jk 2024
Moderators: [nope] cartel, team nopesport
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Re: jk 2024
Yep...... wondering the same thing.... what's the gossip on the voids?
Go orienteering in Lithuania......... best in the world:)
Real Name - Gross
http://www.scottishotours.info
Real Name - Gross
http://www.scottishotours.info
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Gross - god
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Re: jk 2024
Controls in the wrong place unfortunately. One on M21E and two on W21E.
- JennyJ
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Re: jk 2024
Sh*t happens.... unfortunate but life
Go orienteering in Lithuania......... best in the world:)
Real Name - Gross
http://www.scottishotours.info
Real Name - Gross
http://www.scottishotours.info
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Gross - god
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Re: jk 2024
yted wrote:The sprint was good.
Although not without issues..
I gather the Relays were excellent as well.
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Homer - diehard
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Re: jk 2024
Massive thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to organise and run the events.
I thought the Sprint was excellent - if I was being really picky then perhaps the finish could have been in the arena to create a better atmosphere, but perhaps the uni didn't want us crossing the main through road this time. I thought the courses were excellent.
The relay was fun too - a great atmosphere and a good example of how to set up a compact arena. Personally I was hoping for more technical courses given the quality of the area - there seems to be a trend towards dumming down relays despite the rules/guidelines emphasising the technical rather than physical challenge.
As for the Middle and Long - the terrain just wasn't suitable for a level A event, certainly not Middle distance. It didn't help having two events on one area with start finish in the same place. Presumably the intention had been to use the area South of the fence but in my opnion it would have been better to cancel the Middle race if a more suitable venue wasn't available. Hopefully lessons can be learnt for future events.
The parking arrangements were excellent all three days!
I thought the Sprint was excellent - if I was being really picky then perhaps the finish could have been in the arena to create a better atmosphere, but perhaps the uni didn't want us crossing the main through road this time. I thought the courses were excellent.
The relay was fun too - a great atmosphere and a good example of how to set up a compact arena. Personally I was hoping for more technical courses given the quality of the area - there seems to be a trend towards dumming down relays despite the rules/guidelines emphasising the technical rather than physical challenge.
As for the Middle and Long - the terrain just wasn't suitable for a level A event, certainly not Middle distance. It didn't help having two events on one area with start finish in the same place. Presumably the intention had been to use the area South of the fence but in my opnion it would have been better to cancel the Middle race if a more suitable venue wasn't available. Hopefully lessons can be learnt for future events.
The parking arrangements were excellent all three days!
To oblivion and beyond....
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buzz - addict
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Re: jk 2024
Crex wrote:It seems Nopesport is dead, even the JK can't rouse any discussion. I
Probably because most have been at the JK, and not online.
Days 2 & 3 - who enjoyed them? I gotta say I didn't enjoy day 3, maybe my early start and a lack of elephant tracks is what made it so horrid. Day 2 I had a late start and it was more tolerable. Overall, my view is that this forest is not (currently) good enough to host a JK
The organisation throughout appeared excellent (especially car parking), the sun shone, and the views were fab. The actual orienteering was sadly a different matter. The forest was certainly a major issue, and the winter wet just exacerbated the issue. It's hard to critique fully without knowing any background - I know that permissions and access in the area are increasingly a problem. But taking things purely at face value, this was awful. The highlight of the individual terrain events was that I hadn't entered Day 3. Aside from the forest, I would ask:
Why was the start where it was for two days? It's not one I'd want to use even for one day, let alone two, with far too many constrictions both on the early controls, but also on the finish.
Why were so few controls used (aside from, perhaps, the lack of control sites)? - over 1000 runners passed through our first control, and a whole lot more ran immediately past it. Every control I visited had a cluster of orienteers approaching/leaving.
Why, when we were told to avoid marshes, was one of ours put in the middle of waist deep mud bog?
Why were courses visiting the same control sites on both days? One of my clubmates had the same first control both days. For my class (M65) the last four controls, had all been visited the day before (one was next to the start). I reckon I could have run the last couple of kilometres without looking at the map (I heard a few did!).
Basically, my middle distance race was a muddy track run round the forest, almost entirely at beginner's level technically. The longest legs were barely orange, and much of the orienteering near the end was closer to yellow, although the dodgy mapping in one or two places would have probably challenged a genuinely yellow/orange competitor.
As one person described day 3: "Groundbog Day".
On a much more positive note, both Days 1 and 4 were excellent. Really enjoyed both of them (in spite of the panic at the sprint when I realised I hadn't put my number on, and had to rush back to the car to find and fix it, getting back to the start with barely 20 seconds to spare! Brain definitely wasn't in gear for the first few!). Thought my course today at the relays was a cracker, and the organisers did really well in not ideal conditions. Arena was cosy!!
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awk - god
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Re: jk 2024
If you were going to double up on an area for the forest days, it would have been far better to do the middle and relay in the relay area. Beaudesert was deeply unpleasant but the long was planned with route choice…
Relay arena and planning was great I thought. And the car parking officials seemed to actively enjoy the challenge of rescuing mud-stuck drivers.
Relay arena and planning was great I thought. And the car parking officials seemed to actively enjoy the challenge of rescuing mud-stuck drivers.
- housewife
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Re: jk 2024
I agree that the organisation was good, the parking well-managed, and the courses not really up to what I would expect from a JK. A majority of my group opted out of the Long; I didn't but sometimes wondered why I had decided to do it. Two controls seemed to be accessible only through a pool of mud, and the inevitable difficulty of planning the starts and finishes without duplication did mean that I was able to claw back a minute on the final few controls as navigation is not my strong point!
- mkmapman
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Re: jk 2024
housewife wrote:If you were going to double up on an area for the forest days, it would have been far better to do the middle and relay in the relay area. Beaudesert was deeply unpleasant but the long was planned with route choice.
Agree about middle and relay. You were lucky about the route choice. Seemed to be decidedly lacking on my age class course, even without the control duplication.
"You will never find peace if you keep avoiding life."
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awk - god
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Re: jk 2024
Just looking at some of the reviews about days 2 and 3 - well entry fees for Tough Mudder are £85 so maybe you all had a bargain
The JK is a great event and something that needs to survive long into the future IMHO. I wonder what people would think if it was organised entirely by a separate body semi - independent from clubs, regions and BO, but with clubs and regions providing the manpower for free? At the moment I believe the JK is organised using some kind of rotation or volunteering between the regions, with a lead club volunteering for individual events. The choice of area then gets constraint by what is available in that region and for that club.
An independent JK organisation with the brief to use top quality technical areas would likely mean more events in the Lake District, Scotland, Wales etc. But also in places like Ashdown Forest, New Forest etc. This might benefit regions with limited numbers of good areas as this would free these areas for more regular use for regional and local events instead of a long embargo.
Possibly this might mean higher entry fees if some of the organisation was paid / semi-professional.
There are a lot of other competitions that also get rotated through the regions and I wonder with a declining number of orienteers, that many of these competitions will struggle to find a volunteer region in future years (rather like the Harvester). If the JK was taken off the list, this would take some pressure off regions. From what I've seen of how orienteering region committees work, they spend a lot of their time working on major events. Possibly they are usually the number 1 item on the agenda? With less time spent working on the JK there would be more time for regions to look at developing regional competitions, junior development, coaching etc.
The JK is a great event and something that needs to survive long into the future IMHO. I wonder what people would think if it was organised entirely by a separate body semi - independent from clubs, regions and BO, but with clubs and regions providing the manpower for free? At the moment I believe the JK is organised using some kind of rotation or volunteering between the regions, with a lead club volunteering for individual events. The choice of area then gets constraint by what is available in that region and for that club.
An independent JK organisation with the brief to use top quality technical areas would likely mean more events in the Lake District, Scotland, Wales etc. But also in places like Ashdown Forest, New Forest etc. This might benefit regions with limited numbers of good areas as this would free these areas for more regular use for regional and local events instead of a long embargo.
Possibly this might mean higher entry fees if some of the organisation was paid / semi-professional.
There are a lot of other competitions that also get rotated through the regions and I wonder with a declining number of orienteers, that many of these competitions will struggle to find a volunteer region in future years (rather like the Harvester). If the JK was taken off the list, this would take some pressure off regions. From what I've seen of how orienteering region committees work, they spend a lot of their time working on major events. Possibly they are usually the number 1 item on the agenda? With less time spent working on the JK there would be more time for regions to look at developing regional competitions, junior development, coaching etc.
- SeanC
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Re: jk 2024
SeanC wrote:Just looking at some of the reviews about days 2 and 3 - well entry fees for Tough Mudder are £85 so maybe you all had a bargain !
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awk - god
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Re: jk 2024
SeanC wrote:Just looking at some of the reviews about days 2 and 3 - well entry fees for Tough Mudder are £85 so maybe you all had a bargain
The JK is a great event and something that needs to survive long into the future IMHO. I wonder what people would think if it was organised entirely by a separate body semi - independent from clubs, regions and BO, but with clubs and regions providing the manpower for free? At the moment I believe the JK is organised using some kind of rotation or volunteering between the regions, with a lead club volunteering for individual events. The choice of area then gets constraint by what is available in that region and for that club.
An independent JK organisation with the brief to use top quality technical areas would likely mean more events in the Lake District, Scotland, Wales etc. But also in places like Ashdown Forest, New Forest etc. This might benefit regions with limited numbers of good areas as this would free these areas for more regular use for regional and local events instead of a long embargo.
Possibly this might mean higher entry fees if some of the organisation was paid / semi-professional.
There are a lot of other competitions that also get rotated through the regions and I wonder with a declining number of orienteers, that many of these competitions will struggle to find a volunteer region in future years (rather like the Harvester). If the JK was taken off the list, this would take some pressure off regions. From what I've seen of how orienteering region committees work, they spend a lot of their time working on major events. Possibly they are usually the number 1 item on the agenda? With less time spent working on the JK there would be more time for regions to look at developing regional competitions, junior development, coaching etc.
I agree that a dedicated major events coordinating team would help ease some of the burdens but I'm not sure it needs to be separate from BO. BO have appointed major events coordinators in the past but I think their roles have been advisory. I think you're suggesting more of an overall responsibility for delivery which sounds a good idea to me - how involved the team was would depend on the organising clubs but as a minimum it would advise and ensure standards . It would have to be led by someone who understands orienteering and orienteers - and not just an events professional.
I would certainly be prepared to pay more for consistently high quality events. The entries are a small part of the overall cost of attending and orienteering is significantly cheaper than similar activities.
Assuming major events are a significant source of income for local clubs there would need to be a way of ensuring clubs with limited terrain resources get a share of the revenues so that they can invest in local development activities.
To oblivion and beyond....
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buzz - addict
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Re: jk 2024
buzz wrote:
As for the Middle and Long - the terrain just wasn't suitable for a level A event, certainly not Middle distance. It didn't help having two events on one area with start finish in the same place. Presumably the intention had been to use the area South of the fence but in my opnion it would have been better to cancel the Middle race if a more suitable venue wasn't available. Hopefully lessons can be learnt for future events.
Reading these comments, I find it ironic that the terrain events were held in the West Midlands as the East Midlands said that they didn't have any suitable areas!
- babs f
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Re: jk 2024
buzz wrote:I would certainly be prepared to pay more for consistently high quality events. The entries are a small part of the overall cost of attending and orienteering is significantly cheaper than similar activities
It's an old chestnut this discussion, but actually I'd disagree. One factor in our deciding not to enter the long (the best decision we made for the whole weekend) was the savings we'd make. To the nearest £10, our main marginal costs for the weekend came to £80 for accommodation (2 nights), £60 for fuel, £90 entries (bearing in mind that our club covered our relay entries, otherwise it would have been £140), total £230, entries 40% of the total. If I hadn't been relay captain and wanted to be at the relays early, our accommodation costs would have been just £40, and entries would have represented almost half (47%).
If we'd gone for the full weekend, I had it costed at accommodation £140, £40 for fuel and £140 for entries, total £310, entries 45% of the cost.
(In both cases, I've not included food, as we self-catered throughout, spending only slightly more than we would have done if we'd been at home for the weekend).
So - the entries were certainly not a small part of the cost of attending for us.
As for significantly cheaper than similar activities, what would we have done with the weekend if not orienteering? Pretty much all the alternatives we would have turned to have zilch entry fees. I can't think of another similar activity we do which costs us £25 each to take part. (Compared to some activities, orienteering of course has lower capital expenses, but then I had a discussion with one newish club member around the prohibitive cost of orienteering shoes after she'd struggled round Day 2 in less than ideal footwear which highlighted how expensive it can still be).
To sum up, orienteering entry fees are one of the biggest items in our household budget, and the cost of them is definitely and increasingly affecting which events we choose to enter.
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awk - god
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