Firstly there is the vexed question of BOC 2003. From around the region I am accosted by long-standing EA orienteers who are utterly opposed to our hosting these. They, like I, ran in the last East Anglian BOC, many years ago: The Individual day, in North Norfolk, ran into major land access problems, amongst others, and ended up as a profoundly unsatisfactory event. At that time I represented my club on the EAOA Committee and well remember the unanimous decision that EA would not in future host BOC or the JK, as we simply did not have the land for it.
Peter Leverington, one of our Grade 1 controllers, has spent a considerable amount of time investigating Stanford Area, but advises us that access to the army land is just too uncertain for us to pursue that for BOC. NOR have looked at amalgamating three of their north Norfolk areas but have decided that the road separating two of them is just too busy to be crossed. So where can BOC go? Do you think that there is an area of sufficient size and technical difficulty hiding away in East Anglia? The answer, my friends, is 'no'. There are those who claim that with the advent of e-punching and a separate elite event, EA has once again become a suitable venue for the British Orienteering Championships. Not to my way of thinking. Here is just one comment: "...It is an issue I feel very strongly about - I just don't see how EAOA is going to be able to put on an event in an area worthy of the British Champs (even without the elite) and we all know the flack that East Midlands OA took over Clumber Park... I have no doubt that the event would be very well organised - but I think a lot of orienteers would choose not to come to a BOC in EA."
Congratulations to SOS, who travelled to Leith Hill for the CompassSport Trophy Regional Round and won a place in the Final. They paid £6, were not able to take a bus because the parking was unsuitable, but got to run on last year's JK area. Commiserations to WAOC and NOR, who went to Wakerley Great Wood for the comparable Cup competition. Not only did they have little O success but they had to pay £5.50/senior plus £2 per car, had to face a grossly under-staffed Registration system and noted that LEI members were paying just half of the entry fees that they were, and the area did not merit those entry fees. Next year EAOA will host the Cup and Trophy competitions - we can guarantee that clubs will get better organisation and lesser cost - look at last time - and we shall be able to provide overprinted maps!
When I was checking the East Anglian Web site the other day, I noticed that EAOA now has 100% of its affiliated clubs on-line. That's great: just a word of caution. My own club, WAOC, has had a web site for a number of years now. There are many advantages of having a good club web site: from the menu you can readily find the results of recent events and details of forthcoming ones and the latest edition of the club newsletter on-line. The drawback is that many newcomers to the sport feel no need to join a club. Have you noticed the great increase in 'IND' runners at your club events? WAOC certainly has, and has begun to charge non club members an additional £1/50p; At our last event we had Membership Forms to hand and encouraged unattached orienteers to join their local club (not necessarily us): WAOC hopes that other EA clubs will follow suit.
With the next edition of Points East I shall have been Editor for 3 years and shall be standing down. Please let Tim Eden or me know if you are interested in taking over.
Ursula Oxburgh (WAOC)
u.oxburgh@ic.ac.uk