Really the Nopesport Urban League 2010

[Roger]

Hmmm... Liam Harrington's result from Sheffield is currently missing, so he'll be at the top when that comes in.

The whispers from the Prancing Pony were correct: with his twin selves magically reunited, Liam leaps to the top of the Men's Open leaderboard.

[Strider]

The whispers from the Prancing Pony were correct

Prancing Pony..... how very dare you.... more of a thoroughbred stallion, I think you'll find!

S.

[King Penguin]

More of a reference to the pub where "they serve it in pints !!" than to you personally methinks....

[Mrs H]

Surely the Prancing Pony is where Frodo meets Strider?

[madmike]

Very impressive Mrs H

google says:

Two important events leading up to the War of the Ring took place at the Prancing Pony. The first was the chance meeting on March 15, 2941 of the Third Age, of Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield, who concocted a plan to set out to recapture the Lonely Mountain from Smaug with a company of thirteen Dwarves and one Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins.

The second event occurred in 3018. On Mid-year's day of that year, Gandalf had stopped at the Prancing Pony to give Barliman Butterbur an urgent letter to be delivered to Frodo Baggins warning him to leave the Shire at once. But Barliman forgot about the letter and Frodo did not set out until September, when the Nazgul were already on his trail.

Frodo and his companions arrived at the Prancing Pony on September 29. The Prancing Pony had been recommended to them by Tom Bombadil and Merry was familiar with the inn because Brandybucks occasionally traveled to Bree and stayed there. Barliman told them they were lucky since the inn was full and only the Hobbit-sized rooms were available.

Frodo, Sam, and Pippin decided to go the the Common Room while Merry took a walk. The Common Room was crowded with Hobbits, a party of Dwarves, and a number of Men, included a squint-eyed Southerner and a hooded Ranger sitting alone. The Ranger introduced himself to Frodo as Strider and called Frodo's attention to Pippin, who was telling amusing stories about the Shire and was coming close to mentioning Bilbo's disappearance at his Farewell Party. Frodo jumped onto a table and started singing to distract the crowd, but he fell and the Ring slipped onto his finger. Among those who witnessed his sudden disappearance were the squint-eyed Southerner and Bill Ferny of Bree.

Strider revealed himself as Aragorn and Gandalf's letter was produced by an apologetic Barliman. Aragorn offered to protect the Hobbits from the Nazgul and lead them to Rivendell. He warned the Hobbits not to return to their rooms, and Nob made up the Hobbits' beds with bolsters to make it appear that they were sleeping.

[Strider]

Ah! Should have spotted that .... nice one

S.

[Roger]

Over and out, BigBoy.

[HOCOLITE]

I thought it was a pub on the A4013 between Worcester and Hereford. Mind you it's probably changed it's name again as it seems to fairly regularly.

[Roger]

London now included: women, men.

Juniors (M/W 16 and 18) running Open have been scored:
as juniors if they were on the 'junior' sheet for the previous races
as seniors if they were on the 'senior' sheet for the previous races
as seniors if they were M/W16, so chose to run up although eligible for the 16's course
otherwise as juniors.

Leading three in each category, with points and number of races:

Junior Men: Adam Bradbury 558 / 6, Alex McCann 550 / 6, Michael Adams 538 / 6
Open Men: Ed Catmur 558 / 6, Liam Harrington 532 / 7, Oliver O'Brien 485 / 7
Veteran Men: Charlie Adams 585 / 7, Martin Ward 581 / 8, Paul Murgatroyd 542 / 8
Supervet Men: Bill Hanley 582 / 8, Doug Henderson 558 / 8, Tony Carlyle 536 / 7

Junior Women: Elizabeth Parkinson 589 / 6, Amy Kimberley 549 / 7, Karen Maxwell 369 / 4
Open Women: Jenny Johnson 585 / 6, Charlotte Ward 476 / 5, Blanka Collis 451 / 5
Veteran Women: Delia Kingsbury 568 / 9, Liz Phillips 559 / 8, Carol Edwards 536.5/6
Supervet Women: Glenys Ferguson 556 / 7, Lynden Hartmann 545 / 8, Susan Findlay-Robinson 531 / 7

All to play for in the last two races, and it'll all be wrapped up in a fortnight.

[DM]

Warwick is the final race in the series and looking at the entries there will not be many juniors running, 8 on MW16- and 1 on yellow.

My conclusion is this is a direct result of the courses being limited by insurance considerations to "park orienteering" for the juniors.

If the juniors don't get a decent urban course they will lose interest and the parents will feel less inclined to go as well.

I know the issue has been raised before but is it really IMPOSSIBLE to get suitable insurance cover?

[graeme]

IMPOSSIBLE.

The very idea that a responsible parent would allow an 11 year-old to cross roads! Almost as bad as posting images of children on the internet.

When I were a lad we were meant to supervise old ladies crossing roads...

Child abuse in action

PWT092.jpg (29.13 KiB) Viewed 10715 times

[frog]

I completely agree. Is BOF now comletely refusing to let clubs accept under 14s into urban races or just making disparaging noises about it that clubs can ignore if they wish?
I do find the idea that secondary school age children are considered incapable of crossing the road safely bizarre. Are they soon going to restrict the over 65s as well? Some of them may be getting a bit frail and doddery, plus the eyesight and hearing start to go a bit....

(I'll get my coat and run)

[andypat]

Warwick is the final race in the series and looking at the entries there will not be many juniors running, 8 on MW16- and 1 on yellow.

My conclusion is this is a direct result of the courses being limited by insurance considerations to "park orienteering" for the juniors.

If the juniors don't get a decent urban course they will lose interest and the parents will feel less inclined to go as well.

I know the issue has been raised before but is it really IMPOSSIBLE to get suitable insurance cover?

Has it been ascertained for definite that the main issue is "Insurance cover"? I cant help feeling that there may also be a concern regarding the risk to the kids welfare of running in traffic? I appreciate theres a lot of strong feeling in this debate, but if a child gets knocked down while running across the road while paying more attention to the map than the traffic, I wouldnt like to be the one having to defend the practice of allowing them. I appreciate its difficult to know where to draw the line, but I'm not sure its all just about insurance.

[Scott]

The decision certainly appears to have been motivated by the insurers - see the Events Committee minutes for June:

Clarification was sought on the situation regarding the insurance restrictions for those under 16 at urban races. MH explained that those under the age of 16 are not allowed to take part in courses that allow free running on busy roads. They can compete in parks, campuses, controlled traffic areas, roads with very slow moving traffic and cross roads using manned crossing points. In addition to this, the parent or guardian of a person under 16 cannot sign a waiver of liability to allow them to compete on an over 16 urban course.

But that isn't to say that there aren't also genuine safety concerns.

From an insurers' point of view I suspect the most worrying case will be the one where a child runs out in front of a car and the car swerves to avoid him, but in doing so crashes into another car or some pedestrians: by putting on an event where children race across roads with traffic, have the organisers neglected their duty of care towards third-party road users?

[EddieH]

The irony is that there is no reason to believe that a typical 15 year old is more likely to cause such an accident than a competitive adult. Maybe we'd better abandon the sport altogether. After all if it were invented today I doubt it would be considered acceptable to send children out into a forest on their own.

Oh I hark back to the day when as an 11? year old I first camped alone on Dartmoor