HAVOC Regional, SWELL and EAL - Epping Forest South West

Sun 01st Oct 2023

Type of event: Regional
Type of terrain: Forest
League: SWELL, EAL

Information updated: 2nd Oct

Results

Info

Planner's Comments:

The forest certainly looked splendid in the lovely warm and generally sunny weather.  This was my first attempt at planning a forest event, and I hope you enjoyed your runs.  In what is a large area with an extensive path network, I had to put the start a little further away from the car park in order to get a decent run for the White, and I tried to make that course a little more varied with a route that took in a little of the lake front and some woodland paths.  My thanks to Janet, Graham and Colin who all put in tremendous amounts of effort to ensure that the controls were in decent locations, the courses flowed and were of the correct technical difficulty, and the cartography was of a good standard to make the courses clear and understandable.  As I did most of the planning for this event from afar, and only visited the forest a couple of times, I can safely say that I wouldn’t have been able to do this without their help.  Thanks also to Tony Maycroft (CHIG) who provided some significant comments and improvements to the courses, as controller.

When I was out in the forest early on Sunday morning, I did notice that a number of the controls were visible from a fair distance away, so hopefully that didn’t make the technical courses too easy.  I will need to improve this aspect of my control site selection if I plan another forest event.  Generally, I tried to reward precise navigation on a straight line to controls, but provide a longer, easier route round paths to an attack point for those that wanted to take that approach.  A number of controls were fairly exposed in open forest near paths or similar, so I was pleased that there were no reports of missing controls.  Hopefully the cattle grazing near and around control 104 weren’t too concerned with the passing runners, and hadn’t eaten the control.  One cow started ambling over to the control after I turned it on for SIAC and seemed very interested in what it was!

I didn’t have enough controls to time out the road crossings on Brown, but hopefully the traffic wasn’t as bad as the day before and you were able to cross fairly easily and didn’t waste too much time.  It was encouraging to see not too many retirements on any of the courses, so hopefully the courses were fair.    We had a lengthy discussion over a few of the controls I initially selected, so it looks like the final decision on placement was the correct one.

Thanks again for running, and making the pre event work worthwhile.

David

 

 


Regional, SWELL and EAL event, celebrating HAVOC's 50th Anniversary since our first event in September 1973.


Also incorporating the Club Championships for CHIG, DFOK, SOS, and SUFFOC.

 

Pre-entries now closed, but limited EOD available at the download tent, subject to map availability. Payment in cash please.

Location

Location map

Nearest town: Chingford

Directions / Parking

Car park is on Chingford Plain, near Chingford, Essex. TQ393950 (nearest postcode E4 7QJ). This is on the east side of Bury Road about 330m north of the junction with Rangers Road (A1069). 

From M25 Junction 26: Follow the A121 east to the Wake Arms/City Limits roundabout; take the 4th exit (A104) & continue for about 2 miles to the Robin Hood roundabout; go straight on & after 1 mile turn right into Rangers Road (A1069) signposted Chingford. After 1 mile, turn right onto Bury Road, the car park is on the right.

From A406 North Circular: At the Waterworks Corner roundabout, take the A104 north through Woodford Green; after 3 miles turn left into Rangers Road (A1069 signposted Chingford. After 1 mile, turn right onto Bury Road, the car park is on the right.

What3words: local.those.energetic

Parking charges are by the RingGo App, or mobile phone, only, there are no cash or credit card machines.  The charge rates are £1.50 for up to 1 hour, £2.50 for up to 2 hours, or £4 for up to 4 hours.  The nearest alternative street parking is limited and at least 500m away.

Chingford railway station has a 30 minute service from London Liverpool Street and is 400m SW of Chingford Plain.

Facilities

Portable toilets will be provided in the car park, and that there are 2 cafes nearby.

Terrain Description

A3-sized map, 1:10,000 scale with 2.5m contours using ISOM 2017, mapped in summer 2023. Standard IOF symbols used with a black V representing a drain culvert. 

Mature forest with mainly deciduous trees and some holly bushes. To the south west there is the open area of Chingford Plain with its grass land and thickets, as well as a model aircraft flying area. Further to the east lies Connaught Water, a haven for wildfowl. Over the years, with successive thinning of parts, the area has become more runnable.  There are a number of horse rides in the area and a network of smaller paths, some are minor while others are well used by walkers and mountain bikers.  Longer courses will visit the more contoured area to the north of the map.

Courses will be overprinted on waterproof paper.    

Registration & Start Times

Enquiries and EOD         10:00 am to 12:00 noon.

Starts                              10:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Courses close                 2:15 pm

The Start is 700m across Chingford Plain, from the NE corner of the car park, and the Finish is 150m from the SE corner of the car park. 

Hired dibbers will be available for collection at the Registration tent, adjacent to the car park.

Course Information

Standard colour coded courses; course lengths shown:

White   1.4km 15m 10 controls
Yellow   2.1km 20m 13 controls
Orange  2.7km 35m 12 controls
Light Green   4.2km 35m 12 controls
Short Green   4.1km 30m 12 controls
Green   5.5km 50m 16 controls
Blue  7.1km 70m 19 controls
Brown   9.9km 120m 25 controls

White, Yellow and Orange courses will have written descriptions on the map.  All other courses will have pictoral descriptions.  Loose description sheets will be available in the start lanes.

The Brown course has a number of unmanned road crossings to the north of the map.  Care should be taken crossing these roads, and juniors should not enter this course.

SIAC contactless punching will be enabled for all courses, although competitors will need to punch the Check, Start and Finish controls.

Entry Details

Entry in advance via RaceSignUp

Entries up to Sept. 17 (2 weeks before the event) at £9 Senior / £4 Junior.
Entries after Sept. 17 at £11 Senior / £4 Junior.
Additional £2 for non-BOF registered seniors.

Chip hire is £1

You will be asked to select a 15 min start window when registering.  Individual exact start times are not required.

Contacts / Officials

Organiser: Colin Jackson

Planner: David Float

Controller: Tony Maycroft (CHIG)

Safety and Risk

A comprehensive risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.

Privacy: when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports.
Read our privacy policy to see how we look after your personal data.

Back to top