Scottish Champs are now a WRE

[Scott]

If you're still looking for suggestions of what to include, some details on transport options might be helpful in persuading foreigners/Englishmen hesitant about venturing into the depths of Scotland that it won't be too much effort.

Also, some idea of the range of courses on offer might be good.

[mike g]

For those of us in deepest Englandshire there's just too many good events in Scotland this year...I've already got this weekend and the Touch/Trossachs weekend booked. The Purple Thistle will get my vote ahead of the Scottish Champs.

[graeme]

details on transport options might be helpful in persuading foreigners/Englishmen ... that it won't be too much effort.

Um, it's at Rannoch. Details of transport options aren't going to be persuasive!

[Scott]

Um, it's at Rannoch. Details of transport options aren't going to be persuasive!

Well, if the transport connections are rubbish/non-existent, you could try actually saying so. It might prevent people from spending half an hour trying to work out whether it can be done by public transport. Not that anyone would be that daft .

"The venue is 2hrs drive from Edinburgh airport; sadly, public transport connections are poor."

[Paul Frost]

Well, if the transport connections are rubbish/non-existent, you could try actually saying so

I understand where you are coming from, but from a marketing point of view it's probably not ideal to highlight a negative aspect. Plus some people would regard the remoteness as a positive feature.

Also, some idea of the range of courses on offer might be good.

It's a national event, so should have the full set of age class courses.

[Scott]

It's a national event, so should have the full set of age class courses.

But if the SOA is hoping that WRE status may draw competitors from abroad (although the opinion here seems to be that that's unlikely anyway), it might not hurt to be a be a bit more specific about what "being a national event" involves - if I were looking at the website from the point of view of someone who doesn't already know what the Scottish Champs is, I couldn't even tell whether it's Long, Middle or Sprint.

edit: although I can't see actually where the website says it's a national event either, so even as a South Englander I might not be entirely clear about whether there are 18/20/21E courses.

[Gross]

But if the SOA is hoping that WRE status may draw competitors from abroad (although the opinion here seems to be that that's unlikely anyway),

It's a WRE... the only courses a WRE is concerned about are M/W21E... or M/W21L as FVO have called them

Rest of the competition SOL, National, Club, Badge, Colour Coded, Level 1 or 26 have nothing to do with the WRE..........

So someone entering a WRE because it's a WRE and they want to compete in a WRE will know that it's M/W21 E................

[Scott]

But it goes back to rocky's point - if you're coming to an event from abroad, WRE status doesn't just appeal to elites, because it is a good indicator that the event will probably be on quality terrain and with a decent level of planning and organization, regardless of which course you are entering.

[Gross]

WRE status doesn't just appeal to elites, because it is a good indicator that the event will probably be on quality terrain and with a decent level of planning and organization, regardless of which course you are entering.

That may or may not be true... a WRE might just be the 2 elite courses, it might be the elite courses with some local informal event tagged on... WRE status does not inform / suggest / guarantee the quality or otherwise of any other part of the competition... that area is down to marketing.... so you might spot a WRE in one of the 'stans... but that doesn't mean it'll be a good competition for Joe Bloggs... but like Rocky suggested - it's a good starting point

[Scott]

a WRE might just be the 2 elite courses, it might be the elite courses with some local informal event tagged on...

So surely that's a good reason to include some info about what courses are available at the event? After all, some foreign elites might actually have non-elite families that they would like to bring with them .

[Gross]

It would be a good marketing idea for any event of any standard & status to advertise what courses are on offer But remember... this is British orienteering where information is only made available to the 'few'... outsiders..? who wants them

[Patrick]

Right, as this thread appears to have been afflicted by Nopesport-itis (chief symptom: an urge to pre-emptively criticise and/or dismiss anything which hasn't been fully and laboriously explained to the complainant), here is some more information.

The Scottish will be in Rannoch Forest. This - as the name suggests - is next to Loch Rannoch. There are map links on the website for those who don't know where that is. If you can't be bothered clicking on those then it's a bit to the west of Tullochroisk which the vast majority of you will know from Tay 2009. Most people will be able to deduce from this that it's quite hard to get to - or at least that a lot of travel time is involved.

The more charitable (assuming there are some on here) might reason that there is some point to dragging people into the middle of nowhere for a weekend, and they'd be correct. Rannoch is a superb area, a very large and mostly runnable plantation forest with vague contoury bits, detailed contoury bits and patches of complex vegetation detail. It is largely a gentle north-facing slope, aside from a whacking great river gorge across the middle which should make for some interesting route choices. It is, in my opinion, one of the best areas in the UK. It hasn't been used since JK 2000 because (I believe) of access issues coupled with the remoteness discussed above. However, in choosing to use it for the Scottish the idea was to give folk a rare opportunity to run in a world class piece of terrain and spend a holiday weekend amid some of Scotland's most beautiful scenery. Perhaps the Nopesport cognoscenti would have preferred us to map a convenient town centre instead!

By the way, I don't know who was responsible for getting the WRE designation but most people involved in the event didn't know anything about it until a couple of days ago. Hence the apparent unpreparedness.

Patrick

[Scott]

Right, as this thread appears to have been afflicted by Nopesport-itis (chief symptom: an urge to pre-emptively criticise and/or dismiss anything which hasn't been fully and laboriously explained to the complainant), here is some more information.

There have been several comments about the lack of info and a website, so tell me what you would like to see on the Scottish Champs website and I'll see what I can do.

[Gross]

Perhaps the Nopesport cognoscenti would have preferred us to map a convenient town centre instead!

Cumbernauld

[Scott]

I don't even think it's as inaccessible as you Northerners like to make out . Some helpful travel info that could maybe go on the website: There are regular trains to Pitlochry from both Edinburgh and Glasgow. There's a PostBus from Pitlochry that goes right past the event centre on Saturday mornings (although it might fill up). And given that the event centre is a campsite, presumably you could camp there?

Admittedly getting back to Pitlochry on Sunday might require hitching, but I don't reckon that would be too difficult.

If you want people to come to your event, it never hurts to try to make it a bit easier for them to work out how to get there, particularly if it's somewhere remote. I know it's a long way off at the moment, but with budget airlines and cheap train tickets people travelling long distances tend to decide where they're going quite far in advance.