Event Details
Club: | Wimborne Orienteers |
Event Name: | MBO, FootO and Night Owl Night Event |
Date: | 27/02/10 |
Format: | MTBO |
Mapping: | Orienteering |
Time Limit: | |
National League: | MTBO 2010 (Round 2 of 12. Best 7 count) |
League: | - |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
Inside Park near Blandford Forum in Dorset was the venue for round 2 of the MBO league, with Wimborne Orienteers our hosts. The Park referred to in the name is a caravan park which was used for the parking and registration.
The day started with a downpour, topping up the already sodden ground from days of rain. It was fairly obvious it was going to be muddy, and the start officials were warning of very slippery tracks. They were not wrong.
The area around the caravan park was small patches of wood joined up with farm tracks. The planner did a good job of extracting the 14.1km A course from a small area. Apart from the mud caused by the weather this is a good example of an area that isn't so good for foot-O but makes an excellent MBO area. It's always nice to have the proper MBO maps but this event proved they aren't essential (rideability poor everywhere!).
At times riding on the course was very challenging. Sliding around on corners wasn't too bad, more difficult was climbing where it was very difficult to get traction either on the bike or off and running. Mud, grass and leaves formed in huge piles around the wheels and gears. Several stops were required to try and reduce rolling resistance. Quote of the day: "The only way I could get the bike to go forwards was to push it backwards!"
John Houlihan proved the most adept at mud plugging, winning the A course in 63:03. Ifor Powell took second place again in 66:43, and now leads the series. Alan Hartley took third in 70:49. On the B Gavin Clegg used his new bike to good effect to win on his MBO debut in 67:04, although the 43 second gap back to Stuart Norman in second should've been larger as he was looking for a dropped SI-Card when I saw him! Sadly none of the top women made the trek down. Andy Fale won the C in a very fast time of 41:06, although he is the incorrect age to count toward the league on the C.
In the afternoon Wimborne hosted a low-key foot-O on the same area, and then a one hour night score also on foot. Not many did all three events, but a good way of doing things - one set of control hanging for three different audiences.
Alan Hartley