M/W21s not interested in Forest Orienteering?

[SeanC]

Not sure how many M/W21's went to the London City Race today, but I guess it must be around 100?

Compare with the current entries for next week's CHIG Mitre (Level B) event in Epping Forest. I make it only 3 M/W21's. We can't use remoteness as a reason this time, as it's within the M25 and only 1km walk from a central line station. There are a reasonable number of M/W21's in London. It's a decent area and quite runnable even in September. Any ideas?

[The Loofa]

224 (you prompted me to count up)

[Mrs H]

Do you think it might be a London thing? It's just that on Saturday at an NGOC level D event with almost identical entry as presently shown for the Mitre event there were 11 M/W21s that's 10% - mind you the entry fee was only £4 but it was also quite remote.

[paul]

The Central line may be close, but it is closed next weekend east of Bethnal Green. Public transport options that include replacement buses are going to put people off.

[Clive Coles]

Could be due to the fact that many Universities ( Oxbridge exclucded) start their terms over the next 10 days. Next weekend therefore is not an ideal weekend for M/W21's who have either just arrived on campus or who are packing to travel back to Uni.

[buzz]

The London City Race was part of a UK orienteering league weekend double header which has been advertised widely and attracted competitors from across the UK and abroad.

[rob f]

A lot of M/W21s also can't afford to run cars, and can't always get lifts. Urban orienteering is usually close to a station, so avoiding the need for cars.

[Arnold]

And 21s want to go to "cool" events.
These are ones with many of the following attributes:
- lots of people going
- some atmosphere
- an event centre with something happening (pubs are ideal)
- not run-of-the-mill
- other 21s (self fulfilling)

The City Race hits all of these. As do SLOW Summer evening events (160 punters at Battersea Park in August, many of whom 21s). Your 'standard badge event' hits none.

I've been saying for some time that we'll have to accept there will be (a lot?) fewer 'standard colour coded/badge' events in the future, as there will be fewer and fewer competitors to warrant all the organisation. Do we really need the Mitre, the OK Nuts, the HH trophy etc every single year? Not to mention all the additional colour codeds which have already started to die off.

[Big Jon]

ARnold -you might be describing the sport in London-shire, but certainly not in NE Scotland. Here forest orienteering is getting more popular (we do have nice,challenging forests) while urban O isn't really attracting many.

[andypat]

ARnold -you might be describing the sport in London-shire, but certainly not in NE Scotland. Here forest orienteering is getting more popular (we do have nice,challenging forests) while urban O isn't really attracting many.

Hopefully you'll prove yourself wrong Jon with a bumper entry for SOUl 5 at Banchory.
I also dont think you are comparing like with like though - I notice that many of the "urban" races local to you are what we used to call street O with line street maps rather than ISSOM. For me the excitement of urban orienteering has to start with a well crafted ISSOM standard map. Very much looking forward to Banchory in that regard!

[Kitch]

Ha ha ha ha ha

or lol as they say in the twitbook-sphere

[Arnold]

I wasn't necessarily making an argument for Urban O - although big events like London do fall within my criteria. I certainly hope that the future of orienteering around London isn't all Urban.

And forest O can also be popular with 21s as long as it's a little bit different / exciting / prestigious - say the Scottish 6 Days or the November Classic

Just the Mitre on Epping East, for the umpteenth time (as nice as it is) won't get a lot of 21s out of bed.

I realise that might be a bit different in Scotland where you have a plethora of cracking forests to choose from - although I'd be interested in how many events the average punter attends per year. Living in London you could conceivably attend at least one event most weekends of the year - I just don't think that's sustainable given the forests that we have!

[andy]

I'm sure marketing will have played a part...

[greywolf]

ARnold -you might be describing the sport in London-shire, but certainly not in NE Scotland. Here forest orienteering is getting more popular (we do have nice,challenging forests) while urban O isn't really attracting many.

What, you mean like yesterday's event in glorious weather in one of the NE's nicest, most accessible forests (shame about the out-of-date map tho...) which attracted a grand total of two M21s and no W21s (out of a hardly bumper field of c. 100)?

[Forest Gump]

I realise that might be a bit different in Scotland where you have a plethora of cracking forests to choose from - although I'd be interested in how many events the average punter attends per year. Living in London you could conceivably attend at least one event most weekends of the year - I just don't think that's sustainable given the forests that we have!

We may well have a plethora of cracking forests to choose from but when was the last time there were 10 (the min for rankings) M21s/entrants on the Black course at a SOL, supposedly Scotland's most important event series (or even at the Scottish Champs). A break down so far this year...

SOL 1 @ Gullane - 14 competitors (nearly half not M21)
SOL 2 @ Trossachs - 22 competitors (part of UKOL, weekend of races & top class area)
SO4 3 @ Clunie - 7 competitors
SOL 4 @ Auchingarrich - 5 competitors
SOL 5 @ Ardchattan - 5 competitors
Sol 6 @ Wood of Easter Clune - 5 competitors so far

Scottish Champs - M21E - 10 competitors