Blackford CATI Results
Results are now available from the event last Saturday.
Planner’s Comments
From speaking to people on the day I believe I got the difficulty levels about right for White, Yellow and Orange; though I am writing this before having seen any results so I hope I am not wrong!
I did find a small group on Yellow who diverted to a White control where the two courses went separate ways, but I think this is very likely to happen as the two courses are often similar in some parts. Yellow competitors have to learn to read the map and remain focussed on their own course (a lesson some of us still sometimes forget after years of orienteering!).
Blackford doesn’t really provide any TD5 for a Green course but I tried to offer lots of route choice to keep things interesting.
Leg 2 to 3 was about coping with the closed bridge (which I hope no-one crossed - I had made a notice about the closed bridge but I think it may have got submerged under some master maps). When I explored the path from the Howe Dean bridge south of the river in early July it was quite pleasant and I thought it would make a nice change for people who have been to Blackford loads of times before. As the month progressed, with all the heavy rain, the vegetation grew to staggering proportions and I made several trips along there with secateurs chopping off the brambles, gorse, nettles and thistles where they grew out across the path. I think it was worth it because a lot of people chose this route although it was still slow due to the twists and turns and squelchy mud. I think the quickest route would have been to run along the road and wade the river – the water level just west of the closed bridge was only ankle deep when I tried it but I don’t know about on Saturday after all that rain. If you used the road and wanted to keep your feet dry you would have to go on beyond all the crags. It is quite possible to go up and down the slope just west of the two seats (I have done it myself in studded shoes) but then you would get to control 4 before 3 and have to make a dogleg. Jane suggested another route along the path at the edge of the golf-course. This is hardly any more climb, but you would have to take a chance on being able to cross the outer fence. There are in fact some unmapped gaps. I’m not sure if this route is strictly speaking within bounds, but it is on the map so you could have done it. I don’t know if anyone did. There are signs of a replacement bridge being built so this particular route choice problem probably won’t occur again.
The other long leg, 9 to 10, was the one which got people really filthy! Getting down to the bridge below No.9 is one thing but getting up the steep slope the other side is almost impossible; one or two people made it, others had to give up. I am sorry about that. It was probably worse than usual because of the recent rain and I am not sure whether or not the contours are close enough together here to give a true picture. If you go east from the bridge and on past the foot of the big crag, you can get up into the big re-entrant quite easily but then you have to either climb the wall or make a detour either east or west. The decision remains for the second part of the leg – over or round? Personally I would have gone west after crossing the bridge to zigzag up the path route, then run along to the eastern stile (the west one is a bit high for short legs), cut across the corner of the field and taken the path that contours round to the north side of the hill, leaving a short sharp climb up to the control.
The “window exercise” for the last few legs meant I was able to use a couple of Yellow course controls, but make the legs more technical. When I sent the files to Stirling Surveys they thought it was a mistake and deleted my white masking! I had to ask them to print the Green course maps again but I think it was worth it because folk seemed to enjoy the extra challenge.
Finally, a word about the map. It started off that I was going to make some changes to the mapping of the vegetation and paths on the top and north side of the hill where things have changed so much it would have been virtually impossible to plan there on the old map. When I started going around the area though, it turned into a fairly radical overhaul. I’ve even made some changes to contours and crags in places. Did anyone notice? Please let me know if you have any comments. I intend to make some further checks before submitting the map to Crawford as a replacement for the old one.
Eleanor
Posted on 29th Jul 09
by Andrew Dalgleish - Captain / Webmaster
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