SOG Local Event – Parham Woods, Storrington
There was a definite feel of spring today. At the beginning of the event there was hazy sunshine, though it was never warm, but on the way to the start at Parham Woods, near Storrington, 
the daffodils and primroses made a yellow carpet on the last of the old leaves.
Parham is an interesting small area, with a great deal of variety. There is a working sawmill in the woods – the company specialises in building wooden barns – so there are quite large areas of young trees to replace what has been felled and many areas have “brashings” (trimmings and thinnings from the trees, left on the ground to catch the unwary ankle). Thankfully, there is little bracken or brambles. The ground is alternately sandy and clay – surprisingly wet in places.
I had a reasonable, but not great, run. I only made one error that cost me significant time, on the way to control 7. I decided to cut across the compartment before the one I needed, then for some bizarre reason forgot that so when the ground looked like the map near the control, with very similar contour detail, I started trying to home in on it, when all I should have been trying to do was get out of the compartment and into the next one! I was also fairly vague coming out of that control too – though without huge time loss. I did manage to avoid a disastrous last or last but one control. I kept telling myself “concentrate!”.
I was back in 54 minutes – much better than the last couple of runs – but the field was very tightly bunched. The loss of five minutes meant a loss of at least ten places, so I was 27th, out of a huge turn out of 50+ on my course. Not too bad really, especially as I felt fairly ill most of the way round – I think I have a cold coming.