Discussion: Maps

Me and Marcus did our bit :-)

There were plenty of Black maps waiting for you and Marcus though.........

S Brown were only one to run out

Still one course too many - and at only 284 entries must be one of the lowest turn outs ever. May be getting better at getting numbers right now but it's going to take a lot to shake off the reputation!

Will routegadget be put up soon or is BOK trot not special enough? Want to see what I missed and don't think I've seen any maps covering the south west corner before. With planner and controller combo, expect the courses to have been quite good!

It will be I'm sure, but John Simmons is in Portugal, so guess that is reason for delay

Will bring map to work tomorrow

I dont think that is entirely fair Richard, it wasnt a major problem that S. Brown maps had run out I had registered for Brown, and decided that I couldnt be bothered running that far. There would have been a Brown map for me, and I dont think that anyone registered for S. Brown was left mapless. I was totally happy to run Blue, S. Blue or Green. So my comment wasnt meant to be a criticism of map numbers in this case, just a way of making me look less of a wimp for dropping down from Brown to Blue...

I totally agree with you that Fabian Entries shouldnt have closed so early, and that we have historically printed too few on occasions, but I dont think this was one of those occasions.... and you did miss out on some really lovely courses. The Blue was excellent if a bit of a challenge going up and down so much! and The Brown looked really good too had I had the energy....

I am being harsh - but given request to NGOC to support the BOK Trot becoming bigger (as per November classic) and retaking the May Day bank holiday - we've been looking to see whether BOK would deliver an event that people will rush to enter (we know you are highly capable, and the orienteering is usually very good too). It's a little unfortunate that quite high up on the list is the history of running out of maps - and given the attendance this year was very low - some ASO leagues get more, people not bothering to come after pre-entries closed (more than just two of us!) because of map printing history, and a very low turnout from NGOC (<20% of membership despite being the local club) as it wasn't promoted so well.

What I would have liked to see was 350+ entries, pre-entries open for an extra week, and not running out of maps on any course - even with larger attendance - would clearly demonstrate on course to grow boktrot bigger and deliver it. With lower numbers and not fully shaking its reputation for being stingy, it makes it a lot harder for us to say "yes, we will compromise our local event calendar to help BOK make its race more attractive to existing orienteers from outside the region" - and whether we stand to benefit from any tie up (Cranham attendance *would* have been useful here!)

I would be first to say that NGOC isn't perfect and if anything I'm even more keen for things to be improved. Pat and I do our best to ensure we don't make the same mistakes again, and I'm close enough to see progress made. Just happens that NGOC mistakes are different to BOK's. Maybe if NGOC do entries and map printing, and BOK put the controls out, between us we could make the perfect BOKNGOCTrot? :-)

I suppose the other thing to remember regarding attendance is that given the weather potential, it is possible some people decided not to bother risking the journey with events being cancelled the day before. (Eg. Coopers Hill, Culm Davy, Stonedown), and a number of people including club members not wanting to make the drive up in case they ended up driving home into the teeth of Imogen... it is a very good point though that the number of NGOC members running was very low, and given they would have the least travel and could have decided that morning whether or not to go....

Personally I totally agree with you that it was a mistake to close entries so early (and on a Friday rather than a Sunday). Had it not been my club (with resulting volunteering commitments) and I had missed the pre-entry, I would have almost certainly gone to the MV event even though it was on the other side of the country. I usually assume that Entries closed on Fabian is most likely to mean that there will only be a few EODs available... hopefully we will have learned from this... in anycase, all that is way above my paygrade and long may it stay there!