David Currie

We spurned the OMM this year where, if the event reporting is to be believed, they had a very stormy and wet night but clear skies for much of the competition. Instead, we stayed at home and, on Sunday, went to BADO’s event at Blackwood where it rained continously the whole time we were there! This was only the second time we’ve used split starts, the first being the last day of the Scottish Six Days, and it’s been wet both times. Still, I just about managed to amuse Emma in the back of the car whilst Christine was out on the blue course.

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Another sure sign that winter’s on its way – the start of the SOC street events. First up on Thursday night was Dibden courtesy of Jon Forster. Jon had reduced the area covered from last year and lay down the gauntlet by stating that he thought it may be possible to get all of the controls (lamposts). I made a better start than last time: remembering a head torch and not getting too disorientated in the small pockets of woodland. My plan for the controls ahead kept changing and things started to go a bit pear shaped when I missed out 19. When I eventually came back to collect it I was starting to run short on time. It didn’t take long to decide to drop 6 and 2. The clock shows me 13 seconds late back but I put that down to following an unmapped path round the back of the shops rather than the one to the car park. You can see my route on Google maps.

Having agreed to take over SOC’s postponed local event at nearby Hut Wood (between Chandler’s Ford and Southampton) it transpired that most of the work required for an event was still to be done. Attendance at local event’s can be as low as half a dozen so, given the time I’d spent, it was gratifying when nearly 40 competitors turned up. In addition to the white, yellow and orange for beginners, there was a 45 minute score event. The latter had a snooker theme inherited from the event’s original organiser, Philip Cooper, who, in turn, had brought the idea back from Hungary.
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443This amazing little chap was seen crawling up the edge of the download tent at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park event on Sunday. As suggested, I looked him up on the cunningly named www.whatisthiscaterpillar.co.uk site
based on which I’m guessing he’ll turn in to a Pale Tussock moth.

As Christine has already blogged, we were at Queen Elizabeth Country Park yesterday. Amusingly, given my current state, we were meant to be providing first aid cover for the event. Fortunately our services weren’t called upon. The closest we got was one elderly gent failed to climb over the wooden railing surrounding the car park, fell backwards, and proceeded to bash his head on our front bumper!

Unfortunately our presence meant that I couldn’t escape collected my certificate for third place on the Brown Course in the SCOA League. I could put my position down to the fact that I had only amassed five rather than the required six events but I was beaten by those placed first and second in every one of those events. Just a shame I couldn’t make the most of their absence by running yesterday! I think it’s also fair to say that the league has never influenced whether or not I went to an event.

379Yesterday evening we put on our annual orienteering exercise for West Wellow Scouts. This year they had a one hour score event on Fritham Plain. I got soaked putting controls out and collecting them in again but it actually stopped raining for all of the time they were out. (Not that this stopped them getting wet as the plain is currently waterlogged.) The format seemed to work well with a lot more enthusiasm than I’ve seen in some years. Perhaps it was because the controls were easier to find or maybe it was because the openness of the area meant they could see how the other pairs were getting on. I was particularly impressed with one group who managed to get all fifteen controls with three minutes to spare.