Shock! Horror!

[PhilJ]

So now i am confused, Sally Pygott is the BO full time major events manager

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/page/staff

So what bit is wrong DJM?

I meet Sally quite a few times at the jk and personally thought she was very good, switched on and was happy to roll her sleeves up and help etc. She did not have an 'O' background but has been a major events organiser at other sports. I wish her well and hope she builds the jk brand.

[DJM]

Ah - I assumed you were referring to the JK Co-ordinator ...

... and, if you're referring to the cost of infrastructure for a particular event, then only a part of Sally's time is devoted to it; her time is shared between many different areas. In other words she is not full time on the event, but part time.

[RS]

'£50 gets you 5 races at RacetheCastles. More infrastructure, better areas, stronger field. '

...only if you do 5 events and can afford a week off work or 2 trips to Scotland

[RS]

Late entries for BOC now available at £33 - as if

[JK]

Late entries for BOC now available at £33 - as if

Sounds cheap compared to the spectator races at EOC:
50 Euros for late/EOD entries. This was even for an "Open" course at the Sprint event.
I suppose it was only 100 for the lot if you booked before end Dec, 150 (or 30 per event) before end feb or 200 (50) up till the day.

By comparison, POM had 6 Euros for Open classes (3 for night sprint) and the excellent 64 Euros for 4 stages, night sprint, TrailO and the banquet which out-did all international event banquets I've attended.

[graeme]

...only if you do 5 events and can afford a week off work or 2 trips to Scotland

i.e. cost of entry is irrelevant compared to cost of travel.

Late entries for BOC now available at £33 - as if

i.e. cost of travel is irrelevant compared to cost of entry.

Some people are never satisfied

[RS]

Well the entry price for Edinburgh and Stirling urbans are at least 50% more than 'normal' urban events. Kendal was £10 and I know it wasn't a brand new map but it was the first time it was used.
Edited because some people misread it.
I said it was a new map the first time it was used - which it would be ie new at first use. I know it was used 2 years ago that's why I said it wasn't a brand new map.

[charles2]

The Kendal map was used in May 2012.

[Wayward-O]

Kendal was £10 and I know it wasn't a brand new map but it was the first time it was used.

The Kendal map is the same 'Bilbo' map I ran on for the Level 'B' event on the Monday of the British Champs weekend in 2012.

[pete.owens]

For everyone complaining at ther cost of running at BOC that is nothing compared to how much it is costing me NOT to run. I cancelled our entries nearly 2 months before the event due to Chris having an exam scheduled on the same day and only got 50% refund - still one of the most my expensive events of the year.

[Big Jon]

Yes its nice to compete in different areas but unless there is lots of EVO then local is now becoming the default.

Surely local orienteering should be the default and travelling is for bigger and/or special events. The best development a club can do is ensure that local orienteers have events every couple of weeks and its a great way to get hold of and retain newcomers.

[PhilJ]

I suppose what I meant was I now travel less, local has always been the default and supporting the club, and a trip to the Forest of Dean from Swansea was quite normal, 160 mile round trip but not any longer, which is a shame.

[roadrunner]

For everyone complaining at ther cost of running at BOC that is nothing compared to how much it is costing me NOT to run. I cancelled our entries nearly 2 months before the event due to Chris having an exam scheduled on the same day and only got 50% refund - still one of the most my expensive events of the year.

Hardly any running events would have given you any refund at all, however early you cancelled (and only a few would have let you transfer your entry to someone else - was that an option for BOC?).

[RJ]

Surely local orienteering should be the default and travelling is for bigger and/or special events. The best development a club can do is ensure that local orienteers have events every couple of weeks and its a great way to get hold of and retain newcomers.

If only BOF would adopt that as their 'Mission statement' and put 90% of their effort into it then we could grow the sport from the bottom up. The level D event structure is the MOST IMPORTANT part of what we do. The older and more experienced orienteers can enjoy a weekly run and help to introduce the next 30,000 members into the sport.

[PhilJ]

Well said RJ, we have now held our 3 intro events (2 in Singleton Park) since the JK and we had no returning Xplorer runners, what an absolute wasted opportunity on BO's behalf. Then again we never received any info on how many Xplorer runners there were at the JK to gauge interest on if we should do something similar in the furture (i.e. are we doing our intros wrong and Xplorer is the model we should be following) and how we could follow up with the Xplorers who did enter.

What did astound me was that a local running club (which we have tried and tried to get a crossover into) had a running session on Weds night whereby they did laps of Singleton park that kept passing our start arghhh...we tried handing out leaflets but people we obviously more interested in the training run. All the runners I would say were of the 30 - 65 age bracket, lots of "shufflers", a few steady runners and no "elites" - our demographic..there were about 150/200 of them