Castle Vale

[nooomember]

Just returned from Castle Vale - thanks Harlequins. Great car park/assembly thanks to Betterware - me thinks a HOC member works there! orienteering needs contacts like these.
Area similar to Livingston - a modern housing estate with many small back alleyways, but nice to have virtually no traffic. COurse (2) involved a lot of back-tracking out of controls, and which ever route choice was chosen seemed to give little advantage. Certainly suited the Street - runners, rather than having any tricky navigating but a nice change from the Forest.
Are there any suitable urban areas around Birmingham using the many canals.

[haloite]

Very much enjoyed Castle Vale although I found on my course - M40+/Women Open - there was more traffic than I think I had ever encountered during an Urban race! Maybe it's due to the time of day that I ran (quite late)?
I found the 1:5,000 map a delight to read, the visibility on the map of the small snickets and alleyways being emphasized with thick black lines on their boundaries.
Thanks to HOC officials and helpers - b.t.w. would make a great Sprint & Chase competition area (apart from the traffic!).

[HarryO]

I also enjoyed Castle Vale today. Courses were a little longer than my usual - but part of that is 'cos you can't cut corners through houses! And to be fair we were warned about courses being 1.4 x longer than billed int eh Final Details.
So well done HOC - all seemed well planned and well organised. Just waiting for results and Routegadget

[Big Jon]

Courses were a little longer than my usual - but part of that is 'cos you can't cut corners through houses!

I thought new urban/sprint spec was for course length to be the best possible distance rather than straight line distance.

[andypat]

BOF urban guidance still says straight line distance I think

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/images/uploaded/downloads/events_guideline_e.pdf

[Mrs H]

Both distances were available for competitors to see at Castle Vale. Really enjoyed it, particularly the encouragement from the local youths. It was a beautiful day.

[King Penguin]

Results available here :

http://www.harlequins.org.uk/results/20 ... leVale.htm

[DJM]

BOF urban guidance still says straight line distance I think

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/i ... line_e.pdf

and this is confirmed by BOF Rule 6.1.3

At urban and sprint events the course length shall be given as that of the route from the start via the controls to the finish as shown by the line on the map.

However, the fun comes if the race is also a WRE as the IOF rules support Big Jon and state that lengths must be measured round all impassable objects which, of course, include buildings, walls, fences, etc. In other words, it's the optimum course length which must be quoted for the WRE courses and the straight line lengths for any others

[andypat]

I dont suppose anyone (except maybe IOF) is going to argue if we give both? It makes sense for any newcomers to be as informative as possible.

[bendover]

amazing that you can orienteer in castle vale now. when i was growing up (3 miles down the road), it would probably have been deemed unsafe, and not because of the traffic!

[King Penguin]

I have been working on Castle Vale estate for 12.5 years now, and the change in that period has been almost unbelievable. When I started, there were loads of tower blocks and barely a week went by without us getting an office window shot / catapulted out from the upper floors of the tower block across the fence and over the road (west side of the road by the start for those who came). During the last decade these have almost all been removed and replaced with more conventional housing, and the whole environment has changed completely. 12 years ago I would never have dreamed of suggesting an event on the estate. Now it is perfectly possible. Whilst all controls were secured with gripples we lost nothing and found no evidence of any attempt to tamper with any. Sadly, no estate residents came to have a go, despite local publicity. I am not aware of any runner being intimidated in any way, just a number of "what's going on?" type enquiries.
... and there was no flooding ....

[High Peak]

Any news on Route gadget?

[King Penguin]

Chasing our RG guru.
Map files were sent to him but for some reason did not arrive first time.
He definitely has them and also the results and it should be loaded "soon".
Apologies for the delay.
Will post on here when it is available.