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Previous Issues: 1998, 1999, Volume 21 No 1 January 2000
Editorial
Chair's Chatter
National Event I Brown Clee Hill March 26th
The New BOF Ranking Scheme
Report of CompassSport Cup 1st Round, 19th March 2000
Broughton Woods Badge Event, 13 February 2000
National Event II Mulgrave Woods Whitby, April 9th
Fixtures
Calverley Wood AIRE Colour coded event 20.2.00
Between the Fronts - Blakeholme Badge Event April 2nd 2000
An Orienteering Sojourn to the Antipodes - Week One Korea
An Orienteering Sojourn to the Antipodes - New Zealand
Brian Shaw
Our day out at Collis Rigg for the Compass Sport Cup match was truly idyllic. A lovely warm day meant that no-one minded that the coach driver didn't have the bottle to drive into the car parking field because it meant going through a ford. Even when he was told that there were other coaches in the field he still wasn't reassured and wanted to know "how many?" Well how many do you need to prove a field is safe to park in? No trail blaizer this one. Anyway we sat in a bunch and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Kids climbed trees, mucked about in dirt and generally did what kids do given half a chance. It was pretty much the same for the adults. And of course we won! My lasting memory of the day coming home was Michael Adams (4) fast asleep, strapped in, on the front seat while Charlie tried to announce the points without waking him up.
If you ever thought it was impossible to cheat at orienteering then think again. In his first letter from New Zealand Al Goddard recounts an episode from history where a mythical figure tried to buck the system.
What do you need to take to an orienteering event? This question arose recently on a trip to the Lakes when we picked up two colleagues at Hathersage who, on raising the boot lid, were surprised to find that Al's bag was bigger than the other three put together. Al defends his kitchen sink approach to the sport in this issue as well as giving us his full report from the World Masters in NZ.
In the next issue we discover the contents of Al's capacious bag as well as covering the results of the JK, British Champs and CompassSport Cup final. I am particularly looking for articles on tips for beginners, analysis of one of your better runs (see page 11 for example), humorous or disastrous experiences, training tips, etc. Articles do not have to be long - in fact it is better if they are short.
Contributions to the Newsletter should be sent as follows:-
e-mail as a file attachment to b.shaw@dyson-group.com. Don't forget I cannot read Word version7 (97) but that does not matter so long as you either "Save As" in an earlier version of Word or in rich text format before attaching.
or by post to:-
Brian Shaw, Crag Moor, Froggatt Edge, Calver, Hope Valley, S32 3ZJ
Copy date for next Newsletter: June 12th 2000.
Publication Date: June 20th 2000.
Jenny James
Spring is in the air - or at least it was, the evenings are light and we're off to the other side of the world. Dave, myself, Bill Edwards and Helen Hargreaves are competing in the first set of World Cup races for 2000 which are being held in Japan and then in Australia, alongside their Easter 3 day competition. So no JK for us but we'll be thinking of you as the kangaroos and koalas pass us by. It was good of the Queen to smooth the way in Canberra but we're hoping for the red carpet even if she didn't get one!
Well done to everyone who competed in the Compass Sport Cup, which is no doubt reported elsewhere in this newsletter, and I hope to see a lot of you on Ilkley Moor for the final on June 18th.
Work is underway for the British Champs 2002 with Brian Shaw, Co-ordinator and Tim Tett, Individual Planner. Sooner than that we have the National Event on Burbage Moor in December and a badge event on Strines, in September for which we are hoping to map a new piece of area and update the old map. Not to mention the British Night Championships in 2001. If you haven't helped, planned, organised, controlled an event NOW is a good time to volunteer - no matter what experience you have the club always needs more people to help out. We don't put on hundreds of events so please get in touch with Phil Haywood and see how you can help.
Look forward to seeing you all out there in the forests - we knocked them dead at the Compass Sport Cup in our waves of yellow and black.....
Final Thought: - watch out for those dobbers (electronic punching). I was disqualified at first at Nat Event I for not waiting for the control to beep. I was praticising for the World Cup races and didn't slow down. Fortunately I was not alone and tried to convince them that the response time their dobber units was too slow - but they might not always buy that one - so be warned.
Brian Shaw
The first National Event of the year was eagerly awaited by many of us and attracted a large field with over 100 competitors in some classes. Brown Clee is a superb, large area with lots of different types of terrain, most of it runnable, and a complex area of old workings near the summit which at 1772 feet makes it the highest point in Shropshire. The views from the top are amazing and I cannot imagine how many counties you might be able to see from up there. Wonderful as long as you don't mind crowds. (Sorry, literary illusion, Gwendoline from The Importance of Being Ernest). Not to mention the buzzards which abound up there - good buzzard country is often good orienteering country I've noticed.
Looking at my 1993 map when the British Champs were held on Brown Clee I was looking forward to some long legs with tricky route choices. Instead we tended to criss cross the tricky bit near the summit and disappointingly didn't get into the bottom half of the map at all even with 8k to play with. I guess that's one of the down sides of e-punching - a tendency to overuse the technical parts of the area. Still it was very enjoyable and of course looking at the splits on the net is always entertaining. I am surprised for example how fast some people in my age class (M55) can run. At the same time it appears that even the best can make quite serious errors e.g. 2 to 5 minutes for the likes of Andy Hemstead and Mike Murray. This gives ordinary mortals hope.
E-punching is also very unforgiving. Is it just coincidence or are there more disqualifications now? One thing to beware of is dobbing without beeping. You must always wait for the beep. As Jenny says above she was lucky but several were not.
Over 20 people from SYO made the trip and 15 achieved Championship standard:
M21E Dave Peel (1) M21E Mark Chapman (5) M55L Brian Shaw (1) M21L Martin Ward (2) M70L Eric Shimmin (8) M35L Dave Harrison (14) W21E Jenny James (2) M40L Martin Smith (12) W21E Jo Stevenson (6) M50L Peter Gorvett (7) W21E Ruth Hambleton (8) M50L Phil Jones (33) W35L Dorothy Pelly (1) M50L Phil Haywood (43) W50L Jill Gorvett (7)
Other noteworthy efforts were Gill Harrington achieving gold and Lucy Wiegand winning W21S. Bill Hanley had a good run but thanks to a star run by John Rye did not get Championship. It's tough in M45.
Brian Shaw
The new BOF Ranking scheme came into operation on 1st January 2000. It is already beginning to take shape if you care to visit the BOF website. I have cribbed the following from said website and I although I do not pretend to understand it fully I'll attempt to explain it.
The new system is based upon the scoring system of awarding 1000 points for the mean time on a course, and 200 points for each standard deviation time faster than the mean (or subtracting 200 points for every standard deviation time slower than the mean). What is standard deviation I hear you say? Well it's a measure of the spread of the results e.g. the distribution of the results should look like this:
graphic missing - imagine a bell shape!
96% of all the results should lie within two standard deviations of the mean. In other words getting >1400 points is going to be very difficult. Unfortunately calculating standard deviation is not something you can do easily without a computer so you are going to have to rely on someone to do it for you.
The performances of ranked runners in each class at an event are used to to standardise the scores. This ensures that points awarded to a runner are simply dependent on the quality of the run, and not on who turns up. This sounds reasonable but how it's done I haven't a clue. Some other points:
1. Ranking events will be all UK events of Badge Event Status or above where
the Organiser states on the ER1 form that the event will be a ranking event.
2. Certain other events such as UK Cup races will also be eligible to be ranking
events.
3. National Events and above attract a weighting of 1.05.
4. The total of a runner's best six scores over the past 12 months give a runner's
current ranking.
5. Short classes (and M18B) are ranked, although their ranking lists are separate
from those for the long courses.
6. IOF Ranking points scored by British runners in World Cup Finals and World
Championship qualification and final races are converted to BOF ranking points
for inclusion in the BOF rankings.
So the basic formula for classes with 20 or more ranked runners within the
winner's time plus 75% is:
Runners Points = 1000 + (Mean Time - Runner's Time) x 200/Standard Deviation
There's lots more on the BOF website but this is as far as I got. I welcome comments from you.
Charlie Adams
SYO WIN REGIONAL HEAT (AGAIN)
The first round of the CompassSport Cup was held this year at Collis Rigg, just north of Helmsley in North Yorkshire. This area was used for the White Rose in 1999 and consequently many people approached the event with some concerns about the quality of the terrain. However North Yorkshire in March is a different place to North Yorkshire in August and the area proved to be a moderately pleasant mixture of fields, moorland and forest. Runnability was obviously better than the planners had expected with winning times rather on the short side. Dave Peel managed under six minutes per kilometre in winning the 8.7km A Course in 50 minutes.
Overall SYO dominated the B, D and E courses despite a number of our top competitors having to retire due to injury. Perhaps the most dramatic of these was Martin Smith who succeeded in hospitalising himself by running into a tree early on his course! Happily Martin was released after a quick check-up and should be back in the forest soon. Other retirals were Bill Edwards (hamstring/bum) and Tim Tett (achilles). This gave Karl Marshall and Dave Harrison the opportunity to count towards SYO's winning score.
Other competitors who deserve mention are Hilary Bloor who won the E course by a large margin, Ted Morton and Ian Wainwright who both ran well to give Hilary great back up and Phil Jones who ran superbly on the C Course and then topped it by announcing that he's M50 this year.
Here is the full list of scorers:
A Dave Peel 18 points Martin Ward 15 points Karl Marshall 5 points B Charlie Adams 18 points Mark Chapman 17 points Dave Harrison 7 points C Bill Hanley 15 points Phil Jones 11 points Clive Wilson 8 points D Jenny James 18 points Helen Hargreaves 17 points Karen Dalton 14 points E Hilary Bloor 18 points Ted Morton 16 points Ian Wainwright 13 points F Zoe Fiander 5 points Claire Booth 2 points G Dan Tett 9 points Clare Sutherland 6 points
The total scores were:
A B C D E F G Total
SYO 38 42 34 49 47 7 15 232
AIRE 15 35 41 35 36 21 15 198
EBOR 23 15 38 37 31 19 17 180
EPOC 39 35 28 21 30 7 11 171
CLOK 28 38 24 23 21 13 14 161
HALO 28 6 6 6 6 10 5 67
SYO therefore are comfortably through to this year's Final which is to be held on 18th June at Ilkley Moor. Put the date in your diary, and with a full team, I think we can improve on last year's second place! If demand is sufficient I'm sure SYO will be taking a coach to the Final. See you on it. The other teams through to the Final include MDOC, NOC and SLOW.
Doreen Best
The day was almost perfect for orienteering. (No Doreen it was perfect). Beautiful clear blue sky, sunshine, and just cold enough to keep you cool (those of you who run fast anyway). It made a pleasant change from the gales and floods that swept across South Yorkshire earlier on in the week. We had nine students with us on this trip and four who had gained their Orange Standard and were desperate to try a Red. Colin pointed out that it was about four miles in length and they would be out a long time. But at the same time, he was pleased that they wanted to push themselves and try something new. In the end all four registered for Red.
I was glad to see a practice tripod in the car park. In the past I have known these to vary in size from a set of matchsticks to a vast edifice the size of a communal wigwam. So hopefully no problems there. I really didn't have any problems with my W50S course, although I did at first find it difficult to make the ground fit the map. My nice straight "large path" on the map was in fact something small and wiggly on the ground and made me unsure about being in the right place. So unsure in fact, that on my way to my first control I suddenly made a right turn, checked that there was nothing of interest (like a tripod) in the cultivated area, and then turned back. However, I enjoyed the course, although the undergrowth, even in the areas of white without the green screen, made the going slow and scratchy.
I do have a general complaint about the map though. "Forest walk", "forest fight" and "settlement" all looked the same dark green. Although the planners would be unlikely to take a course through a farmyard or housing estate, the difference between walk and fight could affect a runner's route choice.
Tom and Claire finished their Red courses and were deservedly pleased with themselves, and the Orange runners all had good runs, although Chris managed to arrive at the finish with his gaiters round his ankles complaining of having to stop and pull them up all round the course! (That's not a good enough excuse not to come first Chris, you'll have to do better than that.) It was a great day to be in the woods, and the students were there usual chirpy selves on the way back.
Results from the net indicate 13 SYO'ers achieved Championship standard in a physically tough area with steep, virgin forest which I thought was wonderful. Lovely to see some unmanaged forest for a change where no-one clears up the trees when they fall down. They also slow down the fast runners. Congratulations in particular to Beryl Seaman who achieved Championship we suspect for the first time ever!
M21E Charlie Adams (4) M50L Peter Gorvett (2) M35L Dave Harrison (5) M50L Guy Seaman (just!)(20) M40L Dave Charles (4) W35L Dorothy Pelly (6) M45L Bill Hanley (5) W45L Hilary Bloor (1) M45L Clive Wilson (7) W50L Beryl Seaman (7) M40L Tim Tett (1) W50L Jill Gorvett (8) M55L Brian Shaw (2)
- see the special Fixtures page.
Colin Best
I thought that half term might dampen the enthusiasm of my orienteers but seven turned up to travel in the minibus with me, Doreen and Ted Morton on a crisp bright sunny day.
I think Ted was trying to get his own back on me when he announced that it was too hot for him to wear a thermal. Not to be outdone, I stripped off my thermal top and proceeded to the start with only my 'O' top covering my bare skin. As I stood shivering in the shade of a wooded north west slope Ted appeared sporting a tee-shirt under his 'O' top.
" I didn't say I wasn't going to wear a tee-shirt " he smiled.
As it happened I didn't notice the cold. I was doing a Light Green course. (I went over on my ankle a fortnight ago and although the ankle appears to be slowly repairing I seem to have damaged something under my heel and running is painful. So I was taking the chance to do something, but not too far). It also gave me a chance to see how my orienteers were progressing. Six out of the seven were also running Light Green.
I had planned to set off last but I finished up going first. No.1 was quite tricky. The control description was hill, north side. Approaching the control from below but from the north I expected to see it as I climbed a steep slope where the hill-top was to be found. It wasn't on the north side in fact but hidden in a depression on the top of the hill. The next control was a 4m crag foot tucked away off the path, not too difficult. The remaining controls required careful map reading in an area which was full of paths and indistinct paths and one or two of the controls took you over challenging terrain. I managed to hobble round but I was sure my orienteers might have trouble.
Sure enough, two of them had failed to find their No.1 and retired. The other four all got round but took well over the hour but as Doreen took 90 mins this wasn't too bad at all really, especially as three of them are only first year M14s and the other is first year W16. These four are going to Collis Rigg to run for SYO in Compass Sport Cup. It will be interesting to see if they are getting good enough to score!!
Brian Shaw
Michael Fish got it wrong again. We nearly didn't go listening to his tale of woe on the early morning weather forecast - blizzards, heavy rain and gale force winds. We ran out of the rain N of Manchester and we arrived in the Lake District in dry and bright conditions. We obviously managed to stay on the right side of the front. (The next day you will recall it snowed). A pair of buzzards soaring over the car parking field only added to the anticipation of orienteering on one of the best areas in England. Blakeholme was used for the World Cup race in 1998 and is a classic mixture of complex open fell, delightful open woodland of oak and birch and coniferous forest of variable density.
Most legs involved going straight on a compass bearing but keeping in close contact with the map all the way. Marshes are always the most reliable feature in Lakeland terrain as found in the northern part of the map because they are are nearly always flat. Of course contours are also useful but difficult to read at speed (!). On the other hand crags are often unreliable because some are mapped whilst others are not.
Control 2 gave the top people on our course some problems but I had a particularly good run and was leading up until control 11. At 12 caution got the better of me and I decided to go around all the dark green areas. My more adventurous opponents must have taken more direct routes and got ahead of me. I partially made up by having the fastest split on the next leg running along the dam wall but it wasn't enough.
The event attracted a large turn-out with over 100 on M21. This was perhaps the reason for there always being plenty of people around the control sites. Either that or there were not quite enough controls. Anyway a great day out and it had rained in Sheffield all day - always a bonus.
Alan Goddard
Al's first letter from down under........
Dear Brian
At this stage there are three of us from SYO on the trip, Gill Harrington, Mark Chapman and myself. No orienteering until we reach New Zealand so I though I might entertain you with a few snippets and recollections:
Remember Dick McWill - this is a salutary story about over weaning ambition in an orienteer. It is true, although the names have been changed to avoid potential libel charges and has an SYO twist at the end.
Dick was past 40 but still beating the best of the elite and the older he got the better he ran. Then came the day at a particularly important badge event that Dick trounced the field by 14 minutes - in second place was Norwegian National Squad orienteer - we'll call him Knud - who expressed some doubts about the outcome. Knud was in top form and had run flawlessly so to find himself 14 minutes down to an M40 hurt and hurt badly. Paraphrasing Knud, who expressed himself strongly, "with M40's like Dick how come GB wasn't winning World Championships?"
This point was not lost on a particular Scots M40, now an eminent M55, who set out to find Dick's secret. The plans were laid and the trap set. Dick would be followed. The followers stuck to Dick like glue - on splits Dick wasn't performing to form and with still a third of the race to go Dick strategically twisted an ankle and retired. There are reports of an earlier runner vaguely resembling Dick setting off in an anorak and dark glasses who was also seen to have retired. An unused control card was found discarded. Lots of speculation, nothing proven but Dick shortly after retired from active competition.
And the SYO twist? Some weeks earlier, at a badge event at Cawthorne, organised by Ian Pyrah, two runners from the same club had entered. One was Dick McWill, the other William McDick from similar addresses. William asked for an early start and Dick for a late start. William went off early and retired, Dick ran late and ran well to win the event.
The lesson perhaps is to age gracefully. With your interests at heart I shall occasionally scan the start lists for variations on Sean O'Brian or the like so as to nip in the bud any suggestions that your late flowering of talent is anything other than a case of "class will out".
Post Scripts
Remember - the 1999 club championships - all of us at the event will recollect it as the wettest on record. The woods were fine but the trudge back to the car uncompromisingly cold and wet. I was fine and the giant 'O' bag, which has been frequently mocked, full of warm dry kit. What ho! - a chastened sopping figure emerging through the mist - "I've lost my keys" it said. 'O' bag to the rescue hopefully no more to be mocked. As I write this in Korea on a Christmas Day train journey I wonder if the lesson will ever be learnt. Whether the much-respected older statesman of SYO now editor of its news sheet will beware not to mock lest the mocked again rears up to bite his backside.
Remember - Dumphries and Galloway at the Capricorn in 1991? You arrived late on the Friday evening I, covered in insect repellent but still savaged by the midges and vaguely resembling elephant man had to ride the hard edge of your humour. Five minutes later "Al I've locked the car keys in the car - help!"
And again - remember - car parking at the Strines in 1995 (or thereabouts) - this time my mobile phone at the receiving end of your sarcasm. Ageing yuppie was your kindest observation. Half an hour later "Al I've locked my keys in the car - can I borrowed your mobile". What are friends for!
(Yes OK you've made your point).
All the best
Alan Goddard
And if you haven't fallen asleep another epistle from down under.......
Dear Brian,
The World Masters are now over. There were two warm-up events, one on forested
dunes north of Auckland the other on a hilly forest near Taupo in central North
Island. The format for the WMOC itself was as on previous occasions two qualifying
events followed by the final. (In addition the whole thing was preceded by a public
event which coupled with the two qualifying events provided a three-day event
in its own right). The forests for this phase of the proceedings were of runnable
sand dune type terrain and most people performed pretty well in the qualifiers.
Even I excelled and astonished myself with two of the best runs I've had in many
a few years to relatively easily make the 'A' final.
But there was a twist in the tail visited on one and all as we picked up our maps for the final - the terrain was significantly more unrelenting both in its complexity and runability. Comprising in short a real test of both strength and navigation and a number of runners, myself regrettably and not surprisingly amongst them, were caught out. Of course the winners as always ran as well as ever; the sheep and goats were duely sorted. From a British perspective my vote for best performance goes to John Golton (EBOR) who was second in M60. This so far exceeds anything that John has done previously as to be off the scale. As he said himself afterwards he has never previously managed to sustain his concentration in a key event in serious terrain. So there you have it - given basic fitness it's all down to sustained concentration.
David May was sponsored by BOF to gather thoughts and views about whether or not the format of the World Masters is right i.e. two heats and a final. I have to say that the format strikes me as fine and I rather think that David sees it that way - we shall see. Certainly the extra day at the front end creating a three-day event prior to the final worked well.
After the WMOC we left for South Island. There were two events both on contoured sheep cropped grassland with numerous complex rock formations. The first of these looked absurd with the M21E distance at 6k and M55L at 2.6k. In fact Janis Salmi won M21E in 60 minutes and Jorgen Mortenson was second in 63 minutes (10 minute k's on cropped grassland for previous world champions!) There is of course an explanation - the rock detail was fiendishly complex and everyone must have had some difficulty. John Musgrave shadowed me and even at my speed he once or twice lost position on the map. I think I took around 60 minutes for the 2.6k. The second area was fine but as Angela Panther mentioned in February's Compass Sport the world's most officious official was in charge of events - 'Jobsworth' wasn't the word for her attitude. This was a low key relaxation event in the back of beyond, but she would allow no start time changes nor indeed any relaxation of any rules. It really was dragon territory. The terrain and weather made up for her - a bit like Malham on a gorgeous late spring day.
All in all the trip really has been outstanding - pity you couldn't be here! Scottish 'O' Tours have delivered over and beyond expectation. Gordan Ross and Angela Panther lead in totally contrasting styles both adding calm in their own ways. I haven't found anyone complaining about the way the tour has been arranged and managed. No detail or personal requirement is too much trouble to arrange. I have previously always arranged my own 'O' travels and probably still will for North-West Europe but for longer trips to major events I'll now go with SOT. I'm certainly lining up WMC 14 2001 in the Baltics and AIOC 2002 in West Canada.
All the best.
Alan
Last modified: July 25 2003 10:23.
