Orienteering in The Times

[mikey]

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/ ... 35,00.html

Good article giving a good bit of detail about events taking place tomorrow. Makes some of them sound pretty inviting - 'the treacherous brown course at Pembury Walk' sounds fun. I wonder whether clubs will have any system in place to evaluate the impact of this article on attendance?

Pity the photographs in the paper (not online but they show a child and an adult trying to manhandle OS maps with not a control point in site) aren't orienteering photographs but apart from that well done to BOF/Hilary Palmer for doing this.

Well done to Saxons - CHILDREN FREE.

Shame the fees for the OD event are wrong - Adults £6.00, Children £4.00 (£4/2.00 according to the flier + EMIT hire). At £6/4.00 not very good value for a family.

[Rookie]

Yeah - the photos are a bit rubbish (I think the guy up a mountain with a rucksack and hiking boots is the worst - the kid one isn't too bad - except the map - since you could do a colour coded as a family).

Why didn't the Times people just ask Hilary Palmer to supply a photo?

[Guest]

Gosh - why didn't the Times ask me to supply a photo?!

I asked the reporter if some photos would be helpful, she said yes, I sent a few (running, youngsters, family etc all with controls, maps etc) and you see the result!

HP

[Guest]

Just back from our club's event where we had approx 150 finishers of whom quite a few were groups and 4 families were new and said they had come because they saw the article in the Times.

It was good 'free' publicity for the sport and fortunate that there were so many events on for us to list - the reporter had wanted me to give a list of the '8 best places to orienteer or the 8 largest clubs' but I suggested that giving the weekend's events was better and I gather that someone rang all the organisers to put in something different about each of the events.

All orienteers who saw the article have commented on the photos but that's what happens when we don't have control and at 6 - 7pm on a Wednesday evening giving them the event details, BOF details and offering and sending photos was the best I could do!

HP

[Guest]

Perhaps people running around in pyjamas wasn’t the image of orienteering that the reporter wanted to give.
I think it’s good that more family friendly photos were included. It also suggests that you don't need specialist equipment in order to go orienteering.

[Rookie]

as I said - I thought the dad and child pic was fine - but the other one could have shown o as a proper sport

pyjamas

If we as orienteers have a problem with our kit then we can't expect anybody else to like it. The old kit isn't that nice but the new designs are fine - people can be seen in football kit no problem so why can't we be visible as orienteers?

but if new people came to events then it worked but BOF is trying to change the public image of orienteering and this doesn't help

[the_guest_above_not_HP]

I think that my previouse post had the emphasis in the wrong places, i was more trying to point out that a family can enjoy O with out having to send money on any equipment. as shown though MADO events (shame there wasent one this weekend).

[soundman]

the organiser at achnasoul today reconed that there were more beginners at the event due to the publicity in the times. the photo's were kind of rubbish for the sport though!

[Carnage Head]

A thought about orienteering PR: are there any orienteering couples out there who would fancy contacting The Guardian to appear in their 'We love each other' column in the Weekend magazine? In the past, they've featured war games fanatics, gardeners, etc. Just a thought.

Also, could BOF contact the same mag or other mags wrt including o in their health and fitness pages? 'Tough Guy' do well in this regard - I've seen the race publicised in articles in The Guardian and The Telegraph.