Event spotlight: Croeso 2024

Day 1- Merthyr Mawr (Long)

Written by Gary Wakerley, North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club (NGOC)

The weather gods were on side for day 1 at Merthyr Mawr. Parking and the arena were in the Ogmore Riding stables field adjacent to Ogmore castle. The castle was the location for the string course. With the main Orienteering out on the dunes, access was granted by Welsh water to transit the waterwork via their bridge and Merthyr Mawr Estates allowed the use of the dunes.

The volunteers were magnificent and carried out their duties with great enthusiasm, as usual no event works without people being willing to go above and beyond. From an Organisers perspective I could not have wished for a better team, they gave their time generously. This all contributed to a very successful day.

One issue raised by Alan Honey whilst he was on parking duty was “Did they download?”.

Images: Alan Honey and Tom Mills, and Kerina Lake/Anthony Raven from SBOC.

Day 2 - Cribarth (Middle) and Day 3 - Carreg Goch (Long)

Written by Organiser Niall Reynolds, Swansea Bay Orienteering Club (SBOC)

Croseo is the premier event in Wales and is crucial to the survival of the small clubs in Wales as any surpluses can be ploughed back into club development and to support the membership. As such I was keen to make it as good as it could be for the competitors and also faced with the chance to run on two brand new areas, I was happy to take on the challenge of organising two of the 6 days, working on the basis that once one day was done it wasn’t twice the effort to do the second.

However as the more detailed planning for the days started I realised I was facing an organisers’ worst case scenario, remote parking leading to busing, remote starts and remote finishes and long walks to the starts and back again from the finish. So, making for very long days. With only 30 or so active members in SBOC it quickly became apparent I was going to need a lot of support from other people.

But I shouldn’t have worried as the orienteering community steps forward time and time again to help. And this was no exception. In the end I have over 120 helpers, many of who I didn’t know and never met. So through the magic of email and lots of correspondence, I was able to put together a rota for all roles and all shifts.

This was the bit I found was so satisfying, that I could put on two events for 1200 people with all the constraints as described and it worked and it worked well, because of those 120 people.

There were lots of stresses and spinning plates right up to the last few days of the event..the parking field still had a crop of hay on it on the Wednesday, there was a locked gate on Day 2 which I only got opened on Thursday and bus company only confirmed the schedule on the Thursday!! I kept reminding myself that all my detailed planning and the fact that I had good team leaders from the club, meant it was all going to fall into place and lo and behold it did!. And judging by the feedback it all seemed to work seamlessly from a competitor’s perspective. So I can sit back and say that we did a great job and the club will benefit hugely from the event. Thus making it all so worthwhile and here’s to 2028!

Images below are credited to Kerina Lake/Anthony Raven from SBOC.

Day 4- Pen Rhiw Wen and Day 5 - Llangynidr (Long)

Written by Organisers Peter Ribbans and John Townsend, South Wales Orienteering Club (SWOC)

Day 5 at Llanynidr was a challenge to deliver. As a small club SWOC were putting on Days 4 and 5 on consecutive days 40 miles and 90 minutes drive apart which compressed the set up time. The arena was due to be adjacent to the finish but a recent drop of gravel next to the access track meant a last minute move to the location closer to the parking. Additionally we found out the evening before that we had been given the wrong gate key for the access road.

Now on to the positives. We had an excellent response to the call out for on the day helpers and my thanks go to each and every one of them. The core team went above and beyond to ensure that any little situation on the day was quickly responded to. The courses were well planned and positively received and thankfully the weather was a marked improvement on the previous day by being dry and not too hot. Highlights for us were the fact that the finish time for the string course had to be extended as it was so popular, as well as seeing happy smiling faces from the competitors. The future of orienteering also looks good when you have a child of 7 completing the White course.

Images: Wendy Carlyle and Kerina Lake/Anthony Raven from SBOC.

Day 6 - Merthyr Common (Middle)

The final day of Croeso 2024 rounded off with the Middle event at Merthyr Common. It was fantastic to see so many elated faces crossing the finish line after an incredible week of orienteering in the heart of Wales. 

We are so grateful to all the clubs and members who were involved in organising this year's event. Thank you to everyone who also chipped in and volunteered where possible and to all who captured the action and moments from this year's Croeso 2024. See you all again in 2028!

View all the results from Croeso 2024

Images: Wendy Carlyle