Chris Curtis Web Site

I have wanted to play the sax since I was small. It is such a cool and expressive instrument. I keep seeing and hearing excellent sax solos (most recently from the guy in Elkie Brooks’ band) and the idea would not go away, so it is time to take the plunge.

I drove over to Crowborough, to the nice people at saxophones.co.uk and talked about an ex-hire sax in perfect condition. An hour or two later I was very excitedly on my way home with a horn in the boot of the car. It is a Trevor James Revolution II Alto. It looks gorgeous and came with a good case, stand, a tutorial DVD, a couple of reeds and some cork grease. I had to buy a box of reeds and a tuner/metronome. I also bought John O’Neill’s “Jazz Tutor”.

The first attempts were both easier and harder than I expected. I was delighted to be able to get notes from the sax straight away, but my lips and face are very quickly tired, I am not always in tune and it does not sound that much like a sax yet. Still, early days.

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Parham Woods is a very nice area with a lot of variety in a small space, along with some technically tricky ground and more than enough to confuse the unwary.

I was fairly fast to the first control, but was thrown by how wet my route was to the second and spent time trying to avoid getting my feet wet. Once I just decided to run up the flooded ride (and once the water in my shoes had warmed up) it was fine. After that, things were OK, though my navigation was not as sharp as I wanted and I found it a struggle compared with recent events. I did not feel at my best, vaguely ill and out of sorts, but I was around in 52 minutes for 19th place, which was better than I expected.

The woods are still quite wintry in appearance. There were daffodils in places, but no primroses yet. There was a little sunshine, which made a big difference to the cold wind.

It was a glorious morning. The gales overnight had moderated into a strong breeze with bright sunshine and a perfectly clear sky. Ideal conditions for a run on the South Downs - today at Southwick Hill .

There was a steep uphill walk to reach the start, then more uphill to control 1, then it was a matter of running around typical low scrub, into small pockets of woodland and across sheep-nibbled grass. The landscape is very different to our usual orienteering haunts and you needed to concentrate every second. I had to have two tries at control 2, and stop for a comfort break about half way round, but otherwise things went smoothly and reasonably fast. The two minutes I lost, however, took me down at least 9 places to 18th so I missed out on a top ten place. I was not helped by the fact that I had left my new O-shoes behind and was running in an old pair of trainers that were in the car but I was feeling good, even if my gps recorded a record heartrate of 213 after a couple of long uphill runs - against my normal maximum of 190 or so.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I cannot think of anything I would rather have been doing. The wind blew the winter cobwebs away and the sunshine felt very good. Add the views of a deep blue sea a mile or two away and the beauty of the downs landscape and things were just great.

This area is an interesting mixture, hard up against the edge of town. A lot of the area is pasture, with small but intricate areas of woodland, all of which are full off paths and often litter too. There are some nice streams and always plenty of clay and brambles underfoot. It was cloudy but dry and mild, except that the wind took the pleasure out of it.

I seemed to set off at a cracking pace, which I could not sustain, but the navigation worked well so I was never lost. The course was very well planned. There was enough variation to make every control different and just enough of a challenge. Most importantly, the challenge was in navigating - once you found the feature, you found the control.

I finished in 48 minutes for 13th. This is my highest ever placing on a green course so I am well pleased.