Manchester and District Orienteering Club Stockport Town Centre Races
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Event Photos by Peter Cull
Planning Stockport was very different from Tegg’s Nose, the same difference there is between an A to Z plan and a post stamp, I guess…
Another “premiere” for me, my first planned street event. Thankfully, the strong support was there again: John Britton put me at ease by explaining differences between street event planning and forest’s.
On another subject, the map required mapping amendments. As I had attended this excellent OCAD course organized by John, it felt natural to apply necessary changes. I would have certainly lived this differently without this course. Thank you John.
The planning exercise was interesting on this map because of the up and downs. I eventually got fully briefed on Stockport’s history, thanks to the Heritage trail documents and to David Walker.
Ian Gilliver did a wonderful job regarding planning control, logistics and saving on Marshalling resources by setting up a secure and straightforward system for the controls after a benchmark with previous events. Well done Ian!
Everything went as planned on the day. Even the fire in a derelict zone and the fire brigade did not impact on the well oiled MDOC organisation’s engine.
I like very much getting feedback from runners. This time, there was a lot, and very diverse. Overprint readability came ahead. A lot of runners enjoyed the run. I heard stories about treacherous benches and a mysterious blue door.
We’ve learnt a lot on mapping, printing (Thank you Steve Lang), wiring and punching, and advertising.
Edouard Salathe
Thanks to Pete Lomas who organised with calm efficiency, and to Edouard Salathe for planning with flair. Together Edouard and I learned a lot about planning an urban event. Thanks also to John Britton for passing on his knowledge to us and for his help on the day. I accept the criticism concerning the readability of the maps - next time I will know to request alternative shadings either for the course or for the shade of the buildings. I apologise to those whose runs were spoilt as a result.
We would have lost (at least?) one control box had it not been for the system we employed to secure the control sites. When collecting controls after the event I found one control completely without its flag and with the control code torn off and on the pavement. The steel ribbon holding the SI box to the wire cable was greatly distorted where it appears that someone attempted to tear the control way from its fixing - but both the cable and the fixings held firm. I am therefore very pleased to recommend Gripples for this type of application. In addition to being secure, they are reusable, and (as we found) easy to use.
I am grateful to Ollie O'Brien and Vince Roper of SLOW for passing on to us their knowledge gained at the City of London Street Event last year.
I am particularly grateful to Isobel Park of Gripple who provided us with the Gripples and cables. [i.park@gripple.com; 0114 22 88 660]
Ian Gilliver
Thanks to all the competitors for supporting the event. Last years' gales were replaced with calm ,balmy Sunday this year and we were able to have a tent for r egistration etc.
Stockport presents both physical and technical challenges and it seems the excellent courses by Edouard Salathe made good use of the area.
Last year we used a tremendous amount of manpower to man every control as we did know what to expect. This year thanks to the efforts of the controller, Ian Gilliver, an excellent security system was devised so we only had two manned controls. Clarity of the map and the overprint of the course is an issue the club will take up.
Pete Lomas, 0161 483 4332. Email:
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Stockport MBC and Merseyway.