Planners Comments

Rawnsley is the most physically demanding orienteering area on Cannock Chase, being mainly a series of steep ridges, with sides of spurs and reentrants.

The area was last orienteered about four years ago and the existing map was heavy in dark green, these no-go areas often with very little other detail. .The resultant surveying showed much more runnable area and also unearthed a host of new features, mainly mountain-bike paths and four-wheel drive tracks.

The storms earlier this year blew over many large trees near to the Assembly area and rendered unusable the white and yellow courses planned at that time. Therefore, with advice from my Controller, I  had to move the intended Start, down to the valley bottom and re-plan both those courses and the initial legs of the other courses. Forestry felling in the west section of the map also resulted in course adjustments in the final weeks.

My overriding priority was to keep the senior course runners in terrain as much as possible, even though paths were always near by, and to offer route choice.

On the day, waiting at the Finish , the impression was that the vast majority enjoyed their courses. The range of times was a reflection of the course; tough but fair, I think.

Improvements ? The map does not show (yet) a host of small features that are constantly being found or created. My apologies to those competitors affected.

First thanks to the Waters’ family : Hazel, Andy and Kevin, for map survey work. Thanks to Doug Peel, Cath Williams and Mark Stodgell for help in mapping and use of OCAD. Thanks also to Dennis, Chris, Bob, Claire and my daughter Sophie for bringing in the controls.  Biggest thanks are to Controller Garry Langston for supporting me and guiding me through my first attempt at planning.

David Thomas WCH

Organisers Comments.