After such a busy weekend and many of you involved in the Caddihoe festival weekend, I am sure you need no update from me. For those not able to attend, there was a real sense of normality and this was enhanced by the fantastic location of Godshill village hall and fields (especially the teas, cakes and bacon butties made by locals for local charities), as well as of course some fantastic courses in wonderful terrain under sunny skies.

There was a huge effort on everyone’s part in WSX and WIM to get the weekend organised so quickly and so well. Everyone did their bit, but special thanks to Julie, Ian and Roger for organising, planning and controlling. Not easy with a variety of logistical challenges including distant starts/finishes, locals moving tapes and controls, not to mention the last minute permissions from Forestry England. Even a slight delay to our start on day 1 did not seem to diminish the enjoyment of the 300-400+ orienteers that turned up. Once again, great effort.

There are numerous SW middle and long distance champs and I will report on these when they are confirmed. Details of the results and routegadget can be found on the links. Photos of the weekend by Adam Cooke (WIM) can be found here 

This weekend, we have the Purbeck Festival weekend, where Roger and team are supporting the Dynamic Dunescapes project with the National Trust. Get in touch with Roger if you can lend a hand. Further north in Redcar, four of our juniors will be representing the South West in the Junior Inter regional championships. Finally, next week we have our AGM so we hope to see you next Thursday at Queens Park golf club. Details are in the email from Sheila. If you would like to be on the committee (or want to stand down??) please let me or Sheila know beforehand or on the night. It’s a great way to get involved with the club.

To finish, Alan H provided a report on his latest MTBO event organised by WIM. If anyone would like to submit reports for events (inc the Caddihoe) then please email me them for inclusion in the Chat (Thanks Alan).

Wimborne MTBO Event 12^th September.

Well , this was certainly different, I had never entered a proper multi hour MTBO event before, all previous ones had offered 1:10000 Orienteering style maps but this event let us loose with a bog standard OS 1:25000 map with all it’s deficiencies.  The event had a good entry from WSX, Tim and Sarah Holder, Jon, Nickie and Agnes Brooke, Alan Blanchflower and myself. I had entered the age appropriate Ebike class as a pair with a cycling friend and ended up doing about 27 Km.  Jon led the pack with 440 points.  The event was held SW of Salisbury in the Coombe Bissett/Breamore area, lots of rough bridleways and steep hills to traverse.

It is interesting to use a 25000 OS map when you are used to O maps, the lack of detail hits you. Attempting to separate a Bridleway ( allowed) from a footpath ( banned) whilst bouncing over rough tracks on a bike is not easy. I climbed up a steep hill to a so-called trig point (Gallows Hill/Grim’s Ditch), the Bridleway was overgrown, almost invisible at it’s entry point with vegetation of the aggressive kind brushing both shoulders, The actual trig point was buried in a hedge and looked unusable for it’s intended purpose. The other problem with a score event is although a route exists on the map it may well be almost impassable on a bike, this also produces “trap” routes where there is no legal escape to adjacent areas without travelling about 3K. Kevin had over printed one track as “muddy” this proved an understatement since the muddy area comprised a 20 foot long  lake blocking the track with a narrow precipitous side path offering to tip you into the puddle for a swim. The area was a beautiful ride however with fields of wild flowers and the Whitsbury “Gallops” of horse racing fame, I believe Red Rum spent some time around here.

There was also a portion descending down through Breamore Woods into the House area which was rather beautiful.

 Another side effect of this format is that it becomes less social, everyone disappears onto the terrain for 2 or 3 hours by definition so there is not much gathering after the event , especially if you were as late back as we were.

Thanks to WIM for organising this, it was particularly pleasing to have an Ebike class which allows the less athletic types such as me to still take part. The camping site made a pleasant setting

Alan Hooper