It never ceases to amaze me how well one club can put on an event of this size year after year. When you have in your club a group of people who have the energy, enthusiasm and excellent technical ability to manage the key roles involved in putting on an event such as the White Rose, the job of co-ordinator is relatively simple. Chairing meetings of the White Rose committee ( this is the only way to operate when organising an event of this size ) and making sure that the teams all pulled in the same direction were the only two major tasks I had to perform.
The assembly area was all ready for the competitors to arrive by 3pm on Friday and I was looking forward to a relaxed, stress-free weekend. When the 20 minute deluge happened around tea time, I knew our job was to be made a little harder ! True to form, the club members and other volunteers ( thank you ! ) all swung into action and coped admirably with the muddy conditions over the first half of the weekend.
Special thanks go to: Peter & Dawn Watson for taking the entries, Dave Binks & Sue Adams for Sport Ident, Steve Whitehead the planner, Chris Wright from CLOK the controller, Kevin Holland the organiser, Keith MacDermott for permissions, Jim Harrison the event treasurer, Steve Corrigan for the campsite, Steve Willis for the Bike 'O' and Peter Bean, David Sowden and Barrie Speake for a fantastic job as the equipment team ( the Camel Trophy should be a doddle after this ).
Mike's map, Steve's courses and Kevin's extremely efficient organisation, delivered a weekend which EBOR hoped for and, judging by the many people who have taken the time to pass on their thanks and praise for the event, I think we can be proud of. On behalf of the army of helpers and officials in the club, I would like to thank you for coming, hope you all had a great weekend and look forward to seeing you again next year.
Nev Myers
Event Co-ordinator
Firstly, I'd like to thank all those who helped before, during and after the event. Ebor are very fortunate to have many capable helpers who greatly ease the job of the organiser on the day by just getting on with it, even when faced with torrential rain and very muddy fields! Particular thanks go to those people who spent their entire weekend working to make it a success, and didn't get a chance to experience Steve Whiteheads excellent courses! I'd also like to thank our sponsors and equipment suppliers: Yorkshire Water, Morrisons Utility Services, Armstrong Massey, the Army, Petch Waters, HSS, Birch Plant Hire, and Osbaldwick Scouts, plus CompassSport for publishing my article on the history of the White Rose and the excellent event feature. Thanks are also due to all the traders who stuck out the weather and the mud, but didn't do as well as we all hoped. One high spot was late on the Monday afternoon when you had all set off for home - a passing removal van saw the traders, and popped in for a cup of tea!
I'd also like to congratulate all of you on the lack of litter left in the field, with special thanks to the Ebor and Aire juniors who tidied up the Youth Camp without too much persuasion.
As Map Co-ordinator I'd like to thank Acorn Maps for their superb survey and cartography, plus Nick Nourse and the MapWorks for overprint preparation and map printing. It was a pleasure to work with them.
I'd like to apologise for the late production of Day 1 results and thank you for your patience. This was due to the failure of some SI units because of faulty batteries, and problems with the start procedure for parents splits. These were both resolved by Day 2. I hope the warm and dry results marquee give you some compensation!
Many of you attended the prizegiving on Saturday, but there were a large number of unclaimed prizes. Why? Would you prefer the prizegiving to be on Monday? I'd also like to have some feedback from you on the White Rose weekend in general: Why do you come, would you still come if it was earlier in the year or on a different weekend, do you want a 2 day or 3 day event, is the format of 2 badge + relays right? Please mail or write with your comments (kevinholland@ntlworld.com, 4 Hempland Drive, York, YO31 1AY).
Finally, thanks to my wife Karel for putting up with me doing nothing but the White Rose for three months of the year.
See you all again next time,
Kevin Holland Day Organiser, Map
Co-ordinator, & Ebor Secretary 01904 415608
Found property: One pair of trainers, two sweatshirts
Lost
property: One thumb compass, one 'dibber'
I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend in what is definitely not a typical North Yorkshire forest. I think Steve's courses made good use of this relatively small area, given the constraints of the topography and the vegetation at this time of the year. Any adverse comments I did hear were founded on problems with the undergrowth, but I do feel that the 'green' on the map gave a fair indication of the scrub, bracken and bramble likely to be encountered, and the EBOR team put an enormous amount of effort in trying to create tracks through the worst so that early starters weren't too disadvantaged.
Several people commented on the stiff climb up to the glider station on courses 1 to 4 on day 2. Other courses had 500m or so of dead running along a forest track to reach the nice area in the small valley at the end of the other day 2 courses and it was felt that competitors on these courses would prefer this alternative route in.
Working with a planner of Steve's experience and competence on an excellent quality map with the backup of the EBOR White Rose organisational machine made my job as Controller quite straightforward. Apart from Steve Whitehead, I must thank Kevin Holland for all of his work and assistance, Steve 'EBOR Club Champion 2002' Corrigan and Nev Myers for volunteering me for the job as Controller and my wife Di and my daughters Alana, Eloise and Livia for letting me!
Chris Wright
SI units mean a bit more work for the planner so it was utterly wonderful to have a team of young club members who proved such willing helpers putting out and collecting the units (and running courses in between) each day. Thanks to Mike Ridealgh, Jon Kendall, Matt Speake, Tim Bean, Heather Gardner, Jenny Whitehead, Cath Ashton, Steve Wilson, Graham Capper, and Rosie Whitehead. An even bigger thanks to Pete Hodges of SHUOC and Rob Baker of WARRIOR who also volunteered. Mike, Jon, Matt, Tim, Graham, Cath and her mum, and Andy Monro also cut through hundreds of metres of nettles, brambles, and bracken to help first day early starters.
SI units make planning 3 days in a smallish area (only half of it usable in August) possible and I enjoyed the freedom it gives to twist and turn competitors and offer difficult route choices. I was impressed by Mike Wimpenny's map (both survey and cartography) and Kevin Holland's ability with the technicalities of description lists, overprinting, and bagging. Chris Wright was a calm, wise, and meticulous controller.
I really enjoyed the event and I hope you did too.
Steve Whitehead
NOTE: Eborienteers would like to apologise for the late production of these results. This is due to the pressures of our day jobs and holidays.
This will be based at Lownorth Park, a few miles north west of Scarborough. All days will be within walking distance of the event centre, using the forest areas of Barns Cliff, Broxa, Langdale and Lownorth Park itself.
The event centre has plenty of tarmac roads and hardstanding , so we don't expect a repeat of this years mudbath!
Details and entry forms will be available before Easter 2003. We look forward to seeing you all again at the UKs premier orienteering holiday weekend.