OUOC's O Day

27th May

Organiser’s Comments:

The Come and Try It:

The event in all honesty was a complete failure. Only two people turned up; one was a regular orienteer who had read about it through the SCOA website, and the other a member of Headington Road Runners who had heard it shouted out at one of their runs. In fact the event had been advertised at a number of levels including; mailshots to all Oxford’s Independent Schools, contact with all the LEA schools through the County Council (we think…), SCOA website and answer-phone, TVOC newsletter, and flyers at both Oxford Hash House Harriers and Headington Road Runners meets.

So what went wrong? We had hoped to use Youlbury, but having had no response to our request for permission, were finally denied it only three weeks before the event due to a plethora of scouts using the site that weekend. By the time we had permission for Shotover we only had less than two weeks to publicise the event. Also it was half-term for the schools so the initiative would really have to have been seized by the pupils themselves. Whether it being a bank holiday weekend would have had positive or negative effects is hard to judge.

For the future: clear everything well before the event, and pick a date which is during term time, but not already busy. Aim to begin advertising at least a month in advance, writing directly to e.g. Sports teachers and encourage them to bring a bus along, or to get in touch and sort something out. Perhaps send further details ten days before the event. Also try to contact local junior clubs, e.g. Scout Groups, Cadet Forces. Perhaps try to get an article in the local freebie paper about a fortnight before.

Anyway, many thanks to Caroline for planning the courses (which we can at least use again), and to Dave Currie for providing the SOC kit and helping on the day. Thanks also to those of the club who turned up to instruct and spent the morning sheltering from the elements.

Cuppers:

Cuppers was more successful with around 30 people turning up to compete. Admittedly this is 10-20 down on the last two years, but considering the fickle weather and the number of other Cuppers matches on that day it has to be seen as a reasonable turn-out. It would perhaps have been nice to see more club members producing complete college teams, especially as you only need at most two other people.

There was a slight problem early on when a control was found to have been mis-placed. We decided to adjust the times of those competitors accordingly, using the splits times recorded by one of them and that recorded by the top man. I hope that no-one feels put out by this. On the whole reactions to Rob’s slightly longer than usual courses were positive, so many thanks to him.

Prizes were again generously donated by Touchwood Outdoor Active on St. Aldate’s for which we are very grateful.

Tom Norton
OUOC President