Urban Races in Britain 2010

[awk]

Apparantly the intention for 2010 is to concentrate on longer-distance town/city centre event.

And presumably whilst Sheffield isn't long distance, it is city centre? And why the roaring metropolis of Pickering was selected

One of the joys of recent Nopesport Leagues, and of urban events, has been the variety, so it would seem a fairly big retrograde step for Nopesport to concentrate on just one format.

Whatever, the Birmingham event sounds really attractive, so hope to be there!

[Mrs H]

Gosh I don't think you Yorkies can complain about how many events have been included in the league - Pickering, York, Sheffield, Ripon - but i certainly think establishing a Yorkshire Urban League is a brilliant idea. I'd like to have seen a Midlands League but Birmingham uni, Nottingham and Warwick doesn't seem quite enough - maybe next year

Please can you confirm those floating dates asap particularly St Andrews as Flybe go to Edinburgh and Aberdeen from Birmingham - and I shall not be using my Airmiles on British Airways flights again - ever

[mappingmum]

Please can you confirm those floating dates asap particularly St Andrews

I guess St Andrews will be the day before SOL6 at Tentsmuir ie Sat 25th Sept 2010.

[ba-ba]

Re. HE officer:
It is, but at ShUOC we've heard nowt from him - OK he's supposedly meant to be bringing on the 'less established' Uni clubs, but I was at least expecting an e-mail in the first few weeks of his tenure to touch base. Anyone from other uni clubs heard anything?
So far Fiach (founder of the country's newest Uni O club?) and Schorah have planned the BUOT tour to Spring Cup, and the training weekend in Sheffield, a good weekend developing inter-uni links, but with them graduating this/next year respectively it really needs someone not 'fluid' to take it on - especially as BUOT's made it onto the BOF elite calender (or something along those lines...) I've heard!

As for a Uni campus league, it's a great idea but again needs co-ordination from someone outside of a singular club. BUCS SHOULDN'T do this as they're a bunch of hawks just looking to make money form Students, and Orienteering Students appear to be one of their favorite prey - the BUCS champs organising club put in all the effort, BUCS take all the profit, save income from a few guest entries. (may I highlight that this is the the organisation who think that Fell Running is the same thing as XC, as well as other even more heinous crimes!)
BUCS have also cut the O Champs budget by 33% (I believe) this year as well - but don't quote me on that!
Again, Fiach has had a few ideas about a league based around Unis. (that guy's a machine!). He got in contact with BUCS who, in no uncertain terms told him to go organise it himself. Bit of a tough job for a bloke in his final year at uni continually striving for elite orienteerdom and making the Irish badminton squad! Uni's all about the extra-curricular, but organising a national series on top of that - it's just stupid!

</rant>

[Strider]

With the new and shiny urban event guidelines that BO have just unveiled as a Christmas present to us:

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/d ... line_e.pdf

will all planners for the Nopesport league races be 'encouraged' to follow these by the league organisers..... or will the current laissez faire approach be maintained...?

S.

[Angry Haggis]

Really like these guidelines, some good advice there and good to emphasise the differences and similarities with sprint orienteering. Match well with the philosophy of th City of London event. Perhaps the only things I would add are that the no of controls should be higher than for a forest O of equivalent length, e.g average of one per 200m straight line (but with very bit variations) works well. And also that 'trap' legs (ie not reading ahead to next control and so ending up in dead-end) should be encouraged - a bit controversial perhaps. Finally, good to have "wow" legs past visually striking buildings.

Would be good to have a copy of these on the UL website as I still find the BOF website document navigation a bit of a minefield.

[Wayward-O]

will all planners for the Nopesport league races be 'encouraged' to follow these by the league organisers..... or will the current laissez faire approach be maintained...?

Looking at the Borderliners details for Carlisle, the new rules appear to have been closely followed with, as allowed, the combining of courses 3 and 4, although the 'junior' class has been set at M/W16-, rather than 14-.

[RS]

For those of you planning to travel by train along the west coast route to Carlisle event, beware! trains are replaced by bus from Carlisle to Preston and add around 2 hours to the journey

[greywolf]

Urban events seem to have evolved reasonably well without the benefit of event guidelines, but I guess BOF abhors a vacuum....
But if the objective is to enhance standards then IMHO one thing missing is a recognition of one of the key differences of urban terrain vis-a-vis "natural" environments: the presence of dead-end routes - traps. It's not only important that the map represents these accurately and faithfully, it's absolutely vital that the course overprinting doesn't obscure gates etc. Judging from Nopesport postings (and admittedly that may not be a representative sample) inadequate circle and line breaks are the biggest (indeed often the only) source of complaints for many otherwise excellent events (urban & sprint)

[Safety]

Noticed first line of this. Obviously we will never have a national Urban O competition.

or a night Urban-O which was going to be an arguing point of mine with a certain council when requesting permission.

[King Penguin]

BUOC Chasing Sprint on Saturday 13 February 2010

Preminary details are now available on
http://www.harlequins.org.uk/event_deta ... prelim.pdf

and online entries are open at
http://www.fabian4.co.uk/default.aspx?EventID=285

The venue is easily accessible by public transport - train to Birmingham New Street then train every 10-15 minutes on the Cross City line to University, or by bus from Birmingham City Centre.

[Monte]

King P, have you decided yet what the approximate Start time ranges for the BUOC Chasing Sprint will be? It helps when booking trains.
"Whistles must be carried in line with WM regulations." WM: World Masters, West Midlands, Whistle Mafia?

[mike g]

"Whistles must be carried in line with WM regulations."

On a university campus? That's ludicrous.

[Gross]

On a university campus? That's ludicrous.

Yeah... but it's a rule & not one worth hassle over.... it'll also be in place at BOC I assume... and I might not agree with it.. but it's not worth getting worked up about

[AndyC]

I've tied a whistle to my compass permanently -no real issue now. It's there whatever sort of event I do or even when I'm planning or out for a walk.