M/W18B courses at Scottish 6-day

[Dave Coustick]

I notice that the times on M/W18B were on the long side. These courses are currently the same as M/W16A and so Technical Difficulty 5. Should they be separate, slightly easier, courses for 18B at future 6-day events?

Views from potential or actual participants please.

[Mrs H]

I was not sure why this course was offered - I've never come across it before. Other events which run age classes offer M/W18S not B. Both 18S and 18B appear to be TD 5 (where terrain permits).

One of my daughters ran the course and I can confirm that it was longer than the 18S she usually runs. W18s is almost always the same course as I run (W50S) and not the W16A course which my other daughter runs - which is usually longer.

On the other hand B course usually equate to the previous age groups A class so in that case it did follow form.

For the record she would have prefered the W18S distance to the W18B and there is usually a colour coded option up to Light green to take care of anyone wanting an easier course (or perhaps M/W21N)

[marcus_weatherburn]

that makes sense

[graeme]

Confusion arises because the 6-day does not update its guidelines when BOF does. The point about B classes is they're easier than A (or L, or S). This was the case when TD went spinaltaply up to 5* (as 6-days do, I think), but not now it only goes to 5 (i.e. in BOFland).

If the courses differ in length but not TD, call them L/S, if they differ in TD, call them A/B

What to do now? Don't do anything, because the event guidelines are about to change again with the competitions review.

As for what 18 year old girls want ... I have no idea . Never did.

[Nottinghamshire outlaw]

Not quite on the topic of the 18S/B but slightly related: one of my club members has a partner who orienteers occasionally and likes a navigational challenge without the distance. M21V (for very short but still TD5) is ideal for him (as would W21V for a similar female competitior) but it was not offered at the Six Days although it does not require additional planning. Upon enquiry (at the time of doing the entries way back in Jan) the club member was told 'he can do Light Green EOD if he doesn't want to do M21S' - missing the point entirely that there might be a market for a much shorter TD5 course.

The 'short' courses at 21 and 35 are actually quite long for newcomers who can navigate and want to be competitive against their peers but are not able to run a long way as I well remember when I first started 22 years ago - the jump from colour coded to age class courses was quite large.