Page updated - February 6, 2006 East Pennine Orienteering Club Oakwell Hall Country Park Event Saturday 04/02/06

EPOC Oakwell Hall Country Park Night 'O' 4th February 2006

When the planners of this event, which was originally scheduled for Royds Hall Woods, had to unavoidably withdraw a few weeks before it was due to take place the fixture was duly cancelled as unfortunately there was no-one else available to take it on. The YHOA Night League this year has only 5 events rather than the usual 6 with the best 3 to count, so losing another fixture would limit the league format further.   Being one of the few members of EPOC who regularly has a go at night orienteering I was contacted by the League Co-ordinator just over a fortnight ago and asked if I could resurrect the fixture but having only ran in Royds Hall once, about 15 years ago, there was no way I could possibly put the event on there.   The Night 'O' format of a long, medium and short course closely matches our club informal events and having staged two such events in recent years at Oakwell Hall my proposal to put the event on there instead was accepted.  

Oakwell Hall Country Park is relatively small, mainly open, with a good path network and wooded areas to the east and west. The short course was straightforward to sort out from the many paths available and one circuit of the Park taking in some of the woodland gave a medium course with sufficient variation however getting a long course of adequate distance, given the relatively easy runnability, proved more of a challenge but with most finishing times on the night between 30 and 45 minutes this seems to have been achieved.   

The two things beyond my control, the weather and the local mischievous youths, both thankfully failed to become a issue as it stayed dry although the starts had to be   delayed until it got dark enough and by putting the most vulnerable controls out as late as possible we suffered no problems with everything remaining in place.

It was nice to have a good turnout in the medium and long courses and the majority got round without mishap although one unfortunate competitor did lose his car key in the woods.

Many thanks to Jack Holmes, Martin Reynolds and James Wetherill who did an excellent job helping me on the night to ensure the event ran smoothly and to Mike Pownall who checked my planning and printed the maps.

Thanks also to the Park Ranger for kind permission to use the Park.

Alistair Tinto

Organiser/Planner

alistair.tinto@bdct.nhs.uk