BOC Predictions

[DesignatedDriver]

Results are up:

BOC Results

I won't spoil the surprise!

[DesignatedDriver]

and now the Relay results:

BRC Results

[the duncan]

good set of results,

well chuffed to see Mr Jez Edwards up there as British Relay Champion, a storming run in a very tight competition to set up Ewan and Jon. well done guys.

[Mrs H.]

OKay. who won the M/W 45+ run in comp - Mr H. did 24 seconds.

[Supersaint]

The only people to go quicker than that were myself and G, so i believe Mr H is the winner - although there may have been others on the same time.

[Mrs H.]

Yes he is very good at short bursts

what about the women - I did 37 secs which was quicker than Hocolite for once

[HOCOLITE]

What did others think about the champs. I thought the planning was pretty good but I was extremely disappointed with the area. I felt it was overhyped, I expected to see some of the wonderful techncality promised, not brashings everywhere with very little option except for path/ride. I know the relay was more technical, I missed that due to illness in the team and my foot playing up from the pounding it had the previous day. I thought the organising team coped really well with the problems the weather set them. Thank goodness it chose to stay relatively dry for both days.

[Simon]

I have uploaded some photos, taken by Barny and myself, from the two days.
British Championships
British Relay Championships

[graeme]

I thought it was very good, on my course I'd go as far as to say the planning was
excellent, though it tailed off a bit at the end in the dull northern section(some which weren't so good, while W35 & W21E were the best I saw).

The area wasn't great, but the more I look at the map the more impressed I am that they got such a good course from such an unpromising area (and had the vision to realise it could be done!). One of the marks of good planning is to ask yourself whether, given the area, the planner could really screw it up - I can imagine a poorly planned course being really horrible there! The area offers good route choice potential, and on my course at least, they played to its strength.

Even the map was OK once you got used to it. There were some warning signs in the details (remapped by planners and controllers... trees mapped by girth...) but once you got the hang of using the accurate-vegetation-obsessed style and ignoring the generalized contours. (Special thanks to Neil? for advising taking the magnifier!).

The relays were also good. Very kind of someone to make that extra path through the westernmost quarry overnight to the contour junction.

I hope we'll hear what the organisers meant by the OOB marking west of the start which caught Jamie (and others) out. I've spent a lot of time peering at the map, and still can't figure out for sure whether the road/track route is legitimate or not. If it was OOB, there are planty of ways it could have been made clear (extending black lines across road, or joining the two bits of OOB forest to block the exiting track at the north). If it was a legitimate route, I dont see how else it could have been mapped. Its a shame about this, as 1-2 was the best route-choice leg I've had in the UK for a very long time.

One other thing - thanks to whoever put in the effort to remark the new out of bounds by hand on the maps. I'm sure it was the last thing you wanted to spend time doing, but it is the right thing to do and was much appreciated.

Graeme

[HOCOLITE]

I hope we'll hear what the organisers meant by the OOB marking west of the start which caught Jamie (and others) out. I've spent a lot of time peering at the map, and still can't figure out for sure whether the road/track route is legitimate or not. If it was OOB, there are planty of ways it could have been made clear (extending black lines across road, or joining the two bits of OOB forest to block the exiting track at the north). If it was a legitimate route, I dont see how else it could have been mapped. Its a shame about this, as 1-2 was the best route-choice leg I've had in the UK for a very long time.

Can you explain this. I wasn't aware of any controversy, but I might have been out in the forest.

[Man of Kent]

I think the point is about the road/track going north-westwards through the OOB area, just to the west of the south start. My daughter ran W21E and absolutely loved the course. She said that she looked at this as a route choice between her 1st and 2nd controls, but was not sure whether it was 'legitimate' or not. Initially looking at her map I thought so, but looking again, think not!

[NeilC]

Yes you will hear more about the OOB marking - we simply hadn't picked up on it being a likely problem. Thanks though for not making any formal complaints - a lesson learnt for next time.

Apologies to those who only got to see the scarp, there were several logistical and land permission reasons why the shorter courses couldn't get to more of the best bits. Hopefully though most of you got to see some at the relays.

Others like Graham may have noticed slight differences in the individual and relay maps. This is because some of the details the relay team wanted on their (1:10,000) maps, I felt would make the 1:15,000 maps less legible.

I'd be very happy to receive marked routes from anybody. Our club has a full OS licence to publish these online. I have routes from the elite class medalists and there were some big differences both on the first long leg and the one in Great Common. In the latter case I think the best route was the straight down and up one but I know of some who went round to the North and others (like Jamie) who ran through the partly constructed relay assembly area to the South.

Neil Crickmore

[FatBoy]

Neil - are you going to say whether the road/track through the house to the west of the start was supposed to be OOB? To me it's on the optimum route climb/distance wise.

If it wasn't OOB then as a future tip for planners - two boxes of OOB marked in red over the olive gardens colour with a clear corridor through the middle.

I decided in the heat of the moment that the track did present a clear way through the property. When I got there I expected to see a farmyard with a track through it, but it looked like a posh house and I really wasn't sure. Double checked the map, looked ok - checked the rest of the map for OOB marking and red Xs for forbidden routes - found some so thought it must be OK. Out of the heat of the moment it still looks just about OK on the map but no way am I sure!

[NeilC]

It was supposed to be OOB but this was not clear from either the map or final details. Mea Culpa.

[Homer]

Very big of you to admit your mistake, but the Controller must take some of the blame too.

I hope it won't cause you the loss of the area for future events. I thought it was worthy of the British Champs.