It’s been a few years since I organised a Kent Orienteering League event (called Saturday series back then). I remember a lot of planning and a boot groaning with equipment, but today I arrived with one bag of SI equipment and a small rucksac, the heaviest bit being a chicken ceasar wrap. The job seems so much easier now thanks in part to the technology but mainly to the team of people helping. Particular thanks to Phil Basford (land permission and map printing), Andrew Evans (checking courses), Simon Maytum (SI), Dave Cave (organising all the equipment) and Jerry Purkis (final league calculations). It seems I don’t even need to fill in a BOF levy form as our fixtures secretary Louise Sylva does this now. Thanks also to the other on the day helpers: Pete Townsend, Phil Craven, Roger Hazeldene, Chris Baker, Andy Elliot, Neil Speers, Andy Pitcher and John Lewis.

Well done to all the prize winners. There were quite a few different names winning prizes this year and it will be interesting to see what happens next year. I wonder if the fast improving juniors and new orienteers of SAXONS can finally remove the men’s open trophy from Neil Speers’ sideboard? There are also other juniors and new orienteers who could make quite an impact on the different courses.
 
Apologies to those who’s paper map began to shred. We ran out of waterproof paper to print your maps and I should have reminded everyone to use a map bag. If you want a new map for your post race analysis please email me at seancronin1001@hotmail.com.

The long leg between 4 and 5 provoked plenty of discussion. The wardens have removed rhododendrons from that area making the long leg possible. One or two of you got stuck in undergrowth going straight. There were some routes through but I guess a straight route is always a gamble in summer. It’s all part of the fun. Long and safe, or short and risky? What was the best route? I’ve no idea but it would be a good training exercise one day to try each one. I could also have cleaned up more changes with the map, but I spent some extra time on publicity. Also my son was with me when looking for control sites and he insisted on going to the playground instead of checking even more spurs :-)

There’s lots of local orienteering coming up this summer, starting with next Sunday at Shooters Hill. In fact almost one event a week until next season’s Kent Orienteering League and Kent Night Cup starts again. The number of events and the numbers of beginners/juniors shows how far Orienteering in Kent has progressed in the past few years.