East Pennine Orienteering Club Comment board for Honley Wood Event

This page is now ready to accept comments on the Honley Old Woods event.   For example .....  What did you think of the event?  The area?  The organisation?  The courses?  How did you do on your course?  Which routes did you take?  Where did you go wrong, and how did you get back on track?

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Comment by Dick Keighley of WIM. Submitted at 11:39 on Tuesday 28-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Dibber Registration Wimborne Orienteers have used the Direct Entry facilty of the OE200X programs for a while now. We find it very rapid  convenient - for example on Boxing Day, 3 of us got the 240 entries for our annual Mass Start Score event onto our computer system within an hour - faster than the registration team were taking the money!And that included lots of non-regular orienteers hiring dibbers who needed to have details typed in.I'm still amazed to find clubs typing everything in: I thought everyone used direct entries now but apparently not. Tips 1) If you've got a novice computer operator, try to funnel the people with their own dibber (hopefully on the BOF database)to their computer, whilst the more expert operators get the problem cases like people hiring dibbers, or from clubs or schools not already on the database. 2) WIM still make everyone complete a registration slip which they get at the gate to the car park, so we know things like car reg numbers ( for checking out missing runners)and this form is checked by the registration team taking the money. We then take this form from the competitor when they dib into the system. 3) During quiet periods (waiting for the last finishers to arrive, or in the time between the mass start and runners arriving back, we then sort the forms into alphabetical order and go through them, correcting typos, adding age classes, school years etc., so that once the event is over, we've got far less to do before we get the provisional results up on the website. 4) From bitter experience, we also have a kitchen timer set to 15 minutes. Every time it rings, we reset it and run a backup. Otherwise, in the heat of the moment, we forget.

Comment by Nev Myers of EBOR. Submitted at 15:01 on Saturday 25-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Split Times Are you going to upload the split times to the Winsplits database ? Many thanks, Nev

Comment by Chris Burden of Aire. Submitted at 16:47 on Tuesday 21-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Honley Woods. Great facility this.  Aire must follow! Thoroughly enjoyed my brown course - the highlight was the return through the farm - due to tricks of the light on the way out the fields appeared green and sunlit, on the way back they were incredibly frost white - or is it just that I'd lingered in the far wood so long the end of the day was approaching. Please arrange the same weather for Ogden! Ps Is anything being done to avoid the clash between the night events at Storthes Hall and the Northern Night Champs at Claife Heights.

Comment by Philip Thompson of EPOC and event organiser. Submitted at 11:09 on Tuesday 21-Dec-2004. I reply to the query about ratio of helpers to competitors;24 helpers and 253 competitors but the number of helpers represented two shifts so that any helper who wanted could have a run. I hadn't worked out this ratio before and my initial reaction is 'So high?' There must be better ways of doing it. Any suggestions welcome which would do the job without compromising EPOC's legendary reputation for competence in putting on events.

Comment by Steve Watkins of Aire. Submitted at 23:27 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Thank you Thanks for a good event.  I really enjoyed the brown course, despite completely messing up 7 and then 8.  Cold hands for the first ten minutes then great running through the woods in the sunshine.  Bit of a shame to have retrace steps back through the farmyard for the NE loop but worth it to see the wood on that side of the valley.  Run in was a bit short - 3 secs the fastest? - have to hone my speed dibbing ;-)

Comment by Anthony of EPOC. Submitted at 19:35 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   re use of areas Mrs Hargreaves could have come as well....

Comment by Ancient Epocian. Submitted at 18:58 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   My excuse Went from 4 to 5 then looked for next control - No 6 Crag Foot followed line from 5 to 6 (didn't check control number as it was only crag foot between the power lines, went onto 7 then down towards 8 and in trying to plan next leg notice that what I'd taken for 6 was in fact, actually no 9. So off to 6 then back UP to 7, DOWN again to 8, back UP again to 9. Now was it justs coincidence or some Machiavellian plot by the planner to catch the unwary that the direction line (broken) from 8 to 9 went directly through Control 5? As it's the season of goodwill I'll give him the benefit of the doubt!

Comment by Guy Goodair of EPOC. Submitted at 18:45 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Envy Crikey Mike, if you and Peg had heavy colds you should have been in bed at 2.28am not posting to bulletin boards! :)

Comment by Jenny Whitehead of SYO. Submitted at 12:10 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Thanks Thank you very much for a very enjoyable run.  I only came because I was picking my mum up on the way to the Leeds match but I am extremely glad I was tempted into running - especially as it's always nice to beat my dad.  Shame most Sheffield people chose the NOC event / run in the Peaks option instead... PS It's snowing!

Comment by Chris Gillespie of EPOC. Submitted at 10:28 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. This was my first event with the club.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, found everyone to be really helpful, and was amazed by the high quality of organisation.  It was also really good to see the number of families that were walking around the woods doing the course. I made two mistakes on the day.  First off, I didn't realise that the number on the slip of paper corresponded with the number on the dibber stand.  So I mis-punched the first point.  Secondly, I believed I had a set amount of time to collect as many points as possible so I missed two to try and make it back within 90 minutes.  Looking back I realise that they are both silly mistakes, but sometimes beginners need crystal clear instructions.  Perhaps putting some explanation on the slip of paper? I did make a third mistake involving the holly at the northern part of the course, but I won't go into that one!

Comment by Mike Saul of EPOC. Submitted at 02:28 on Monday 20-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   envy Unfortunately Peg and I couldn't make today's event both suffering from heavy colds but WERE we envious. Glad it all turned out OK. My main reason to comment was that I think this facility is really useful.  Long may it continue and spread around the O community.

Comment by David Hargreaves of SROC. Submitted at 22:10 on Sunday 19-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Use of Areas You lot on't t'other side of hill seem to have some super events around Christmas.  Claro last week and also Aire as well as EPOC have very well organised events where the area may not be top notch Holme Fell but its perfect for this time of year and you get nearly 300 entrants.  I wonder what the ratio of runners / helpers is compared to a regional event.  Very enjoyable day out  even managed to drop the wife off for some shopping on the way there !

Comment by Alastair Mackenzie of CLOK. Submitted at 22:09 on Sunday 19-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Dibbing registration CLOK has used "dibbing registration" at a number of events now, and it's pretty straightforward. Basically, you use an SI card reader to read the competitor's dibber number into the computer.  The OE2003 software looks up that dibber number in the database and brings up the competitor's name, age class and club.  The computer operator asks the competitor (a) to confirm his or her name and (b) which course he or she wishes to enter. The advantages are: (1) The competitors don't have to fill in registration cards. (2) The computer operator doesn't have to deal with registration cards with illegible writing or missing information. The disadvantages are: (1) It takes slightly longer for each competitor to register, so a queue can build up. (2) You need to decide where the competitors should pay their entry fees.  Do you ask the computer operator to take the money as well as dealing with the computer side of things?  If the money is taken elsewhere then how do the competitors prove that they've paid? (3) Dibbing registration doesn't work with any dibbers that are not in the BOF / SI database. I don't know if we've got any written instructions on this, but I could easily put some together if you're interested.

Comment by Anthony of EPOC. Submitted at 21:47 on Sunday 19-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Registration Apparently Aire used 'dibber registration' at their last event and it worked well. Have any other clubs used this, and do they have instructions?

Comment by Ms punch of EPOC. Submitted at 20:18 on Sunday 19-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   listening to fellow club members Approaching number 8, I was met by a dozen or so people milling round the control. I was greeted by cries of its not working - don't bother punching. The ringleader seemed to be a certain EPOC lady from Queensbury. I took her at her word and set off for number 9. When I downloaded, I was disqualified for missing number 8. What could have happened? The controller had the answer - there were 2 controls close to each other and I had gone to the wrong one. Unfortunately my control was working. My control was a ditch and the other one was a crag. An easy mistake to make! Apart from that I enjoyed the course in a lovely area. Bit on the coolside in the car park though.

Comment by Becky Carlyle of AIRE. Submitted at 17:38 on Sunday 19-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Thank you! A big thanks from the Carlyle family for a much needed outing today.  You even managed to arrange the weather!  Unfortunately I had a small run in with the dogs too but other than that most enjoyable.  Any ideas on what the fastest route was 5-6 on the brown?  Interesting leg. I just wish that my legs remembered how to run up hills afters 9 weeks in Oxford!

Comment by Ian Watson of MDOC. Submitted at 16:44 on Sunday 19-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Thought I'd be first Nice event, well organised, many thanks. Planning (blue) was good given the constraints of the area. Only really missed one control, no 13 (137). Passed below it. It didn't look from the map as though the whole reentrant would be hidden by the bush - realised I had gone too far when I saw the gully - wasted around 1 min. The rest was just my inability to run fast enough! Only thing that spoilt it was the dogs! Ian.

Comment by Anthony of EPOC. Submitted at 08:44 on Saturday 18-Dec-2004. SUBJECT:   Thanks Thanks to Alastair Mackenzie and CLOK for allowing us to use their Bulletin Board as a template.  Alastair has had quite a tricky time, due to difficulties with our ISP.

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