Holmsley & Bisterne Close

Venue
The event centre is at Holmsley Caravan Park Forest Rd, Burley, Christchurch BH23 7EQ ,GR SZ214992

Parking
Parking on will be on hard standing within a few hundred metres of registration. Do not park with any part of your vehicle on the grass, there is plenty of hard standing available.

Please do not arrive before 09.00 and make sure you leave by 16.00 or you may get locked in !

Terrain
The courses take part in the Holmsley Enclosure, which is a mixture of plantation and old growth forest, and open terrain which is mostly open plains, interspersed with uncrossable bog tussock and forested areas. Longer courses cross the Castleman Trailway which was the old Southampton to Ringwood railway line. On these courses expect a lot of contour feature navigation with many earth features and constantly changing viewpoints around the course.
This is a popular area that is used by other people including walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Please be considerate if you encounter other members of the public during your run.

Certain areas contain protected species and vegetation barriers have been erected around them. Competitors must not cross these barriers.

The event takes place with permission from Forestry England

Maps
Overprinted with courses at 1:10,000

There are a number of uncrossable mires which are OOB and marked by being surrounded by a red line. They are OOB for nature conservation and are physically not passable anyway . Anyone looking seen crossing one of these mires may be DSQ. There are also other areas of the heath, including the quarry marked OOB by red hashing, so please do not enter these areas.


Gorse. There is scatted gorse in several parts of the open heath, mapped with either wide-spaced green lines (Undergrowth slow running) or narrow-spaced green lines (Undergrowth: walk). This mapping should give a reasonable indication of runnability but should not be used for fine navigation purposes.
These symbols have also been used where there is significant bracken (although this may be more runnable than when initially mapped)

Ditches. Not all ditches have been mapped, only the more significant ones. In the Inclosure, ditches and shallow gullies are mapped if near control sites or important for navigation. The rest are excluded to make the map legible

Horse tracks . There are many of these, particularly in the open heath, and are not always mapped.
Root stocks Only the more significant ones (>1.5m) have been mapped and are represented as green crosses.
Hides are mapped with a black cross.

Entries
Entries are open until 23.59 on 8th November but only as long as maps are still available for that particular course

Entrants are reminded that in order to score points in SWOA League events they must compete alone and unassisted .

Timing
Sport Ident using SIAC enabled controls. All competitors must physically dib at both the start and finish

Registration open from 10:15 for hire card collection (SI Card5 only) and any last minute changes to entry details.

Start Times
Starts from 10:30 to 13.00. There are no allocated start times so just go to the start when you are ready. The Start is about 600m from registration

As the event will take place on Remembrance Sunday, the two minute silence will be observed at 11.00 during which time the start procedure will pause

Finish
The finish will be about 400m registration to route back to which will be marked

Courses close at 14.45 at which time we will start to collect in the controls. Therefore you should not expect to be able to complete your course after this time

All competitors must report to download even if you fail to complete your course. Failure to do so may result in a search being mounted for you

Facilities
There will be Portable Toilets at the event centre.

UNFORTUNATELY SMOKEY MOSE HOT POTATO VAN IS NO LONGER ABLE TO ATTEND SO THERE WILL BE NO CATERERS AT THIS EVENT

Smoking or vaping is not allowed at this site

Safety
Orienteering is an adventurous activity and all participants must accept there is an element of risk involved in taking part.

All competitors should carry a whistle. In bad weather the organiser may decide that cagoules must be either worn or carried while competing. In this case a notice to this effect will be displayed at the registration area

A number of marshes are marked as out of bounds and MUST NOT be crossed. In wet weather some of the other marshes may be difficult to cross and so a route that detours round them maybe the better option.
The longer routes cross a number of very minor roads. These crossings are not manned so due care should be taken. On some courses running along these roads may be necessary for short sections. If possible try and run by the sides of the road rather than on the tarmac itself.
New Forest Ponies are sometimes seen in this area. Although they are used to people the should not be approached or fed.
All competitors should follow the New Forest Code
Trained First Aiders will be located at registration . If you require their help please ask at enquiries,

The safety bearing is generally to head South West which will bring you either back towards the campsite or a road leading to it.

Despite it being autumn, some ticks will still to be active and looking for passing people to feast on. Please check yourself for them after the event.

The A35 to the east of the map is out of bounds and is marked so on the maps.

An emergency phone number is printed on all the maps.

Dogs
Dogs are allowed if kept on a lead. Any mess created by your dog must be picked up and removed from the site.

Cancellation
In the event of cancellation a message will be placed on the Wessex Orienteering Club’s web site and an email sent via Race Signup to all entries

If there is a cancellation Wessex Orienteering Club reserves the right to retain a fraction of the entry fees to cover expenses already committed

Event Officials
Planner: Lyra Medlock
Controller: Kevin Pickering (WIM)
Organiser: Roger Crickmore