Officials' Comments for SOL 4, Tullochroisk on 15th June 2003

Planner's Comments

There were a number of competing attractions the day of the event, including the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM). So my aim was to plan courses that didn't make you say after finishing either: "I wish I'd taken part in the LAMM!" or "I feel like I've just finished the LAMM!" Hopefully I managed to achieve a reasonable balance between physical exertion and technically challenging courses - feedback that I received was generally favourable.

Tullochroisk is a wonderful area for orienteering, with many different types of terrain, each with their own challenges. Added to that is an excellent assembly area location near the centre of the area, making it easy to have a finish close to the car park and mains electricity supply. The main constraints when planning were the relatively small size of the mapped area, the physical make-up of the area, with a significant general height difference from north to south as well as the crags and steep river valleys, and also the deer fence with only two ready-made crossing points. These constraints resulted in courses with more controls than normal, and a lot of short legs to ensure as many of you as possible got to see the interesting parts of the area. And with SportIdent, crossovers can be planned without fear of tempting anyone into taking controls in the wrong order.

The limited scope for junior courses meant that there were few alternatives for the location of the start, meaning that you all had unavoidable significant climb - even to get back to the assembly area!

I haven't yet fully compared finishing times with recommended times, but if you were out for longer than normal, I hope the orienteering, the location and the weather made up for it. And in retrospect, perhaps Course 3 could have been slightly longer.

Apologies to anyone who was uncertain as to whether it was possible to run along the shoreline below the cliffs - I have to confess that I assumed it was not, and I didn't go down there to see if it was possible. I had hoped that the way the courses were planned would mean that no-one would consider that as a serious route option, but it seemed that on the day some of you were at least tempted! In retrospect, when marking the maps it should have been made clearer that the path above the cliffs was the recommended route.

I very much appreciated John Biggar's advice and guidance as controller, as well as his help on the day - as coach/co-ordinator for the South East (which became Lothian and Borders) Junior Squad in the late 80s, John was a major figure in my formative years as an orienteer - and even 20 years on he and Doreen are still running around sorting everything out for me! Thanks again, John.

Also, thanks to Helen and all TAY members who helped make sure description sheets and maps were marked up and ready for the day - our trials with the SOA overprinter are best forgotten...

Finally, I hope you all got home without too much trouble - my car progressively fell apart with each trip to the area, with a new exhaust, two new tyres and a cylinder head gasket all on the shopping list. Perhaps the surplus from this year's Six Days can be used to flatten the Schiehallion road a bit!

David Sloan