Come and run in BOC relay terrain - 20th March

[Spookster]

Well, you can't actually run at Tankersley where the BOC relays will be held, but Hugset Wood is only a few miles away and is a great new area/map on very similar terrain. To quote from the flyer:

Brand new area Hugset Wood is close to M1 Junction 37, and offers a fast and challenging race on old mining terrain in mainly gently-sloping runnable mature woodland which should provide a good warm-up for this years BOC Relays on an extended Tankersley. It contains over 80 bell-pits, some of whose spoil mounds are over 25m in diameter. On a 1:5000 map there are also over 200 other pits and depressions as well as many other brown features in an area less that 1sq km. The pits vary in size with the largest 5 being up to 15m diameter and 5m deep (although no controls will be in these) and there aren't many paths in this complex terrain!

Entries for Hugset middle distance race are open on Fabian4 till 10th March. There is also an urban event (part of th YHOA urban league) in Hathersage on Saturday 19th March, to make it a double-event weekend (entries also on Fabian4).

[PhilJ]

Can find any details of the BOC relay courses online, does anyone know what the Mixed Adhoc course consists of, Green/Light Green/Orange? Leg order?

[Scott]

The rules are here. Mixed Ad-Hoc is Long TD5, Medium TD5, Short TD3, but each team does them in a random order.

[Spookster]

As Scott says, the event will be run in accordance with the event rules. To be absolutely clear, here is the relevant rule about Ad Hoc:

4.2.3 Laps will be run in the order shown except for classes R and S (Mixed Ad Hoc and Junior Ad Hoc) which will have lap lengths jumbled up. For this class, the running order will be shown on the Team Declaration Form so that team members will be able to select the lap appropriate to them.

[yted]

I'm controlling Hugset and whether it's good practice for the relay or not, people should go to the event. It's a wonderful area: a runnable forest full of contours and pits. I'm going to try out the blue course tomorrow morning - can't wait.

[PhilJ]

Thanks very much for info and links for the Ad Hoc.

[MAPS]

Just a reminder that pre entries close on 10th. There will only be limited maps available on the day.

[Duncan]

Can you tempt us with a fragment of the new Hugset map, or a copy of the old Hugset map? (Or the whole new map, but I'm presuming you won't go that far!)

[Spookster]

Can you tempt us with a fragment of the new Hugset map, or a copy of the old Hugset map? (Or the whole new map, but I'm presuming you won't go that far!)

Er, there is no old Hugset map, it's a brand new area.

These are the map extracts for Tankersley, and Hugset is similar but with hardly any tracks or paths.
.

If I remember rightly the mapper (SYO Member) told me it has about 300 depressions (which are anything from small depressions to huge/deep depressions, some of which are bell pits).

[SYO Member]

I was just about to add a small section of the Hugset map (either 36Kb PDF or 29Kb JPEG - whichever comes out best) but a message came up saying "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached".

Anything I can do other than create a new thread?

[SYO Member]

Here's a sample of the Hugset map which is a brand new o-area. It only shows about a tenth of the pitted sections which comprise about two thirds of the nicely runnable woodlands and includes one of the few paths through the bell pits which were worked in the 19th century.

Why do bell pits have a depression at the top of the spoil heap? When a shaft was manually dug down to a seam of coal 20/30ft below, there were no pit props and for stability, the pit was mined in a bell shape. When it became too dangerous to continue, the pit was filled in with spoil from above and as when you fill in a hole in the garden, alot was left and became a round spoil heap on the surface. When it was finished some settling occurred causing depressions to form at the top of the heaps. Note there are no open shafts in the area but there are 3 rocky pits not used for controls.

In addition to the bell pits, there are scores of other normal pits, depressions and other brown features at ground level and I have to admit that in all my years of orienteering, I have never come across an area quite like this one.

This is a treat not to be missed and you can combine it with our Hathersage urban event the day before, but can people pre-enter please? Although we won't be allocating start times to pre-entries (start when you like), for parking purposes we'd like a good idea of numbers in advance. We have a reasonably sized flat parking field about 100m from the Start at Hugset, but we'd prefer not to be absolutely swamped with EODs.

Ray Waight (Co-organiser and Mapper)

[JennyJ]

Totally agree with Ray - fantastic little area you'd be mad to miss it (so handy for the M1 too)

[DavidJ]

Here's a sample of the Hugset map which is a brand new o-area.

It does look an interesting area and i am sorry I will miss it (I will be at the Relay though). However, I am finding it difficult to picture the shape of the ground. From the description, I think that many of the 'u' depressions sit on a slightly raised area - hence the use of a form line around many of them. The use of 'slope lines' on the down side would be useful. This would also apply to the main contours - does the ground slope down towards the NE or towards the SW?

My main question is with the form lines next to the contours. There are several positioned just to the north of some of the contours. Assuming that they continue the slope downwards (or upwards), I presume that these represent a slightly steeper slope than where there is no form line. In this type of terrain, I for one would appreciate a greater use of slope lines on the contrours and form lines.

It must have been very challenging to map so my comments are meant to be constructive rather than criticism.

[yted]

Your right DavidJ but the section of map you see on screen is enlarged - the map has lots going on so the form lines that don't form hills around small depressions have tags on the downslope sides. The final details will have something along the lines of "all the form lines forming circles araound a depression denote a hill with a depression in the top"! The good thing about Hugset is that lots of pits and depressions aren't on hills and these are much more technically difficult sites.

[SYO Member]

David, all of the main pitted sections of the area slope down towards the NE and it is
so obvious when you're out there that it is not necessary to include tags on either the
contours or their associated form-lines, even when these become part of the spoil
heaps.

Yes, many but not all of the 'u' depressions sit at the top of an up to 5m high spoil
heap, and I have followed the convention that bell pit mappers usually use which is to
not put tags on the formline as long as it circles more than about 50 per cent of the spoil heap. If it doesn't, e.g. the one on the SE side of the sample map, then it has a tag. Likewise a spoil heap with no depression at the top also has a tag as shown at the NW corner of the map.

As Yted says, where there is any doubt about the slope direction of any form-line (and
there are 165 of them), there is a tag, and this will be pointed out in the final
details.

Other stats from OCAD are 208 'u' depressions, 72 'v' pits and 15 dot knolls as well as
15 monster-sized pits shown by a contour with tag.