Nottinghamshire Orienteering Club

Saturday 12th May 2001 Irish Relay Championships Sunday 13th May 2001
Members of BOF are invited to take part (although only members of Irish clubs may be Irish Champions), closing date Fri 20th April 2001, for enquiries and entry forms write to: IOC 2001, c/o R Lynam, Baltyboys, Blessington, Co. Wicklow, Ireland or tel. (353) 45 867183, e mail IOC2001@iol.ie.

British Championships, May 2001
BOF has negotiated a 25% discount on 6 day and standard return fares through TRAVELBREAK on the SeaCat ferry routes Liverpool/Dublin, Heysham/Belfast and Troon/Belfast.
This offer excludes Apex fares,is valid for cars and accompanying passengers and minibuses and accompanying passengers but specifically excludes commercial vehicles and foot passengers. The offer is valid for the month of May 2001 only and is subject to availability.
To take up this offer telephone TRAVELBREAK on 0870 443 0360 and ask for the British Orienteering SeaCat offer or E-mail your booking request to travelbreak@compuserve.com There are further details on the BOF website.

I have created a Junior Web-site and you can visit it by either going via the NOC Home Page or the URL is : http://www.beverleyz.freeserve.co.uk

I am planning on holding a Junior get-together on 24th February 2001. The idea is to meet at the ten-pin bowling in the centre of Nottingham mid-afternoon and then going to Pizza Hut for some food. If you would like to do either one or both of these, please e-mail me on jennifer@beverleyz.freeserve.co.uk or phone me at (0115) 923 1352. Please contact me before 20th February if you would like to come so that I can make the booking. The NOC Juniors team won the junior team of the year, Hilary the Coach of the Year and Alison Junior School Girl of the Year in Nottingham Sports Review of the Year. Beverley

To ensure the juniors are able to commit to going to the Compass Sport Cup both Hilary and Jim have now been able to book a mini bus each, these will be available for juniors and possibly some seniors on a first come basis.

Watch the web site for developments or liase with your coaches.

Or planning a C4 anywhere perhaps! I've planned a C5 in Bramcote Hills. I have planned a short race, which has not yet happened. (It should have been Feb 2000 and will - I hope - be Feb 2001 - if not then we could go for 2002!). A C4 is something altogether different, and something that most orienteers of M59 and three quarters who had not done one before would leave others to do.

I never set out to be a planner. For reasons I have forgotten I had set my sights on being a controller - perhaps there is something about the word 'controller' which appealed fundamentally to my psyche - how sad. But as most of you know you can't be a controller without being a planner with some experience. I have never been on a course to show me how to organise an event (but I have organised up to C3). I have never been on a course to show me how to plan events of any kind. I have been on a Grade 3 controllers course and Ernie Williams passed me on that - but I had to declare lack of planning experience so I am still not a controller.

New territory, new wood, Harlow Wood what an exciting challenge I thought. But due to the late felling and access problems the map was eventually printed a lot later than expected, and was then found to have lots of unsuitably vague areas (absolutely no blame to NOC!)- so at the beginning of September when I wanted to do the planning I was panicking instead. When I got a map there were problems about where to have the event car park. I had assumed that Portland College (prominent on the map) would welcome us to park in their 'nice' tarmac car park and invite us to their tea room and craft shop to boost sales - but I was wrong. So - put cars on Thieves and compete on Harlow? Wrong again - people living in 'nice' houses don't like too many occasions in a year when orienteers cars proceed sedately down the poorly maintained access track. Well, those of you who were there know what happened - parking in the competition area! Conflict potential between moving vehicles and competitors likely and some control sites visible from parking. The former I decided was an acceptable risk - the latter would be far too helpful.

I spent hours and hours planning the blue and brown courses, never having planned beyond green before. In my first planning experience I found the white and yellow courses the most difficult. Many people come into orienteering through their children or see their children come through from string courses to white etc and so have some understanding of these things. I was introduced to orienteering by one of my children but he was M21 at the time and I could never get him to do the string course - although he did once do a yellow (albeit on crutches with a broken leg).

My foray into the woods to tag potential control sites took me into every part of the wood. It was only when courses were being planned that I lost quite a number of sites at the Southern end of the map. We did not have permission to use it - perhaps not even permission to map it as there had not been any contact with the owners who could not be traced. This is why I had to declare the bottom part of the map OOB, and with it all the water features which are absent on the rest of the map. As it happened the heavy rain preceding the event would have made some of the controls OK for swim O. The effect of the pig farming upstream has had a significant effect on the undergrowth around the stream and has caused luxuriant growth of vegetation, as well as lots of silting up and then there is the smell of it all! All in all an area with some interesting features, but a lot of it to be avoided. I shall be interested to see what the next planner makes of this area if anything.

I have learned a few things:

(a) Firstly that I have confirmed in my own mind what I had learned in previous years of competing in Thieves - I am not very good at counting stump banks as I proceed through a block of wood. My controller discovered that I had hung tags on wrong banks, and on the day I even hung a kite on the wrong stump bank, which, recognising my inability, he found it on the adjoining one and restored it to it's correct place.

(b) Secondly - just how long the whole process takes, and how time consuming it all is. I am sure that experienced planners can do things so much quicker, but I think that the total amount of time I spent overall on planning this event in hours was probably numerically equal to the number of participants!

(c) Thirdly, how physically demanding it all is. I only used 54 controls but these have to be put out in time for the controller to be able to check them before the first starts. I put out about half of them the previous late afternoon in locations where I thought they would not be vulnerable. At the end I harvested controls until dark then returned the next day for the remainder.

(d) Fourthly, novice planners should ideally plan on established maps rather than cope with the challenges of new ones, for example, some good control sites were rendered unusable by the presence of similar unmapped features nearby.

(e) And finally, I have learned how enjoyable and rewarding it all is!

Bob Alderson

NB Bob is far too modest to blow his own trumpet but his planning was certainly noted and complimented at the highest levels. Typical really, we find a good new planner and he turns out to be getting bit wrinkly…………but then again aren't we all!
Article slightly edited from the original

Date 2001	Venue	Status	Contact	|Notes	E-Punching
24 March	Sansom Woods	N5	Unknown		Yes
25th March	Bestwood	C4	Richard Beadle	Gallopen	No
21st April	Lake District	LG and up	Hilary Palmer	NOC Coaching	NA
22nd April	Byron's Walk	C4	The Bookers		Yes

"This BaG was edited by Keith Streb, who looks at this and thinks "If you consider this Newsletter boring then have a look at DVO's (Newstrack ) and see if you can spot the difference.
That is how it should be done. Don't put it off, write something for the next issue …………… NOW

As before it is intended to have a roughly bi-monthly issue with the copy dates being the last day of Jan, March, June, Aug, Sept and Nov 9 (or possibly not in this case). Publication should normally within 2 weeks . Yes I do know it's only second edition and it's already falling apart So things could change

All copy gratefully accepted on keith.streb@ntlworld.com. Or snailmail to 2 Sherwood Road, Rainworth, Notts NG21 0LJ ASCII, TXT and Word files preferred. Currently NO RTF due to system problems. Don't forget for more wide ranging and up to date information the NOC website is http://www.noc-uk.org

This is just a note to say I am not renewing my BOF membership this year and will resign from NOC. I had always intended to carry on orienteering as an M75 and beyond, but, having acheived that status last year, I have not been out in the forest once during the whole year since. On every event day, there are 2 alternative scenarios: if the weather is bad, my wife says: 'You can't go out trampting in the woods today. You'll catch cold.' If it is fine, she says: 'You can't sneak out and do your jogging today, there's far too much needing doing in the garden!' So orienteering can't win! Never mind, I joined Southern Navigators in 1968, and moved to NOC in 1991, and I've had a lot of fun during all that time. Tony Caldicott M75 Although I actively dislike orienteering duringa hot summer, I am prepared to sacrifice running in Bestwood if it means that Tony and his wife can have all the good weather they need to achieve future horticultural happiness .......... Happy weeding from all at NOC.