Beaudesert

[mikey]

Good fun.

Thanks

[Homer]

Especially control code 151

[buzz]

Superb event, great assembly area, excellent courses but.......

What was the planner (and for that matter the controller) thinking of when they chose the site for CONTROL 151 ??!!

It was completely impossible to tell whether or not it was in the right place because the map bore absolutely no resemblence to the ground and you couldn't run in a straight line from a reasonable attack point. It was a complete lottery as to whether you found it and third of the M45L lost at least 5 minutes many nearer 10 minutes!

Why, when the rest of the event (including the map and the courses) was so good, did 151 have to be used ?

[Gnitworp]

On a positive note: fantastic to have everything up so quickly: Full results, Splitsbrowser, Winsplits, Routegadget, even ranking points all up before I got home! Icing on the cake

[madmike]

wow ranking points up already - that's impressive

[Mrs H]

I very much enjoyed the day and I enjoyed most of my course (except control 225) but when I saw Miss H's map I wished i'd run the short course - it just looked so much more interesting and challenging - all the length on my long course was taken up with long legs of path running - never a strength of mine - where as the short course was all cross country with paths not being any use at all.

[NeilC]

wow ranking points up already - that's impressive

On a purely selish note I hope they don't void the "151 courses"- my best ranking points of the season.

I got lucky with that control - met one of my club mates crawling out of light green having not found the control. Decided to go round to the west and found a control which amazingly was mine.

Shame because as Buzz said the event was otherwise very good as far as I was concerned.

[Neil M40]

I really enjoyed today's race - definitely worthy of a National event. I had no trouble with 151, it seemed alright to me. You could see where it was going to be from the bottom of the hill. Showers - marvellous. Commentary - marvellous. Weather - marvellous, although the sun kept getting in my eyes.

[ba-ba]

great event topped off by what was, by some stretch, the best cross country orienteering I've produced in the 2 years I've been in the sport (not in a relay when I just get lucky ).
Although everyone I saw seemed to fall over as soon as I showed up!

[madmike]

Although everyone I saw seemed to fall over as soon as I showed up!

you probably need to change your aftershave then

[RichT]

Have to agree with Buzz - how on earth did the Controller allow the Planner to use control 151 when the map and the ground bore little resemblance due to the increase in Rhododendron growth. Approaching from the West the control would have been soooo much easier than approaching from the East - what a lottery. And then you begin to doubt the map which really screws your control flow . . . what little I have.

Having driven 130 miles (not to mention the diesel cost) to have a run ruined inside the first 10minutes at a supposed National event is a joke.

I appreciate a huge amount of effort goes into organising the event, but you'd like to think the chosen control sites would be fair.

Rant over - thanks Walton Chasers for putting on the event.

[DM]

Enjoyed the course (M45L) despite the dodgy 151. Much less track running than the last time we came here.

One thing that took the edge off the day (and which is completely beyond the control of any organiser) was someone asking me "are we running along a spur?" followed by, as I punched my first control "you wouldn't mind pointing that one out would you?" A real distraction.

This was 200 m from the start, why didn't he just go back to the start and try again?

[Mrs H]

what really threw me was - where were we when we left the car park?

[geomorph]

151
Yes, I was not happy with the map, and am still not quite sure where I went.
Approaching from the south, and a bit too far east, came round the rhodis next to the path then tried to go N. Probably veered NE and ended up in rhodis in NE corner of the rough open 'bay', and thought this was the difficult undergrowth gap further northwest that would lead into the rough open.
Not only do the rhodis penetrate the lg, but there is a track back there leading into a rough open. Once found followed this to the top of the deep re-entrant (open or rough open not lg) and then back down this.
There is quite a bit of work to do to get the map right there.

Several runners from my direction went to west of second (NW) rhodis and hit lower part of deep re-entrant cleanly, and doubled back up the rough, with good times. Irrespective of the map error, hindsight and better map interpretation suggests this was a safer approach for somebody with my skill level - though I see my class winner chose this conservative route.

However, I really enjoyed the day.
Excellent mixes. loved the mining tailings in NW.
Big question - can this be surpassed at BOC?

[Neil M40]

Control 151

Coming across the valley to the south of the control I could clearly see ahead of me the band of rhododendrons going around the corner of the hill with the re-entrant to the left and an area of taller trees beyond. The control had to be between the rhododendrons and the taller trees – having decided that it was just a matter of deciding how best to get there. I went straight through the rhododendrons at the corner of the hill which was no trouble, and the control was where I expected it to be. From my point of view there was no issue, and by the looks of Routegadget anybody who chose to approach around the rhodies to the west of the control had no problem either. I didn’t pay any attention to what was further east or particularly to whether the control looked right when I got there.

The people who did have problems appear to be those who tried to approach from the south-east and east. Homer says the map was all wrong on that side, and I believe him. After all he spent a good 8 minutes having a look around.

I didn’t pay it much attention at the time, but was the dense undergrowth symbol also showing rhododendrons, just that they were very short ones? In which case the difference between the dark green and the open with dense undergrowth was nothing more than the height of the rhododendrons, which probably wasn’t very apparent on the ground.

Did anybody put in an official protest?