all of the volunteers who gave up their time to help run the event - without them it wouldn't be possible.

Mike Shires