Organisers Report

Thanks Grampian Orienteers and Forest Enterprise for the use of the area and to everyone who turned up to help. Special thanks to Steve Spencer for his courses - I heard many complimentary comments.

Some parts of Blackhall have been pretty decimated over the years but hopefully we found some good bits. The Brown course was changed only yesterday (Sat 19th) to avoid some horrendous windblown areas - that meant some dead legs in the middle but hopefully the visit to the tremendous terrain at the top of the hill made it worth it. That part still has to be one of the best bits of mature forest on Deeside. The other courses seemed to be about the right length although perhaps the Light Green was slightly long.

Next MAROC event is expected to be the colour coded at Bogendreip on June 10th.

Roger Coombs

First of all, thank you to Gramp orienteers for the use of the Blackhall map so that we could organise an event at a time when there are still restrictions on many areas caused by the foot and mouth outbreak.

Secondly, it was a challenge to plan the event with only 2 weeks notice. It helped greatly that myself and the controller, Roger Coombs live locally.

The start and finish were planned near the Scolty car park for logistical reasons and because there are many paths and line features at the eastern end of the forest which are ideal for the less technical courses. However, for a longer course it was necessary to extend the run to the more central hill. It turned out to be hard going in that area because of brashings on the steep slopes, but we found that on the highest parts the running was good. At midday on the day before the event we decided to change the course from blue to brown to include the best bits. I hope the runners found this rewarding enough for their efforts of getting there.

Finally, a big thank you to Roger for many helpful suggestions, thoroughness in checking and flexibility in coping with last minute changes.

Steve Spencer.