Harvester Relays

[DaveK]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread

Is anyone tempted by the offer on the flier on the SAXONS website.

"Eridge is approx 40 mins from London Gatwick airport, and we can organise transport from Gatwick, and any camping tents."

Will you have your taxi fare paid and a tent given to you? Or will you just get the URL of Network Rail and Millets?

Thanks Sean - to clarify - from the organiser (not me) - 'Yes we can offer assistance in how to get from Gatwick to Eridge (they book and pay).We can supply tents for a known number of teams (we are putting up 20 of Nick Barrable’ team from Sweden).This therefore allows them to come via Ryanair with less cost.'
So, we have an international Harvester competition - be there to compete!
As to the Sunday Regional event - at £8, what a bargain. All events close to historic Tunbridge Wells and providing some super orienteering.

[distracted]

The A course seems to have been designed for a time when the orienteering demographic was younger...

I've been told the current 'A' course used to be a 'B' course - and the A course used to have leg lengths that were more like those found at Jukola...

[The Loofa]

Up till 1995 there were 3 courses A B & C
What we did then was abolish the A, re-name B as A and C as B
last leg of A pre-1996 would be 16k at Eridge

[SeanC]

16K at Eridge ... just looked back at regional results in 2006 and Nick Barrable took 1hr 17 for 11 and a bit K, though there was bad weather.

Not suggesting the A course should be changed BTW. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and will pack my breakfast to eat along the way.

I think an "ad hoc" class on the B course would make the event more accessible for the many clubs who can only get a few runners of various different ages, and to allow clubs with less than 5 runners to combine.

[graeme]

16K at Eridge

So we need to find about 20 people to run 16k on Eridge. Jukola gets the best part of 3000 to run the 16k laps, in more demanding terrain. I know orienteering is bigger in Finland, but to explain such a mismatch there must be more to it. General numbers are dropping in both places, but while the Harvester is dying, Jukola has record numbers this year.
Having run both, the difference is obviously the experience of having the sheer number of people in the woods: it drags you along, and helps find the flags (and yes, I did take breakfast!). I didn't see anyone when I ran the last leg of the Harvester.

So its clear what works, but how do we get from here to there?

[SeanC]

A few years ago when the Harvesters was 10 miles from Eridge in similar terrain we couldn't get a team of 5, this year 12 have volunteered (so far). I'm wondering why.. I can think of two reasons

- the Kent Night Cup - we now have lots of people keen to do the night legs.
- We've got teams for the last 2 harvesters, people enjoy it and are keen to come back for more.

So

a) clubs to do more night o
b) make the harvesters accessible for all with an ad hoc class on the B course, it's a great event so people will be keen to come back for more (and bring their friends).

Getting more from overseas - seems like you need good publicity and initiatives such as the SAXONS tent hire. Is this something the new major events co-ordinators can help with? International publicity isn't something many clubs have much experience with.

[Scott]

Getting more from overseas - seems like you need good publicity and initiatives such as the SAXONS tent hire.

Tent hire certainly made life much easier when I went to Tiomila. I would guess that location (eg. proximity to Gatwick this year) is also a factor - it's not that easy to get to Penhale or Merthyr Mawr from overseas. It also helps if you make life easy for overseas travellers (and everyone else) by putting good info on your website about what (if any) public transport links there are to/near to the area.

[MIE]

b) make the harvesters accessible for all with an ad hoc class on the B course, it's a great event so people will be keen to come back for more (and bring their friends).

There is nothing stopping "ad-Hoc" entries to either the A or the B classes, it just
that there are no trophies to be won. If 7 (or 5) "friends" want to enter a team to
run in one of the classes then nothing will stop them. If they win the class the organisers
may even see there way to presenting them with something (membership forms
for SAXONS ?)

[SeanC]

I thought B course teams from different clubs, or that did not meet the criteria for any of the trophys would be listed as non-competitive?

[Roger]

I thought B course teams from different clubs, or that did not meet the criteria for any of the trophys would be listed as non-competitive?

...
n/c 644:36 14 WCH WCH Nopesport (n/c)

I recall travelling alongside Chris Millard in the OUOC minibus for five hours, then racing him round Penhale for the best part of 90 minutes off the leg 7 mini-mass start, and finding out at the finish that he didn't realise who'd been alongside him.

[Scott]

I believe he was confused by your "SCOA Junior Squad" top .

[distracted]

There must be several clubs who only have one or two night aficionados and so can't/don't enter a Harvesters team. And, as Roger has pointed out, we've seen on here before an ad-hoc team can be put together.

So would some sort of "I'm interested, find me a team" system on the website of the organising club -- akin to that at Jukola, and the OMM's partner finder -- be useful? Might get a few more teams out, even if they are cross-club and hence non-competitive - so worth a try perhaps.

[SeanC]

How does this work at the OMM and Jukola? Do individuals pay individually and then are assigned into teams by the organisers? Are teams then told to meet under flagpost A before the event like someone waiting for a blind date, or are they given each other's email addresses so they can sort their own meeting point out? Do the organisers decide on running order or is it left to the teams to sort out before the race? What happens if someone drops out?

I know SAXONS will be reading this and thinking if this is practical at this late stage. Something on their website would be unlikely, it would have to work with post/email/cheques most likely.

[madmike]

OMM's pretty simple as there are only 2 of you and one does the entry. Quite a few people put in the entry and then hunt down a suitable partner.

Jukola more complex. What we did for Nopesport Team Banter at Jukola last year was manage it between ourselves. One person paid for entry , two of us hired a car each, someone paid for the accomm. And then someone did a cracking job working out who owed what and to whom - cheques posted, money transferred - job done.

Probably not something to ask the Harvester organiser to do at late notice but I'm sure something that could be done on Nopesport if someone takes charge.

I'm not running first and third leg for the same team at Harvester this year as I had to rush to make my own mini mass start last year!

BTW I am still looking for a partner for the OMM this year.

[distracted]

The Jukola system is a bit more last-minute than this would be - teams with missing runners/people getting injured wanting someone to complete their team, or someone who'll be there without a run asking about any free spaces.

I was thinking more of a forum where several individuals/part-teams could combine to get a full team without having already entered, and then putting in an entry for that team. Having something on Nope for this would be fine - but you'd need to publicise its existence well (on the Saxons website as a minimum) otherwise the readership might be limited.

Like with the recent Jukola/Harvester teams set up on here, you'd need people to post expressing interest, course preference (A/B), day/night leg and up to what length leg. Or club captains with e.g. 3 runners interested but without a team so they can fill up the 2/4 spaces left.