southern champs

[14stoneflyer]

Fab course and a good area. One of the best courses I have run to date with a good mixture of tough and easier controls and a ludicrously long leg in the middle - my thanks to all involved, especially the planner.

My 12 year old enjoyed the M14A course lots and said he had a few beans left at the end and enjoyed the extra physicality of an "A" event.

In contrast, I found the course too far and too hilly for my 2 stone of extra flab and was completely knackered at the end. But that is the point isn't it?

I agree with the comments about the start. As a relative newcomer who started at 11.10 (or was it 11?) this was chaos compared to all the events I have been to with a punching start and my view concurs with the previous post - consider punching starts for all events?

Cheers

14stoneflyer

[Scott]

Really enjoyed the M21E course - a lot of route choice, far more than I have on an orienteering course in a long time. I have to admit I was half-dreading running this morning - I've had mountain marathon days with less than 715m of climb! - but in fact I had a great time, even if I'm not really fit enough for that sort of distance.

And more events should have burger vans that sell venison burgers.

PS. I don't know who he was, but the guy on commentary for the pre-event build-up was doing a cracking job.

[Urban]

The new slimline Madmike!! Made some very good predictions too.

[mister blobs]

As a general point, not having a dig at this event in particular, I have long thought that all events should have punching starts. By all means insist on people starting on a particular minute, and penalise people who miss their starts, but do actually punch at the start.

Advantages include:
- avoiding any possibility of gaining a minute by skipping a box
- for an EMIT event, ensuring that the brikke is cleared and started
- for events with constrained space, allowing the minute's worth of people to spread over perhaps thirty seconds without penalties, much reducing collisions at the map boxes.

I agree with this.
The problem today was that if a competitor had failed to clear their emit brick then there was also no record of them being out in the woods. This is a potential safety disaster.

[Happy]

The start was a disaster. There were people moving between start boxes and could, quite innocently, started 1 minute early or late.

A good event, venue great and yes the red kites were really impressive but agree about the start. Adults were called forward and left the children still waiting before prompting the official that he still had some others for the start time called.

Two children from our club had the same start time but one went a minute later than the other, so what mister blobs said actually happened.

[RCB]

A really good event today - many thanks to TVOC and event officials. I'm looking forward to seeing routegadget for the quickest times and routes for the very long leg.

As for the start - if you knew your start time then it seemed to run ok; the official was very helpful and allowed me to double check my start time as he was about to call others forward. I was then informed by another competitor on the same start time that we had the same first control - it turned out to be a bit of a race that I lost.

I thought the course planning was excellent with plenty of route choice options. Thanks again.

[OGirl]

We enjoyed the event. The courses were long but fitness (or lack of) is the main problem

Totally agree about the start though. We were there around 11.10am and it was a complete shambles. Luckily I started after my kids to I could see what was happening and called them to go through or they would have been at leat 1 if not 2 minutes late starting. Other parents were not so fortunate and even some adults were totally confused which lane they should be at. The start officials didn't have a clue what was going on. Disaster for a level A event.

BO definitely need to rethink the 'timed' start rule. There is no problem having start times but at least with a punching start there would be no risk someone starting at the wrong time. I'm sure there will have bene more than the one mentioned here.

[Arnold]

Agree with everything above including great course with a 3k route choice. Good map too.
The other issue seems to be results though..still none on the web and there weren't any at all at the finish when I left about 1pm..

[Homer]

in the old days (before electronic punching) we had timed starts at all events. We used to manage. It shouldn't be too hard. There are good reasons for timed starts at the major events and a move to punching starts would be a retrograde step.

[Gnitworp]

in the old days (before electronic punching) we had timed starts at all events.

....and 'hand' timed finishes and raffle tickets and staplers without staples etc, etc. Total e punching absolutely prevents cheating and inevitable human errors, lets keep it 'total'.

[Tatty]

Results are now up on the Emit UK website

[Roger]

The other issue seems to be results though..still none on the web and there weren't any at all at the finish when I left about 1pm..

I don't know the exact reason, but I understand that there were some problems with times and the Emit team on download were trying to fix these rather than print results. They printed a set for the prize-giving but weren't totally confident that the results were correct all the way down. I'd expect the results to appear first on the Emit site.

Knowing the high standards that they set themselves (the 'surplus vehicle' at the end of the last event where we worked together turned out to contain Jerry uploading the results to the web before he drove home), I'm sure they will publish as soon as they possibly can.

Routegadget will follow once we've got a clean splits file. We don't want to lose people's carefully-drawn routes by having to reset the event.

[Edit: I must have an unclearable cached copy of the 'check later' page then, Tatty!]

[graeme]

As for winning times, most of the senior classes were at the shorter end of guideline recommendations... So I think congratulations are due to the Planner.

Slightly odd logic there. As I said here ahead of time, the courses were obviously short.

Anyway, the conclusion is right. Hambledon is a complete delight to run in, and the planning really made the best use of the area. Nice to have a proper long leg the length of the map, where the best route required 30-40 micro decisions to save ~5sec. Short legs where the terrain allowed, but not where it didn't. The low control hanging led to a bit of bingo behaviour: certainly looking for competitors rather than features or flags saved me a lot of time, but that's a minor detail.
The map was very legible, even for me at 1:15: the white background helps, and I guess its never been through a remap for 1:10?
Should mention the planning was in complete contrast to the chasing sprint. I always reckon jac is one of the top planners, and on a difficult area he produced really superb courses for the format, in particular understanding that the sport is about legs, not control sites. I'm not sure if he was having a laugh with all those "field corners" but those control sites seemed to set up the perfect leg between.

Great weekend. Even better than getting snowed on in Edinburgh...

[EddieH]

I could not agree less in the demand for punching starts. Organising a timed start is not difficult , but clearly requires more planning than was the event here.

1 minute, or 2 minute start intervals are there to reduce following. If someone takes 30 seconds before starting and his chaser starts instantly this is up the creek.

If you are unsure of your inability to get everyone on the correct start line the solution is simple. Everyone punches in the final minute box, then they all start on the minute.

[housewife]

A great weekend orienteering. I'll not moan about the lack of results etc as at the end of the daythey are minor gripes about an otherwise very professional production put on by volunteers. Had a real big race feel to it. I haven't run a properlong course with proper route choice legs likt that for years, so it will be interesting to see the routegadget. Bang on with the length on ours too. Northern champs next. A lot to live up to.

The jok chasing sprint was fun too. Has such good use ever been made before of such a tiny scrap of forest? they arranged excellent weather too. A but surreal being on the phone to edinburgh where the kids were off sledging...