The Castle Museum and York City Council have kindly given permission for another City Centre Race. Courses will take place in the Castle Museum, and the snickleways of York. Competitors will be issued with pre-marked special maps at scale 1:5,000. Electronic punching will be used. The Castle Museum section will be micro-O style with a map at a larger scale. Please enter in advance and then turn up and get your start time on the day.
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1st equal: Jo Purchase (SLOW), Rachael Elder (CLOK), Peter Roberts (EBOR), Christine Roberts (EBOR) - all correct.
5th equal: Marya and Sonya Chechik (EBOR), William Martland + 1 (SPOOK); 8/9.
7th equal: Mike Turner, Claire Watson (SROC), Linda Kelly (CLARO); 7/9.
10th: Naomi Calvert W10 (AIRE); 6/9.
Isn't it a wonderful museum! I can't begin to imagine how many individual historical objects there are in there.
I'm sure you found the start very confusing, especially if you were amongst those who were unlucky enough to catch the darkest hour. The street (Kirkgate) undergoes a day and night sequence of events and light conditions every 15 minutes, so half of you would have had to peer into the gloom of old "gaslight". The most problematic controls were 3, 4 and 9 which required you to look really carefully at the precise centre of the circle and then go to that precise position to find the control rather than the control on the other side of a wall, admittedly only a foot or two away.
Here are a few exmples of how the control positions were described by the museum staff:
2 suspended from the posts of the funeral bier dais.
2 against Joshua Turner's china shop and one against the wall behind the shop.
One in Dick Turpin's cell, one behind the door to the cell and one in the corner of the condemned cell.
It makes a change from crag foot.
As for the rest, St Nicholas Field is the farthest out of town of all the open areas I have used and it does mean the centre is used less. Next year, I promise a longer and much more intricate city centre section. I hope you enjoyed the loops. I missed seeing the confusion that runners going round them in 4 different directions caused but the marshals enjoyed the spectacle that some of you gave them.
Finally, I'm really sorry that control 115 (west wall west side) was 25 metres south of the postion marked on the map. I am really annoyed with myself for the error.
Steve Whitehead.
Ann Smith had always organised this event and so stepping into her shoes was a big job, but I believe everything went well. Steve and Mike did their usual good job with planning and controlling, which made my job much easier.
My biggest thank you must go to the many helpers who were there on the day which made the day run very smoothly.
Mark White
Once again Steve Whitehead produced an event with two very different components, requiring a change in approach from the very accurate map reading of controls in the fascinating Castle Museum, to the fast flowing street and park orienteering on the east side of the city.
Control three in the museum certainly caught a lot of people out, but if two kites are not correct, then the correct one had to be at the other side of the feature. I think some orienteers find it difficult adjusting to a non-timed event that requires pin point accuracy in control map reading.
Control 115 by the City Wall was slightly out of position, although it should not have affected anyone’s time. Apologies for not spotting that when I checked in the morning!
I hope you all enjoyed the event – I heard many positive comments. The butterfly loop in St. Nicholas Fields Park certainly made many of you think.
An event like this cannot work successfully without a large number of helpers – I thought they did a great job. I also thought Mark’s organisation went well, especially considering how spread out things were.
Apologies to the lady who was accidently entered on to the wrong course.
Mike Ridealgh