Nopesport Urban League 2009

[Angry Haggis]

City races still appeal to a relatively small proportion of orienteers.

We had over 500 people running in the City of London orienteering race on Saturday, including several flying over from Sweden and France. Numbers were 20% up on last year.

[Homer]

and... the problem is?

No problem in particular to me, but as previous posts have indicated, people will have difficult decisions to make. I'm just a bit surprised that the fixture list is so crowed in January for these events to have to clash...

For me, the L1 events are the first onto my personal calandar, then I see what other events will fit in around these. Am I alone in this?

[Homer]

and we do not recommend any M/W12's or under entering

So nothing for families with young kids?
I was planning on doing this event but now I'm not so sure. Neither Bart or Lisa will be happy hanging around at the finish while Marge and I run. I appreciate that Sheffield city centre will be too dangerous for young children to run, but usually there is a park or something that can be used for a M/W14- course. Alternatively, had the event been on a Sunday, I might have been more inclined to let Bart at least have a go....

Good on ShUOC for putting this event on at all; don't take my point as being too negative: not all events can cater for all people.

PS Your advert doesn't make any mention of a controller. I assume you have one?

[madmike]

For me, the L1 events are the first onto my personal calandar, then I see what other events will fit in around these. Am I alone in this?

probably

[graeme]

No sane organiser is going to take responsibility for recommending other peoples' kids "sprint" across roads. With no kid-option I won't come down: but you're definitely doing the right thing: better that the events I do go are perfect for us, than for everything to be compromised.

(If parents accept the risk and insist on running its probably OK, after all, the 2009 short course at Edinburgh was even won by an M12.)

We considered having the JOK sprint on the streets, but ultimately decided road crossings in head-to-head sprint racing was too risky/unfair/course_compromising. Will be interesting to hear how ShUOC get on.

What's an L1 event?

[Spookster]

I'd be a wee bit more worried about the clash between the Sheffield races and the JOK Sprint.

I travel pretty much anywhere in the country for the JOK Sprint, because it's always a quality race (even if it's now only a L3). I'm disappointed that it now clashes with the Sheffield weekend, because that is also going to be a top-quality weekend of orienteering, and is where I'll be.

It's great that people will have two great events to pick between, but I guess the JOK Sprint may have fewer participants than normal because of the clash. Time will tell.

[awk]

City races still appeal to a relatively small proportion of orienteers.

We had over 500 people running in the City of London orienteering race on Saturday, including several flying over from Sweden and France. Numbers were 20% up on last year.

Exactly. In urban race terms, 500 people is an excellent figure at this stage of development - London is turning itself into a classic urban fixture - but in terrain event terms it's still fairly ordinary sizewise, especially when one considers that a it's attracting aficionados who travel widely and repeatedly to get their fix). So I'd still maintain that city races at present appeal to a relatively small proportion of orienteers (not a small number, a small proportion). In those terms the increase, however good, is irrelevant.

I travel pretty much anywhere in the country for the JOK Sprint, because it's always a quality race (even if it's now only a L3).

Yes, I'm somewhat nonplussed as to why - certainly in the event review group discussions it featured as an example of race that would probably be L2 under the scheme we proposed.

I see that Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh and Northallerton are regional level, but Chester and Sheffield are local. Can't see the logic in that.

[madmike]

AWK,
when's Northallerton?

edit: found it but will miss it

[EddieH]

Well the Scottish Sprint Championships is down as "local"

Basically the way it isn't working is complete nonsense.

I think we'll be left with the British and the JK and everything else is whatever people make of it.

[graeme]

Yes, I'm somewhat nonplussed as to why -

L3 controller.
Original date only 52 weeks (i.e. < 1 year) after previous District event.
Neither of which are going to compromise what's going to be an excellent race.

We're now on our third choice date - too late to combine with British Nights**, CompassSport Cup. JOK has the problem being itinerant that we always get second choice on dates. When it's part of the UK cup this works fine, but by the time we find out we're not in, its very tight to find a region/club/map/date which will get us a decent field.

** Combined with the 2010 Scottish Sprint Champs.

[Roger]

The London results have now been added to the scores in the 2009 Nopesport Urban League: Men's, Women's

I adjusted the points to recognise a fair number of ties, plus people running non-competitively (as far as the Urban League is concerned) on the shorter courses. If I've missed anything then please let me know. The scoring system means that anyone finishing 95th or lower doesn't score, so 16 people missed out in each of the Open Men and Veteran Men categories.

Mark Thomson, Doug Henderson and Carol Edwards maintain their 100% attendance record, with 5 events out of 5, and all lead their respective categories. The only others with a full set of 4 scoring races are Blanka Collis (who tried to fool me with a change of surname), Glenys Ferguson and Tony Udris, who also lead their categories, and Susan Findlay-Robinson (second to Glenys).

The races come thick and fast in October: Chester on the 11th, Cambridge on the 17th and Oxford on the 31st, followed by the finale in Sheffield on 21 November. So there's still time to put together a full set of four scores.

[Nev]

Did anyone consider having the Edinburgh weekend on the 16th/17th Jan?

I know it may be just less than 12 months since the last one - but is that a real issue?

The only clash I can see in the fixture list at the moment is a STAG winter score event and maybe that could move 1 or 2 weeks later ?

Or am I missing something ?

[Mrs H]

Not a clash really and a minor consideration I know but I'm guessing that would be back to Uni weekend and although I wouldn't be facing the mountain of stuff cluttering up the hall way at the moment - a double drop off would still be a fairly major operation in this household.

[Tatty]

Like Mrs H, I too would like to see an up to date list of all Urban sprint Races. The BOF fixtures list is a joke, and it seems the if you aren't "in the know" you'll miss out
Can anybody point me in the right direation please?

[Spookster]

Sat 03 Oct - Maize Maze (Burton) - ok, not urban, but like urban!
Sun 11 Oct - Chester (Nopesport League)
Sat 17 Oct - Cambridge (NL) - entries closed
Sat 31 Oct - Oxford (NL)
Sun 15 Nov - Venice
Sat 21 Nov - Sheffield (NL)

Some of these are longer than "sprint" distance.