Dalbeattie SOL

[SIman]

The second SOL was held in the tough forest round Dalbeattie. The results are here.

[andypat]

Tough - but a good lot of route choice and An enjoyable day i thought. I'd be reassured if I wasnt the only one to fall into the obvious trap at Blue 3? Had to go all the way round the crag (which I assumed the control was on) to get to the knoll - where it was! The odd thing was - I did read the control description on the way - but I must have read it for control 2 or 4 - both crags - as I didnt see the knoll in the circle at first.

[SIman]

No, you weren't the only one
...and then at Blue 8 I made the same mistake

[ryeland of doom]

That one got me too - found the crag, no flag.

[campervan]

Ha! Me too. Looks like I was slowest of the lot of you to it too.
Blue 9 was a sneaky wee control. If i was planning I would have cut the circle a bit more.

It was a really good course though.

[mappingmum]

Is Routegadget in the pipeline?

[SIman]

RouteGadget is here now.

[EddieH]

Interesting marking of a wall which presumably competitors are not supposed to cross. Instead of marking it as uncrossable, it is marked that you may not run along it!

When marking cannot be got right in big events, (and most planners don't attempt to mark these walls properly,) it is not surprising that individuals don't understand what the symbols mean.

Because out of bounds can be so important for the future of orienteering I realy do think we need an education process on these matters.

[Paul Frost]

I also noted that the connecting lines had not been cut where they cross.
These are all small things but they add up.

[campervan]

Eddie its a fair comment I suppose, but when the control descriptions put a crossing point on a leg it seems pretty obvious what you have to do. You are right, and the Solway club put on a good event. Seems like winners all round.

[EddieH]

The courses look really interesting. The wood certainly seems to have created loads of errors.

[andypat]

Eddie its a fair comment I suppose, but when the control descriptions put a crossing point on a leg it seems pretty obvious what you have to do. You are right, and the Solway club put on a good event. Seems like winners all round.

Totally agree - I noticed this in passing, but it didnt affect my run.

I'd forgotten about blue 9! My map is so shredded with the wet and mud I cant see this control on it anymore. But I remember approaching behind two people running together. One went left (top) and one right (bottom). A quick check suggested bottom (right) was right. Wrong!
Not sure the circle is centred correctly on routegadget?

[Snail]

Whether or not it affected someone's run or was included in the control descriptions is rather missing the point. (Many people only look at descriptions when approaching a control, and some never look at them at all).

I agree 100% with Eddie here.

If the landowner wants people to only use the crossing point then the map must be marked correctly. The map as marked tells competitors that it is acceptable to cross the wall at any point - and if anyone did cross other than at the crossing point the planner / controller have to accept the blame.

You can't expect people to reason, in the middle of a race: " ... there's a feature here I'm not allowed to run along; ... it's a wall so that doesn't make a lot of sense; ... I wonder it it means I'm not allowed to cross it; ... will everyone else reach the same conclusion?; etc etc.

[andypat]

[quote="Snail"]Whether or not it affected someone's run or was included in the control descriptions is rather missing the point. (Many people only look at descriptions when approaching a control, and some never look at them at all).
quote]

Snail - whether or not its missing the point depends a bit on the point being made.....

....which in this case, Campervan was (I believe) trying to make the point that it was a good event, there was an error in the overprinting, but it wasnt a big deal, and its far easier to sit at a computer and grumble than it is to put on an event in the first place. I'd be interested to know if either yourself or Eddie took the time to seek out the controller at the event and make your point to him/her individually?

[EddieH]

I stated that I was not there. However I do know the controller and I will undoubtedly bring it up with him as tactfully as I can.