Glasgow Three Parks
STAG 20th Edition of Glasgow Three Parks
Sunday 2 December 2018
Only two Club members were not Christmas Shopping today and made their way to the novel and highly enjoyable STAG Glasgow Three Parks event. Glasgow is littered with parks, most were designed in the 19th Century and were positioned on the outskirts of the city by local philanthropists for the benefit of the working population of the city to get fresh air and out of the city for a day. They were formally laid out and many have magnificent structures – Victorian greenhouses of intricate design and most have been or are on the list to be renovated and put to use.
When I did my first Three Parks, I was totally unaware of all this and staggered by the intricacy and size of these greenhouses. Every year it is an educational trip. The parks are well looked after with great formal layouts and plantings. Perhaps STAG should put one of their 3 Parks events on in summer when the displays are at their best. In December, we see the bare shapes, the winter maintenance work and birch woodlands naked of leaves.
If that hasn’t sold you for next year, then I need to have a rethink.
The idea behind the event is that there are three short races in three different parks and you drive between the locations. I find this the most stressful part of the day, orienteering in unknown environment in a car, trying to get into the right lane at the right time. Starts in class are at minute intervals, each race starting at 10am, noon and then a chasing start at 2pm. Start times are allocated for the first race with the second being in reverse order.
Enough background – what of the day. Well dreich all of the time, but no real rain. The last event was in 100% humidity with a mist of water droplets in the air which made breathing a bit of a challenge for me. The first race was at the Commonwealth Village and Cuningar Loop on the banks of the Clyde, a first outing for this map. The paths in the Loop and then urban orienteering round the village was fairly straight forward, but one still had to remain focussed. Grass was very wet and thankfully I ignored the advice for flats and wore my studs, still managing a bum slide – yuk!
Drive then to Tollcross Park by the Tollcross Swimming Centre. Start was in the Children’s Zoo and again a straightforward run, but with some keen route choices to be made to catch the unwary. I could remember much of this Park from the 2016 3 Parks event.
Finally stressful drive on seemingly endless dual carriageways to arrive at Drumpellier Park nr Coatbridge. Assembly was at the east end at the school which allowed the shorter course to enjoy an area too far away to visit from the Visitor Centre at the NW side and it was very good. Wooded land here, so ‘proper’ orienteering and lots of route choice. The map was possibly done in summer and the runability was not quite right in places with light green easily runnable, but it does influence route choice just in case. A chasing start that is always frenetic and lots of early controls caught the unwary (Rab and me both) and also around the course to catch folk out. Robin Strain was off a minute ahead of me and we had a good tussle round the first half of the course, he also made error at No1, so we ended up together that early. I managed to get to No6 first, and then it was a matter of staying ahead without worrying about what was going on behind. It was not Robin’s day as he mispunched and lost some time anyway. I’ve done that in the past by missing a control out at this event. A win resulted which was good and Rab 4th overall having been in third, losing out at that #1. Alastair Lessells, Leslie Dalglish, Rab and Ian Pyrah were all within a minute in the final table, so that must have been very exciting from start to finish.
All told, an excellent day out in a variety of terrains, with interest all the way through, not only out on course, but in seeing the results develop. All thanks to STAG once again.
A must for the 2019 calendar.
WUV/MUV winners – Margaret Dalgleish and Phil