MV evening score at Buchan Country Park

update 17:20: event is on, all controls are out. No significant problems in the forest, although it is a little damp, and slippery in places – wear your best studs/spikes! Car park is fine. Driving conditions on the way to the event are not great, there is a lot of surface water. Long delays on the badly drained A264 Horsham/Cranleigh road.

Mole Valley invite you to revisit (the western part of) the scene of the British Middle Distance Championships, also used for our recent Festive Event.

Part of the “Kent Night Cup” series, but you don’t have to be competing in that series to enjoy this event. Come to that, you don’t have to go to Kent to compete in the series, this event is in Sussex, just over the Surrey border, and there are events in SE London too.

Entries
Online only. Now open on racesignup. Reduced price for the first four people to agree to collect controls (five each).
Map have been printed, but you can still enter until midnight on Wednesday 14th, or when maps maps run out if earlier (racesignup will stop you entering if there are no more maps).

Directions/parking
Free parking at the main Buchan Country Park car park, accessed from the westbound carriageway (only) of the A2220 Horsham Road on the western fringes of Crawley. No “O” signs, look instead for permanent brown “Buchan Country Park” signposts. The car park is usually locked overnight, but will be especially opened for us between 18:50 and 19:20, and again after the event.
OS grid TQ245347; GPS 51.0982,-0.2220; What3Words arrow.front.grace
Postcode RH11 9HQ might work, or it might take you to the A264, from which there is no access.

Public transport
Breezehurst Drive West bus stop 500m, Ifield railway station 3.1km, Crawley railway station 3.6km, Gatwick Airport 9.3km.
Metrobus 10 may be useful for getting to Breezehurst Dr W from Crawley railway station (bus stop easily found just outside the railway station) or Gatwick Airport railway station (bus stop hard to find).
From the Breezehurst Dr W bus stop, head due south and pick up a tarmac footpath which leads to a footbridge over the A2220 and directly into the Country Park car park. (If using a phone SatNav, Google doesn’t know this route, but Mapy does).

Facilities
None (the toilets will be closed overnight). There are toilets available at Pease Pottage Service Area, off junction 11 of the M23.

Terrain
Mostly deciduous woodland, with a couple of lakes. Bracken has largely died down, and is not mapped. Brambles are present in some areas, and are mostly well mapped. Controls are in the nicer bits. The area is not flat, but there are no large hills or very steep slopes. Major paths are as mapped, minor paths change continually. Hides are not mapped.
Ongoing forestry work has added some horizontal tree-trunks to hop over, and flattened some of the undergrowth. The planner hasn’t yet found any area that has been rendered significantly more difficult to pass through.
Buchan is bounded by the A264, private land and a golf course.

Precautions
Torch and a backup compulsory. A mobile phone with a light will do for backup provided it has adequate battery – carrying a phone is recommended anyway. An emergency phone number (ICE) will be printed on the map. Cagoules, hat & gloves may be compulsory if the weather is bad. Please ensure that you clear and check your SI dibber before starting (we use the check box to know who has started) and please download as soon as possible after finishing.

The usual orienteering hazards are present, including trees anxious to trip you up or poke your eye out, and various unevennesses underfoot. There are lakes with deep water, and the local Angling club are expected to be present. Be aware of fishing equipment projecting over the paths around the lakes. Please don’t upset them by tripping over their rods or falling in the water.

In the case of extreme bad weather, the event may be cancelled. The most likely cause would be high winds leading to a risk of falling trees. If in doubt, please check the Mole Valley website.

Formal COVID-19 restrictions are a thing of the past, but please stay away if you suspect you may have a contagious disease, and respect any desire of others for social distancing.

Juniors
Welcome subject to permission from parent/guardian.

Dogs
If under control. Must be kept out of the lakes to avoid upsetting the anglers.

Map
1:5,000, 5m contours, ISOM 2017 (ie standard “forest” map), by Mike Elliot, dated 2023 with 2025 updates. (Control-free) map courtesy of the O-Tools website.
Maps will be printed on A4 waterproof paper. No legend on map. Separate/loose control descriptions are not provided.

Format
A one-hour score event with a mass start at 19:30. 20 controls, numbered 90 to 109 which may be visited in any order. You score 10 points for each control visited, and lose 10 points for each minute, or part of a minute, late back.

To keep the faster people occupied for an hour, there will be bonus points available. You get an extra 10 points for consecutively punching 2 controls with the same last digit. Thus the sequence 90 – 101 – 100 – 91 scores 40 points for 4 controls, but 90 – 100 – 101 – 91 scores 60 because of the bonuses for punching 90 & 100 and 101 & 91  consecutively.

This scoring system is sometime known as dumbbells because if you draw a lines between pairs of controls, they look like dumbbells. I haven’t drawn a complete line this time, as it clutters the map too much, but I have attached a short line to each control circle in the direction of its pair.

To reiterate, this is NOT one of those events where you have to visit all your 90’s before 100’s or vice versa. You can jump about between 90’s and 100’s as much you like and each control will score. If you are not going for bonus points, the control codes do not matter at all.

Punching will be with SI. SIAC (touch-free punching) should be enabled, so be careful if you pass close to a control that you do not want to punch because it would break a sequence. If you visit a control twice, only the first visit will be count for scoring purposes.

SI dibbers (the old type, not SIAC) are available to hire via the entries system.

Please download as soon as you have finished (or given up) to avoid the organiser having a nervous breakdown while organising a search party for you.

Apres-O
Optional post-event recuperation and announcement of results at Nando’s, Crawley. OS grid TQ268372; GPS 51.1203,-0.1893; What3Words react.firmly.colleague; postcode RH10 8LR. Free parking in the adjacent Crawley Leisure Park car park, accessed from either London Road or Ifield Avenue. No need to book, just turn up.
Results will also appear on the Mole Valley and Saxons websites in due course.

Nearest A&E Hospital
East Surrey Hospital, Canada Avenue, Redhill, RH1 5RH
Princess Royal Hospital, Lewes Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 4EX may be a more convenient direction for some.

Organiser/planner
Ian Ditchfield (MV)   mvocevent@gmail.com

Insurance
If you’re not currently a member of British Orienteering, you won’t be covered by the organisation’s public liability insurance for this event. For example, if you were to accidentally injure a member of the public or damage property during the event, you would not be covered. You’re very welcome to take part, but please be aware that you do so at your own risk.

Even for members, British Orienteering insurance does not cover you for injury or damage to yourself or your own property.

You compete at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety