The second event in the Sarum Summer Score Series took us over to Downton where Peter had planned a ‘linear score’ course in the Moot which is a great place for a small course as there are so many contour features in a small (250x200m) area. It is very much orienteering in three dimensions. The course had 30 controls including a small compulsory mini-maze but there were no control descriptions and no codes provided and some features had more than one control – so you had to read the map very carefully and go to the control at the centre of the circle. An added rule was that controls had to be collected in ascending sequence order only. This meant that if a control was out of sequence it didn’t count, unless you went back and collected lower numbers to put the control back in sequence. The use of a maze and the absence of lines joining the controls made it tricky to work out where to go next. Despite the apparent complexity everyone enjoyed the course and most got it right first time.
We had quite a good turn out from the club and were pleased to welcome several newcomers including two local children who had seen us setting up the course and dragged Dad along later. Jeff Butt posted an impressive time of 15 minutes to collect all the controls in correct order – including a mis-punch of his second control.
Thanks to the help of the Sarum members the event was dismantled in no time at all allowing us to repair to the Wooden Spoon for beer, food and conversation.
Look out for our next in the series which will be on June 21st in Victoria Park, Salisbury starting at 18:45. Check out the website for full information