Ringwood Forest, 16 March 2014
'Under Control – Out of Control '– the Winter Warmer 2014
Floods,tempests and the idiosyncrasies of man all played their part in making controlling the 2014 Winter Warmer a memorable experience.
When it was first agreed that Karen French would Plan and I would Control we were talking about a small scale Schools League event to be held in November 2012 , but things didn't quite work out that way.
Problem 1a - We had already got the land permission when we discovered that a new water main had been installed along the length of the access road. The contractors had back filled using clay, resulting in subsidence and huge holes in the road that even deterred the FC vehicles.
We continued to prepare with control sites tagged,minor map amendments made and courses rationalised aiming at a date early in 2013.
Problem 2, -The Arctic weather in 2013 simply put paid to any event at the planned time. Imagine staggering across the furrows with snow and ice as well!
More thoughts, why not combine with our 2014 Winter Warmer, which in 'old money' was the annual WIM Badge event, but try to minimise the toughness of the area by concentrating on the south and centre of the area. Of course nothing stands still, and ongoing forestry work meant more re-mapping to accommodate Karen's longer courses and more controlling hikes round the area.
By mid autumn 2013 it looked like the courses could work based upon the winning times of previous events in Ringwood North, so we tagged and checked sites particularly placing controls to ensure that courses crossing the central deep drain did so via marked bridge crossing points. I know that some people will find it hard to believe but we made a real effort to try to provide route choices through some of the best terrain where you could avoid the worst of the roughness and at least the bracken was down in spring!
Problem 1b again!- A major motor rally took place in autumn 2013 and the main cross roads near assembly was transformed from a gravel road to a 2m high curved earthbank holding back a large lake. Fortunately, the FC came to our aid with a grading machine putting everything back as a priority!
Problem 3a - The winter weather! The rainfall reduced many parts of the forest to a morass and any forest visit required waterproofs and wellies with a worrying number of trees beginning to fall.
Problem 3b – The hurricanes of early 2014. Most competitors suffered from fallen timber. It could have been much worse because adjacent to the routes followed by most technical courses was a 10 acre block of severe windblow with trees piled on top of each other.. The wind left us a narrow corridor of undamaged wood land which I hope everyone followed! The morning after the last storm Karen rang me to say that access to assembly, the start and the main routes out of the start were all blocked by fallen trees. Thank goodness for contacts with the Forestry Commission who took swift and decisive action to clear the fallen timber. We also did some 'in house' gardening to make the White,Yellow and Orange courses viable!
Saving grace 1a– The miracle of a dry spell of weather in March. Sun and wind helped to dry everything out and water levels fell steadily. I know that it was wet in places but you should have seen it at the end of February!
Saving grace 1b – The weather on March 16th. Not a cloud in the sky from dawn to dusk, no wind, and temperatures rising into the mid 60sF. The word 'Fantastic' can truly be applied and as for the event title, technically it was still 'Winter' but it was certainly a lot 'Warmer'!
Saving grace 2 - Events don't happen without people, and Kirsty Staunton, the Organiser, had assembled a first rate team of WIMs who not only helped Karen with the immediate pre-event work in the forest but also carried out the many tasks that made the event run so smoothly. A big thank you to them all and to all competitors who came to the event. We only had about 70 pre-entrants the week before the event but ended up with more than 260 taking part. Once again it was the weather that smiled on us! Also a particular thank you to all competitors! You all got back and downloaded before 2pm enabling control collectors to do their work early and everyone was out of the forest soon after 3pm – a near record.
John Warren
View Chris Branford's photos on Flickr
Editor's note: Though host clubs usually do well, it's interesting just how strongly WIM members performed with lots of high scores recorded in the Club League. Blue, Green and Short Green were all won by WIMs, with WIMs taking the first four places on Green. It's quite an impressive achievement!
