- bits and pieces from the world of orienteering

There has been some discussion on the electronic discussion group for Irish orienteers recently about the Leinster League: should there be a black course (longer than brown)?, should the red course be dropped? etc. I began to wonder just how well were the guidelines for colour events being followed in conventional Leinster League events. I excluded the events like the long-O courses in Djouce, the night event, street-O and park events which featured in the League for the first time this year.

Many of you may not know that the course colours are supposed to represent the technical and physical difficulty of the courses. The detaiuls are in the IOA and BOF rules. It is clear that many of the course planners don't know this either! Courses are frequently too long, sometimes too short and often of the wrong technical difficulty (the supposedly difficult brown, blue and green courses too easy and the supposedly easy red, orange and yellow courses too hard). As an approximation, the technical level of an advanced course is set by its easiest control, of an easy course by its most difficult one.

Anyway, I went back through the last few TIO's and got out my calculator. There is no winning time specified for colour evvents, but the time for most competitors is sprcified. For Brown, for example, most people should finish in between 65 and 105 minutes: some could be quicker, some slower. Below I have tabulated the results for the 6 conventional events and the normal length courses at the Djouce long-O. Maybe course planners should have a look!

Brown Blue Green Red Lt Green Orange Yellow

Djouce - - 77% Void 39% Void 46%

Cronybyrne 13% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 15%

Clarabeg 7% 64% 72% 86% 67% 52% 43%

Curragh 78% 56% 75% 67% 19% 20% 54%

Carrick 75% 14% 22% 29% 0% 50% 42%

Carlingford 71% 52% 27% 75% 7% 33% 71%

Glendalough 54% 14% 13% 80% 0% 55% 18%

The most successful, by these criteria, was the DUO event at Clarabeg with 56% of finishers within the correct time bands; the furthest off the mark was the AJAX event at Cronybyrne with only 4% within the specified times, though it was difficult to rate Setanta's Djouce event, with two voided courses.

Looking at the numbers at these events, the highest number on league courses was 150 at the Curragh on December 6th, the lowect was 107 at Carlingford on March 20th. The average number of runners per course was: Brown 15, blue 24, green 27, red 6, light green 20, orange 14, yellow 22. (These figures are for the "conventional" league events).

BOF membership peaked in 1990 (12,482), and has declined steadily since 1992. In 1997 total membership (counting family members separately, but excluding members of groups) was 10,620, a decline of 15% since 1992 (12,445). Provisional figures for 1998 (July) suggest a further decline to around 10,400.

This decline is not the same across age groups. The number of members aged 45 and over has actually increased, by at least 22%, while the number of members aged 19 to 34 has declined by at least 40%. The result is a rapidly ageing membership profile. In 1992 the proportion of members in four age groups was roughly equal. Six years later the proportion aged 20 to 34 has decreased from a quarter to a sixth, while the proportion aged 45 and over has risen from under a quarter to over a third.

This is worrying for three reasons: It represents a significant loss of membership income (about £18,000 at 1998 rates) at a time when demands on the sport in terms of event quality and management, coaching support, international representation, external liaison, and publicity and promotion are increasing. The previous level of investment in the sport can only be maintained by a disproportionate increase in

membership fees or other charges. Orienteering is a relatively labour-intensive sport. The level of volunteer involvement, from event preparation and organisation through to BOF administration and management, is one of the sport’s great strengths. But a declining membership means that this has to supported from a reducing base, and many clubs will testify that their continued success is dependent on the increasingly hard work of a small number of dedicated members. The nature of the decline is particularly worrying. At the moment the sport is supported by a relatively high proportion of older members, many of whom have time to spare. But where are their replacements to come from, if the number of members in the young adult group is declining even more rapidly? 

From 1990 to 1997 total BOF membership (counting family members separately, but excluding groups) was as follows:

1990 12482

1991 12416

1992 12443

1993 12125

1994 11575

1995 11340

1996 10854

1997 10620

Total membership at the end of July 1998 was 9908. Experience suggests that this might rise by 5%, to 10403, by the end of the year (from October, new subscriptions are for 1999)

There's lots more thought provoking stuff here, particularly with the IOA working towards the position of having association membership as well as club membership. Have a look at the BOF website http://www.cix.co.uk/~bof/

The problem with competing each week is that you can get rather blasé about start procedures.

At Hopwas I was day-dreaming in the start pen. When the long bleep went my splits from last week had not been cleared from my watch. No problem - something to do while jogging for the map.

I stopped at one of the bags of maps, and then vaguely noticed that nothing seemed to indicate which bag related to which course. Much worse, it dawned that I had no idea what number course I was running No problem; a quick look at the control card as I moved over to look at the maps in the other line would solve that. Course 5. Then panic set in. These bags did not seem to be labelled either. I hared around, looking in at least one bag (wrong course) in a zig-zag route.

By now the crowds behind were realizing that they were getting a free comedy show in addition to a run on one of Octavian Droobers' best areas. Despite the mirth Chris Earnshaw had the presence of mind between his chuckles to time the affair for the benefit of posterity.

Eventually I noticed that numbers had been written over the coloured printing on the bags and my poor eyesight had not picked them out. By the time I had the right map to hand 45 seconds had gone - for 15 yards run!

Later that day I navigated beautifully from control 6 to control 13 - adding nearly a km to an excellent course. As a mathematician I might have known that 7 follows 6. There are some days when it reality would have been better to stay in bed or to take up tiddleywinks!

- Brian Hughes (HOC). Brian is a Welsh international. (Thanks to Y Ddraig, the Welsh O-newsletter).

If you want to keep abreast of things in the world of controlling, you can visit the BOF Technical Committee website at www.sdea.demon.co.uk/boftc/techcomm.htm/

Simon Errington, BOF TC Chariman, wrote: "Here are the updated current top three topics that people complain about to me: as I said last time, please help to make my life easier by at least getting these right! 1. Have you considered the safety of competitors, and avoided dangerous features? 2. Do the Planner and Organiser have agreed time scales, and are they sticking to them? 3. Do all the controls have the right code, on the 1:10,000 description list as well as the 1:15,000 description list?"

Following extensive research conducted by the Institute for Applied Physical Research (IAPR), it now seems possible that all competitors at this year's World Orienteering Championships in Scotland will be tracked in real time. This should provide even greater spectator interest.

The general principles of tracking technology are well understood, and the new system uses the established GPS satellite network. Scientists have managed to incorporate all of the necessary electronics into a 20kg unit, but this was still considered too heavy for each orienteer to carry. The breakthrough came when it was realised that the unit could be carried in some other way. The chosen approach is to mount the unit on a dog, which then follows the orienteer through the forest.

Whilst simple in principle, there have been many obstacles to overcome in the development of the system. The ideal dog needs to be fit enough to keep up with a world-class orienteer over the Scottish terrain, and must also have the ability to pick up a scent and relocate if it temporarily loses contact. Beagles seemed an obvious choice, but tests have shown a significant drawback: they have such short legs that they find it impossible to move at speed through the deep heather that is expected to be a feature of some of the Scottish areas.

Later tests made use of Irish Wolfhounds, but it was soon realised that this might lead to official complaints because of possible bias towards the Irish team. German Shepherds and Great Danes were rejected for similar reasons.

The research was led by Howard Orchard and Alfredo Ximenes, already known to orienteers for their earlier work on magnetic field reversals. They recently explained the latest situation.

"We have settled on a cross between a greyhound (to provide speed) and a foxhound (for relocation). The only drawback is that they have a tendency to become unstable at high speed, because of the large weight of the tracking unit and the length of their legs. A major orienteering equipment supplier has being helping us to develop special shoes to improve grip, and this should resolve the problem."

"We are confident that the technology works. The only thing now holding us back is the availability of enough dogs. We are in the middle of a major breeding program, but it is still not certain that we will have the 300 dogs necessary in time for August."

Simon Erington

on behalf of The Institute for Applied Physical Research

(on April 1st)