Copeland Chase

[RJ]

Loads of events seem to be suffering from inadequate coverage in the new BOF fixture listing system. When they were set out as they are in CompassSport you could scan the whole lot and select the sort of event you needed. The new BOF listing on the face of it is not good enough. Of course you can get the details if you know how.... but for the regular punter it is not as easy.

So..... there is a brilliant Long-O type event, the Copeland Chase, on Sunday, 15th November. A superb new map which covers the area of Blea, Burnmoor and Eel Tarns. Courses 10/15/20km. A treat. Details on http://www.wcoc.co.uk

Should we be lobbying for a return to the 'traditional' way of listing the details of events? Does anyone else feel that events are actually suffering from low attendance numbers because of the poor 'national promotion'?

[seabird]

Tend to agree with you RJ.

The new system is good for idenifying Local events. But the larger events get rather lost within the melee of local events.

The old list was much better for an easy scan around to see where you want to go.

May explain why (as on another running thread) the Eyam race did not featrure in the Aire event planning consciousness.

How do Compass Sport manage to extract a decent list now? I'm sure our Club Magazine Editors would like to know.

[awk]

Definitely agree RJ. The Event Diary option on the left hand side of the screen helps substantially, but personally I think that should be the default. It also needs somewhere of linking into the more detailed information available on the BOF site - at present the links are to the club home page and to a location map. Seems a bit of a waste not to link the two sets of info together.

[Mrs H]

I miss the region identification code at the start of each entry in the old list. You didn't have to waste any time wading through any information to tell if it was in your range or not

[Wayward-O]

I miss the region identification code at the start of each entry in the old list. You didn't have to waste any time wading through any information to tell if it was in your range or not

The BOF list needs the filtering capability available in Angry Haggis's listing (which I still use), available here:

http://www.oobrien.com/map/

[King Penguin]

a logical continuation from the last post but nothing to do with the Copeland Chase ....

... and it was near-impossible to find our where the various qualifying rounds were for the YBT.
OD made it clear in the event title for theirs, but the next 2 closest to us were impossible to identify without going to the relevant organising club site and to the event details, and how do you find out which to look at ?
A search in the BOF site for "Yvette Baker 2009" yielded - 0 results !
What does that say about the commitment to what is supposedly the premier inter-club junior competition ?

[EddieH]

The problem is that the new system insists on putting in information about all sorts of things that the registrar either doesn't care about, or doesn't know at the time of registering.

Therefore we get bogged down in trivia that is moreoften than not inaccurate, whilst what we really want to see is either lost in the detail or absent altogether.

It is quite clear to me that the new list is a 1000% worsening on what we had before. Living where I do I simply put a Scottish filter on it and thus get a manageable list, but if I were in middle England

I have been told on this forum that the fault lies with the clubs not entering the correct info, but the reality is turning out that this is not going to change - therefore maybe the system is too proscriptive (e.g. when the registrar fails to enter course details - perhaps he doesn't know them - you get a list of default courses appear which can be a million miles from what you actually get.

Also I'd say by insisting on defalting to a very visible "No dogs" even for the vast majority of events where this is palpably not true, you simply cause dog owners to take no notice of the sign so that when it is really imnportant that dogs do not arrive, people bring them anyway (crying wolf comes to mind).

[EddieH]

A pretty good example of just how the new events list fails is this weekend.

Apparently there is a regional event on Longshaw this Saturday. What does that mean for anyone that wants to go?

There is no "Details" button, instead a "More Days" button. When you click on that you get the information that there is also a Veteran Home International on Sunday. So you go there where again there is only a "More Days" button which of course refers back to the Longshaw event.

So what does the average punter expect the "Regional" event to be? If they decide to go they might be rather surprised that all that is on offer is an informal score event

[DM]

a logical continuation from the last post but nothing to do with the Copeland Chase ....

... and it was near-impossible to find our where the various qualifying rounds were for the YBT.
OD made it clear in the event title for theirs, but the next 2 closest to us were impossible to identify without going to the relevant organising club site and to the event details, and how do you find out which to look at ?
A search in the BOF site for "Yvette Baker 2009" yielded - 0 results !
What does that say about the commitment to what is supposedly the premier inter-club junior competition ?

I also had this problem for the NW round, searched everywhere (BO and NW club sites) and found nothing. Heard a rumour of a date but as a club we got nothing from the organiser. And the rumour of a date was 10 days in advance of the event itself and clashed with NWJS training (organised months before) at the opposite end of the region!! Even after the event there is no notification of who qualified and because of the lack of awareness of the qualifier in the region means the status of the winner and the whole competition is devalued.

An opportunity to increase junior participation has been missed.

The solution could be to forget about the competition this year, fix a date asap when all qualifiers take place for 2010 and then club captains can plan well ahead and get more juniors out. If we can do it for CSC then we can do it for YBT.

[DM]

a logical continuation from the last post but nothing to do with the Copeland Chase ....

... and it was near-impossible to find our where the various qualifying rounds were for the YBT.
OD made it clear in the event title for theirs, but the next 2 closest to us were impossible to identify without going to the relevant organising club site and to the event details, and how do you find out which to look at ?
A search in the BOF site for "Yvette Baker 2009" yielded - 0 results !
What does that say about the commitment to what is supposedly the premier inter-club junior competition ?

I also had this problem for the NW round, searched everywhere (BO and NW club sites) and found nothing. Heard a rumour of a date but as a club we got nothing from the organiser. And the rumour of a date was 10 days in advance of the event itself and clashed with NWJS training (organised months before) at the opposite end of the region!! Even after the event there is no notification of who qualified and because of the lack of awareness of the qualifier in the region means the status of the winner and the whole competition is devalued.

An opportunity to increase junior participation has been missed.

The solution could be to forget about the competition this year, fix a date asap when all qualifiers take place for 2010 and then club captains can plan well ahead and get more juniors out. If we can do it for CSC then we can do it for YBT.

[NeilC]

The solution could be to forget about the competition this year, fix a date asap when all qualifiers take place for 2010 and then club captains can plan well ahead and get more juniors out. If we can do it for CSC then we can do it for YBT.

Hardly fair on the club organising the final (mine!) that some regions can't get their act together. The SEOA fixtures secretary informed the clubs at least a year ago when and where the preliminary round would be.

[Mrs H]

Not being funny Neil - but I was a bit surprised to see that that final was so far south - I thought there was some requirement for the final to be vaguely in the middle of the country - or am I confusing it with the PPJR. I must admit that secretly I won't break my heart if we don't qualify not that I'd ever admit that in public (whoops) I'll just say that I haven't forked out £33 in train fair for Young Neville to come home for the local round.

[Homer]

DEE found a solution and qualified via the YHOA preliminary round.

I suspect clubs in the north may not all have tried too hard to qualify, given where the final is. Nevertheless I'm sure SO will put on a great final and there will be worthy winners.

[jab]

SYO are going to the final for the first time and our juniors are really enthusiastic about taking part.

[Stodgetta]

Not an strong attempt to make it as far as Crawley from the E Mids clubs this year, either. Looking at the results, 4 clubs were represented at the qualifier (NOC, DVO, LEI & LOG), with only NOC having enough runners to score a full team.

I'm trying to be enthusiastic about the possibility of Chasers juniors beating HOC juniors on Sunday to get thru' to the final (anticipating another OD victory, as is King Penguin!), but the logistics of transport, overnight accommodation, supervision etc at short notice following the qualifier are a nightmare...

On the other hand, we have 23 juniors willing to come & run, including several back from uni for the weekend, plus a trip to Wagamamas on the way home so I have to be happy with that