WNL2 – Winchester (BAOC)


Location Info

Event Details

  • Date:
  • Event area (map): Winchester
  • Categories: ,
  • Get ready for Winchester’s streets and parks on Wednesday evening, with free touch-fee EMIT eTags provided!


Results available:

Post Event Comments:

An excellent turn out again, probably helped by the day races which Allan Farrington also produced. In the League after two races it’s the usual suspects. With Dale, Peter and Andy leading the Open. Jo Pickering being an excellent forth. In the Handicap a resurging Jane Morgan is in top spot, followed by Dale and Jo, with Rob Hick in 4th.

The following from Allan: and a competitors view further below from David Hunt:

Thanks to Simon Farrington for Controlling. Terry Smith SOC did all the setting up, registration & download as I was out moving & collecting controls between the events and then patrolling.
Went very well as did the day event and lots of nice complements, thought I had got it just right on time until Rob Finch blew me out of the water, but I based it on people like Dale & Andy not top elite runners. Rob choose the best possible route going anti clockwise, despite my tempting them to all go clockwise with a few easy early controls, I was trying to get them to go the reverse flow of the day event as there were a handful who did both. As it worked so well my plan is to repeat it again next year, also in half-term week. I am having the map extended NW to take in the hospital and university, that will also mean the pub will then be on the map rather than 400m off it, so you can pencil Winchester in for 25 Oct 17.

David Hunt – As a keen urban orienteer I was attracted to make the journey from Bristol to Winchester by the prospect of two urban events in one day and by running on the excellent Winchester urban map.
The enjoyable linear BAOC Blue course during the day took me to new parts of the city and surrounds and I returned for the hour score in the evening. I like the challenge that score events present of creating your own course and deciding whether a total clearance was possible.
On the 400 metre run onto the map from the Start at the Queen Inn I was busily trying to assess which way around the map to run – clockwise or anticlockwise and how to pick up those tricky controls in the middle near the Cathedral. By the time I reached the Start Triangle I was still undecided and so almost by default went to control 10 that started me on a anticlockwise circuit. In retrospect this was a mistake and this was compounded by a rather tortuous route to clear the middle controls. Nevertheless I still felt I could just clear the course if I made no further mistakes. It did help that I had visited some of the controls during the day, but despite this time was running tight so decided to drop control 2 after visiting 22 with only 5 minutes left. My run in was just not quite fast enough and I picked up a 10 point penalty for being 5 seconds over the hour.
Congratulations to all that took part and especially the four participants who did manage to visit all 30 controls within the hour, and particularly to Robert Finch who cleared the course in under 51 minutes – a noteworthy achievement. Many thanks to Allan Farrington for staging both events and for creating very well judged courses during the day and a highly enjoyable night challenge too. The journey from Bristol was indeed very worthwhile. I’m glad to see other night events scheduled on urban maps during the rest of the series.


Pre-Event Bulletin:

Hosted by SOC in cooperation with BAOC – more information on their website.


Last updated on Sat, 7th January 2017, 20:29 by Peter Suba