Location Info
Event Details
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Post Event Comments:
Comments from Organiser Peter Suba and competitor Jason Falconer:
PS – What a great start to the season. The kick off the Night League season this Monday was graced with perfect running weather. A complete opposite to last year’s deluge, and accordingly we had a very good turnout – 39 entries on the combined Kings’ and Queens’ park map. People seemed to have been keen to start and enjoyed the challenge. Unsurprisingly as the first of the season this testing ground weeded out some of the head torches which were not used for a while – unfortunate for some of the starters that needed to cut their run short or interrupted due to torch failure! In terms of planning, I used the format with offering bonus points when controls are punched in a particular order to encourage a certain order – this allowed to plan “legs” with decent route choices and also to have more post-race split analysis fun for those who are interested. There were many points where runners needed to make a choice as breaking the sequence paid off in terms of shorter distances or simpler navigation – at the expense of losing the bonus option. I hope this kept your minds working all the time and you entertained! In the end, a few people managed to get all the controls – well done to them – but no one got them all in order so no one scored the maximum available points. Dale Paget managed to balance the distances and bonuses the most and was the well-deserved winner with only 30 points short of maximum, James Crickmore second just ahead of Andy Snell. A special mention to John Oakes who was the only one attempting and almost getting all controls in a fully sequential order – only abandoning the last control as he was already well over time and probably wanted to avoid being disqualified for coming in well after the course closed!
JF – Hungarian Wessex Club Member Peter Suba planned a new format for the joint parks which contained a blend of traditional park, urban streetscape and the mature copses of white forest nestling in the hills and hollows of Queens Park. An hour score given an extra twist of bonus points for controls picked in ascending sequential order, that raised the question- was it possible to visit all locations in sequence within the hour? Given that the Wessex Way bifurcates the map, it was a challenging prospect that in the end no-one managed. Kings Park is now much more managed since the Bournemouth Cherries made the Premiership, football training areas taking up some more fenced areas for the course amongst the established park fields and running track. Runners were given the choice of when and where to make the crossing over to Queens, there being two underpasses one of which wasn’t exactly easy to see without very fine micro-navigation. Over amongst the tall pines direction is hard to find in the dark, even though there are stands of trees it’s hard to see them over distance, Peter planned well to force runners up and down the whole area. As with all these upcoming events the skill is to be able to know one’s distance ability for the area given on the map. Winner Dale Paget spent a good two minutes drawing his route onto the map at the start, time well spent. He and 2 others punched all the controls within the hour, making 4/5 sequences out of the 22 available controls. My own early choice was to only cross the road once, picking 2 sequences in total on a run of 9.2 K.M within the time limit. We welcomed a few new faces onto the area, out of the 39 runners who competed, 40 about the standard number for these events. Excellent start to the season, fine tuning the navigation in the dark always sharpens the ability on the hill – we welcome you to the next events in the series.
Pre-Event Bulletin:
| Venue: | Kings and Queens Park, Event centre: Bournemouth Indoor Bowls Centre Indoor bar in operation – make sure to pay a visit! GR SZ116925 within Kings Park | ||
| Parking: | Bowls Centre & nearby Kings Park parking (SatNav: BH7 6JD) | ||
| Terrain: | Unique mix of parkland, golf course and urban areas. Limited woodland within the golf course, if planning to collect high point values then prepare for areas of moderate undergrowth. | ||
| Map: | 1:6000 with 5m contours, updated in 2016 | ||
| Timing: | S.I. Electronic punching | ||
| Courses: | 1 hour score (Night League) with bonus points given each time you visit a control in increasing sequential order following the previous control (i.e. 61->62->63, but not 61->63). | ||
| Times: | Registration: Starts: Course Closes | 18:00 onward Night League starts 19.00 – 19.30 20.30 | |
| Fees: | £5 for Night League | ||
| Entries: | Entries to [email protected] to reserve map, EOD until maps last | ||
| Facilities: | Bar, toilets, changing facilities | ||
| Officials:
| Planner and Organiser: | Peter Suba at [email protected]
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