Night EventWimpole Hall Estate by nightSun 10 December, 2017
Near: Arrington
Level of event: Local
Type of event:
Race, Night
Results
Report
Organiser's Comments
We hope you enjoyed your run under the stars at Wimpole. Our next event is at High Ash on 11 February 2018. In the meantime Happy Christmas from WAOC and best wishes for your orienteering in the New Year.
Planner's Comments
Wimpole Park is an interesting place to run, judging by the number of people who turn out every Saturday morning for the parkrun, but it is a little too easy for orienteering in the daytime so holding a night event in the park looked looked like more of a challenge.
There are necessary constraints of holding an event at Wimpole, and these include the agreement with The National Trust that fences should only be crossed via the gates and not climbed. Whilst there are fewer fences criss-crossing the park than there used to be there are still enough to impose a planning constraint, The other constraint was the path renovation in the woodland belts that the Trust had planned, this meant keeping the courses to the open areas.
Having the start and finish at the Arrington Gate meant that the courses were different to others we have had at Wimpole which have all been from the Stable Block on the east side. The three longest courses were able to visit the whole park including visiting the recently renovated folly in the north.
Thanks must go to Helen Hague for gaining permission from and liaising with The National Trust and for securing the use of Arrington Village Hall. Thanks also to Rakesh Chandraker for the organisation pre-event and to Caroline Louth for organising on the day and also to those who provided refreshments, baked cakes and so on.
Some of the more stressful aspects of planning were made easier by (a) Bruce Marshall's excellent map and the updates to the map he was able to do, (b) the efficiency of the printing company who delivered the maps over a week before the event, (c) being able to put out the controls in daylight and (d) having Johnny Pye and James Haynes volunteer to help collect controls.
Thank you also to Mike Edwards for controlling the event, for his suggestions on the yellow course, for helping set up and take down the start/finish on the day and for staying till almost everyone else had left so that we could get all the controls in.
Iain Stemp (WAOC)
Pre Event Info
Location Info
- Postcode: SG8 0AH *
- Lat,Lng: 52.13399,-0.06022
- Grid Ref: TL328501
- Google Map
- Streetmap (OS 50k)
- Bing Map (OS 50k)
- OpenStreetMap
* Postcodes are not very precise in some areas, so don't rely on them for an exact location.
WAOC colour coded night event
Directions / Parking
This event will use the Arrington Gate entrance to the Wimpole estate. This is on the opposite side of the estate from the usual National Trust public entrance, so please beware of following signs to Wimpole Hall.
Assembly and download will at the Village hall in Arrington which is located just behind the Hardwicke Arms pub off the A1198 approximately 6 miles north of Royston. We have permission from the pub to use their car park but you are encouraged to park tightly together to maximise use of space at the north end of the car park. Entry to pub car park is from the A1198 opposite the turning to Arrington village.
Toilets are in the hall and cake and hot drinks will also be available for participants.
Please note that the pub would be very happy to welcome Orienteers in search of further refreshment in exchange for allowing us to use their car park!
Course Information
| Course | Distance (km) | Climb (m) | Controls |
| Yellow | 2.0 | 30 m | 7 |
| Orange | 2.6 | 35 | 6 |
| Light Green | 3.1 | 40 | 8 |
| Short Green | 3.3 | 40 | 7 |
| Green | 5.3 | 85 | 12 |
| Blue | 6.8 | 100 | 19 |
| Brown | 7.9 | 135 | 20 |
Entry Details
Entry on the day only.
Adults £7 (£2 discount for member of British Orienteering)
Juniors and students £2 (Juniors are under 21)
All courses use Sportident electronic punching.
Dibber hire £1 (lost dibbers will incur a charge of £30)
Registration and Start Times
Registration and enquiries 19:00 - 20:00
Start times 19:30 - 20:30
Course close 21:30 - you must report to download by this time
Terrain and map details
Wimpole Estate is classic estate parkland with plenty of open rolling grass land surrounded by a woodland belt. By day there are lovely park prospects; by night delights such as the ditches designed to keep those prospects clear of animals.
Competitors should be aware of the challenges of night orienteering, especially low branches and brashings near trees, fences and ditches. However familiar the park is during the day it is altogether another place at night.
Dog restrictions
No dogs please.
Please remember that this is a night event. You MUST have a head torch and carry a whistle to compete. The organiser has the final say on whether a participant is competent to take part.
Safety bearing: West until you reach the woodland belt then follow perimeter south/south west until you reach Arrington Gate.
Contacts / Officials
Organiser: Rakesh Chandraker
Planner: Iain Stemp
Controller: Mike Edwards