Organiser Clive Wilkinson and Member of Suffolk Orienteering Club

Suffolk Orienteering Club (SUFFOC) organised their first event post COVID on Sunday 16 August.  This was originally in the orienteering calendar as the fourth in a series of Park O events in Ipswich to attract new participants to the sport.   The first two had been cancelled as they were scheduled earlier than 1 August.  The third and fourth were in Christchurch Park on the 2 August and 16 of August.  The overall series of novice events have been postponed until 2021. 

SUFFOC, however, decided that the event on the 2 August would be downgraded to a free activity for club members only.  This would enable the club to put in place its revised risk assessments and procedures and satisfy the landowner that the club could organise events safely on their land.  This was advertised by email only and no publicity to keep it low profile.  The email said that permission would not be granted until the day before as the landowners could not be sure until then whether the rules for sports would change.  15 members enjoyed their first taste of orienteering since lockdown and the procedures worked well.

The following event on the 16 August was advertised as a small event and emails were sent out to local East Anglian Clubs.  It was pre-entry with the caveat again that the permission would be received late.  It was decided that payment for the event would be by BACS and that payment information and start times would only be given out on the Saturday when permission had been granted.  That prevented the extra headache of having to reimburse should the event not go ahead.

34 members of East Anglian clubs came along to the event.  The extra COVID restrictions of only 6 people on the start area; keeping 2m distance from all park users; and a minimum of 10m away from other runners were well maintained.  An additional request in the start area was added following the first event.  This was to move away from the control once punched to allow others to use it.

As is the case for most of our low-key events, the club tries to use them to mentor novice planners.  The planners were happy to plan quite late due to the timing of restrictions lifting during the lockdown, but both created excellent courses that were enjoyed by all.

The club also had several enquiries about orienteering during the event and it is hoped that when we repeat in 2021, we can attract some new entrants to the sport.
 

A few of the comments received after the event included...