Results for British Trail-O Championships 2005, Penhale, 16/04/2005

Organiser

An Elite Trail-O course entails an awful lot of work by the mapper & planner, often with a low number of participants, so it was gratifying to see that we had an entry of over fifty to sample the efforts of Brian Parker (Mapper/Controller) and Arthur Boyt (Planner). As with the foot-o events, I suspect Penhale presented challenges which were tougher than many competitors expected.

It was down to Brian's lateral thinking that we had an event at all. Environmental considerations led to the loss of parts of the southern area of Penhale to all orienteering, which meant that the foot-o courses had to be planned into the area which we had originally hoped to use for the Trail-O.

Brian suggested that we use the area along the east end of the military road, which wasn't being used by the foot-o courses, and this gave us superb terrain for Trail-O, as well as good parking. The only downside was that we were separate from the main event, rather than integrated with it, which was the original intention, so we were pleased to see so many competitors one the CATI course. The glorious weather was the icing on the cake.

My grateful thanks to all the helpers, from WIM and other SWOA clubs, for their assistance on the day.

Dick Keighley (WIM)

Planners

When first asked to plan BTOC, I agreed provided two conditions were met: I should be competitive in the foot-O (BOC) and the map for the trail-O should have a contour interval of 1.25m. Having devised a potential course around the Perran Sands complex to make possible the first of my conditions, I was disappointed to find it rejected by the original controller, Katie Stubbs. It was here that the not inconsiderable negotiating skills of the trail-O controller, Brian Parker, came into play and permission was obtained for the competition to be held along the military road and, what is more, that not only I, but all competitors in the trail-O, would be competitive in the foot-O as well. The area chosen not only proved to be superior technically but a good deal safer from vandalism than the holiday complex might have proved to be. By the time all this was resolved there was not time to revise the map to a 1.25m contour and I accepted the excellent 2.5m contour map that Brian produced for the event.

Having been a persistent critic of trail-O competitions I have attended elsewhere, I realised it was incumbent on me to produce an event not susceptible of any criticism whatever! This was not easily accomplished, but would not have been achieved without Brian's patient longsuffering and sound advice. He contributed considerably to the quality of the event, ruled out some dodgy controls and shared the task of hanging and collecting controls. I was delighted that Alan agreed with me on the correct solution to all controls and that Anne lost only one point. For Rachel Cooper to score so highly on only her second event is remarkable.

We have Dick to thank for such a well run event and for the printing of the maps and results sheets which unfortunately made him non-competitive. Thanks too to Don Braggins for the results and to the team of helpers on the day. Finally I have to thank my neighbour, Annie, for scrambling around the dunes placing controls where I was barred while I waved my arms about.

As noted in Brian's comments I might have finished the day on a real high, but an encounter with a young and careless driver on the way home wrote off my car and somewhat delayed dinner for Brian who was staying the night! Every up has a down.

Arthur Boyt (KERNO)

Controller

Those who had intended to take part in the British Trail Orienteering Championships or the associated CATI, but were prevented by force of circumstance, should curse fickle fate. They missed an opportunity to sample this orienteering discipline at full international elite standard, at its most testing and at its most rewarding. In a few short weeks we have had two such events, one at the JK and this at Penhale. The JK Shugborough event was conducted over parkland, which limits the options for terrain recognition. Here at Penhale we had contouring in glorious full measure and Arthur Boyt had free rein to demonstrate his very impressive skills in planning map and terrain interpretation problems based on contours.

Well, not quite free rein. As the Mapper I had to say, "No, you can't have 1.25m contours" and, as the Controller, "Arthur, your proposals for long-distance controls do add nicely to the range of problems but 300m really is too far." There was a secondary reason for limiting the long-range controls. As Arthur wished to run competitively in the BOC event*, he was obviously not permitted to wander willy-nilly over the BOC terrain. I consulted with the BOC Controllers and we determined a narrow corridor either side of the military road which had no BOC controls and into which Arthur was free to go. The more distant BTOC controls had to be placed in position by someone else. In the early planning Arthur found an unsuspecting and helpful neighbour who is now convinced that orienteers are crackers. For the final placement I had to do the legwork. I positioned the flags on the side of a distant ridge and looked back to see Arthur gesticulating and shouting, but his words were carried off by the wind. I flogged back to the road to be told, "The top flag needs moving 5m nearer the bush." Back on the ridge this adjustment was made. Back at the road I learned, "The lower flag is not quite right." And so it went on! Next time we must carry radios or agree a form of semaphore.

The best possible outcome in an elite trail orienteering event is for one competitor to get all the problems right with the rest of the best close behind. Our thanks and congratulations to Alan Gartside, who scored 18/18. This augurs well for his representing Ireland in WTOC in Japan this summer.

Conducting BOC and BTOC as a combined event does represent extra loading on the event co-ordinator. Roger Hargreaves is to be commended for his unstinting support for BTOC, recognising that, although trail orienteering has relatively modest participation, the discipline and these championships have international status. Conducting BOC and BTOC on the same day and on the same terrain might be considered as incompatible. This need not be so, as demonstrated here. The trail orienteering took place over terrain with a low density of BOC controls so that mutual interference between the two disciplines was negligible. The BOC Controller, Colin Duckworth, and the Planner, Ben Chesters, deserve commendation for their level-headed approach in this matter. On the day Colin asked for one flag to be moved a couple of metres to obviate its misdirecting elite runners. We were happy to comply.

* Arthur did run in BOC and won his M65 class by a massive margin. It appears that the terrain interpretation skills sharpened by trail orienteering really do help on a complex area such as Penhale. Now there's a thought!

Brian Parker (DEVON)