British Middle championships

[johnrobinson]

A great day in the sunshine. Don't know about the other courses but there was carnage in the M60's, a cursory look at the splits shows huge errors by some the leading men, definitly a day for the navigators, but Alun still managed a win coming from behind with a late surge. Its going to look amazing on route gadget.

[aiming off]

Really excellent and enjoyable Middle Championships today.
Thanks to all at Chasers.

[Tatty]

Great commentary

[easternmost?]

Great commentary

That's because if we've learnt one thing this weekend it's to look after our car keys.

[IanD]

Sorry to come over as a grumpy old man, but I thought today's Middle-Distance Championship was really poor. The area, which is probably very nice earlier in the year, was totally unsuitable with the bracken up. Several times I wanted to go straight, but was forced out to the paths - the antithesis of what a middle-distance event is about.

It was also grotesquely unfair to anybody but the late starters. The early starters really ought to have their entry fee refunded. If our major events are going to charge a premium entry fee, they need to be on quality areas. This one, in September, wasn't.

A bit more breaking the overprint to avoid obscuring important detail wouldn't have gone amiss either.

[awk]

Sorry to come over as a grumpy old man,

Make that two of us - agree with everything you say. I had totally lost confidence in the area/map by control 4 and retired at that point as couldn't see the point of wasting risking a twinging knee on such a lottery. My walk/jog back confirmed my lack of confidence, not only in what I had already encountered, but what had been in prospect. Great organisation, obviously a lot of hard work by the team to make it work for which much appreciation, but they were unable to make the proverbial silk purse out of this particular sow's ear.

[Gnitworp]

Was there any particular reason for holding the event in the 'summer' with quality and fairness compromised by undergrowth?

[graeme]

Because it's combined with the sprint champs, which is the ideal event to hold in summer when the forests are at their worst, and which has a format which is particularly vulnerable to bad weather.

It would be equally daft to be running round a campus in spring, when the woods are glorious.

Simply put : sprint+middle is not a well thought-out combination.

[Slowtochide]

I believe that the infamous 'ground nesting birds' may have had something to do with the timing for the middles,and of course that dragged the Whole weekend to September.

I had a middle start and enjoyed my course, but due to injury/unfitness was only going steady. I must say though that it was a nice change to have a major event(s) at the end of the summer rather that the big events of the season all over by the beginning of May

[Philip134]

Agree with IanD and awk. It looked dogey by No 2 and I lost real interest at No 6. Kept thinking it would get better and it did occasionally. Disappointing.

But it must be more disappointing for the officials. It takes the same effort whatever, perhaps more when the area is such a challenge. A forlorn controller was contemplating his mug of tea at ONosh while we refuelled after our runs.

[IanD]

But it must be more disappointing for the officials.

Agreed. Particular sympathy for the Organiser, who got pretty much everything right in the arena. The masseur was excellent. Even a decent caterer - a pleasant surprise at a BOF event.

[stodge]

Hi
A semi official reply - I am events and mapping coordinator for walton chasers and have been involved throughout.

The date in September was fixed by British Orienteering Fixtures way back, no influence from birds.
This brings challenges of finding venues with little undergrowth as we all know, particularly in the Midlands. I cant comment on why the September date was chosen.
Walton Chasers were given the event, via the usual National / West Midlands fixtures committees .

The original venue would have been Beaudesert which, if people know, is not really effected by seasonal vegetation, however this was lost due to wide-scale felling of all the good bits and uncertainty of when that felling would take place.

Unfortunate Chasers have lost permissions for all sorts of reasons on much of Cannock Chase at present, limiting choice. (eg the JK 2005 / British Venue of 2010 is now out for the foreseeable future)

Many many hours of discussions were held with British Orienteering to try and find a suitable venue after the loss of Beaudesert, even looking far outside of the West Midlands region, and also conversations about moving the date.

Eventually a decision had to be made:

Bottom line was that after all the options were considered (and there weren't that many options when you consider the sprint location that was already in place) go for Brereton Spurs or cancel the event.

Hence we ended up on Brereton.

[Gnitworp]

Thanks Stodge for a comprehensive answer to my question. Bizarre decision by BO Fixtures to have the Middles in early September though. I thought you did the best you possibly could under the enforced circumstances, including the 'bracken faeries'! (give them my regards)

[frostbite]

I have just checked the UK orienteering league standings and it looks like only A finalists have been given points (on M45 anyway, I haven't looked at any other classes). Surely the points should continue into the B final and then the C final so that the top 50 get a score?

Obviously I was not in the A final.

Edit : Oops, wrong thread.

[Marco Polo]

or the right thread?