British Sprint and middle closing date

[EddieH]

Following a previous topic on the lack of transparancy of closing dates with the new BOF fixtures list, I have just had a look at the website for these events.

Failure to enter BY SUNDAY will incur a massive £6 surcharge. Be warned!

I have seen absolutely no publcity on this whatsoever.

[Scott]

Failure to enter BY SUNDAY will incur a massive £6 surcharge. Be warned!

I have seen absolutely no publcity on this whatsoever.

To be fair, a news story saying that the prices increase on Sunday went up on the BOF website yesterday.

[EddieH]

It just goes to show how unobvious the news items are pushed off to the side as they are, and if a couple more items come up all those that don't log on and look at this time will miss it.

Let's face it the obvious news item is the development team (which with the greatest respect to Ed is of far less importance to the greater number of members,) and has no doubt been in that prominent position for some time.

[frog]

Having just organised the Scottish sprint champs with closing date 1 week before and entry fee £6 for BOF seniors I do wonder why entry has to be so expensive and so early.
OK we possibly undercharged, particularly having lost an SI unit, but charging three times our fee, particularly when I presume they'll get loads more entries seems OTT.
As someone who often doesn't know which weekends she'll be free more than a couple of weeks in advance I find entry dates of over a week in advance a pain. OK it's a national event with selection races etc but surely 2 weeks is enough to organise the start times and order maps etc. Why the 4 week cut off for a cheaper entry?
The system in this case seems designed to discourage casual orienteers from entering. When we've had British events in Scotland I don't recall us making it so difficult or expensive to enter. (Just checked this and 2 years ago FVO charged £7.50)

[distracted]

Along the same lines as frog - I'm aware Level A events are our most prestigious and it's nice to have all the bells and whistles, but I was a little surprised to see entry fees at 15 GBP per day when they were only 12 GBP for the middle/elite sprints last year and I recall the age-classes were lower than that.

So I'm wondering what's different/improved from last year's events that justifies the increase? Is it that BOF now levy all Level A events differently?

[NeilC]

I have seen absolutely no publcity on this whatsoever.

As a matter of interest where would you have expected to see this publicity?

Regarding the price the main considerations are:
1) A complete re-survey of the both the areas being used - a professional mapper used for the Middle area.
2) Professional results team. The sprint championships are difficult ones to deal with having to produce a new start list mid-event with lots of qualifying rules to deal with. The FVO event and many others have failed to start the second round on time. The combined age class champs are even more complicated and beyond my club's capabilities.
3) Offset Litho printed maps (for the middle)
4) High land access charges
5) EVO like booking a bar, farm facilities, radio controls, commentary
6) Toilets at £100 a unit

We ran a budget for 500 competitors paying £12 and it came out as a loss (before levy). Very difficult to estimate how many people would come down to the South Coast. At the time of setting the budget we had no idea that it would be a selection race for WOC etc.

It's still cheaper than BOC. Should it be cheaper because the courses are shorter?
Bit unfair to say that it goes up £6 on Sunday - it's £3 per event.
Level A events are levied differently.
I would be very nervous only leaving 2 weeks to order offset litho maps - to ensure quality, time is needed to re-print if necessary.
The final closing date is March 27th (two weeks ahead of the event). The early one gives us a feel for what facilities we will eventually need and if courses need to be split (see above).

[Paul Frost]

I have seen absolutely no publcity on this whatsoever.

As Neil says, where would you expect to see it?

The item is top of the list on the British Orienteering RSS news feed, so if you subscribed to that you would get early warning of any news.
I also show that news feed on the SOA website and on the news pages of the Maroc, Clyde, Stag, Tinto & EckO websites.

Where would be the best place for important orienteering news to be publicised (apart from Nope of course)?

[EddieH]

The problem is in the BOF fixture list which has loads of fairly unimportant information, but nothing on closing dates. The old printed lists always had this information easily visible.

I have not seen a flier and was totally unaware of your RSS feed subscription whatever that is.

If I am unniqe, or even in a small minority I apologise for this thread, however I suspect some people might be grateful that I've brought it to their attention.

Neil, regarding the £6 price hike after Sunday for the events in the tite of this thread - I faal to see what is unfactual about that.

I also have made no comment whatever on the value of the event.

[NeilC]

When we've had British events in Scotland I don't recall us making it so difficult or expensive to enter. (Just checked this and 2 years ago FVO charged £7.50)

BOC2008 (Culbin)
Early Advance Entries £14
Advance Entries £16
Late Entries £18

I don't know when the various cut offs were but I suspect that one of them was at least 4 weeks ahead of the event.

[Paul Frost]

I have not seen a flier and was totally unaware of your RSS feed subscription whatever that is.

Read about RSS news feeds on the BBC website or if you have a Google account, Google Reader
You can see all the latest posts from all the websites you are interested in on one page, rather than visiting each site individually to see if anything has changed.

[awk]

Putting on these specialist events for British Orienteering can get very expensive for clubs if they are not careful - we took a substantial hit on the Peter Palmer Relays a couple of years ago. I don't see the British Sprints/Middles as outrageously expensive in the context of recent event prices, although do wonder if they are starting to bite, given recent comments about numbers at Level A events.

As for entering several weeks in advance, I look at it the other way, and see ourselves as very lucky when entries for events with premarked events are allowed to within a week or so of an event - although one can get spoiled by that (I certainly realise I have been on occasions).

However, I do agree with Eddy on both the need for pre-entry closing dates receiving greater prominence on the fixtures list, and on the priorities on the news pages: as I said earlier, they are usually on items that may interest those involved in British Orienteering itself, but are of little interest to most orienteers (or indeed those who might become orienteers!).

[graeme]

The sprint championships are difficult ones to deal with having to produce a new start list mid-event.

Really tricky that one. Can't imagine a club managing to pull it off 20 times in a row without professional help. .
(and we only give ourselves at most an hour to do it)
feeling the pressure yet Scott?

[IanD]

The sprint championships are difficult ones to deal with having to produce a new start list mid-event.

Really tricky that one. Can't imagine a club managing to pull it off 20 times in a row without professional help. .
feeling the pressure yet Scott?

JOK Chasing Sprint has rather fewer classes though, suspect that makes it a bit easier.

[frog]

This sort of thing makes me wonder again if we're making it all to complex for ourselves.
We do seem to be turning what is at heart a fairly simple sport into a bit of a monster.

[NeilC]

It's all relative. The night event that I planned last Thursday (53 runners)and the Club league event (160 runners) that I planned on Saturday involved about 2hours in the wood and an hour on the PC ahead of the event. The pancake relay I planned for club night last night (15 runners) involved 10 minutes on the PC and 30 minutes cutting out clue strips. BSBM (700? runners) is admittedly taking rather longer.