Event Details
Club: | SWEMBO |
Event Name: | SW League 3 - The Otter Valley & Woodbury Common |
Date: | 05/06/16 |
Format: | MBO Score |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 3 hours |
National League: | - |
League: | Southwest MBO Score League 2016 (Round 3 of 7) |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
For this year's Woodbury event we decided to take you across the A3052 onto Aylesbeare Common, Harpford Woods and East Hill, Something we haven't done before. By doing this, it restricted us to only using the northern part of Woodbury Common, but given the variety of terrain that the new sections provided, I feel this was justified!!
The hall at Tipton St John is ideally positioned, offering a gentle run-in from all directions, and the tough decision from the Start as to whether you head off East and immediately tackle the steep hills of East Hill & Mutters Moor, or head West over the gently undulating hills up to Woodbury Common.
With the week before the event being glorious sunshine, the trails had dried out nicely and the course was going to be fast. The only slight downside to the nice weather, being the nettles shot up, but even this was only restricted to parts of the east side of the map. For the first time in a long time, I can honestly say I enjoyed spending all day Saturday putting out check Points ( A task that normally starts out full of optimism and joy, but usually finishes with a 'thank god that's over'!!!)
Race day dawned with a few clouds in the air that were soon to burn off, and as we were just finishing setting up the hall the first of the competitors pulled up into the car park. ( you know you're in the countryside when the car park sign reads ' No horses or inappropriate behaviour'!!!)
Unusually there was a mass of riders looking to start at first starts (normally its evenly placed throughout the Start window) and typically this is when the Start Unit decided to pack up!!! With quick thinking we soon reallocated an unused SI unit at the Start Unit and all the riders were soon off on their merry ways. even Jonny Dodwell was ready to start well within the start window, although camping just down the road he didn't really have a reason to be late!!!
With everyone signed in and out on the trails, it was left to Faye and myself to set the refreshments up and wait for the riders to return. It was during this lull that Rich turned up, ready to help collect in CPs, already moaning that the headset on the MTB had seized up so he was on his Cross Bike, which he had picked up a puncture riding from Exeter to the hall. This wasn't boding well of things to come!!! With puncture fixed and the first riders due back, Rich decided to head out to Four Firs, the furthest point on the map, to progressive collect in CPs from that end of the map...
As more and more riders returned, tanned and happy it became clear that all the CPs were in the correct place ( no selfies from Tim and Stu), and none had been pinched (always a concern when using areas with such heavy public footfall) (although Jason F did come back armed with a photo of CP 26 site, adorned with the marking tape, claiming it wasn't there. On retrieval later, it was where it was supposed to be, by the marker tape, so I'm not sure how he missed it!!
With inappropriate behaviour being banned from the car park, a few of you took it out into the woods. I've heard rumours of wife swapping and other such activities taking place up in the woods, but apparently Sion and Ifor took it to the next level at CP27 with a bit of bike swapping while Ifor had his head in a badger set !!?!!
With all the riders safely back enjoying drinks and cake, with the only casualty being Jonny rear mech, it was time to announce the winners:
1st overall and M40 Class winner was Ifor Powell with an impressive 590pts out of the possible 600pts ( if it wasn't for a puncture he would have probably cleared the course within the time limit, a feat which has yet to be achieved!!) 2nd overall was James Jackon 576pts, 3rd overall and M50 Class winner was Ian Cartwright 559pts. And other Class wins went to: Paddy Dowling & partner Izzy Boyd taking M21 & W21 respectively, Gill Stott W50, Ron Barrett M60, John Parfitt M70, Janet Burroughes & Matt Jepson Mixed Pairs, and dragged out of retirement Mark Pollard & Martin Walbank taking the Pairs category.
As the last of the riders left, it was just left to us to pack up and wait for Rich to return with all the CPs from the West side of the map, leaving us with the simple task of collecting in the remaining CPs, nice and simple with the car, and we should be home by 4. WRONG!!!!!
With the last of the equipment going in the boot of the car, Rich comes rolling round the corner with a face as black as thunder clouds, and some language suitable for the sewers!!! It turns out he had a further two punctures, 'lost my i-phone out of my jacket pocket', and couldn't find CP18 before giving up and limping back, leaving us with a majority of the course uncollected!!!
First priority find phone. Try ringing phone in case someone has picked it up - no answer!!! I-phones have handy app 'find my i-phone' great ring wife and get her to run trace - 'don't know wife's number, it's in the phone!!!' 'Right, so you reckon you had it at CP20 but not CP22 so let's get out there and do a sweep search between the two CPs.' ringing phone again - answer phone 'its on silent anyway' About an hour later sweep search complete to no avail, not looking promising, being on the most popular part of the common. Oh well Faye can drop you home, I will stay out and start retrieving the remaining CPs, you can message me 'find my i-phone' track result and i will go back and double check. About an hour later, just as I was collecting the last of the CPs that Rich was meant to be collecting, I get a message: 'Done the trace and it's saying the phone is in my house right where I'm sat, bloody app is rubbish!!' Turns out it had got into his backpack and he had it all along, GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!
By this point Faye had returned and we were able to retrieve the remaining CPs without any further issues, and with the time a little shy of 9 o'clock, we finally pulled up outside our house. Quick shower, pop up shop for some beers, and settle down waiting for our well deserved post-event Indian to be delivered. Still smiling though!!!!
Thanks to you all for coming and making it a successful event, and we hope to see you all at our next 2-day event, The Somerset Sleepover on 22nd & 23rd July, which this year we have the honour of incorporating the National Championships, so we could have a few new national champions amongst us!!!
Will, Faye & Rich.