Results for LOK Frolic - Sunday 13th July 2008

These are FINAL results - 31 July 2008

Organiser's Report

Another 2008 LOK event …. third time this year in lovely weather - must be our lucky year given how wet others have had it.  The event almost had to be called-off at the last moment as the maps had been incorrectly addressed and we couldn’t free them from the couriers grasp before they closed for the weekend. Fortunately Helen and Simon Errington (HH) offered the services of their laser printer on Saturday afternoon (a great vote of thanks to them!), and that’s why we didn’t provide the promised waterproof maps ….. but then again, who needs waterproof maps on such a glorious day?

We hope those that used it enjoyed the String Course …. something extra for a Frolic - many thanks to Duncan and Rachel for running this.

One lesson for us to take forward was the layout of the finish area, which resulted in finishers and ‘extension’ runners intermingling - fortunately no one was trampled underfoot.

And finally, many thanks to Alexandra Palace & Park, in particular Mark Evison, for granting permission for the event to take place.

Neil Brooks

Planner's Report

Planning on such a small and, for the most part, open area proved to be quite challenging and some re-thinking had to be done to get the Frolics up to 3.9 km and the extension to 2.9 km and this was done with quite a bit of advice from Janet, the controller. Some of the times were still very fast, but that was to be expected, although I did try to make you run up and down a bit! 

I felt I had to keep the yellow course within the bounds of any well-used roads for safety's sake, but at the same time try and add a little interest and give the course a little bit of a "wild" feel. From what I heard, I succeeded. The only bad point, as I see it, was control 138's "moving" for a short time.

Thank you to the indomitable Minty's for laying on a string course AND having to cope with a new start area for the other courses; thanks to Janet for her thorough controlling and for bringing me back into the course guidelines where I'd strayed here and there; thanks to Glen for helping me put out controls and for those of you who helped bring them back in; And, finally, thanks to the Erringtons for stepping in at the last minute to salvage the map situation (long story).

John Hardy

Controller's Report

I think most people enjoyed themselves and it was pleasing to see the string course was well patronised. The criticisms/grumbles from competitors on the colour-coded courses were quite varied on many different aspects of the courses. As there was no consistent criticism, I must conclude that the courses were fair. There were some complimentary remarks as well as congratulations to John Hardy as planner and to Neil and his organising team.

Unfortunately there was one black mark. The event coincided with a conservation volunteer working-party day. Unbeknown to the orienteering organisers, the conservation volunteers were working on replacing some steps to the north of the cricket pavilion. The steps were taped off for safety reasons but one orienteer chose to ignore the tapes and to run on. When challenged by the conservation volunteers the orienteer gave them some verbal abuse. This type of behaviour has no place within the sport of orienteering. The leader of the conservation working-party showed great understanding in saying that the abuse was probably a result of the pressure of competition. If the abusive orienteer reads this, please could he reflect on how he would have felt if the roles had been reversed? 

Janet Biggs HAVOC

Summary Results by course

Splits

Splitsbrowser - to follow

Winsplits

FROLICS result (after applying handicap)

(Apologies, but the spreadsheet has converted seconds to decimals of a minute - I will try and fix this shortly)