Final results for the event here.
Routegadget for this event is available here.
BOF results and ranking points.
Planner’s Notes (added 31st January 2024)
Barossa is well known to local orienteers, we wanted to also use the Range Danger Area to the west as a newer challenge, but permission was not given. We managed to get the rare use of Poors Allotments (PA) thanks to our date being outside the nesting season. Collingwood College for Assembly enabled short walks to a single sheltered Start and nearby Finish, important considerations for our winter event.
Starting at the SE corner of the map enabled clockwise courses for everyone, but limited how far west courses could go. The top four courses reached the lovely west quarter, mid courses braved the stream crossing, shorter courses used the flatter terrain in the east.
Barossa terrain changes completely between September and January, minor paths appear and open areas become very runnable. Map accuracy sometimes suffers as a result. Blue/Sh Blue C1 was perhaps a case in point.
Most courses used the long SE-NW leg over the ridge towards the stream and controls 152 and 150. This open area has had young trees on it for the past 10 years, giving some good route choices. We were gobsmacked to discover just a week before the event that work had begun on clearing the entire area of all trees, reducing the leg to a cavalry charge to a highly visible control in open space. I was heartbroken.
We had a huge entry of 600+, fantastic to see. The high numbers did cause a lot of following, tricky sites like 145 and 162 were overrun at times. Blue/S Blue/Green averaged 100 runners, very hard to separate them without adding more and more controls.
Despite the foibles, I hope you all enjoyed a great day out in the winter sun. Thanks to the many people who put their routes on RG, very interesting. (Well done Sh Brown, 56% of runners did it). Comments noted, some valid points of concern, and thanks for the many positive comments on the courses.
One final point on RG comments: the word ‘bingo’ seems increasingly to be used to mean ‘I didn’t find the control’. The latter does not automatically mean the former!
