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East Pennine Orienteering Club
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The Orienteering Club for Calderdale, Kirklees and
Wakefield |
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Crow Nest Park ‘Come and Try It’ Organiser Comments: When I was approached in mid May about the club hosting an ‘orienteering taster’ as part of the Outdoor Dewsbury Festival in July my initial response was yes we would, but I wasn’t sure if we had any mapped areas suitable in Dewsbury so Oakwell Hall might have to suffice although that’s in Birstall. Further investigation yielded 2 potential areas, Wilton Park and Crow Nest Park but neither had an up to date map. Wilton Park is in Batley so Crow Nest it was, although the last map available was a 1:5000 scale from 1989 which had been produced under the West Yorkshire Orienteering Development Association initiative. As I wanted to start to learn more about surveying and drawing maps it seemed like a good opportunity to have a go although even with a very good base map what had largely stood the test of time and the joys of google earth it was going to be a bit of challenge in the time. Fortunately a combination of a few dry weekends, the club mapping day at Storthes Hall run by Christine Roberts and a lot of late nights fiddling with OCAD meant that a new map at 1:2500 scale started to emerge although its not quite ready for a regular orienteering course. Surveying the area unearthed the remnants of the original permanent orienteering course which again came about as part of the prolific WYODA and with the support of the Park Warden we will resurrect it. Like Greenhead Park in Huddersfield this park is the perfect area to be introduced to orienteering and the café in the Dewsbury Museum that’s situated on the park will be able to a focal point for the maps. The Outdoor Festival runs from 23rd to 30th July with a programme consisting of lots activities including walks, bike rides, canoeing classes, circus skills and much more as well as orienteering of course. Its hard to know how many takers you are likely to get, especially after the disappointing turnout at Thornes Park at a similar event last year. Anyway with the 2 Km yellow standard course put out by 10 a.m. and secured with gripples so there was no chance of any controls being ‘moved ’ we set up on the front lawn in prime position. With Val’s British Orienteering Banners and the EPOC flag it was going to be hard to miss us. The sunny weather meant the park was busy as we did get a steady stream of kids, often with parents in tow, having a go at the course either on foot or bicycle. The times were between 20 and 45 minutes which was just as planned and everyone seemed to have enjoyed the experience. As with the picnic at Holmfirth yesterday, we had the full Sportident experience (apart from route gadget) which is important as the kids got the instant printout of their course. We gave everyone information on the club so hopefully we may see them again at an event in the future. Thank you to Guy, Judith and Viv who helped me on the day as well as David Townend, the organiser of the festival for this support. Alistair Tinto
Come and Try It Event (Part of Outdoor Dewsbury Week) Crow Nest Park Cemetery Road Dewsbury West Yorkshire WF13 2SG Sunday 24th July 2011 Orienteering is an exciting outdoor adventure sport which involves walking
or running whilst navigating around a course using a detailed map and sometimes
a compass. The aim is to navigate in sequence between a set
of control points and decide the best route to complete the course in
the quickest time. It does not matter how young, old or fit you
are, as you can run, walk or jog the course and progress at your own pace. Part of the Outdoor Dewsbury Week.
There will be 2 Km course around the park which should take 20-45
minutes Planner and Organiser Alistair Tinto
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