Sutton Park Badge Times

Controller's Notes
Thanks to Bob for asking me to Control the Sutton Park Event (Ragley 
Estate). I thought that I was well placed to travel to Ragley, as it 
turned out it was probably easier to get to Sutton.
The change of venue as can be seen worked to my advantage. It is here 
that I should thank Dave Beal for the planning of two events. The late 
switch made the planning process very concentrated, it is fortunate that 
we had some time on our hands. People will be talking about our meetings 
at Hopwood Services.
Thanks must go to Bruce Bryant who had plans to update the Sutton map 
sometime, only to find with a month's notice that this event was to take 
place. Having carefully mapped all the gorse patches in the past, it was 
disconcerting to see it all going with the cutter. He was a rock in the 
background helping David with all the computer work and acting as a second controller.
Gorse cutting and less than 'green' Holly made times even faster than our 
base time from previous events. This made winning times even shorter for 
the ever faster veteran runners. Well done anyway. I think the winners 
were deserving of their awards.
Just a little bit of personal history. I came into orienteering in 1977 
upon the suggestion of my brother who was influenced in no little way by 
Bob Brandon and ODs. David and I had never knowingly met before but we 
were well aware of each others existence in 1978 as members of BOK. We 
also ran in the APOC event in Washington State, my only other orienteering 
outside of Europe. We look forward to bumping into each other in the 
Mongolian desert, probably on two wheel, sometime in the future.
I hope you all enjoyed the event as much as I did.
Pete Manancourt HOC

Planner's Notes
The late change of venue to Sutton Park from Ragley because of extensive 
forestry work meant the planning processed was compressed. However with 
the commitment and enthusiasm of Pete Manancourt (controller) and Bruce 
Bryant (mapper) plus the strength in depth of the Droober team we got 
there. 

The Park is a great area for our sport. The longish runs across the open 
areas were intended to give a refreshing contrast to pushing through 
holly. 

The Park is also very popular with tags and controls disappearing, one of 
them bizarrely removed overnight from one of the most inaccessible parts 
of the wood. Fortunately everything remained in place, if not intact, for 
the competition. The usual low flying model aircraft had a rare day off. 

The ponies north of the railway can now get on with creating an erratic 
path network to challenge future orienteers. 
David Beal

Organiser's Notes
Many thanks for coming along to make the event at such a success.
6am loading the car in the dark in heavy rain - when the car was full, Tim 
and I set off for Sutton Park to meet up with Dawn who already had the Sea 
Ranger Hut open by 8am. The heating was on, so I knew that registration 
and download were going to be nice and cosy. I soon discovered what I had 
left at home - red & white tape, 'beware runners' signage and tabards for 
crossing marshals. There-after helpers and competitors started to arrive 
and the Droober machine took over, so I could relax and the rain eased.
The start team(s) were very happy with the location that David's had found 
for them in the wood. We are grateful to those exposed to the elements 
parking the cars; minding the finish; helping the juniors across the road; 
providing a championship string course; patrolling the control sites; 
collecting them in....
What inspiration to have Les as entries secretary, Paul is so happy with 
downloading emit that he is now putting future events in his diary. 
Michael (and Paul) is pleased to have his software working with EMIT.
After the event Dawn gave us a 'sea rangers' point for a clean hut 
(Hilary). 
Bruce, Pete, David - well done.
Note for next year - we have a contact list of trophy holders (Hilary 
again).
Lost Property E-card 480760 which belongs to Geoff Sara HOC. 
Bob Brandon 024 765 5050