Newborough: British Trail-Orienteering Championships

[JK]

FINALLY!!

British Trail Orienteering Championships 2012 - March 17/18, possibility for training on Fri 16th as well.

Terrain: Newborough forest on the Isle of Anglesey: forested sand dunes (as is WTOC 2012 in Tentsmuir)

Map: 1:5,000 2.5m contours ISOM (same basic spec as Tentsmuir)

Sat: a 2/3 length Trail-O course designed as a model for the following day plus (hopefully, subject to some felling that is going on and is the reason the permissions decision has been delayed) a short course comprising only A flags (or maybe only Z flags ... or maybe some of each!)

Sun: British Trail-Orienteering Championships. Elite class only, all welcome, UK and otherwise)

Note there is a bridge from mainland Wales to the Isle of Anglesey

Please contact j.kewley@dl.ac.uk for more information

and sorry for the delay for those who have known this was provisionally on for some time now.

JK

PS the event is now registered as cat D, but we will try and get that raised to a C (unless people think it should go higher!)

[IanD]

As a British Championship, it should be Level A surely?

[JK]

I planned BTOC 2009 and we registered that as level 1 (or whatever it was in those days), but the person registering it doesn't appear to have permissions to register it as a higher event for some reason.

I am not expert on the rules, but if it was a level A then some of the following may apply:
* Higher fees to Forestry Commission
* We'd need a Grade 1 Controller (we have Grade 2)
* We'd need a longer embargo on the area

We do hope to use an accredited printer in any case.

So far I have entries from the following national teams: NOR, GER, IRL and GBR. There are also residents of DEN and SWE coming along.

JK

[JK]

Additional information including details of how to enter is available on http://db.tt/X6nBfsb6

Final information will be available in a few weeks time.

[Ravinous]

Don't forget the commentary...

[slang]

For Level A, the maps would have to be offset printed. Extremely expensive for a small event.

[Ravinous]

Surely BOF underwrite Level A events - so don't worry JK, splash the cash (Best check the small print on the partnership agreement tho...) And don't forget to invoice BOF for all your expenses! I am sure Helen Errington and David Peel can help person some of the timed controls too... lol

[Arnold]

Any chance of a foot-o event on newborough again one of these days?
Only time I ran there was boc 95 and I lost more time than I care to remember. So it would be nice to go back one day.

[Blonde bombshell]

I also have very fond memories of the Newborough - beautiful forested sand dunes.

Please let us back in!

[pete.owens]

There are foot-O courses in the programme on the Saturday.

[Tatty]

We went their nwice whilst on holiday on Anglesey last year. Definitely my favourite forest. Went over to "Love Island", but didn't see Kate and Wills

[JK]

Ravinous: Sorry there will be no commentary BEFORE the event - that will come after alongside the solutions (not that I have a web site yet)

BOF underwrite British Champs? Not that I have been made aware of! I also planned in 2009 and the event just managed to break even. I wasn't even expecting to get all my travel expenses back (2 hours each way from my house - about 8 trips altogether) until I heard the rumour that there may be a larger Swedish contingent coming than was first hinted (and no I don't mean Ravinous has been on the pies!)

Offset printing? I don't know - we'll be using an accredited printer on waterproof paper, the best of what MDOC does.

level of event: levy agreed with FC is 200 for A, 125 B, 100 C and 50 D, but the A ones are described as Major events. Ours will be 25-30 people (including the swedish group) - if we have to pay the A fee (and I hasten to add that FC did tell us initially that the only cost would be the car parking) ... do the sums!

We have a TrailO committee meeting on Sat, I'll seek further guidance there.

JK

[JK]

Next month's British Trail-O Championships in Newborough Forest promises to be a truly international affair with many competitors coming from overseas for training before WTOC 2012 in Tentsmuir.

In fact so high is the overseas interest that of the 41 competitors registered so far only 11 are based in GBR.

Nations represented:
14x SWE, 13x GBR, 7x NOR, 3x FIN, 1x GER, 1x ITA, 1x JPN and 1 NZL. We are also expecting 2 late entries from IRL.

2 of the GBR are coming over from SWE and 1 from DEN as it is the last ranking event before the ETOC and WTOC 2012 teams are selected.

Preliminary information is available on http://db.tt/X6nBfsb6 and Final information will be available shortly.

JK

[Spookster]

I guess you're getting additional overseas interest in the British Champs becuase of WTOC in Britain later this year. Great!

[JK]

Yes, that was why I chose Newborough rather than Delamere (which would have been closer to me and wouldn't involve a 2 hour drive each way for every visit).

I chose the best quality forested sand dunes I could find near me for
a) Good quality terrain as befits BTOC
b) The best form of competition training that the GB team can get
c) Recent form on WTOC-relevent terrain is useful for the selectors (except they can't see how I perform on it!)
d) Elite Trail-O planning is excellent training for competing so this is all very good training for me for WTOC (if selected) so no big shakes if I lose a few quid on petrol money.

I then advertised it in the appropriate blogs and facebook pages for Trail-O

Watch out for more on Trail-O in the next CompassSport.

JK