Egypt and Burnham Woods – Event Cancelled

We are sorry to announce that the Ace of Herts Event planned for Sunday 1st February 2015 has been cancelled due to extensive forestry work.

Following the emergence of unexpected, unpredictable and large  scale forestry work in Egypt Woods in the run up to Christmas, the mappers invested time and effort in updating the map, while the planners undertook a major replanning exercise. As you may have noticed, event entries were temporarily suspended while this was taking place. The Controllers vetted the revised courses and were optimistic that the event could go ahead, subject to  the location and nature of ongoing forestry work.

Now, further major forestry work has taken place outside the areas initially planned for work during January.

Unfortunately this included gouging tracks and rough-felling trees on previously “white” areas with controls.

Crucially being on the early and late sections of all courses, the extent of further essential replanning and controlling (even if it were possible) is impossible to do in the remaining time, given that we can’t get access on many days because of shooting.

We would also be running the risk of the felling continuing not to follow its planned sequence. The estate has been helpful, but they appear not to have total control over the order of work carried out by their contractors.

We are not prepared to run an event which risks being of an unacceptable standard for any event, let alone that expected of a Level B, SE League event. We intend to fully refund the few people who had entered before we suspended entries.

Our apologies go out to all orienteers who were hoping to run in Egypt which has been a wonderful area for orienteering over the last 20 years. We hope that when the necessary forestry work is complete or well understood in the next few years that we can re-start events in a hopefully re-vitalised area.

Any queries please contact the organiser egypt-organiser@happyherts.org.uk