Wimborne Orienteers

WIM Regional Event at Godshill

3 February 2019

Planner: Brian Johnson, Organiser: Kevin Pickering, Controller: Julie Astin (WSX)

Organiser's Comments

When I left home at 07.30 for this morning's event and the temperature reading in the car got down to -7.5C, I wasn’t quite sure if we had made the right decision to keep going with the event. At 7.45 when I had finished gritting the first road and was coming down the hill the sun was shining across the valley and everything was so peaceful and beautiful. I was then left wondering if anybody would turn up and would they appreciate a run across the snow. But turn up you did and in just the right numbers that we just about fitted everyone into the car parking spaces. My early panic was when I had to ask other members of the public to move their cars from our parking spaces as they were going to the church next door. The vicar tried to park and I said “but there’s no service today, I checked”, the reply was “we changed it yesterday as the other church where we were holding todays service,four miles away, has too many icy roads to get to it.”

So, we were lucky, no wind, sunny day, crunchy snow underfoot, good courses, everyone back safe, Brilliant bunch of helpers who all did their jobs to the usual WIM standard, free tea and coffee, indoor facilities.

Some of the comments I received were -

"Can we orienteer like this every week!"

"I wish I had a camera out there."

"A deer ran right past me."

"Well done for not cancelling the event, it was fabulous."

Thank you all for coming, I hope you are all safe at home, resting like me with a nice cup of tea, and thinking what a good day.

Kevin Pickering

Chris Branford adds: Special thanks must go to Brian Johnson for updating the map and planning the courses, Julie Astin WSX for controlling the event, Kevin Pickering for organising the event and the venue at Woodgreen Village Hall, Eamon and Kirsty Staunton for assisting Brian with putting out and collecting controls, Dick Keighley for the SI and all the other club members who helped out on the day. We had well over 250 entries despite the weather and road conditions in some areas and it ended up a beautiful sunny day for us all to enjoy.

Photo by John Warren - click for fullscreen view