November Classic 2023 Results

• Provisional Results
• Routegadget
• Results by Class (updated 08/11/2023) (PDF)
• Photos of Southern Champs prize-giving (courtesy of Katherine Bett)

Planner's comments - Terry Smith

Thank you for turning out to a rather wet November Classic. On the day, the weather was much better than we expected. While wet underfoot, the sun shone, and the temperature was reasonably mild for the time of year.

The courses were planned for a 90-minute M21E winning time based on the results of a number of events in the forest, primarily the 2016 Classic held on the same area and won by Graham Gristwood. It seems Graham is either getting faster as he gets older or was having an easy run in 2016 😉. It seems that most course winners beat the expected winning times. I was concerned that the heavy rain of the last several days would make running conditions harder - apparently not.

The rain filled depressions and pits and created some new and more obvious water features than mapped. We had prepared to rope crossings on the main stream in the south of the area. Inspection early on Sunday morning revealed that the stream was running clear, not excessively deep and this made safe crossing possible.

The planning was made more "interesting" by the imposition of extensive out of bounds areas that considerably exceeded those applied for the 2016 event. Constraints were also applied that limited choices for the location of the start and finish. I hope that we managed to provide challenging but fair courses for you to enjoy.

I heard many complimentary remarks around the event centre about the map. This was the first Level B event map produced by Mark Light and, while planning, I certainly felt he had done a cracking job.

I'd like to thank Alastair Moir and his assistant Bob Norley for effectively managing the organisation of the event in a relaxed style.

Hugh Risebrow set the first draft of the courses and I'd like to record my thanks to him for all his support during the planning process and the administration of the control hanging and collecting activities, ably supported by a number of SOC members, their family members and the Jarvis family of SO.

Charles Daniel provided very helpful advice and support while controlling and we greatly appreciated his measured and constructive input.

It has been a privilege working with such a supportive and enthusiastic team.

Organiser's Comments - Alastair Moir

We were very fortunate that the sun shone for most of the event after the stormy and wet period of the week before. From what I heard, most of you enjoyed being out in the forest despite the wet conditions underfoot.

This year’s event came with the extra challenge of hosting the Southern Championships, so involving more courses to plan, applying seeding rules to competitor’s start times and a prizegiving.

I would like to thank Terry Smith and Hugh Risebrow for planning the many courses within the significant constraints of the environmentally sensitive out of bounds areas which we were required to avoid, and controller Charles Daniel for his support to us as a team.

I would also like to thank my assistant organiser Bob Norley for his contribution to the preparation of the event and help with organising the remote start and finish areas on the day, and our traders and Brooklyn 4x4 for the use of their show trailer for the prizegiving.

I am especially grateful for the dedicated support of the team leaders who put a lot of effort into preparation for the event and the 60 plus volunteers, without whom the event could not have taken place and who pulled together on the day to make everything run as smoothly as possible.

To those who have won trophies: please get them engraved with your name for posterity. We noticed a few gaps, so if you spot a missing name from a previous year, (you can check this on the SCOA website on the Champions page) we would be grateful if you could bring the engraving up to date please: you will probably be able to claim the cost of engraving from your club or region.

Finally, I have a few items of lost property which are:-

• A Silva compass – base plate type with white bezel and scale, N on orange/white needle, oval magnifier and a brown string.
• 2 x Vapro description holders, approx. 15cm long.
• 1 x beige towel approx. 92 x45 cm
• A Buff - ‘Exposure Lights / Big Night Out / Buff’ logos on white background. 
• 1 x ENISO 12402-8 Clip-on style orange whistle with black cord.

If you would like to claim any of the above, please NC23organiser [at] coastside.co.uk (subject: November%20Classic%20Enquiry) (email) Alastair Moir.