SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIPS WEEKEND 2005
Co-ordinator’s Comments
The selection of a suitable Assembly area that could
accommodate both days was put as a high priority for the weekend so that the organising
task could be much reduced, both in the labouring and negotiations
departments. Though a little tight for
the traders and a little bit of a walk for competitors, probably the best site
was found with excellent views of the action.
My task was to ensure that both days were able to work on their individual aspects while I took on the common elements of hires and negotiations with Forestry Commission and Police besides providing that essential liaison that is needed for weekend events. The Forest Ranger Team was very positive about our use of their forest and made great effort to support our wishes. Even they did not know of the 500 tonnes of bottoming planted on our agreed access road, but what would an event be without one or two hitches of this nature.
On your behalf, I will thank all those people who
worked hard before, during and after the event; they did a good job to ensure
that things ran smoothly – and they did.
Thanks to all those who passed on their thanks.
The novel Relay format has been developing in
people’s minds for some time and there was a deal of discussion leading up to
the event. The Day Officials record
their thoughts on the outcome, which seems to have met objectives, provided
excellent spectator value and given quite a close finish for the combined
handicap competition.
Some issues have been raised regarding certain
aspects of the weekend and these are being addressed as is right. I trust however that you will have enjoyed
your trip to Fife and to Tentsmuir in particular and might look forward to a
return at some future time – as long as the FC don’t decide to sell all their
timber!. I certainly enjoyed my runs
which on both days turned into head to head races, two of the most pleasant
runs I think I have ever had. Thanks to
the folk who made it so – they know who they are.
Thanks to you all for coming.
Phil Smithard (KFO)
Controller’s Comments
I understand some of you were unhappy that courses
were unfair in certain areas for the following reasons:
1)
Pits
– These seen as Bingo, to be honest up until about 2 weeks before the event
these probably would not have caused a problem but bracken with the wet weather
shot up. In hindsight these should
have been hung higher or pits not used, for this I apologise.
2)
Controls
in thick Green, although correct, in some places the map caused confusion and
given more time map corrections should have been done but bear in mind, Dave
Kershaw & myself are doing this in our spare time and work commitments have
to take priority. Also the area is
large and much more assistance in checking this would have been required.
Despite the problems I feel Dave did an excellent job in providing challenging courses and in the main used the best parts of the forest. Unfortunately the longer courses did require to use the poorer south end of the map.
My thanks to Dave and also the organising team for
their efforts in organising a successful event in not the easiest of
circumstances.
Finally, I hope the most of you enjoyed the day and
are now free of ticks.
Planner’s Comments
The
northernmost part of Tentsmuir is an intricate strip of dunes but further south
the forest deteriorates from an orienteering point of view. There is also a
well-developed network of tracks that divides the area into smallish blocks
some of which have few control features. Tentsmuir also has some close to
uncrossable ditches which effectively restricted the use of part of the area.
The long courses used the best part of the southern end of the forest, though that may be difficult to believe unless you have been in the rest of the area. The harder technical courses were planned as far as possible to avoid track running as the obvious option - hence the large number of controls on the longer courses and the use of pits where these were the only features in particular blocks of the forest.
There were adverse comments regarding the siting of
some controls and the quality of the map, especially in the areas of dark
green. The controls that caused most difficulty were the pits and, in
retrospect, the kites should have been hung higher or on the edge of the pit in
some areas as the bracken cover made it particularly difficult to locate the
feature until close to it. However, for some pits in areas not affected by
bracken, this would have meant that the kite was visible from the edge of the
particular block of forest in which the control was situated, making the
control trivial. Not using the pits would have resulted in significant
additional stretches of track running on some courses.
The map had several corrections made to it but there were other changes/errors that were only appreciated on the day of the event. The main problem was caused by a ride in an area of dark green that was not mapped. This caused difficulties in respect of one control if approaching from the direction of the ride. The ride was not visible from the edge of the block of forest as it was obscured by bushes and the mapping error was only discovered on the day when competitors remarked on it. In other areas, fences had either been removed or erected between the planning of the event and putting out controls.
All control sites were carefully checked and some apparently obvious features were rejected either because they were not apparent on the ground or were not correctly mapped. The control sites that caused the most adverse comment were also checked again on the day and were confirmed as correctly mapped in relation to track junctions or other obvious features. However, the map does need significant upgrading if it is to be used for an event of this size again. The contour features away from the dunes are not consistently mapped though the general flatness of the area makes this difficult. Form lines in particular give a reasonable indication of the ground in some places but are missed out entirely in other, similar areas.
I would like to thank ESOC members, and others, who helped to put out SI units or collected in controls - there were a lot of them and I very much appreciated the assistance. My thanks also to Robin Strain for turning round the SI units so quickly (they were in Germany until the Wednesday before the event), John Biggar and David Lane for controlling and Phil Smithard for overall organisation of the weekend. Finally, I apologise to any competitor who felt that the courses were unfair in any way though I believe that there would have been more complaints if features such as pits had not been used in the planning.
Dave Kershaw (ESOC)
The East of Scotland is not endowed with really
great orienteering venues. Tentsmuir
Forest can provide good orienteering but it is a difficult forest in which to
organise a large event. Firstly,
parking is difficult because it has to be along roads, creating a long walk to
Assembly for most people. Secondly, an
Assembly area is difficult to find, between the trees being the only
option. Also, we had been asked by the
Forestry staff to keep the forest road passable at all times, which is just as
well since we had to call in the doctor for one casualty, who I’m glad to say
is now fully recovered. So, I was
relieved and pleased to see the Assembly shape up into quite a cosy and busy
area, with just about all facilities, and the successful string course, in
close proximity.
There were a few hiccups on the day – not enough control descriptions at the starts, the confusion over the purpose of the out-of-bounds tapes, toilets being unnecessarily far away from Assembly – all of which were pointed out to me, but all-in-all things went quite well. I also received a lot of kind comments about how smoothly things were running, but as any organiser will know, this is not necessarily the case behind the scenes. Had you been at the road-ride junction at 10 o’clock in the morning when first-aid, caterers, traders and all the helpers arrived in their cars with only one narrow road on which to park and only one turning place, you would have wondered, like I did, whether any order would emerge from the chaos. Fortunately, the Relay Day Organiser, who conducts research in complexity at Edinburgh University, turned up, ran some software and everything was solved! Seriously though, everything was resolved by the hard work and efficiency of the helping teams. They say that the organiser’s work is substantially finished at the time all the helpers turn up and get on with their jobs, and that is exactly what happened. Many thanks to everyone who helped, before, during and after, both from ESOC and the helping clubs
Roger Scrutton
(ESOC)
RELAY
COMPETITION
Over the last three years I have enjoyed helping at
Junior Inter-Regional, BUSA and Home International Relays. These events were
highly competitive & fun, something I think Graeme and Chris were trying to
re-create for a wider audience. Eavesdropping at the results, and talking to
individuals on the day, suggests it was “mission accomplished”.
Chris prepared draft courses well in advance of the
event and once the new format was agreed by SOA (classes to be run,
handicapping system to be used) I was able to cast my controller’s eye over
them. We agreed that for a particular class (including those consisting of laps
of different length) each team should run exactly the same legs in total and
Chris was able to adapt his draft courses to achieve this, and to produce
similar estimated winning times for all the Handicap classes. As you will now
be aware, the adult courses comprised common first and third sections with the
difference in length accommodated in the middle section; for courses A, B &
C all three sections were gaffled whilst for D the short middle section was the
same for all competitors. For the junior classes the Light Green course
comprised two gaffled sections and the Orange and Yellow courses were
ungaffled. The location of the assembly area enabled Chris to use the best
parts of the forest and we were able to estimate speeds for the different age
classes from previous events. I was pleased that the winning times, especially
in the Handicap classes, were so close. Graeme’s handicapping system and
Chris’s courses were spot-on.
Chris’s careful work in the forest was matched by
his attention to detail in preparing course combinations, ordering maps and
allocating these to teams etc. Robin Strain’s input in allocating course
variations to runners in SI was equally thorough. The statistics for the event
are: the appropriate number of maps were ordered & correctly labelled and
SI data input for 190 teams (570 competitors) involving 77 different course
variations.
Chris’s expertise in Condes linked to a digital map
of the area and good communication between those involved were important
factors in helping to eliminate mistakes. After the success this year I hope
the format is used again, even if it is for the purely selfish reason that I
would like to compete in the event myself.
Finally, a couple of points for people to consider.
There was one area where we “stretched” BOF guidelines, namely some of the
controls were closer than recommended. This was considered appropriate as it
was a relay competition with everyone using a 1:10,000 map, only areas where
the terrain was complex and well-mapped were used, the controls were on
different features & positioned so as not to be confused with others and
some clusters of close controls added to the orienteering experience. With
regards control sites, checking the maps etc. it is important to emphasise that
sufficient time is given to “getting things right”. With this kind of event the
consequences of “getting it wrong” can be far-reaching; for example, one
misplaced control could have led to all the classes being voided.
Ian Pyrah (ESOC)
Having never planned a relay before I was very interested
in getting involved with the Scottish Relays this year. Graeme Ackland's ideas
for the handicap system, the adults running courses with the same gaffled
sections and the 'mass' mass start were really exciting. With any new idea
there are obviously going to be some issues around getting them implemented
but, with the support of the SOA, I think we delivered something that met what
it was designed to do - offer close exciting relay racing. It was very pleasing
to see 4 of the 5 handicap class winning teams finished within 2 minutes of
each other.
Tentsmuir was somewhere I had never orienteered on
before but had heard plenty about. There was no obviously assembly area so we
decided on an area in the middle of the forest which offered the best courses
but was not too far from the car parking areas. We had some concerns over the
size of the area but I think it was large enough for our purposes, but would
have struggled with more people. I hope you all enjoyed the courses and didn't
spot too many mistakes!! Apologies to the A and B course runners for not
removing the fenced enclosure at the far west side of the map - can't for
the life of me remember if it was there when I ran past in January.....!!
Thanks to my controller, Ian Pyrah, for working so hard
on helping me in the production and checking of the team course combinations -
could not have expected anymore from a controller - and to Robin Strain with
getting all of the information into the SI software correctly. Thanks to Graeme
(and his on the day stand-in!!) for organising and dealing with some of the
feedback that was received on the format of the relay in the months leading up
to the event. Thanks to all the helpers - both before the event and on the
day. Finally, thanks to all of you for running and the many of you who
complemented us on the format of the relays, the quality of the courses and
expressed the hope that this format is continued at other relays in the future.
Chris
Godfree (INT)
Organiser's
Comments
The organisational aspects of the event seemed to go
smoothly enough – INT, RR and TAY have plenty of
experienced helpers. We got all
the registration forms in good time, and most club captains had the SI data we
needed. The club captain's job collecting SI numbers from all club
members is a tiresome one, but I think its worth it for the flexibility of
changing teams after the individual. Typing the data into SI is another
tiresome job, and I would like to acknowledge the heroic efforts of Paul Caban
doing this in the forest on Saturday.
It is always embarrassing to volunteer for a job and then find your work means you can't be there on the day. Personally, I feel we're short enough of volunteers that it’s better to take the chance than not volunteer at all. So particular thanks to Jane for stepping in and taking the flak on the day, and to Roger and the individual team for setting up most of the assembly for us. And finally, thanks to the many of you who took the time to say how much you enjoyed the event. Most of the credit goes to Chris for his courses, but kind words go a long way to making the organisers job worthwhile.
Graeme Ackland (INT)
I hope you enjoyed the new format of the Scottish Relays. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to see it on the day, but the comments I’ve heard since were positive with the exception of the route to the start on lap 1. The intention was to encourage the head to head racing and to boost participation through the flexible handicap entry – and sure enough we had the closest finishes and largest entry for many years.
No doubt there is room for further improvement. Please let me know your views. My e-mail address is G.J.Ackland@ed.ac.uk
Graeme Ackland
The Forestry Commission & the Tentsmuir Ranger Team
St Andrews Ambulance Corps – Glenrothes Company
SOA – Donation of the Sweatshirts for the Junior Team Winners
Anon. – Champagne for MO, WO, Overall Handicap and Fastest 1st leg A course
Anon. – Cash prize for the Fastest 1st Leg A Course
All Competitors – for leaving no rubbish