British

[stodge]

British Photos -
Digisport ones are up http://www.digi-group.net/Digisport/digisportori.html

Chasers ones here http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/gallery/2007/BOC2007/index.html

[Tatty]

Can recommend the Red Lion at Llanbedr, 2 miles out of Crickhowell. Excellent food, reasonable choice. Only problem was after we'd eaten to discover they didn't take cards!! Good job I had my cheque book with me!!

[Oldman]

Agree it was a good event overall, and thanks to all those who worked hard to put it on.

However, it was not problem free, and although others may raise different issues, here're some issues I thought were poor:

The mini-mass start was started with no warning (ie not even 30 secs). Not only that, but the starter asked the runners to punch for a start time, which meant it was not a "mass" start at all.
And then the starter said: "The start triangle on your map is not where you are". Surely he should have led everyone to the place that they would have exited the field if tagged by the incoming runner? Not a problem for experienced orienteers, but an issue for the less confident. Are you not entitled at least to know at the start exactly where you are?

[Becks]

Well planned my arse. W21E was a shockingly poor course with virtually no technical challenge and far too many blank legs of slogging across knee deep heather. A waste of the train fare down and the huge travelling time it took over the weekend.

Thank goodness the relays were good today. Thanks to todays' planner.

[Jon Brooke]

I enjoyed the M40L course, it did have one hideous slog through the heather and bilberries, though there were two other route choices off the straight line involving some path or a lot of path with relatively increased distance. In hind sight I wish I'd done either of them, rather than the straight line. However, after another longish leg there was a nice section of three short technical controls, made all the harder for having run hard for 15 minutes. On the other hand I would definitely have prefered a 1:10,000 map, and given that we only used about a third of the 1:15,000 I think we shoudl have had one. It would have meant running on more of the relay area, but I think that the area was technical enough to have coped with that. The only thing that I though added a certain randomness to the results was the variability of the open running - there was nothing to differentiate between deep bilberry, heather, dead bracken, tussocks, short bilberry and the odd patch of grass, and the range of running speed you could manage over those surfaces was pretty wide and hard to anticipate. Hard to see how the relay could have been improved much.

[distracted]

For those who aren't aware, there was a misplaced control on the individual day - the correct location had a tape but no control, the control was 60m away and a contour down the slope. As far as I'm aware this control (112) was only on 2 courses - W21E and M21L. The control was shifted to the correct position midway through the event, after over half the W21E starters had passed through, but only about 4 runners on the M21L course. From the results the splits either side of that control have been removed for the W21E course, but not for the M21L, presumably based on the numbers who had passed through the control on each of the courses.

Brings up a couple of questions: -

1) Who was checking/not checking that the controls were in the right place?
2) Has there been precedent which results in a different outcome for the elite course over other courses with the same misplaced control? I know there was a situation where the women's elite was voided in fairly recent history...

Agree with Jon about the variability of the rough open, some parts this definitely affected route choice but I don't know how you could differentiate - the map could have been covered in the green undergrowth screen otherwise. Only other difficulty was finding the way into the relay arena amongst the multitude of club tents and banners, and to the various map collection points which didn't seem overly clear...

[Snail]

I certainly had one leg on the individual (140-244) where running 100m to the left of the line was almost clear ground from the road crossing to within 150m of the control - but those running on / to the right of the line looked to be in deep heather for most of the time.

Agree you wouldn't want a green screen over most of the map - but marking the areas with no ground cover as "open" would have been an option.

The other thing I thought was questionable was the removal of time for the road crossings. Those competitors with a watch could take maximum advantage of the minute's break - those without had to guess, and perhaps lose 15-30 seconds rest / route planning time per crossing if they underestimated. It would have been fairer to have synchronised clocks on display at the before / after controls.

[brooner]

Those competitors with a watch could take maximum advantage of the minute's break - those without had to guess, and perhaps lose 15-30 seconds rest / route planning time per crossing if they underestimated. It would have been fairer to have synchronised clocks on display at the before / after controls.

don't be so ridiculous, yes some people could take advantage of this, but you cannot seriously expect the organisers to provide clocks for you! get a watch! you wouldn't expect there to be clocks at every control on a score event so you can be sure you make full use of your hour!

mind you, could be stupid like me and be so desperate for a drink that i wasted time drinking and then forgot to punch either of the controls, having to run back and do so after already crossing the road.

[Becks]

I enjoyed the M40L course, it did have one hideous slog through the heather and bilberries, though there were two other route choices off the straight line involving some path or a lot of path with relatively increased distance. In hind sight I wish I'd done either of them, rather than the straight line.....the variability of the open running - there was nothing to differentiate between deep bilberry, heather, dead bracken, tussocks, short bilberry and the odd patch of grass, and the range of running speed you could manage over those surfaces was pretty wide and hard to anticipate.

This was exactly my point far more eloquently put. Some people found tracks on this bit, others including myself found nothing. Had the details warned me just how potentially unrunnable this bit was then I'd have chosen the path route choice instantly. But as the details said runnable heather moorland, I went straight and regretted the decision massively. There was about three minutes variation on this straight leg between people who run pretty much the same speed. Whether you hit an animal track was pot luck or not, and how hard you had to work here probably had repercussions for the rest of the course. Just a bit crap really.

[Roger]

For those who aren't aware, there was a misplaced control on the individual day - ...
2) Has there been precedent which results in a different outcome for the elite course over other courses with the same misplaced control?

Sometimes this happens when people on one course appeal and those on others don't.

At JK 1991 day 2 (Shining Cliff), a control was put in a small unmapped re-entrant, 50m, one contour and one clearing lower than it should have been. H40L and H21E, which encoutered the control too soon and then had a long leg out, were voided; H21L1, which encountered the correct feature before the control flag (bad) and then had a shortish contouring leg out (very bad), was not. Protests were received on all courses, but sub-standard was deemed acceptable for H21L1 and not for the other two courses.

Having led the day-one burn-up round Clumber Park, I suffered. Am I bitter about this? Since Saturday (and unrelated to any problems with control siting), not any more.

But as the details said runnable heather moorland, I went straight and regretted the decision massively.

On M45L I found myself running wide of the line on a few legs in order to be on the grass or short heather rather than in the long heather, tussocks and deep bilberry. Fortunately this was all visible and predictable, including the leg south out of 140 into the quarried area. I can't comment on the other courses but I sympathise with the sentiment, particularly if it was early in the course before the true nature (and variability) of what was on the ground overrode what was written in the details.

[Gross]

far as I'm aware this control (112) was only on 2 courses - W21E and M21L. The control was shifted to the correct position midway through the event, after over half the W21E starters had passed through, but only about 4 runners on the M21L course. From the results the splits either side of that control have been removed for the W21E course,

A

That is a daft decision in a major elite race. W21E should be voided.

[HOCOLITE]

What about the competitors who came across the control in transit? I heard that one male punched it in the hands of the person moving it

[SIman]

Mike Napier has just pulished revised results to include the removal of the offending legs in M21L as well as W21E.

[RS]

Does this affect the results then?

[drobin]

I can't believe the premier event has yet another case of a misplaced control for one of the premier classes, W21E. The only correct course of action is to void the class, again. See 1981 Dipton and 1992 Kelling.