Re-starting orienteering

Tuesday 14-Jul-2020

Update

British Orienteering has issued its Operational Guidance for Re-Starting Orienteering in England. We're still in the process of digesting the details, but it's clear that we're going to need to review our template risk assessment and make some changes to the new CLOK entry system.

The good news is that we haven't seen anything that's going to stop us from going ahead with the MapRun event in South Park, Darlington, on Sunday 2‑Aug‑2020 and the double header of a Middle Distance event on Standing Stone Rigg and a Classic Distance event on Graystone Moor over the weekend of 8/9‑Aug‑2020.

The aim is to have the new entry system and the flyers for those first three events available on the CLOK web site by about Wednesday 22‑Jul‑2020. Please check back then and/or keep an eye out for announcements in Tchimes.

Friday 10-Jul-2020

Update

British Orienteering has announced that orienteering in England will re-start on 1st August 2020. Follow this link to see the announcement. Once British Orienteering has issued its Return to Orienteering guidelines – which should happen by Monday 13‑Jul‑2020 we'll update our template risk assessment and make any necessary adjustments to how we're going to run our events.

Anyway, we're really looking forward to getting back to organising orienteering events for CLOK members and friends again. Our first event will be a MapRun event – no kites or SI boxes, but your visits to controls being verified by either an app on your smartphone or the track from your GPS watch – in South Park, Darlington on Sunday 2‑Aug‑2020. (A big "thank you" to Darlington Borough Council for giving us permission to run this event.) Phill Batts has extended the South Park to include some of the residential estates south of the park, so the event will offer full length urban courses as well as the shorter courses in South Park itself. More information will be available during the week commencing 13‑Jul‑2020 once we've had a chance to review the British Orienteering guidance. And if you haven't already used the MapRunF app on one of the existing Virtual Orienteering Courses, we'll be very happy to guide you through how use either the MapRunF app or your GPS watch.

Then, over the weekend of 8th / 9th August, we're organising a double header consisting of a traditional Middle Distance event – planned by Chris Wright – on Standing Stone Rigg on the Saturday, followed by a Classic Distance event on Paul Taylor's new map of Graystone Moor on the Sunday the 9th – with Paul also planning the courses. Both areas are just south of Whitby, so it's a great excuse for a weekend away. Access permission has been granted for both of these events.

Looking further ahead, we're working on getting access permission to run events in areas such as Coatham Wood, Hardwick Park, and South Burdon Wood. Keep checking the CLOK web site for further information as it becomes available.

Important All these events will be pre-entry only using the new CLOK entry system. Please sign up for a username and password in good time.

Thursday 2-Jul-2020

Update

Unfortunately, we still haven't been given the go-ahead to re-start orienteering events, so we've had to postpone the MapRun events that we were planning to organise in South Park on Sunday 5‑Jul‑2020 and Hardwick Park on Sunday 12‑Jul‑2020.

We're also finding it hard to get permissions from landowners.

We've had to postpone the evening event that we were planning to organise at Kiplin Hall on Tuesday 4‑Aug‑2020. The Hall management will be very happy to host the event, but not for the next couple of months. At the moment they're focussed on building up their day visitor numbers and they're only undertaking events where they can be absolutely sure of enforcing social distancing.

There's also doubt about the event in Coatham Wood on Sunday 26‑Jul‑2020. Not only is is unclear whether we'll have the go-ahead to re-start orienteering events by then, but Forestry England are going to have to review / rewrite their guidelines before they can consider requests for access, and that's going to take a little time. So, watch this space .... but don't get your hopes up.

By the way, a big 'thank you' to Darlington Borough Council, which has agreed to give us permission to hold an event in South Park.

The problem with getting the go-ahead to re-start orienteering events stems from the Government restriction on gatherings. As you'll be aware, outdoor gatherings are currently restricted to either any number of people from up to two households or up to six people from any number of households. The Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 define a "gathering" as occurring "when two or more people are present together in the same place in order to engage in any form of social interaction with each other, or to undertake any other activity with each other" and, as things stand, the interpretation is that all the competitors in an orienteering event are present together in the same place in order to undertake an activity with each other. British Orienteering is working with Sport England to try to persuade the Government to grant a dispensation for orienteering events on the basis that in an orienteering event the competitors are not "present together in the same place" – particularly if the starts have been spread out over an extended period of time – but so far they've been unable to secure a dispensation.

Please note, by the way, that once we're allowed to hold events again it's going to be really important that participants don't hang around and socialise in the car parking area after their runs, as that would definitely count as people being present together in the same place in order to engage in social interaction with each other!

Monday 29-Jun-2020

Message from the Chair

I hope you are all safe, healthy and, of course, fighting fit from all the exercise sessions you've been doing during the coronavirus lockdown. According to Strava some of you have been doing loads!

We've been doing a fair bit of work to prepare to resume organising orienteering events as soon as the Government and British Orienteering give us the go-ahead. We were hoping to have heard something by now, but it looks as if it may take a little longer.

We've developed a template for the new "preventing the spread of Covid-19" section of our event risk assessments. It's available here, and I'd welcome any comments, questions or concerns.
To mitigate the Covid-19 transmission risks, we need to minimise contacts between everyone involved – including both competitors and volunteers – and take action to avoid people having to handle potentially-contaminated items. In particular, this means avoiding queues / crowding at Registration and the Start and minimising the need for anyone to handle cash, hired SI cards, etc. It also means that we'll be asking you to please, please don't stay around in the car parking area after your run to eat your sandwiches and socialise. I know that this is a very important aspect of the orienteering experience, but please wait until the Government guidance allows this sort ofinteraction.
So, the initial events will be run with a minimum number of volunteers and there will be no entry on the day, split times print-outs or results display.
All entries will need to be made in advance via a new online entry system on the CLOK web site. A representative of your household will need to register for a user ID and password, and when you enter you'll first have to reserve start slots in a 10-minute block, with strict limits on the number of (i) households and (ii) competitors allocated to each block. Entry fees will be added to your online account, which you can settle by bank transfer or contactless card payment every couple of months. You can request your household's user ID and password via this form.
Some of the events will have MapRun courses, for which there are no kites or SI boxes at the controls but an app on your smartphone tracks your location via GPS and informs you when you're at the right place. See the MapRun Navigation Challenges page for more information.

Subject to getting the go-ahead from British Orienteering and permission from the relevant landowners, we’re hoping to organise the following events. Please pencil them into your diary – but be aware that there's no guarantee that any particular event will be able to go ahead. Information will appear on the CLOK web site as it becomes available.

>>	Sunday 5-Jul-2020	South Park, Darlington	MapRun event	POSTPONED
>>	Sunday 12-Jul-2020	Hardwick Park, Sedgefield.	MapRun event	POSTPONED
>>	Sunday 26-Jul-2020	Coatham Wood, near Long Newton	SI punching
>>	Tuesday 4-Aug-2020	Kiplin Hall	Evening event	POSTPONED

Looking further ahead, we're also starting to think about what we might be able to do during the rest of this year. In particular, in August we're aiming to have a weekend double header involving a Middle Distance event at Standing Stone Rigg (near Robin Hoods Bay) and a Classic Distance event on Paul Taylor's new map of Graystone Moor (freshly nibbled by sheep!). Other options might include urban events, more park events, sprint events, etc. and of course we'll get back into more of our 'proper orienteering areas' as soon as we can.

So, feedback please!

>>	Should we aim to put on relatively frequent park / urban / sprint events over the next month or two, or would it be better to focus our efforts on organising a smaller number of 'conventional' events a bit later in the year?
>>	Are you happy to give MapRun events a try, or would you prefer a smaller number of SI punching events?
>>	Any other comments or suggestions?

Caroline Mackenzie

Click here to go to the CLOK web site home page.

RE-STARTING ORINETEERING