Final Details for Ochil Hills Long O Event, 14th June 2009

Results

Provisional results are now available:

Simple results (text file) (this link now works, as of 0935, 16th June!)
Split times (text file)

Organiser's Comments

It seems as though the orienteering challenge was enjoyed by everyone, but there were also a few other unexpected challenges.

Two years ago the event was hit by a lightning storm that caused a few competitors to decide that discretion was the best policy; last year there was a really scary storm with lightning hitting the Ochils when I was high on Ben Cleuch putting out controls. This year there were spectacular storm clouds, including one reported 'funnel', but they amazingly stayed to the East and the event was blessed with totally dry weather, although it was somewhat humid until the sun came through along with a breeze in the early afternoon.

However, there were some gremlins. Quite a few of the splits prints, especially those on the short course, went haywire, with 360 mins being added, but not always at the same control. Thoughts that the units had gone wonky, were fortunately wrong, and it seems as though the little printer is malfunctioning.

Then there was the missing SI unit. It was the 7th control on the Long course, on a high spur not far from the top of Skythorn Hill. I had numbered it 17 of the 18 controls I put out and it was control id 170. That only dawned on me today! I thought '7' was supposed to be lucky. I set up the control as follows:

It was around 5m back from the nose of the spur so it would not be visible all the way up.
The fence-wire stake to which the kite was tied was one of the longer ones and embedded 6 inches in the ground.
The SI unit was tied with a double knot to a 2-foot length of string with a small loop at its end which the fence-wire stake went through.

Dave Robertson arrived first to find no control, but located the flag around 30 m away, uphill to the SE. He stuck the fence-wire (to which the flag was still attached) in the ground at that point.

Collecting controls after the event, I went back up to the control and spent a good 40 mins checking an area of roughly 50m radius around the site of the control and where the kite was found.

At the original site (and spotted by other competitors) was 6 inches of string with the small loop on the end. It did not look as though the string had been cut.
The fence-wire stake had been bent.

First thoughts that the control had been vandalised (by human means) seem very unlikely - there would be no point cutting/breaking the string (which could not be snapped, but could easily be removed). But surely sheep could not do that - and there were other controls (eg 199 on the Long and Medium courses) where there were far more sheep around.

I called in at the farmer afterwards, and spoke to his wife, thanking her for the use of the land and the only thing she said was that there were quite a few foxes around - but would they be near the top of the hills? I did not mention where the control was, but asked if they happened to see the unit, to return it. Last year I had quite a long chat with them, and they do not seem to be at all 'anti' orienteering, in fact they were very supportive.

Any ideas?!

Anyway, back to the event. With the experience of last year to build on, the courses were more runnable and should have been scenically more attractive. I was concerned there was not enough orienteering 'challenge', especially on the Short course, but there seemed to be plenty of discussion on route choice as finishers came in. A few allowances have been made in the results. Brad Connor's start dib did not register, but he did time himself, so I have factored that in, and not surprisingly, he had the fastest time on the short course. On the medium course, Kate Thomas was so pleased to get to the drinks station, she forgot to punch (but was witnessed there), so I think the result should stand. Apologies to Bill Gauld that the position of the first control seemed to be on the only bit of ground in the area he did not check.

On the Long course, different competitors spent different amounts of time hunting for the missing unit (thanks), so the times will be influenced by this. Legs 7 and 8 have been amalgamated. Sean McFarlane was so keen to get away, he did not clear his dibber, but that has been corrected.

Thanks to everyone for coming, also to Angela and Davie for their help at the event, and to Jane after in helping sort out some of the SI. Also to Janet Clark for her help publicising. I had concerns we were going to get a low turnout, but the numbers were encouragingly up compared with last year.

So next year we will look at another area in the Ochils. Either the same assembly, but the NW hills; perhaps the NW hills with a start in the NW; perhaps the SE hills above Castle Campbell if we can find a good car-parking area or the SW hills with parking at the Sherrifmuir Inn, providing it is not too far to get to good terrain. There are also the areas to the E of Glen Devon. Any preferences?

Dave Prentice

If you have any problems or queries regarding this page or its contents, contact David Sloan - email: dsloan @computing.dundee.ac.uk