West Midlands Orienteering Association
POTOC Local Event
Saturday 13th October 2007
2.5 km 9 controls
name club class time
1 Ellie Bales POTOC W6 31:05
2 Rosie Corbett & Alison Corbett POTOC W12 39:48
3 Jack Humphreys & Josh Chadwick BB/POTOC Y7&8 46:34
4 Danny O'Neill-Leese BB/POTOC Y6&7 48:46
& Daniel Baynes
5 William Barnett & Judy Douglas Ind M5 58:58
6 Jason Kelsall BB/POTOC Y7 60:15
& Kendal Prosser
7 Andrew Bell HPS Y6 62:42
3.8 km 11 controls
name club class time
1 Marcus Man Ind M21 35:14
2 Barbara Farr POTOC W60 43:28
3 Terri Tomkinson WHS/POTOC Y11 53:37
& Rosie Farnworth
4 Philippa Longmore BHS Y11 62:13
5 Alex Sparks Ind W60 63:07
6 Josephine Longmore & family Ind W40 63:18
7 Natalie Spooner WHS/POTOC Y11 82:57
& Alice Williams
5.8 km 14 controls
name club class time
1 Bryony Robinson SMOC W21 55:10
2 Gordon Witte POTOC M50 61:06
3 Lil Bales POTOC W45 62:29
4 Peter Munn POTOC M50 74:53
5 Peter Yoxall POTOC M60 77:10
6 Jean Rostron POTOC W65 79:43
7 Malcolm Duncan POTOC M70 80:26
8= Roger Keeling DVO M60 92:29
8= Charles Robinson SMOC M55 92:29
10 Dave Sparks POTOC M60 94:57
11 Mavis Bailey POTOC W60 132:14
7.0 km 18 controls
name club class time
1 Henry Morgan POTOC M50 55:12
2 Jerry Knights POTOC M50 57:33
3 Jonathan Millward POTOC M35 62:24
4 Martin Green MDOC M50 65:26
5 Mattias Jonsson WCH M21 67:42
6 George Lamplough POTOC M40 69:51
7 Marian Denham POTOC W60 82:00
8 Julie Phelan WCH W40 90:18
9 John Pigott POTOC M60 92:33
10 Margaret Keeling DVO W60 113:00
Thank you all for turning out in indifferent weather, an entry of 35 was very good. It was especially pleasing to see a number of younger competitors due to the hard work and encouragement of Henry and Brenda Morgan in schools. Thanks also to the POTOC members who came early to set up and run registration while I was rushing out the last controls with Henry.
Everyone found their way round the courses without any "dibbing" errors, which is unusual (if not a record) for a POTOC event. I hope you enjoyed the courses, there seemed to be a lot of discussion taking place after you ran.
Apedale is not an area which particularly excites from an orienteering point of view. There are plenty of paths and tracks for the junior courses, but the opportunity to venture off-path is limited. The senior courses suffer from a lack of terrain which is technically interesting, close to car parking and free from brambles. Andy Potter, the Park Warden, has been increasingly helpful in allowing us into areas previously regarded as too environmentally sensitive to enter, but we are still restricted to paths in the stream valleys running west to east. However, these are overgrown with brambles in many places which would limit their value for orienteering. Senior courses have to be long to reach the more technical areas on the north of the map and can then only take a fairly straight-through route to stop the length becoming excessive. Fortunately Apedale is not adjacent to large housing estates, so it is quiet and doesn't suffer from the vandalism of some other POTOC areas.
The area has a personal interest for me as my mother was born in Apedale and lived in a small holding at the two cottages of Sladderhill. Their foundations are shown as the most northern ruin on the map. Control 122 on the long hard course was sited at the shell of my grandfather's cowshed, which is the other ruin shown at the north of the map. My mother lived at Sladderhill throughout the Second World War and trod a now-extinguished footpath to school in Wood Lane (just to the north west of the map) until she passed her "scholarship" and could walk up Springbank (the continuation of the track shown passing between two pools) to catch the bus to Thistley Hough School. My grandfather, Ned. Farrington, was an miner turned smallholder. He was friendly with the estate land agent and when grazing was short in the summer, had permission to graze his few cows in the woods where they were kept from wandering away by his son Richard, then a teenager. It is a pity his cows don't still graze there as they would keep the brambles, bracken and nettles in check. Eventually, Ned's friendship with the land agent enabled him to gain the tenancy of Water Hayes Farm on the estate. This is was eventually sold to open-cast for coal and is now the site of the Water Hayes housing estate. My uncle Richard, now aged 82, is still farming in partnership with his son near Audlem. He currently has a broken leg as a result of not being quick enough to get out of the way of a cow!