Organisers’ Comments

I can’t quite remember how it came about that I ended up being the organiser of the British Relays.  It certainly wasn’t because of my extensive experience, because the largest event I’d organised previously was an evening informal event with 20 participants.  But with a great deal of hard work and the support of a fantastic club of dedicated and seemingly tireless volunteers, it all became possible.  There are many things to be learned from my experience, the most important one being that if I can do it, anyone can; and you should – be inspired and volunteer for your club to keep orienteering alive and innovative in the UK.

I need to say a heartfelt thanks to all of those EPOC members who contributed to the event in any way, including the EPOC juniors who presented prizes.   In particular I want to highlight the hard work of Ian and Julie Couch in designing and building the arena.  I also need to thank my family and friends who gave up their spare time to augment the small but willing band of EPOC members on the day itself.

Neil Northrop (SYO) produced an outstanding map and his planning of the senior courses put a smile on many of your faces, as did Emma Harrison’s planning of the junior courses.  Simon Thompson (HOC) was more than just a controller – he was a willing advisor and I am proud to have worked alongside him.

Other thanks must go to Sheffield City Council for use of the area, for cutting the grass in the arena and for allowing us to close Greaves Lane to make the most of the area; to Sgt Richard Hammond of SY Police for keeping an eye out for trouble; Vinci Construction for providing us with safety gear; and to Go Outdoors for providing some genuinely worthwhile prizes.

Finally thanks to my wife, Gemma, for putting up with me through the stressful and busy times.  Now we can go on holiday and relax!.

Richard Wren

Organiser

Controller’s Comments

Most importantly my thanks to Dickie Wren as organiser, Ian and Julie Couch for pulling the assembly area together, Alistair Tinto as assistant controller, Emma Harrison planning junior courses and Neil Northrop all others.

EPOC is quite a small club and it took the full commitment of all of them over the weekend, with no-one competing on Sunday, to deliver this event successfully.

I felt relaxed and confident at 9am on Sunday that everything was right without my needing to make any changes, all credit to the team for achieving this.

I was warned about the risk of a mapper planning an event, this proved not to be an issue as Neil segregated these jobs fully and produced both a great map and great senior courses.

I hope you all enjoyed the event as much as I did.

Simon Thompson (HOC)

Controller

Planners’ Comments

Thanks to everyone who ran the British Long Championships 2011 and special thanks to everyone who managed to come and thank us for the course despite the most used word of the day being ‘tough’.

We enjoyed the planning process throughout the last two years although there were some mapping issues, Oli eventually taking on the bulk of this, and raptor nesting problems that were major stresses right up to race day and we must thank Tim Tett and Brian Shaw for handling the negotiations that enabled us to keep the areas of OOB to a minimum. We did our best to show the larger OOB area clear in the start lanes but appreciate this was a bit complicated and we regret that it was necessary to take these steps at the eleventh hour.

Using Grenoside, Wheata and Wharncliffe Woods together made it possible to plan really varied courses with some great route choice legs and tricky control picks. The goal was to design Classic races which would be won by the best orienteer (regardless of whether or not the area 'suited them') and to provide a challenge on every leg. We hope we came close to achieving this and the best compliment we could be given was the excellent times set by the winners on all courses. Well done to them all.

We are, of course, both impressed and disappointed that W21E and particularly M21E were faster than expected, having lengthened these courses during the planning stages. Wharncliffe is an area with a fearsome reputation and it is a tribute to Doug Tullie that he managed to dip under 6m/km for his 14.5km course. On W21E mistakes in the last 3^rd of the course saw 3 different leaders over the last 4 controls with Claire Ward missing, Rachael Elder tiring and Tessa Hill storming through to victory with a run-in split of 1.01.

A special thank you must go to the M21E runners who arrived at no. 66 and found it missing—several competitors searched for it and eventually found and replaced it, whilst Ed Nicholas forfeited his run to come and tell us so that we could send out a replacement control and guard it from then on. Chris Smithard went on to finish in 15^th place in spite of losing over 2 minutes finding and replacing the control. Thanks to them for their sportsmanship and apologies that their races were ruined. Another thanks must go to everyone who interrupted their run to help an injured competitor including Katrin Harding who ran straight to the finish to fetch first aid and therefore didn’t get a result.

We would like to thank everyone involved in organising the race (over 120 volunteers) especially Martin and Lesley Ward, Tim Tett, our fantastic controller Tony Thornley and his able assistant Steve Watkins (both AIRE), IOF advisor Philip Gristwood (MV), our number twos over the weekend Rob and Clare Baker, who spent almost as long as us hanging controls, and to everyone who helped collect controls in (mainly ShUOC). Thanks also to Smartwool and Arc'teryx for supporting SYO and British Orienteering by providing some great prizes and volunteer rewards and to Steve Peat for presenting them.

Jenny & Oli Johnson

Planners

Organisers’ Comments

Thank you for coming to BOC 2011 – we hope you enjoyed it.    Oli and Jenny have already thanked many people in their comments, but thank you to everyone who helped make it a success, including our Team Leaders and helpers (over 120) whose professional approach made organising much easier, and thanks to the Controller Tony and IOF Event Advisor Philip for their excellent advice.  Oli and Jenny planned some great courses, and Jenny also did a great job in securing sponsorship and publicity of the event, for which we are very grateful.

It is unfortunate that the M21E course was impacted by the stolen control, but thanks to the sportsmanship of the affected competitors for minimising the impact of this.

The mark of good organisation is that no-one notices it, and so the relatively small number of comments is a compliment, but thank you to those competitors who made a point of giving us feedback – it is greatly appreciated.  It was a learning experience for us in a number of ways.  For example we now know more about IOF Rules applicable to a WRE, and a lot more about the nesting habits of raptors!

Some people didn’t collect their maps on the day, and some of you that weren’t able to attend but may wish to have your map, so please contact us if you would like us to forward your map to you.  Details on the event web site.

Lesley and Martin Ward

Organisers

Controller’s Reflections

Controlling major events seems to me to get harder. My first British long distance controlling was back in 1990 at Ewden which seemed easy by comparison with Wharncliffe this year. We’ve got much more sophisticated, but alongside this, expectations are, understandably, much higher and the problems greater. This includes the unexpected, which this year included trying to guess where birds might nest, unexpected forest work and control thieves.

I hope you enjoyed your run. The challenge of three - for most competitors - very different terrain types and the physical challenge of some typical Yorkshire forest, alongside Oli and Jenny’s well planned courses made for some tired legs. Most courses were about the right length – M21E perhaps a little short (I thought it would be long, but I’m too old to judge) and the very oldest classes too long. If we had got M21E right and used the recommended ratios, nearly all other courses would have been too long. It may be that the ratios need to take greater account of the physical challenge of the terrain.

I tried hard to make sure that the last minute spurt of undergrowth did not lead to bingoey control sites. Oli got twitchy that I was making it too easy, but I felt it was fair and hope you did also. I very much regret not doing more to avoid the loss of control 66 on M21E which was hidden by some mountain biker kids for about 20 minutes. A big thank you to two of the affected competitors: Ed Nicholas who immediately abandoned his run to inform officials and ensure that the control was replaced and Chris Smithard who found it under some leaves and kindly replaced it. I knew 66 was potentially vulnerable as the tape had disappeared there, but failed to insist in advance that it be moved or supervised. There were many other accessible controls, and I had bigger worries at the time with birds and getting CDs and maps right. My sincere apologies to the eight elite runners affected.

Some important thanks: to Steve Watkins, my assistant controller, who provided young legs and a shrewd eye for detail; to Philip Gristwood for his thorough work on the elite courses; to the jury members for their help in dealing with a protest about the M50L result; to Martin, Lesley and SYO colleagues for their professional and thoughtful organisation; to Oli and Jenny for making controlling easy for me; and finally, to many of you for your kind comments.

Tony Thornley

Controller

Control number 6 (code 66) on the M21E course was stolen during the competition, some time after 13:18.  Having discovered that the control had been removed, one of the M21E competitors (Ed Nicholas) returned to the Assembly Arena to inform the Planner, in order that the control could be replaced.  Meanwhile, other M21E competitors continued their run, but without having punched control 66.  At 13:41 another M21E competitor (Chris Smithard) discovered the stolen control where it had been discarded.  He replaced it at the correct site, before punching it.  Two other M21E competitors were with him at this time.  In total eight M21E competitors were directly affected by the vandalised control, by varying amounts that cannot be determined.

The Organiser decided that the five competitors who had been disqualified for not having punched at control 66 should be re-instated, and that no other adjustments to the class results could or should be made.  This decision, and confirmation that the course would not be voided, were both announced over the PA in the event Assembly Arena.

The Organiser would like to apologise to all the competitors affected, and to thank those that helped to ensure that the control was quickly replaced in order that the competition could continue.