Scottish Night Championships 2014

Kinnoull Hill

Sat 15th Feb 2014

Last updated: 19th Feb
Type of event: Regional, Night
Type of terrain: Forest
Read more about the mapped area

Results

Results and split times
RouteGadget
Winsplits
BOF Ranking Points

Info

Part Two of the Tay Perfect Perth Day Out - the 2014 Scottish Night Championships, was held under a beautiful moonlit night at Kinnoull Hill. Thankyou to everyone who came, and to all Tayside Orienteers club members who helped put on the club's second Scottish Championships event in one day, after the Scottish Sprint Championships earlier the same day at North Muirton.

Officials' s comments are now available, plus event photos courtesy of Grahame Nicoll.

Lost property left at Monastery - one pair Size 5 Roclite inov8 boots. Contact the organiser if they're yours!

Event Co-ordinator's comments

It seemed fairly straightforwartd initially, as these things do. Sprint at Scone, Nights at Kinnoull, CST at Kinnoull by another club.

Then the CST moved, so ok, one less thing to worry about.

Then Scone wanted commercial rates.

Then the FC trashed Kinnoull.

So...North Muirton again? Clash with football means original venue not suitable. Extend to the new campus? No. Too late to think about new maps at this stage.

Use the school in the middle? Yes! Surprise! Go for it.

Kinnoull. What about the bottom end? Try the monastery. Yes! The Crypt! Superb venue.

Game on. Now just a bit of planning and organising to do.

Planning philosophy - keep it simple. Straightforward flat out thrash around North Muirton, then courses at the very short end of the guidelines for Kinnoull to ensure everybody gets home at a reasonable time. Won't suit the good guys, but tough, main object is for the 'ordinary' Orienteers to enjoy their day out. Seemed to work with lots of happy faces, very little negative feed back, and very few DNFs. Mind you, the sunshine (and the moon) helped out a wee bit.

A huge thanks to:

• the small band of TAY members who helped out on the day and before.
• the Controllers, Lynne and Clive, for keeping me on track.
• Robin Strain, who came to the rescue several times as always.
• Janet and Judy & family from ESOC who kept the toddlers happy with a great wee string course.
• Crawford and Grahame for some great photos.
• Lorna, Amber, Robyn & Aly for the impressive catering
• BrightBikeLights and BUFF for very generously supplying the prizes.
• St Marys Monastery and Perth & Kinross Council for the use of their facilities.
• Elaine, for putting up with our house gradually filling up with O kit in the weeks before, and for general support as always. If I have another 'bright idea' like this one, she has permission to have me 'restrained.'

Right, time to go skiing.

Davie Frame

Organiser's comments

The Scottish Night Championships ran very smoothly this year. The event centre was fantastic and Irene, the Monastery administrator, couldn't have been more accommodating. Offering soup and cakes after the event made for a more sociable experience as people tended to stay on and chat.

I am so grateful to BrightBikeLights and Buff for their generosity in providing fantastic prizes for the winners and to Lorna, Aly, Amber and Robyn for providing the soup and home baking. Lorna had to nip home between the Sprint and Night events to bake another couple of cakes as they practically sold out after the Sprints!

Elaine Gillies

Controller's comments

What a difference a day makes. Friday 6:30pm in Perth and the heavy wet snow had been falling for about an hour. It continued for at least another three hours so a depth of 5 to 10cm accumulated. Saturday morning dawned bright with an excellent forecast - the day would become warmer so the snow would melt. Phew, for once the forecast did as predicted so over 150 competitors were able to enjoy the delights of Kinnoull Hill at night, along with a full moon rising from the east. The event would have been very much in question if it had been scheduled for Friday evening.

Once I agreed to control the SNC, Davie & I had a timetable to work to. Yes there was slippage but that is often reality, especially with the map updates required (gorse has a mind of its own and spreads). Davie worked hard to ensure that the path network on Kinnoull Hill provided a navigational challenge rather than aiding the competitor; there was the additional planning challenge of the length of Course 1 in a relatively small area. The courses went through several editions before I had the chance to look at the first ‘official’ draft. The SNC guidelines and recent SNC events were scrutinised to try to ensure course lengths were reasonable and to the guidelines. However there is always an inclement weather risk with events in February, and at night. How would the competitors have felt the previous night, in the snow and wind? I suspect that times would have been longer (as the headlamps reflect off the falling snow, reducing visibility) and there would have been more than the two retirals there were on the actual night. I test ran my age class course one night in January; as suspected it was too short so an extra control was added - and this leg gave competitors the most problems on the night!

A night event is greatly enhanced if there is a warm and dry meeting place, with soup, cake etc! The Crypt in the Monastery was an ideal place and required a small addition to the map to have the last control within the grounds. Most stayed around for the prize giving which enhances the atmosphere for the event. Thanks to Elaine for her work as organiser for the event.

In the final details for the Tay Perfect Perth Day Out, Davie Frame described himself as Instigator, Coordinator, and Planner. To that I would like to add someone who had the vision and the stamina to pull off the Perfect Day Out. Tay is a small club; the planner and organiser were well supported by hard working volunteers - well done to all and also thanks to Robin Strain for his support. All the controls were collected in by 10pm and the kit was checked and sorted out that evening.

Lynne Walker (BASOC)

Acknowledgements

Thankyou to our prize sponsors:

BrightBikeLights (www.brightbikelights.com) who, despite the name, supply some of the best value orienteering headtorches on the market - donated 4 of their Orienteering Light Sets as **prizes**.

BUFF, who supplied 50 Buffs as prizes, including reflective ones!

Location

Nearest town: Perth

• Grid Ref: NO130234
• Postcode: PH2 7BP
• Latitude: 56.39475
• Longitude: -3.40983
• Google Map (aerial)
• Bing Map (OS)
• OpenStreetMap

Pre event information

The event will be based in the atmospheric Crypt of Kinnoull Monastery, with the action taking place on Kinnoull Hill – complex mixed woodland with an intricate path network. 

Final Details for both events (PDF).

Directions / Parking

Parking will be in the monastery car park then on Hatton Road. If parking on the road, please park as close to the pavement as possible and leave a gap every few cars to create passing places for other vehicles.

Coming from the Sprint Championships venue at North Muirton, return to Dunkeld Road and turn left. Continue through Perth following the signs for Blairgowrie until across the River Tay, then continue straight ahead up the hill. Follow this road uphill till signposted right onto Corsiehill Road, then follow this round and down to the Monastery on your left.

Facilities

Soup & roll/social after the race, followed by a combined prizegiving as soon as possible after the event. There are BUFFs for all class winners, 4 BrightBikeLights, and possibly a few others.

Can the current holders please arrange to return their trophies before the event?

And for something different - B & B accommodation is available in the monastery - what could be better, just walk upstairs to your room after the event? Contact the administrator, Irene, directly on 01738 624075 (Daytime only please, and mention that you are there for the orienteering event).

Registration & Start Times

Start times are published on OEntries.com. There will be a punching start.

Those pre-entered can go straight to the start unless they are on course 6; require to hire a dibber; or still have to pay for their entry.

The start is c. 200m away and uphill from registration along a good path.

1 minute start intervals, -3 call up; loose control descriptions available at -3.

Late starts will be fitted in when possible, but this may be some time.

The Finish is adjacent to the car park.

Course Information

6 courses as per the Scottish Orienteering guidelines.

Additional information for course 6:

• Course 6 will be TD2, all on paths or obvious line features and will be suitable for adult novices.
• Controls may be hanging from a wire (rather than mounted on a t bar) similar to the sprints. They may also have smaller kites to make them less conspicuous to the public. They will have glowsticks attached, although these should not be relied on.
• The system will allocate start times for course 6, but these do not require to be adhered to - collect your map from registration and go the start when ready

Additional terrain information:

• Many trees and large branches have been blown down recently, but these tend to be isolated, so are simple to avoid/go round.
• Course 1 goes through an area that has recently been thinned, but the area is still runnable so has not been highlighted.

Additional safety information:

• There are a few crossable wire fences, some with barbed wire top strands. These can all be crossed by going through the wires rather than climbing over.
• Please note that there is a line of large dangerous cliffs along the south side of Kinnoull. The courses do not go near to these and they are clearly marked on the map. There is also a quarry area north east of the start which is shown as out of bounds and is clearly fenced off.
• If lost, head north until you reach one of the hardcore paths. There are posts at the junctions of these. Follow the arrows on the posts north and west downhill to Corsiehill Road just uphill from the monastery.
• Cagoules may be compulsory if required by the weather - come prepared.
• Competitors are advised to carry whistles and a spare torch is highly recommended. Consider carrying a mobile - emergency contact numbers will be on the map.

Explanation of colour courses

• White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
• Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
• Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
• Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
• Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
• Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
• Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
• Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.

Entry Details

Pre-entries are now closed. Contact the event co-ordinator (details below) if you haven't entered and are interested in running.

Contacts / Officials

Instigator, Co-ordinator and Planner: Davie Frame (contact /01738 710614)

Organiser: Elaine Gillies (TAY)

Controller: Lynne Walker (BASOC)

Dogs allowed?

Dogs on a lead only in Monastery grounds

Safety and Risk

A comprehensive risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.

Keep It Clean campaign - Forestry Commission Scotland

Our forests are at risk from tree pests and diseases. These can dramatically affect the health of our trees, upsetting the delicate ecosystem balance and devastating large areas of woodland.
Pests and diseases hitch a ride in mud and debris on shoes, paws and tyres, ending up in new forests. Here, they can spread rapidly in environments with no natural resilience.
Read more about this on the FCS website.

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