Millbank and Whitley Saxon Shield Event

FINAL DETAILS

Enter through Fabian4   http://www.fabian4.co.uk/

Adults £12 to 12 March,  £13 to 16 March,  non BOF £+2

Entry on day £14 subject to map availability.  

Please contact the organiser to reserve a map.

Juniors £5,  Adults on Yellow or Orange, (Score EOD) £5, dibber hire £1, 

Saxons helper and saxons juniors discount £2  (contact organiser)

 

DESCRIPTION - The event is located in Willow Wood, Hawke Wood, Mill Bank Wood and Whitley Forest areas of the private Montreal Estate, just 3 miles from Sevenoaks with easy access from the M25 and A25.  The Estate has been re-mapped by Peel Land Surveys in 2016

IMPORTANT TRAFFIC DIRECTION INSTRUCTIONS.

 Entry to the estate is from the North via Bessels Green and then Back Lane.  Participants MUST NOT approach from the south i.e. via Ide Hill, Goathurst Common or Whitley Row

There will be a one-way system in operation.  No exit until 12 noon.

• Traffic from M25, A25 west or A21 south, make for the Kings Head pub at Bessels Green TN13 2QA where you will turn right up the side of the green.        Turn right at the end into Cold Arbor Lane and turn right again into Back Lane. 

• Traffic from the east on the A25 will turn left into Cold Arbor Lane immediately after the traffic lights at Riverhead Infant School TN13 2PU. .  Take 2nd right into Back Lane

Sevenoaks Station- 3.2 miles  

NEWCOMERS Always welcome.  Please phone the Organiser in advance for advice on which course to enter if necessary.  Bring a compass if you have one.  Full explanation and navigation .

THE EVENT CENTRE is next to the forestry store located on the southernmost estate road, see below. Here you will find a tent with Registration, Download, Enquiries, First Aid and refreshments.  Portable toilets are here.   Registration will be open from 9:30 to 12:00 for Entry on the day and to collect pre hired dibbers.

 

STARTS 10am to 12.30 (courses close at 2:30pm). Start times will be pre-allocated.  Please do not ask for them to be changed.  EOD start times will be allocated by the Start team.

There is just one Start 600m from the Event Centre.  Call up will be Start time minus 3 minutes.   

Competitors who have pre entered with their own dibbers can go directly to the Start.  If you have hired a dibber please go first to Registration.  Control descriptions will be available in the Start lanes.

 

FINISH. There is one Finish 550m from the Event Centre.

 

ENTRY ON THE DAY

	BOF Seniors	Seniors on Orange, Yellow or Score Courses	Juniors	Sax Juniors	Montreal Estate staff and local residents
subject to map availability	£14	£5	£5	£3	No charge

* Seniors who are not members of British Orienteering  + £2 (not Orange/ Yellow/ Score courses)

 Dibber Hire £1.  Lost dibbers £30. Note Saxons EOD helpers £2 discount on the prices above

Prices are by map/dibber, groups sharing a map pay one entry fee.

ROAD CROSSINGS

The Yellow course does not cross any public roads.

All courses, except yellow, cross the estate road that is being used for car access to the event and for car parking. Please take care and drive slowly on the estate road and give way to runners crossing. Please check for cars before crossing when on your course.

The Orange, Light Green and Score courses cross Back Lane after competitor traffic enters the estate. The crossings will be unmanned. There is very light traffic on the road and good visibility.  Runners should cross with care at the marked crossing points.

All other courses cross Back Lane as above and also the B2042.  Traffic on the B2042 moves fast but there is good visibility. There will be one 2 min timed out crossing on this road, both out and back. It will not be manned. 

MAP.  The estate was re-mapped by Peel Land Surveys in Spring 2016 plus minor updates 2017. Map 1:10,000 for all courses.  Courses Yellow to Green will have an A4 map. Longer courses will be on an A3 map. Maps will be printed on waterproof paper.  

CLOTHING DUMP.  Clothing can be left at the junction 200m North of the Event Centre if wished.  This is between the Start and the Finish and on the way back to Download.  Items left here will be unsupervised.  Bags can also be left at the Event Centre where there is cover if wet.

CAR PARKING. Parking is on Estate forest roads.  There will be a £1 car park charge collected at the entrance to the Estate. See site plan.

SAFETY INFORMATION.  Full leg cover.   Whistles advised.  If weather conditions are wet or cold, cagoule advised.

A number of public footpaths and bridleways cross the Estate.   Other users of the woods include walkers, dogs and horse riders.   Please respect other users' right to be on the public footpaths and bridleways.  Slow down if you have to pass a horse rider so as not to alarm the horse.  There may be cyclists on the bridleways and other footpaths. Please be alert.   

There are many log piles on the side of the estate roads.  DO NOT climb on them and keep clear.

 

TOILETS   Portaloos at Registration 

 

REFRESHMENTS - Help yourself tea, coffee, squash, water, biscuits and hopefully cake at Download. 

We can recommend the Ide Hill Community Shop where toilets and a tea room are available every day.  To get to Ide Hill we request you retrace your route to the B2042 and then go south.  It is important to avoid the roads immediately to the south of the Event Centre and there is a dangerous blind junction with the B2042.

We can also recommend the food in the Kings Head at Bessels Green, booking essential.  Eating there would be some compensation to the locals for the  traffic jams we may cause at Bessels Green

 

DOGS – Dogs are allowed only on the public footpaths. The estate asks that dogs be kept on a lead.

 

FIRST AID Club first aiders on hand at Registration. First aid kit also at Finish.
Nearest hospitals – Sevenoaks Minor Injuries Unit, Hospital Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 3PG Open 08:00 – 20:00 - 3.6 miles
Next closest Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Tonbridge Rd, Pembury, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Tunbridge Wells TN2 4QJ - A&E open 24 hrs 15 miles.  Also Maidstone Hospital 20 miles
 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - The owners of the Montreal Estate for permission for the event to go ahead and the staff of the Estate for help and assistance.

Location

Nearest town: Sevenoaks

• Grid Ref: TQ 510 530
• Postcode: TN14 6HX
• Latitude: 51.25335
• Longitude: 0.15793
• Google Map
• Streetmap (OS 50k)
• Bing Map (OS 50k)
• OpenStreetMap

Course Information

• Course	Length km	Climb m	Cntls	TD	Men class	Women Class
  Yellow	2.3	85	13	2	M10	W10
  Orange	3.2	125	15	3	M12	W12
  L Green	3.2	115	16	4	M14	W14
  S Green	3.7	140	18	5	M75 M80 M85	W65 W70 W75 W80 W85
  Green	4.7	195	22	5	M70	W16 W55 W60
  S Blue	5.7	245	21	5	M65	W18, W20 W45 W50
  Blue	6.6	280	27	5	M16 M55 M60	W35 W40
  S Brown	7.6	360	29	5	M18 M20 M45 M50	W21
  Brown	8.5	390	30	5	M21 M35 M40

  subject to controlling

SCORE COURSE. There will also be a Score course aimed at adult newcomers.  25 controls of varying difficulty.  Find as many as you can in an hour.  No penalties if you are late but we only count the controls you find within the hour. Enter on day

 

SAXONS SHIELD–   Adults  and Juniors.  

Shields will be awarded to the winning clubs at the end of the event

 

2 shields,  SENIOR  and JUNIOR
6  runners to count for each shield.
Best 6 places, M and F, as long as they have not run down.
Max 2 places per course.
SENIOR: scored as 1st  man and 1st lady on a course gets 1pt,
2nd man and 2nd lady gets 2pts,
3rd gets 3pts  etc
Add up the best 6 scores for a club across all the courses.  If a club only has 5 seniors,  add a default 50 points.
Lowest aggregate score wins.

JUNIOR  MW16 and below: scored as 1st  boy and 1st girl on a course gets 1pt,
2nd boy and 2nd girl gets 2pts,
3rd gets 3pts  etc
Add up the best 6 scores for a club across all the courses.  If a club only has 5 juniors,  add a default 50 points.
Lowest aggregate score wins

Juniors running up on senior only courses count as seniors.

Explanation of colour courses

• White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
• Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
• Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
• Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
• Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
• Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
• Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
• Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.

Entry Details

Enter through Fabian4   http://www.fabian4.co.uk/

Adults £12 to 12 March,  £13 to 16 March,  non BOF £+2

Entry on day £14 subject to map availability.

Juniors £5,  Adults on Yellow or Orange £5, dibber hire £1, 

Saxons helper and saxons juniors discount £2  (contact organiser)

Terrain Description

This event takes place on the Montreal Estate, developed by the enclosure of common land by Lord Amhurst in the 1760s. As Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in North America he had captured Montreal in 1760, effectively ending French rule in North America.

The estate today is an interesting mixture of forest (coniferous and broad leaved) and fields with arable crops and livestock. Much of the woodland is runnable. The landscape is undulating, with some steep sided valleys with many contour features. There is a good path network but few actual public footpaths and bridleways. The Start and Finish are in the NW part of the estate, in an area not used for orienteering for many years; this should thus be a novel experience for most!

There are barbed wire fences shown on the map; courses have been planned to use gaps or gates through the fences wherever possible. The barbed wire fence bordering the road in the NW part of the map has been marked with several crossing places, where the barbed wire has been covered to facilitate crossing. Fences enclosing the estate are not marked on the map to increase clarity. All roads are out-of-bounds except at the designated crossing points.

This is a sporting estate, with large populations of pheasants. Pheasant enclosures are marked as out-of-bounds, including paths that go close to the enclosures; please keep away from them. Forestry operations are in progress now. The map has been updated to take account of recent felling. Log stacks are currently at several locations in the forest; please keep away from them. Shooting platforms are strapped to trees at several locations in the forest; these platforms are moved frequently, and are not marked on the map

Contacts / Officials

organiser: Rowan Purkis 07814 521211

planner: Jean Fitzgerald

planner: Mike Solomon

controller: Andrew Evans DFOK