Results for Metr'O Orienteering Challenge - Sunday 31st August 2003

Place Name Club Gross Time Net
score penalties score
1 Rory Percival & Maire Convery HH 300 (10) 290
=2 Paul Nixon (M21) SLOW 280 (10) 270
=2 Paul Lynton 280 (10) 270
4 Tom Wade & Simon Richardson 250 (10) 240
5 Laia Santa Maria & Jose Mendez HAVOC 210 (10) 200
6 Barrette  x 2 300 (100) 200
7 John Porter (M65) HH 180 - 180
8 Mark Glover (M21) ** SLOW 160 - 160
9 John Wilson & Anita Ray 210 (60) 150
10 Tong x 2 WIM 150 (20) 130
11 Ronuk Vasant & Gitta Aggarwal 120 - 120
12 Campbell x 2 SN 280 (180) 100
13 Brian Glenister (M70) SAX 130 (100) 30
14 Julie Lowe (W21) LOK 200 (180) 20
15 Nathan Monger & Majorie Gagnon 150 (140) 10
** entered 2 hour event but 9 minutes (ie 90 penalty points) late back.
Decided by the organiser to 'promote' him to 3 hour event
Weather: sunny at first, cloudy and breezy later

Organiser & Planner's Comments

Thank you all for coming to the London Orienteering Club's third ever MetrO event. I was particularly glad to welcome those of you who were trying out orienteering for the first time and I hope you are tempted to take part in another event soon. Hay's Galleria with its view to the north across the Thames is certainly one of the more spectacular backdrops to an orienteering event especially on a sunny morning.

I took trouble to describe the 36 control sites unambiguously so that once you had reached the spot you would have no trouble answering the questions. I believe I succeeded here with the possible exception of the perspex hoarding where it took a minute or two to read it through to establish it was the Phillimores family that I was after. My favourite question however was what in the past the summit of Notting Hill the viewing point for.

Congratulations to Rory Percival & Maire Convery of Happy Herts for gaining the top score and only being just under one minute late. They realised that (probably) the optimal strategy was to take the tube out to the west to Notting Hill Gate to visit the high value control clusters there and then work one's way back towards the City.

In fact most people underestimated how long it would take them to get back to Hay's Galleria perhaps because by 1pm the riverside is teeming with people enjoying their Sunday afternoon. However everyone did well enough to avoid scoring negative points which is often a danger with a score event.

Thanks especially to Andrew Evans of the Dartford Orienteering Club who, when he told me he wanted to come but unfortunately would be on holiday, kindly agreed to my suggestion that he check the control sites. This was a worthwhile exercise on his part as I had confused my easts and wests at least twice. 

Also thanks to Julie Lowe, and Ronan & Julie Cleary of LOK for helping me out at the beginning and end of this event

Catherine Galvin
MetrO 2003 organiser and planner
London Orienteering Club (LOK)