Triple O Severn control description query

[Paulo]

Nails, which control are you talking about? They all look clear enough on my map - at least today, unlike the previous 2 days, they did actually break the control circles (at least on some controls).

I think the results today in the mens were 1 SHUOC 2 BOK 3 SLOW, and Womens 1st SLOW, not sure about the rest. But there were quite a lot of DSQ's (including another SHUOC team and SYO I think) for various reasons...

They did well to replan the courses at such short notice - just glad the problem was spotted before running as I wouldn't have fancied doing 17km on Sunday!

[Mike]

The result in the mens today was 1st BOK 2nd SYO 2 3rd SLOW.

The SYO 1 team had all their three first leg runners back first and set last leg off with a 5 minute lead, however on download it was discovered one of the runners had missed one of the score controls.

The final SYO 2 and ShUOC runner then came in together and they went off together on last leg. However on download, it was discovered that ShUOC had mispunched.

BOK caught SYO 2 on last leg and won on a sprint finish.

Paulo - Neil is talking about control no.7 on the 'spine' of the mens open and how the control circle is not broken for the gully due west which also had a control in.

Interesting format today - shame there were not more teams and also a shame nearly half of the mens open teams managed to mispunch!

[Simon]

Really enjoyed todays relays.

I have put up a handful of photos from today here.

[GML]

the M14A course (the junior courses were unchanged I gather) looked excellent.

Ho hum. The M12A course was, I'm afraid, not so good. Only two controls different from the M10A (Yellow) course - controls 1 and 2 - and even they were on paths. OK so the M12A runners probably corner-cut leg 4, but then again I wouldn't be surprised if many of the more confident M10A runners didn't do the same!

The M10A course wasn't too bad, apart from having a 100m dog-leg into and out of control 2, and a number of legs of well over the 350m limit that is supposed to apply to TD2 courses - leg 3 was 550m as the crow flys and more like 900m by the time they'd dog-legged out of 2 and followed all the wiggles in the path!. The course line from 6 to 7 also obscured the indistinct path that they were presumably expected to follow.

If these were, as you suggest awk, the original, carefully planned junior courses, rather than ones that had to be replanned at the last minute, then I am not very happy.

[RobL]

GML wrote: The M12A course was, I'm afraid, not so good.

Yep, my 11 year old son was quite surprised to be given a control description with nothing but 'path junctions' listed. We thought initially that he had picked up the yellow course. Looking at his map, we are even less sure he ran M12A

It was a little bit disappointing.

[Fataga]

Why are there so many complaints always about events?.. the time and effort put in by numerous club members to put the events on, far outweighs the ammount of time you spend in the forest. All of this time is given freely and when most of you are driving back home making snide comments about the course, maps, parking etc etc there are still people in the forest picking up controls, packing up tents and generally clearing up. I know the events are competitive, but at the end of the day it is meant to be pleasure and by criticising organisers, planners and controllers you are shooting yourself in the foot, as these people will not take on the roles in the future.

Whilst I'm on my soapbox...why are the vast majority of the comments appear from males?...is this because the ladies of the sport have better things to think about rather than a circle placed over another feature or have time to be so critical? dosent anyone check control codes anymore?

[brooner]

Why are there so many complaints always about events?.

because like has been said before, its much easier (and more likely for people) to criticise than give out praise. And as has also been said before, in order to improve the standards of events you have to pick at faults. There's no point the same mistakes being made over and over again if some constructive criticism can help weed them out.

I'm sure everyone here knows how much work goes into putting on events (and if they don't they should try it sometime, those pesky elites especially )

[RobL]

Most people who organise events are looking for feedback. Three weeks ago I messed up a local event because I had the scale in OCAD set to 1:10,000 when the map was actually 1:7,500. Everyone who finished seemed pleased with their time, but if no one had told me that there was a problem with the scale I would have been none the wiser, and may well have messed up a more significant event in the future.

At the large events people have higher expectations - I guess this hardly surprising. In some cases people have travelled several hundred miles to get there.

[Nails]

Whilst I'm on my soapbox...why are the vast majority of the comments appear from males?...is this because the ladies of the sport have better things to think about rather than a circle placed over another feature or have time to be so critical? dosent anyone check control codes anymore?

get it right...i am a lady.

[awk]

Why are there so many complaints always about events?.. the time and effort put in by numerous club members to put the events on, far outweighs the ammount of time you spend in the forest. All of this time is given freely and when most of you are driving back home making snide comments about the course, maps, parking etc etc there are still people in the forest picking up controls, packing up tents and generally clearing up. I know the events are competitive, but at the end of the day it is meant to be pleasure and by criticising organisers, planners and controllers you are shooting yourself in the foot, as these people will not take on the roles in the future.

There are also plenty of positive comments, but people tend to remember the negative ones. Just take another look through this thread and note the positive comments - yet you've highlighted the negatives.

I think you'll find that most of the complaints are about 'big' events. I suspect that it's because there are too many of these, and that organising clubs are overstretched in putting them on, both in skill and time. Thus, for instance, planning standards at National events are often inconsistent and can fail to reach those achieved at smaller events.

If competitors are going to be charged the sorts of fees that are now being charged for these events, then I think they have a right to comment - it's a pity that nopesport is virtually the only forum in which to air them. Not many, though, are "snide".

You're right about the huge amount of volunteer time put in, and it's much appreciated. After all, a lot of us put in our volunteer time as well and know what is involved.

[Jon Brooke]

You'd probably also find Fataga, that most of the people on here making comments also help run events.

How exactly do you expect standards to improve if problems aren't brought to light?

[NeilC]

I'm a great fan of Harris relays so was disappointed by the turnout yesterday. Especially since at least my course was well planned and there were some tough route choice decisions to make.

Not sure about the last lap though, perhaps it would have made the race a bit more interesting had there been more teams and spectator controls etc.

Given the low number of entries a mass start of all classes could have been employed - more of a spectacle than watching classes of three or four teams start.

Didn't like the fact that the spine controls were not joined by full lines as is usually the case. Anyone know why this wasn't done?

[wonderboy]

From my limited experience of planning it is the junior courses which are the hardest to plan because the rules are so specific for what skills can be tested at each level TD 1,2, and 3. Also many planners have never run a TD 1,2 or 3 course. Perhaps in an ideal world, the junior courses could be shown to a non running junior or a parent who sees junior courses regularly, to check they're not too easy or hard.

[tendon]

"the junior courses could be shown to" ...... "to check they're not too easy or hard"

Fill in the gap:

a) a non running junior
b) a parent
c) the controller

I think the system already exists!

[mharky]

That is what the controller is for isn't it???