Event Details
Club: | SWEMBO |
Event Name: | Summer Sleepover '18 - Day 1 - Isle Of Purbeck |
Date: | 21/07/18 |
Format: | MBO Score |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 4.5 hours |
National League: | - |
League: | Southwest MBO Score League 2018 (Round 3 of 7) |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
Planning a two-day event such as this one is a huge undertaking, added to this, the chosen location being 2 hours drive from home only complicates matters further.
Planning began last summer when we identified the two areas we'd like to use.
We had hoped to provide an overnight camp, Start, and Finish, common to both areas, but the only viable venue was a scout campsite at which they were holding their annual jamboree that weekend, so we had to bin that idea and plan to have two different venues. After many weeks of phone calls and emails we finally managed to secure the two halls that we used ( It's quite amazing how anti MTBing some places are. Studland Village hall point blank refused our application on the grounds that they didn't want to be seen to supporting anything to do with mountain biking, as the general population of the village detest mountain bikers!!)
With the venues now secured, we could now look for an overnight camp. With the event being right at the beginning of the school holiday, this was more tricky than anticipated, with my preferred three campsites all saying they would not be handle the increased volume of campers the event would attract. Harmans Cross Campsite came to our rescue, and made for a reasonable overnight camp, adjacent to Day1 Venue.
Now the course planning in earnest could begin. I had ridden and run parts of the area before, so had a rough idea of where the course was to go. With the aide of Google earth, and a few weekend trips the preliminary courses were complete.
The next stage, which turned out to be the biggest challenge of the event was to get the multiple landowners to all agree to us using their land. You may think that as we are using Public rights of way, then they can not stop us, but as soon as it's an organised event its a different kettle of fish!!! With over 30 different landowner/organisations to negotiate with, this took over 9 months to complete. We had hoped to take you down to Chapmans Pool, on the south coast, and to Shipstal Point on the Arne nature reserve, but both of these requests were refused by the landowners (hence why you were left with a seemingly pointless dogleg up to Arne and back!!) During this period of negotiations, relations between mountain bikers and the local community deteriorated drastically, and even some of our earlier agreed plans had to be rethought (the deterioration of relations has been so bad that Wiggle have had to cancel their annual ride in the area) The Purbeck Golf course was our last stumbling block, with an agreement only being reach in the 1st week of July, some two weeks before the event!!
Then there was task of producing a map of the area to be used for Day1 to include all the specific locations we'd like to take you to. This was no easy feat, with multiple variations of rotations of map being experimented with. We finally got the rotations to fit the entire area we wanted to use (I hope the third side of the map didn't confuse you all too much!!!)
With the course only being finalised a week before the maps were due at the printers, we didn't get a chance to revisit the area and pin point the exact positioning of the SI units, and instead the descriptions were produced from memory, or were slightly vaguer than normal, with the hope that the tape would be made more visible. These lapses were to come back to haunt us, with numerous riders moaning and complaining that they couldn't find all the CP's on immediate arrive at ground zero.
The week prior to the event was spent sorting out all the last minute details, before finally heading up to the Purbecks to set out the course.
Setting up the course is probably the toughest job of organising an event especially if you haven't got a large team working with you. After two days on the hill,in blistering heat, we finally had the last of the CP's out by 19:30, leaving just enough time for some food and a few beers before retiring to bed before Day1 kicked off early next day.
Day1 Started early, with the temperatures already climbing into the 20's it was apparent that it was going to be another very hot day. Riders soon started rolling over from the campsite, and soon the hall was awash with riders milling around preparing themselves for the long hot day ahead.
By 10:30 all the riders were on the hill, and it was just down to us to prep the hall for their return, and have refreshments ready.
The first of the riders began to return from about 13:30 as did the moans about not being able to easily find the CP at Old Harry's, and the CP adjacent to the golf course. I am willing to hold my hands up regarding the Old Harry's CP. With hindsight it should have been positioned on the gate post, with description stating gate post, instead of using the tree just before the gate. The issue there was the high traffic volumes heading up to Old Harry's, and we were airing on the side of caution by tucking it away to prevent it being stolen ( the tape still got removed, which only made locating the unit harder) With regards to the CP by the Golf course, im still a little confused as to why this one seemed to cause so many problem. The circle was centred on the corner of a woodland on the moor with description' veg boundary/gully corner. A lot of riders seemed to have been searching around a boardwalk over a small ditch some 75m further into the wood, not even within the circle!!
After 4.5 hours of riding the top of the results couldnt have been closer. Ifor took the lead with 590, only dropping 10pts, with Ian returning 4 mins late to bag 586. 3rd and 4th was even tighter with with Sion beating Gary by 1pt
With all the riders back safely, fed, and watered, it was time for us to tidy the hall before heading out to collect in Day1's CP's. Thanks to Robin Carter and Nigel for helping collect in, resulting in the last of Day1's CP's being successfully retreived by 19:30 giving us time for a quick shower before popping into Swanage to enjoy fish & chips on the seafront.
Day2 started equally as hot, with the shade of the Wareham Forest only offering slight relief from the scorching heat. With all the recent dry weather we suspected that a few riders may clear the course today. This was correct, with 6 riders scoring a maximum 600pts. (Ifor knocked 30 mins off the time he achieved on a similar course the last time we used this area 5 years ago)
With such dry conditions, we were surprised when Gary pulled into the car park looking like the thing from the black lagoon (he managed to find a front wheel engulfing bog that sent him face planting over the handle bars into the bog!!!)
Comments about todays course were generally more favorable, and once all the riders were rejuvenated it was down to us to announce the winners of the weekend: Ifor's Day1 result meant he took 1st by 4 points from Ian who both cleared the course. In the battle for the final podium position, Gary and Sion both cleared the course, but Sion was 1 minute late making their overall scores level, with Gary taking the position as he wasnt late!!!
Class wins went to : Gary Davies M40, Ifor Powell M50, Michael Rackham M60, Ray Morriss M70, Sheila Pearce W40, Jennifer Mason W50, Shirley Robertson W60 (sorry we completely missed you from the presentations!!!), and Janet Burroughes & Matt Jepson in the Pairs.
With the presentations complete it was time to say farewell, tidy the hall, collect in CP's and head for home. Thanks to Lorraine and Jen Mason for helping clear the hall and the assistance of Robin, James Jackson, Ifor and Nigel for collecting in CP's
By 19:30 we were home chilling out with a glass of wine and pizza reflecting on the weekend.
We hope you all had an enjoyable weekend, and we thank you all for making the event worthwhile. I would like to add though, that these events take a hell of a lot of effort to put on, and we are all volunteers without whom this sport would fade into non-existence (the number of commercial businesses now offering MBO in falling away as there is so little money in it for them) so even this slightest negative comments could quite easily put off the less hard skinned organiser from offering to organise again. I know it can be frustrating when things arent perfect, but please respect the hard work that the organiser has put in, and maybe bite your lip before ripping into the organiser. Maybe if you haven't organised an MBO yourself before,then perhaps give it a go, and experience all the hardwork that goes into it.
Rant over!!!!
thanks again,
Will, Faye & Nigel.