Moray Mix format

[Sunlit Forres]

Andypat - Unfortunately I'm coming off night shift on Saturday morning and going back on to night shift at 6.30 pm so I'll be getting straight out of bed to go to the game and straight to work afterwards. When I started reading your post I thought you were going to say that you were staying overnight in Inversneckie and bringing your footy mates to my contour only session. We've had the QPR and Blackpool first teams out orienteering in Roseisle on pre-season trips in the last few years - some of the QPR lads were actually quite good.

Eddie - Why on earth do you think orienteering usually happens on a Sunday? All these Saturday afternoon events are creating serious dilemmas for some of us.

[andypat]

Well Andypat your posts prove that its all about priorities more than finances. You find it hard to justify travelling to a double header orienteering weekend involving the best terrain in Britain, but no hesitation in travelling the same distance to watch a football match. Definitely not my priorities but we all have our own.

I am getting a strong message that a standard longish event is a clear favourite.

Ah Eddie - I dont think you can separate the two. If the plan had gone well with the accommodation I would have managed to combine a get-together with some mates I havent seen since one of their weddings, a first visit to the glorious ICT stadium and an orienteering event on the way down. Thats what I call a good use of my time and justifies the trip and expense (to me and my better half). As it is we're still doing the trip because we already planned it.

I cant do this every month for financial or family reasons, I have two young kids at 2 and 5 as well. I was simply offering the subjective criteria i would use in juggling which trips I can afford the time and money to attend. I'm afraid I'm not one of those people for whom Orienteering is the be all and end all ... but I still love doing it when I can. I daresay I'll see you at the Scottish Night Champs at the weekend. You seem to be the only member of your club who has "prioritised" that trip

[frog]

If you have secondary school age kids who play in any sort of school team then those events are usually Sat am so I def now prefer Sunday for orienteering.

[andypat]

Tend to agree with frog about Sundays, although for faraway events a Sat/Sun thing is also good. Provided the Sat event also has merit of some sort and is reasonably close by. I'm looking forward to FVOs middle distance race at Touch on 27 March (Saturday) particularly as it looks like I may miss the Trossachs on the Sunday as my wifes in London.

[geomorph]

If you have secondary school age kids who play in any sort of school team then those events are usually Sat am so I def now prefer Sunday for orienteering.

Well not always round here, though the traditional team sports still stick to Saturday am.
Many of the individual school sports are now weekdays after school, especially raquetsports and gymnastics that are either indoors or can be done under floods. Basketball is weekdays. Increasingly hockey is played weekdays. Partly this is due to some teachers not wanting a sixth day of commuting, and partly due to the move towards maximising site revenue; hire out your facilities to external parties at weekends, especially if under a school renewal scheme the site is no longer managed by the LEA but a facilities management company who can charge higher rates at weekends that the school may find difficult to fund (conversely the 2 hours post-school day are often the cheapest)


However we find that Saturday orienteering clashes with other junior sport club leagues and development activities. What is more there is also the district orchestra practice on Saturday morning.
As a result we rarely attend Saturday orienteering (though I'll dash off to a truly local one in between chauffeuring duties). Though we would make a concerted effort for a Saturday pm within an hour's radius.