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Birches Valley 13th November 2005 District Event |
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Birches Valley 13th November 2005 District Event |
Results.
SI comments
Robert Gardner now in results.
I have now worked out why Ciaran Watling and Mark Stimpson are disq on the red. If you would like to emal me Ill explain why.
Problems
Firstly a school orienteering card did not download - 220659, Please can schools groups check that all their children download.
Start box mystery punch - an explaination
A young orienteer went to the start on a strange route that led her and her family back through the start box and start lanes.
Confused by the start layout and with her brand new, never been used before si card she punched the start box thinking she was clearing.
Thanks to Jean Rostron for this info.
She then cleared, checked, started and finished normally.
The fact that it was a brand new card that had not seen a clear station is the key.
Had she had data on her card it would not have taken a start punch, if she had cleared it would have punched normally.
Thankyou to Mark Hawker Alan Hartley (both having developed download software) for confirming the following.
When a brand new card is dibbed without clearing for the first time it can knock off, it seems, its first digit as it uses the start number not the si card number. After the first clear the problem does not exist.
The new SI Card was 224197 hence the 24197
Controllers Comments.
It was great to see so many of you turning out for this event. The weather certainly helped, and was a massive improvement on the weather conditions that prevailed as I checked Claire’s control sites a few weeks before the event.
Claire made excellent use of the area; providing courses that were fair, delivered finishing times within the guidelines, and offered a good combination of route choice and navigational challenge on an area that is criss-crossed by paths (and mountain bikers).
The mountain biking activity certainly posed a challenge. When combined with the changes to the landscape in the few weeks leading up to the event, Claire was forced into making some very late changes to the courses (with Doug providing some timely changes to the map). Options for the White and Yellow courses, in particular, were very constrained, but all competitors appeared to enjoy these courses, as well as the longer courses. It was particularly satisfying to see more than 20 competitors – nearly all new to orienteering – trying out the Red course.
For me, the only worrying moments occurred towards the end of the day when we discovered that we, seemingly, had one fewer Finisher than Starter. Mysteriously, we couldn’t find either a Registration slip or a BOF database entry for the “missing” ecard, so we couldn’t even identify which course the phantom competitor was attempting. Mark searched the early controls electronically to try and trace the missing competitor; still no joy. So, as dusk descended, and with the car park empty, I set off with Dave, Tom Roach and Lloyd Biddell to search the area of the forest in which the competitor had apparently disappeared. Nothing.
As we now know, there wasn’t a missing competitor. A young girl had purchased a brand new ecard and found her way to the Start by a strange route. On reaching the Start, she punched the Start Control before starting thinking that it was a Clear station. She was able to do this because her ecard, being brand new, was clear. She then did Clear and started correctly. But a quirk of the software can sometimes mean that when an ecard is used for the first time without being cleared, the first digit is removed from the number; hence we had one “extra” starter (and an SI number that looked quite old).
Thanks to you all for coming along; thanks also to Claire for some excellent courses; to Mark for his work on the SI side; to Cath for rushing off to print some additional maps in mid-event; and to Dave and his team of helpers for making the event such a success.
Planners Comments
Superb autumn day - Birches Valley at its best, contributed to higher than expected turnout!
The abundance of MTB tracks had a considerable affect on planning - safety had to be taken into consideration.
Course winning times within guidelines - certain participants need to run the course before they judge it!
Good to see so many juniors/school groups enjoying sunshine & adventure.
White & Yellow - courses re-routed from original - recent landscaping work to create large picnic area meant courses were compromised.
Orange ventured further - need to expect more of a challenge - the controls were not hidden!
Red - pleased to see so many - runners enjoying challenge of navigation - orienteering needs to forge links with athletics/running clubs (my background).
Lt Green, Green, Blue & Brown - much positive feedback despite several anomalies on the map on this ever changing working forest. Blue & Brown took competitors into Furnace Coppice to the S.E. of the map which enhanced the challenge with distance - many enjoyed.
Many thanks to:
Doug Peel & Chris Earnshaw - invaluable support & advice to the novice that I am.
Adam, Catherine, David, Chris B, Dave T, Sophie, Iain, Jamie, Lloyd, Mikey & Chester - its been great fun!!
Claire Bushnell
Organisers Comments.
How lovely to see 460 plus orienteers of all ages, abilities and mixture of clubs take part and seemingly enjoy a glorious autumnal sunny day at Birches Valley. The volume of competitors did present us with problems however, not least with stocks of maps on some courses. To those affected, please accept our apologies for your frustration and inconvenience, whilst you waited for freshly-printed maps. Pre-event we had estimated 400 competitors and had produced maps accordingly.
Another niggle was the gents’ toilets being locked (sorry I don’t know why ,yet) but it seemed the ladies were willing to share and so “ease the pressure!”
Thank you to the Forestry Commission for access permission and use of (unexpectedly) large marquee, it’s almost a shame it didn’t rain with such a shelter !
Both Claire Bushnell ( Planner) and Chris Earnshaw (Controller) were very supportive in my preparation for this event and so deserve special thanks. The Birches Valley area is extremely popular with mountain bikers and we were very concerned about safety. All competitors returned unscathed (as far as I’m aware) so I think we got it right.
As it was the West Midlands Individual Championships, the first three members in each age class will receive certificates once the results have been verified by the WMOA Chairman. Walton Chasers will distribute the certificates to the clubs concerned.
A pleasing feature of the day was the large number of junior orienteers. The junior class winners received their trophies from GB squad orienteers Tessa Hill (HOC) and Graham Gristwood (OD),orchestrated by Liz Furness (West Mids Junior Squad Manager).Thanks to Liz,Tessa,Graham, and thanks to Lester and Lynden Hartmann for organising the return of the trophies and the involvement of Tessa and Graham.
David Thomas WCH Organiser
Colour Code Awards
White : 3 courses completed
Yellow : 1-25 inc
Orange : 1-18 inc
Red : 1-13 inc.
Lt Green : 1-35 inc.
Green :1-65 inc.
Blue : 1-48 inc.
Brown : 1-22 inc.