Discussion: Number 9

It was such an easy one to put in the right place. How did they manage to get it so far wrong?! Tim Griffin and I were standing in the right place looking for it, and I'm sure we were both thinking 'WTF!'

Yes the correct feature was actually mapped pretty well. Unlike #11. I even stopped to help a lady golfer look for her ball on the (unmapped) golf course.

Have checked my quick route and am trying to upload a photo but technologically unable. If you draw a straight line between our control site and the three boulders to the east (where the M21 control was), then ours was actually put on the boulder just north of the half way point on that line. My watch has it as just under 100m off.

It was so so so easy to hang correctly, yet it wasn't. And the control a few on on the 'spur' on the top of the crag, or nots. Wtf! I was standing on a fairway, or in a forest, or in some buckthorn, and it was all marked as rough open. Could they not be bothered to actually map this bit? And if so, why put a control in it? I was so pissed off by the dead running, and the wrongly placed 213 and this control with no veg that I nearly jackked here. I kept going, but I am not sure this was the right decision.

210 was a terrace, not a spur, apparently...

Did no one else point out the mistake to the Planner?
Even though i was virtually last off the Planner was blissfully unaware of an issue. When i told him it was in the wrong place he was adamant that it was ok. I just had to walk away. If i was a potential Scottish champion i'd be well hacked off.
Also can't believe that they put controls in completely unmapped bits of the area.

I asked to talk to the planner but he wasn't there, so instead I explained the problem to the Organiser. I was surprised that nobody in the download tent had heard about a misplaced control when I downloaded.

ESOC don't like being told they've put controls in the wrong place.

No one does.
It was good of David Rosen to apologise today. Showing him my Strava trace was very helpful.

After walking 2k back from the finish I was cold and wet and all I wanted to do was download and get back to the car. I really couldn't be bothered to start discussing wrongly placed controls with the planner. It was so blatantly wrong there didn't seem much point. Well done for being the man who could be bothered.

I also get very annoyed when you complain, & the officials just state, like it's a "fact", that the control was actually in the right place, & I must have been wrong, just because.

I was impressed by your restraint!

Charlie, please return, but please be choosy before booking. East Scotland has little areas of repute, just like SW Scotland. And so it was never likely to be a "wonderful" weekend. It has reminded me to be wary of entering ESOC events in future, especially when the Controller assigned to the task lives over 150miles away! Our sport is at a low right now, we ought to be voting with our wallets. Shame you can't get your money back...if dissatisfied.

Next year INVOC are doing the individual, MOR the relays. No idea who the event officials are but the relay area mapper needs to get on with it :-)

Sounds more promising for areas Jon. Hope it doesn't clash with Jura! :-)

INVOC and MOR: how I wish we had areas like they do.

Every club in England would agree with that sentiment Graeme!

Sounds more promising for next year. Which weekend will it be? It always used to be Spring Bank Holiday (and therefore half term for England folk) but seems to have moved to the weekend before lately. If you want English people to travel (particularly to INVOC-land) the Bank Holiday weekend makes a big difference.
Obviously I'm aware it's not a Bank Holiday in Scotland.

Fixtures list says 26/27 May, i.e. the weekend after BOC/BRC (in some scrappy woods on Deeside I believe ;-) )

Looks like next year is a special case then with BOC on the same w/e that SOC was on this year.
Shame that both events aren't a week later as all English kids/teachers would be on holiday for the week between the events. You'd have got many more staying on to do both that way.
I'm not a teacher though (just the wife) so I might just have stay up on my own ;-)

BTW BOC on Balmoral does seem a little strange. I've been there twice in recent years but it'll be a brand new area for most. Fair?

seems to have moved to the weekend before lately
The UKOL race in SiNS took the Bank holiday date this year. Seems daft to have a UKOL and a level-A Championship event on the same day. Fixture-list protection was the only advantage of being level-A.

Was the Scottish Champs level A? The BOF results list appears to have rebranded all the levels. Scottish Champs is "National", but then so are SOLs and an urban event in Colchester.

I think level A = Major, level B = National, level C = Regional, level D = Local

I don't recall the outrage on Nopesport, maybe nobody cares.

Formally it got downgraded to a B when we opted out of using a 1:15000 map.
I missed the outrage on Nopesport about that decision too ;)

Interesting watching the Scottish Open golf this week. Some great aerial shots of the course. Perhaps Stirling Surveys could use the footage to update the map around control 210? ;-)
I must have been on the fairway of the 13th hole when I was looking for it...