Thank you for coming to the urban orienteering held in Epsom on 24th August. The sun shone and whilst it was increasingly warm into the early afternoon for later starters, it was very pleasant.
Results:
Organiser’s comments – Peter Martin
Thanks to all competitors for attending Sunday’s Epsom Urban event, we were proud to show off our historic town on the edge of the London conurbation, hope some of you managed to visit the racecourse and see the views over Central London.
Thanks to the whole event team especially Planner Tim Scarbrough for creating a successful event and we were grateful for all the positive feedback.
We were fortunate with the sunny weather, and the event ran without any major problems.
Planner’s comments – Tim Scarbrough
Thank you for AtkinsRealis for hosting our event centre in their smart Epsom campus office – I heard many say this was one of the most comfortable event centres they had encountered! And thank you to Epsom & Ewell Council for the permissions for the parks. I chose to have the start and the finish co-located in Rosebery Park, a short walk from Atkins campus, to make it a more sociable event, and it certainly was lovely to be able to chat to competitors both before they started and after they finished. Another thank you for the University for the Creative Arts who allowed us to site a couple of controls in their campus just to the east of Rosebery Park to add interest to courses.
Thanks to all the MV volunteers who helped put on the event, including manning the lonely road crossing. I have been envious of other urban areas where it’s been possible to fit in traffic-free courses 6 and 7… Epsom necessitated a timed out crossing each way for courses 6 and 7. For the longer courses, courses 1-4 all visited the steep Mounthill gardens first (with courses 1 and 2 first looping to the south towards the hospital), and then second visiting the most interesting split level area just south of the station (course 4 getting to visit all three of the controls there), after the shopping precinct was deemed out of bounds. Then there were a clutch of controls by Church Street and the cinema which brought course 5 to join courses 1-4. Courses 1 and 2 headed over to Alexandra Park, and then courses 1 and 3 headed up hill to the south, with course 1 going furthest up the hill. Some of you found the shady routes up there via the footpaths! Most courses visited the small university campus before heading back to Rosebery Park, some via the Council and nearby green spaces. Most of your route choices were near-50:50s, but some not so. As planner, I was envious of other recent urban events I have run on (Milton Keynes, Bracknell-South Hill Park)- where it’s much easier to deliver a mental workout for competitors. In Epsom I found it hard to achieve, but based on comments I heard after the event, this was at least sometimes achieved.
A big thanks to Gordon Parker, as controller. Always providing helpful comments, and delivered with a smile. What more can you ask for.