EBOR Results: 14/04/02

Cawthorne & Keldy Badge Event

• Revised Sport-Ident result details (amended for courses 1 & 2, the leg between control 19 (173) and control 20 (162) being deducted from the finish time. All course results are now final, after a second revision.)
• Check Split times on WinSplits Online
• Check Split times on Progressograph service
• Badge Times
• String Course Results
• Comments

Badge Times

Planners' Report

What a beautiful day we had. Cawthorne was at its best before anyone arrived at 6.30 am on the Sunday of the event, blue sky, a frost, mist over the lake and piece and quiet. Myself and David Sowden did the planning between us and it was a very enjoyable experience. The last time I planned a badge event was Newtyle near Forres, Morayshire in '83. My controller then was Bob Climie, who some of you will know. The controller for this event was Dave Chapman, from Aire, and in some ways he is very similar to Bob and he helped to make a very enjoyable day out.

The area is made up of what appears to be several different types of terrain. The plateau next to the Roman Camp is good and fast. The western valley, which only the long courses went into, reminds a lot of people of what a good Scottish area is normally like. The favourite area for me is the piece in the middle, where the Cairns are. We tried to take everyone through there, where the terrain is fast, visibility is low and staying on a bearing is difficult but essential. There is even a bit of parkland to give people a chance to get their head down and open their legs.

Sorry about the unmarked crossing point, near control 129, that was my mistake. We had it covered then at the last minute I forgot to put signs out telling everyone about it. We gave the longer courses a long leg (1.2km from the dam NW to the top of the map) and I thought most people would go across the dam, up the field to the gate then across the forest at the narrowest point. Surprisingly most of the quicker ones went straight through the woods, which is what we had hoped because it was a good test.

Thanks to Mattie Speake, Tim Bean, Keith MacDermott, Mike Ridealgh and Peter Bean for hanging/collecting controls. A big thanks to Kevin Holland, who was the driving force for the event, well done Kev (& Karel of course!).

Thanks to everyone who came along and competed and I know from the emails and comments sent to us that you had a great day out, after all that's what it is all about.

Steve Corrigan & David Sowden, Eborienteers

Controllers' Comments

Cawthorne is a real challenge for a Planner, offering a variety of types of terrain from the complex path network south of the Roman Camp, through the semi-open rough land to the north, the fast runnable woodland in the central area and the steep sided wooded valley to the west. Steve and Dave found ways to give most of you the sort of courses you were looking for, and I received some very positive feedback. From my point of view this was an easy job, so my thanks to them both. Similarly Kevin was highly professional as Organiser, and the EBOR machinery proved as efficient as ever.

However, there was one significant problem - I apologise to competitors on courses 1 and 2 for leg 19-20. I see from the split times that this 90m downhill leg took most competitors many minutes to navigate. Fortunately one competitor lodged an official complaint and we went out to investigate. We convinced ourselves that control 19 was in the right position, and that control 20 was in the right position on the right feature, but found that the feature for control 20 was not on the correct bearing from 19. We consider that this is a map error that we hadn't spotted. One of the great benefits of SI is that in this circumstance I have the option of voiding the leg rather than the course and this is what I have decided to do, although I think that this has given the computing team a challenge!

Dave Chapman - Arienteers

Organiser's Comments

The last event I organised was a score event way back in 1974, using empty bleach bottles as controls, a black and white photocopied map (a new invention in those days), with results printed in blue using a Banda machine. Thank goodness we've moved on since then. Advice from stalwart Ebor members & the BOF checklists made sure that I didn't forget anything.

On the day, all seemed to go well. I tried to ensure that all the helpers had the chance to have a run, and most did. (DB & SA - next time, get out of that tent.) I enjoyed it so much that I've signed up to organise a National event in 2004!

There are three things that I'd like to point out for the future to make the events run even more smoothly:

• Please read the Final Details (the answers to all the questions that were asked were in there)
• Please don't go to registration before the published opening times (not 45 minutes before!)

The decision not to have assigned start times was taken very late, but seemed to contribute to the relaxed atmosphere of the event. There were no long queues anywhere (car park, registration, start, download), no hurrying to the start, and lots of smiling faces. I hope you liked my new innovations: the yellow flags for marking the routes to the start & finish, and the blue Ikea clock at the start (I forgot to check the battery in our normal start clock, so it was the only clock we had available!)

I'd like to thank everyone who helped with this event, both on the day and before. I'm always impressed by the ability of Ebor helpers to get on with the job & lend a hand where required. Special thanks are due to Christine and Peter Roberts for making sure the maps were ready against very tight timescales, Douggie Craig for the loan of the large green tent, and Victoria and Charlotte Myers for putting out and looking after my String Course. Eborienteers are lucky to have some very supportive landowners, so my thanks go to them, and in particular Robert Aconley for the use of his field for parking & assembly. We certainly kept his sheep amused! You donated nearly a hundred used map bags, these will now be used at our beginners events.

Thanks also to all competitors for your care - the tally of litter at the end of the event was just 2 tea bags and 3 apple cores.

Kevin Holland, Eborienteers