SROC Street League Event 1 - Bolton-le-Sands and Carnforth

Event Map

Last night's event sparked the 2011/12 winter night street league series for South Ribble Orienteering Club with an event the furthest North of the 10 event league in Carnforth. Participants have the option to run for either 40,60 or 75 mins to gather as many of the checkpoints as possible. Points are awarded for correctly marked answers of the various items of street furniture used. Lamp posts, telegraph poles, fire hydrants are the usual items used but past events and last nights conjure up more exciting clues such as 'How many horses on sign?', 'Time of the evening service?' or 'Year of school opening?' to prompt further inspection upon arrival at the control site. I decided to run for 75 mins after checking the area map and there being a large gap in between the two towns. I started off fast tailing Dave Hargreaves and found a short cut through a school field to get a number of the scout group and continued overtaking a pair at the electricity sub station. I got a bit ahead of myself and found out once on the canal heading south I couldn't get off where i wanted to so had to extend further round, wasting valuable time. Which brings me on to the next issue, my watch didn't seem to have started when I set off and I had no idea what time it was to work out when I needed to be back. In my slight detour, Dave had over taken me again and I was left trailing him again, until he went to get a control off this circular route and i headed out west on the coastal path to pick up numbers 45 and 61. After this swing out route i decided i had best check what time it was and was ready to ask the next person i saw, well there was nobody. I decide to nip up to number 40 and then head back towards the pub to check the time but got distracted and headed north again to pick up 49 and 58, it was here I asked a man for the time, I think he was rather bewildered as I came out of nowhere shining my head torch at him. I worked out I had 24 minutes to get back so I carried on north and picked off several points taking as far up as number 30 at Tescos. After the final sweep to 51 I jumped back onto the canal to head back with what I thought was 4 minutes to get back. The canal plan was soon out the window due to my head torch's weakness and got on the road, got my head down and just paced out. I calculated it was 6 minutes late but turns out it was just one. It was a good event for the start of the league and a few silly mistakes to be fixed and I'll be biting the heels of the weekly winners, well I'll try.
Full series information available at, South Ribble Orienteering Club Street League