'BUCS' University Champs, 13-14th March

[mharky]

Oxford were second overall last year... Durham and Warwick have also been big uni clubs recently.

Perhaps some work lies with local clubs, SYO and INT/ESOC have strong links with their uni's

[Dave]

Well, it was a good weekend and its good to be back at home relaxing, not in a chuggin sweat box with 4 hours still to drive

[Kris]

Brilliant weekend, good races and good banter, and as for edinburgh bossing it, they were fully expected to with a team like that.

[Rockaldo]

It was a good weekend and enjoyed as usual.

Success at BUSA has nothing to do with how good the club is at developing orienteering or how good it is at coaching, which is a shame, it is all down to which of the best orienteers go to which universities. Most recently most have the best orienteers have been in Edinburgh previously that has been Sheffield its exactly the same in all university sports I suppose. It is strange why everyone gets in to the rivalry (including me - i want to beat EUOC and win as much as anyone and long let it continue) when success at BUSA is mostly down to which university gave who an offer in UCAS.

The novice course had four entries which is very poor in my opinion.

[Scott]

Excellent weekend. Thanks to all at UBOC.

[Strider]

OK....I'll try again - any results to be found lurking on the net?

S.

[Big Jon]

Hi Strider
I've had a good look at BOF site, BUCS site and Uni site - nothing.........

[Charli]

Congrats to Edinburgh for winning...everything. yes mharky shuoc were there. i think anyone in a 50mile radius may have heard us. I'm really pleased with how ShUOC as a team did all weekend. Everyone ran hard and most were pretty pleased with their races. We medalled in both relays and I think the girls especially with their bronze and there was a good battle between oxford and shuoc for the bronze. Yes oxford. Lets not forget it's not just about ShUOC and EUOC as people often do.

I agree with John on the lack of numbers on the Novice course as there was quite a field of us last year and I didn't recognise any of the people I ran against last year moving on up to the B course. So I think there needs to be some thought in how to keep new orienteers.

Anybody, girls especially, going to university next year, pick Sheffield it's a banter filled, friendly club that provides a variety of good quality training. I'm very disappointed to be graduating this year so will be missing BUSA in Edinburgh, I wonder if they can top ShUOC's BUSA social.

I still question the beer race result.

[Mrs H]

Individual Winsplits are on the nope front page - I'm liking those run in splits

[xtophe]

Winsplit up at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=13621 and http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=13622

Splitsbrowser in a minute.

RouteGadget on BOK routegadget hopefully tonight

[distracted]

Echo the sentiments on here - top weekend put on by the Bristol guys, impressive work by a relatively small university club who had great support from those close by. Thanks to all involved!

It is a shame that the competition is still dominated by the 'big two' but if that's where the top guys choose to go, and the centres of excellence are decided on that basis, there's not much you can do about it. Yes Oxford broke up the duopoly last year, due to the strength of our women's team in comparison to Sheffield's. But the strength in depth of the Sheffield and Edinburgh men's teams is such that any other club getting two or more runners in the Men's A top 20 is doing well - the other unis can hardly compete on that basis alone.

Strider - if you're referring to the guy from Lincoln, I think he mispunched...

[HOCOLITE]

Oh yes Mharki forgot that SHUOC won the run in
I hear that the eating contest was a bit of a non starter. Described as a wedding reception buffet for about 100, not food for a substantially larger no. of orienteers.
The contest was to see where they could find extra sustinence at minimum price

[xtophe]

RouteGadget for the Individuals at http://www.bok.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=43&kieli=

[HOCOLITE]

Oh dear it's disappeared again
SHUOC won the run in.
The eating competition was a non starter - a wedding reception buffet for 100. Not ideal for the number of hungry competitors. The competition was as to who could find the best grub for the lowest price!

[Scott]

Full results are now up on the UBOC website.

But the strength in depth of the Sheffield and Edinburgh men's teams is such that any other club getting two or more runners in the Men's A top 20 is doing well - the other unis can hardly compete on that basis alone.

It's not how far ahead Edinburgh and Sheffield are that worries me, it's how weak the competition is farther down the field. At the moment, any other club managing to bring a full team to BUCS is pretty much guaranteed a top-five finish - aside from the big two, this year only Oxford and Durham were able to field the requisite three men and three women on the A courses (three other universities were one woman short).