Shock! Horror!

[LostAgain]

Well BOF have found my limit.
My wife and I will be on the colour coded.
Only kids will be on the Championship courses. Saving us £36, will even look closely at which kids to enter, may even run them on the colour coded.

At the end of the day what does the average orienteer get out of the championship course which will not be available on the colour coded?

I only wish I'd known these fees before I booked and paid for accommodation, being organised has not paid this time!

[DM]

Lost, might be joining you on Blue. If enough people do the same we could have one of the biggest blue fields ever! We thought Dalegarth was pricy last year and that had bussing in.

Final decision will be based on what the area is actually like - can anyone who has run there comment - quality of map we will get , again can anyone comment and whether I can get anywhere near fit between now and closing date.

[AndyC]

It's a long time since anyone has orienteered there (in fact it wasn't possible I believe to find a map) - I'm told by dustytoo (who has done some of the mapping) that his bit was good technical terrain with patches of grot - and other mappers have made similar comments, at a meeting I was standing next to, suggesting that good planning can avoid the grot and keep people in the good stuff. I've seen it from the road and the impression is of mixed woodland of varying age and limited paths (but I haven't been in there).
To answer the BOF question (and I wasn't directly involved and I'm no longer involved at all) my recollection is that the basis was "profits will be shared but BOF will receive at least £XX,XXX". I honestly can't remember the figure but I'm sure that is the right number of digits.
As I know the mapping coordinator and some of the mappers' work well (and the one I don't know has an excellent reputation) the map will be top draw. The planners are all of the standard I'd expect of an event of this level (as you can expect) and the organiser very experienced.
The area joins on to Callally (used in the last JK up here) so maybe that is your guide?

[Mrs H]

the map will be top draw.

haha nice!

[DJM]

I'm not trying to defend the high entry fee but, having been involved in setting fees for top events in the past, I realise there is usually good reason.

Of course, £25 is high and is £6 more than last year. But my 640 mile round trip to get there would cost £160 (using the BOF mileage rate to price it) and there would be accommodation on top of this. An extra £6 per head (even for four travelling in a car) is only a marginal increase.

Yes, I will gulp when I sign away £50 for two entries, but I will feel more relaxed when I put it into the overall context as above, or compare it with buying two theatre tickets or two restaurant meals.

[SeanC]

The choice of non-colour coded courses seems a bit questionable. There's nothing for an adult newcomer (eg red, trail challenge, score), plus adding green and blue will tempt many to do these courses instead of their championship courses, leading to some unfairness. Maybe the non-championship courses are staying away from the nicer bits?

[andy]

Cheap rate entry for the Tough Mudder the month before is £95 http://toughmudder.co.uk/events/london-west-2014/. I suspect it will sell out.

You can't really compare those to O events. There, money gets you fun entertainment challenge. We're paying for 2 things, the sport and supporting our national federation.

[LesS]

I planned the Northern Champs in Thrunton in the late 70s with Brian Porteous as Controller and no - I haven't got a map either although I can still picture it - all those hours of poring over it - think it was one of Graham Relf's.
Memory says it was very runnable for the most part with a steep slope to the north with rhodie thickets below that were being cleared as I was trying to use them as control sites. I knew it fell out of use but I don't know why and it will of course be very different now.

[frostbite]

I planned the Northern Champs in Thrunton in the late 70s with Brian Porteous as Controller and no - I haven't got a map either although I can still picture it - all those hours of poring over it - think it was one of Graham Relf's.
Memory says it was very runnable for the most part with a steep slope to the north with rhodie thickets below that were being cleared as I was trying to use them as control sites. I knew it fell out of use but I don't know why and it will of course be very different now.

http://www.grelf.net/omaps/thrunton.html

[Freefall]

I have been wanting to run in Thrunton for years. Thrunton is very popular with mountain bikers and there are some seldom visited crags (loose and green) as well as some high E-grade "boulders" such as Tombstone Buttress http://marksavagephotography.blogspot.c ... chive.html
For years there was supposedly some sort of Catch 22 about ownership of the land and trees but a chance walk in the woods at Kyloe during JK2009 by the PA to the landowner led to positive discussions. I understand dustytoo's daughter is also friendly with her. She had remarked about the good conduct of orienteers who had run past her in the woods. Think about that next time you feel like barging past someone!

[nooomember]

I wouldnt go and run blue or colour coded - to show the average wage-earners disgust you should not go at all. Some day BoF may take notice when they dont get any entries.

[RS]

See it's the rich southerners who are quick to enter

[Freefall]

I wouldnt go and run blue or colour coded - to show the average wage-earners disgust you should not go at all. Some day BoF may take notice when they dont get any entries.

I think it is a bit unfair on the hardworking northerners in NATO and NN (and CLOK?) to take this line. I am sure they are doing their best despite what views you may have about BOF.

[Karen]

I've have been to Thrunton!
I think it was on a training afternoon with students from Tynemouth Sixth Form College, using old event maps, probably around 1976.
I was so excited. I hadn't been orienteering long and it was the first proper orienteering map I had seen. Perhaps it was one of the first areas to use photogrammetry and to be specially surveyed. Certainly one of the first British maps drawn in 4 colours by the technique of scribing.
I seen to remember finding the course (W19!) very difficult technically....
I expect no change there.
The cartography was by Graham Relf, and the copyright is to Kenton Kanterers, who later morphed into NATO.
Graham still lives in the North East, and has no involvement in orienteering, but he has donated his archive of maps and mapping materials to the BOF archive in Sheffield.
I never pass the road end to Thrunton without thinking about that map, but I never went there again. I understood that much of the area had been clear felled, and has taken this long to grow again, but can't verify that.
So I guess I'll be wallowing in nostalgia and will enter regardless of the cost!

[SJC]

I think it is a bit unfair on the hardworking northerners in NATO and NN (and CLOK?) to take this line. I am sure they are doing their best despite what views you may have about BOF.

I agree. But how else is the average competitor supposed to show that they disapprove of BOF using this event to take such a large amount of money out of their pocket ?