Event Standards

[Neil M35]

Remember last summer? In the lull between the end of the UKCup and the summer multidays we were discussing the high number of events with dodgy controls and the legitimacy of voiding legs rather than courses. I made a quick survey of regional events and above for the first 6 months of the year and found 5 events with problems significant enough to warrant an apology from the planner/controller and/or the removal of a control from the results or voiding of the entire course. 5 events out of a total of 45.

I have now completed my highly sophisticated survey for the second half of the year. Only 31 events (and 6 of them were the Scottish 6-days) and only 1 significant problem – a course with a control missing from the descriptions. Using Ocad for planning should eliminate this sort of thing but if you are going to have separate descriptions then at some point there has to be a divergence of the descriptions from the Ocad file. Presumably late changes were made after the split. The before and after legs were removed from the results.

So things might be improving? Who knows. There may be problems that are not acknowledged in the comments, and many events have no comments. Perhaps the first 6 months of 2005 really were an aberration and we are back to normal. Personally I have competed in 4 regional and 2 national events since September with no problems (although Graeme might disagree) and can declare myself a happy customer.

Looking forward to 2006.

It's quiet at work today.

[Man of Kent]

Well, the first regional event of 2006 - Saxons at Eridge Park, Tunbridge Wells - went off without a hitch (except for a rather muddy car park), with excellent terrain, courses and organisation. Sets a good standard for the year.

[graeme]

(although Graeme might disagree)

Not disagreeing much. I've done four SOL badge events (sanddunes, open moor, "classic" Scottish forest, plantation), which were uniformly excellent, SHI and relay (excellent and innovative) 11-person relay on theTentsmuir map (updated by planner and excellent). Plus the VHI.

If standards have gone up, we should congratulate ourselves for identifying the scope for improvement!

Graeme