BOC 2013

[IanD]

Regret no live results at the TrailO today.

But come anyway, and give yourself a mental challenge after the relays. Starts open from midday until 3pm, possibly later if we hear the relays have been delayed.

[aiming off]

Excellent event: but what a poor turnout. It gets worse year on year.

And it probably will get worse next year. Over 60% of those under 35 ran a course that had either no National O league points or no Prizes. And I heard a few who were not running the top course say they felt their course was irrelevant, the winners were not recognised, and they won't bother to make a long trip next year. Come on, is this what we want?

Or are we content that more over 70's have entered the SARUM saunter than U21's.

[andy]

Excellent event: but what a poor turnout. It gets worse year on year.

Not helped by the fact it clashes with the biggest international relay of the year.

[graeme]

Andy: Not even close.
BOC was indeed excellent.

[nooomember]

Excellent event: but what a poor turnout. It gets worse year on year.

And it probably will get worse next year. Over 60% of those under 35 ran a course that had either no National O league points or no Prizes. And I heard a few who were not running the top course say they felt their course was irrelevant, the winners were not recognised, and they won't bother to make a long trip next year. Come on, is this what we want?

Or are we content that more over 70's have entered the SARUM saunter than U21's.

And dont forget the Exortionate entry fee - £25 - maybe that put people off?
As well as being in a similar part of the country to the JK - why would people pay the expensive fuel costs twice within a month for this irrelevent (for most) event?
Or were the majority of entrants either living in the South, retired, on high incomes or subsidised elites?

[PhilJ]

The timing of it also does not help with A levels starting next week, can 18-20 year olds afford another weekend away, so soon after the JK, plus many uni students are now in their end of year exams, is BOC a selection race race for anything? if not then it could be held at anytime of the year if it wanted the u21's to attend, but is it relevant for that age group anyway as they have their own BEOC?

[graeme]

Congratulations to King and Queen of the Forest Murray and Tess, and British Relay Champions OUOC.

The names will live forever in the record books, long after we've forgotten who went to a party in Sweden.

timing of it also does not help

That's easy to say, but when do you suggest to have it? Much earlier and half the Juniors have just moved up to a new technical difficulty. Summertime and everyone whinges about Holidays. Autumn and the forests are full of brambles. November and its miserable weather and flooded off.

Maybe its time for a new approach. It's usually easy enough to pick the elite race which will have the best field of people trying to win (last year that was the Scottish Champs... this year probably Euromeeting ... next year Balmoral ). That should be the Elite champs, but the ridiculous bolt-on of 18/20"elite" tends to kill that*.

Then BOC can have a focus on the age group Champs, and free itself from the idea of a "racing season". For me (even for me?) this was a race too many, coming after UKOL34, JK, Southerns, Spriddle I hadn't even thought about it trainingwise until a week before.

*kudos here to Jonny Crickmore for spurning it, and to the planners for giving him the moral victory of the fastest time round the 20E course.

more over 70s have entered the SARUM saunter than U21s

The clue's in the title...

[Little Hoddy]

This thing people are calling "BEOC" doesn't exist. The British Long Championships was on Saturday, the same event for everyone. The same is true for Sprint, Middle, Relay and Night.

[PhilJ]

Here's a thought, why not get rid of BOC all together, JK is usually a few weeks before it so if you are JK champion, harder than BOC as it combined time over 2 days, you are also British Champion. JK uses terrain of the same quality as BOC, same level of organisation etc...so why have both, obviously BO will lose lots of levy income if it were one major not 2. JK is being developed as a brand, tries to capture overseas entries etc so over time will be THE major of the year so will only get bigger and as such BOC will reduce in its appeal.

[graeme]

This thing people are calling "BEOC" doesn't exist.

The 2013 rule is

1.2.3 British Long Distance Orienteering Champions in the M/W21, M/W20 and M/W18 classes shall be determined at the British Elite Championships which is normally incorporated into this event.
1.2.4 If the Elite Long Distance Championships are not incorporated then no “E” courses shall be planned...

So what I wrote last week was exactly correct. The last time BEOC was in fact separate from BOC was in 2009, when BOC was held in February.

Now the interesting thing is, the proposed rules for 2014 have quietly dropped those paragraphs. So what you wrote today is also exactly correct.

When we were invited to comment on the new rules we were told there was nothing major, just some tidying up. Who would have thought that abolishing the British Elite Orienteering Championships was just some minor tidy up!

[Adrian]

Only the second time I've been to BOC and it was great. I can see that there were two mistakes: holding the event on the Tiomila weekend and holding it so close to the JK area, and I dare say BOF will do their best to avoid these things in future, but otherwise I think the organisers should be congratulated on a great weekend.

What are BOF doing re TV and tracking? Our sport does seem a bit stuck in the 1990s. If I were on the board I'd be prioritising these things (they're vital for the image of the sport) and allocating a goodly portion of revenue to getting these systems in place regulalrly at major events - well before the world championships.

[madmike]

What are BOF doing re TV and tracking? Our sport does seem a bit stuck in the 1990s. If I were on the board I'd be prioritising these things (they're vital for the image of the sport) and allocating a goodly portion of revenue to getting these systems in place regulalrly at major events - well before the world championships.

BOF/S6D Company are very much moving that way in time for 2015 methinks - your point is well made but those things don't come cheap.

[Adrian]

those things don't come cheap.

How about a fund-raising drive? I think that part of a low membership-fee policy (like BOF has recently instituted) must be to have fund-raising campaigns once or twice a year for specific purposes.

[Mrs H]

JK is being developed as a brand, tries to capture overseas entries etc so over time will be THE major of the year so will only get bigger and as such BOC will reduce in its appeal.

I think this is true and I don't really think it's a problem. The JK will be the big orienteering festival holiday weekend and BOC will be an event for people who want to do a serious orienteering competition, but not everyone is going to want to invest in what that takes, either in time, effort or money.

It's okay as long as you don't want BOC to be more than that (it already takes a back seat to the JK and summer multi-day as far as I'm concerned)

[awk]

And dont forget the Exortionate entry fee - £25 - maybe that put people off?

We didn't pay that - late entries perhaps?

As well as being in a similar part of the country to the JK - why would people pay the expensive fuel costs twice within a month for this irrelevent (for most) event?

It's an unusual sport where 'most' people take part in the National Championships, so of course it's irrelevant to 'most' people.

Or were the majority of entrants either living in the South, retired, on high incomes or subsidised elites?

Well, that's quite a lot of different characteristics, so it wouldn't be surprising to find quite a lot of people conforming to one of them, perhaps even a majority. It's inevitable that any event will tend to attract people from the area in which the event takes place - so when there's a northern British, there will tend to be more northerners.... We don't live in the south, nor are we retired, nor do we have high incomes, nor are we subsidised elites, but we didn't feel we were in any particularly discernable minority.

Having said that, of far more interest to me was that of the current top 30 ranked in my class, 23 were competing. It's a pity that didn't apply in the elite classes (from what I've heard), but it was certainly a genuine British Championships in at least one class! (Which, I think, ties in with what Mrs H is saying).