Cassiobury Park, GLOSS, 16th July 2017

With only 1 event remaining, congratulations to HAVOC who appear to now have an unassailable lead in this year’s series.

Organisers Comments

Thank you to everyone who came today and I hope very much that you enjoyed it.  We were caught out by the large attendance (around 150 people) which was very much in excess of our expectations and I’m very grateful to all the people who surrendered their map for recycling to later runners.

A number of people disputed the positioning of control 6 on the GLOSS course and after a post-mortem with the planner, in the interests of fairness we decided to void leg 5-6.  Those times have been removed from the results.

Finally a big thank you to all the HH helpers who made the event possible and my day very easy indeed.

Dave Tookey

GLOSS Organiser’s Report

After a cool start it was another fine if overcast summer’s day  (22c) for the fourth and penultimate event in the 2017 GLOSS series at Cassiobury Park in Watford. As well as landscaped parkland Cassiobury offers a complex area of former quarry workings separated by the Grand Union Canal / River Gade and adjacent woodland.  Conditions this time, however, were not so shin-high splashingly  wet underfoot as had been the case in 2015.

A record 122 (out of 130) competitors successfully navigated their way round the 4.2km 90 metres 17-control GLOSS course. Controversy of the day centred on control 6, an overgrown clearing, only 80 metres as the crow flies from the previous control but requiring some skirting around some mid dark green. The control was in the right place but the vegetation en route was out, in particular what was shown as wooded undergrowth was in fact partly overgrown yellow.  Such was the extent of the confusion on the part of many a season orienteer that the organising club, HH, decided to void the leg. (The control was much more easily located second time round – control 22 just beyond the end of a short footpath soon after the bridge over the River Gade — by the 57 competitors who undertook the extension course.)

Further on there were a total of 8 tricky controls to be found along the far left hand strip of quarried woodland adjacent to the West Herts Golf Course.

Thanks to Mike Bennett (Planner) for the GLOSS courses and also to David Tookey  for organising.  Full (unhandicapped) results are available here.  Show everyone where you went and review others’ routes on Routegadget. See where you lost time on against the winner on Splitsbrowser within Routegadget.

Last week’s outright winner, Paul Couldridge and Sue Carter, both of SLOW, were quickest round the GLOSS course in 22:52 and 33:18 minutes respectively. Quickest junior was William Chandler (M14) (LOK) in 37:43. However after handicapping, M70, Andy Elliot (DFOK) was quickest in 25:33 (after a deduction of nearly 22 minutes). Competitors from DFOK have now won every event in the series so far on handicap!

With the top six on handicap to score, a record 7 clubs (SLOW, HAVOC, DFOK, MV, LOK, TVOC as well as hosts HH) were able to field full teams. HAVOC, however, again outperformed all the other teams with 10 (out of 12) successful runners to win outright ahead of hosts HH with a record 35 competitors.  HAVOC’s lead, based on three first placings and one second (at Wimbledon last Sunday) is now unassailable. Team leader board to follow shortly. See here handicapped results and team scoring.  Any scoring queries should be directed to Paul Todd via fixtures@londonorienteering.co.uk.

Next Sunday we venture south to Morden Park for this year’s final GLOSS including prize-giving for the London Bus Trophy. Hopefully we can expect better weather than the wet and breezy affair (14c) of two years ago. Full details are available from Mole Valley.

Catherine Galvin
2017 GLOSS series coordinator (LOK)