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Sheffield Urban Race

When:
Sunday 18 June 2023
Where:
Sheffield City South-West
Category:
Regional
Results:
View Results
RouteGadget:
View RouteGadget
Splits Analysis:
View Splits Analysis

Details

Results now up with timeout leg subtracted.  Apologies for missing that at event, it was set for 54 to 57 instead of 54 to 67.  Winsplits in Splits above. 

Routegadget now up, but without georeferencing, sorry.  Ranking points are visible on British Orienteering, but without the timeouts.  I'll upload the correct version late Monday so the rankings will be correct Tuesday.  Any queries to petergorvett at hotmail.co.uk, please.

Organiser's comments

Thank you all for joining us in this year’s Sheffield City race. Firstly I would like to the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust for hosting us today. It was amazing having the assembly by the Samuel Worth Chapel and such beautiful surroundings and the weather was dry. Their volunteers kindly opened their pop up café for us and provided toilet access. The Cemetery only recently completed renovation work and it was touch and go if everything was going to be done in time.

I hope you all enjoyed Bronwen’s Courses, due to the works in the Cemetery the courses have been tweaked several times. Thank you to my amazing helpers who volunteered their time to enable the event to go ahead. It’s always hard when there is a distance between assembly and the Adult Courses start to gauge how things are all going, I know the junior start were busy playing football for some periods of the event and still managed to set those on the yellow and light green off in their courses. Our adult start team did an excellent using the steps and shade for the start lanes. There was a long walk to the start to avoid you crossing the competition area, but that was the fairest way to do it. I think the event went smoothly.

Orienteering needs it helpers and volunteers, I was fortunate to have so many offers of help from all ages of SYO members. The success of the day is down to them so thank you all. It was a pleasure to work with the core team of Bronwen (planner), Clive (controller) and Ian (mapper), who all did a fabulous job.

There are a few items of loss property to claim 1 mountain warehouse water bottle, 1 grandad water bottle, 2 valpro control description holders, a wrist/arm band, and someone is missing their glasses in a blue and white case. Please email me to organise repatriation.(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Susan Guy

Controller's Comments

Thank you all for coming. Ian (mapper), Bronwen (planner) and Susan(organiser) put a lot of effort into this event so it was nice to see so many competitors today.

All urban events have their problems, and this had more than most! 3 map scales and 2 different starts added complexity. The small size of the Cemetery limited the planning options available for the junior courses. I wouldn't normally expect Butterfly Loops on these courses but that was the only practical option without using double sided maps. The juniors seemed to cope OK!

The Cemetery was chosen for the event centre whilst the builders were in completing a 4 year project to refurbish it. Despite assurances that they would be finished 3 weeks before the event they only finished in the week before the event. Parts of the Cemetery were inaccessible quite close to the map printing deadline. This caused the mapping, planning and organising schedules to be compressed into a very tight window. Consequently there were a few “rough edges” - hopefully these didn't show too much and didn't spoil your runs!

I received a few constructive comments about the readability of the 1:5000 maps. I fully accept that was an issue for a couple of controls  – I will take this on board for any future urban events I control. Double sided maps at 1:4000 might have been possible but this would have added to the complexity and also negated the possibility of a long leg on the Black course.

Two competitors felt that control 42 was in the wrong place. I visited it and can confirm that it was definitely in the correct place.

Finally, I had a report of two competitors crossing fences in the Botanical Gardens. Flowerbeds were explicitly Out of Bounds. Such behaviour puts at risk our future use of a lovely area – please don't do it again!

Clive Wilson

Planner's Comments

Back in March I took a rather large gamble after talking to the foreman of works of the cemetery renovations. He assured me that the works would be completed in time for today’s event. They would ‘definitely be out by the end of May’. They were finally out on Friday! For much of this time significant parts of the cemetery were inaccessible so a huge thank you to Ian for completing the map. He spent many hours working on the map and I am very grateful for all his efforts. I hope you all had time to enjoy the restored cemetery as you travelled through during your courses today.

When I offered to plan this event I had absolutely no idea how complex planning an urban event could possibly be! I naively thought that an event very close to where I live in an area I walk through several times a week would be straightforward. Clive patiently provided invaluable advice about the courses especially the need for a second remote start to avoid crossing Ecclesall Road twice with the associated dead running. The idea of butterfly loops from my youngest son, John, was a stroke of genius as I was struggling with the shorter courses due to the limitations of the small space within the cemetery and it’s immediate surrounds. Pete Tryner had an emergency visit from me one evening so he could explain and sort the concept of canvases on Condes to me.

I acknowledge there were difficulties with the legibility of the map once it had been printed for the more intricate areas particularly the crossing points especially at 1:5000 scale of the three longer courses. There were also some issues with the control circles concealing essential information which again only became apparent when I saw the printed maps. I apologise for these issues and hope that they did not detract too much from your enjoyment of the courses I had planned. Whilst I knew the control on the bear might be a challenge I hope you enjoyed seeing him and a part of Sheffield’s history.

Many thanks to Clive and Ian for all their patience to support a novice urban planner and Susan for being a cool and calm organiser. Many thanks too to the army of control collectors (Lucy Walwyn, Joseph, Freddie, John, Janita, Paul N, Paul W) who had the controls collected and sorted before the rain arrived. Special thanks though go to Oli J who helped hang the far flung controls at a very early hour. Without his help I would have been enjoying the thunder storm at 5am outside rather than from the comfort of my home!

Farewell to Condes for some time!

Bronwen  

 

 

Join us for a classic urban orienteering race in the challenging urban terrain to the south west of Sheffield City Centre. All courses explore the Victorian Cemetery, while longer courses will also visit the Botanical Gardens and surrounding urban areas. There are a range of courses to suit everyone including young juniors, families, runners and experienced orienteers. Non-members are very welcome.

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We would like to thank Sheffield General Cemetery Trust for hosting our event. They are kindly running a café with refreshments and snacks on the day of the event in the Samuel Worth Chapel. We are also grateful to The Botanical Gardens for allowing us access. They are running an event which includes an exhibition on Robert Marnock (designer of the botanical gardens) which may be of interest to competitors post competition.

Travel & Parking

By Tram: The nearest Tram stop is University of Sheffield (Yellow and Blue Route) its about a 22 minute walk to assembly from this stop. Park and ride options are available at Middlewood (S6 1TQ), Meadowhall (S9 1EP) and Nunnery Square (S2 5DH).

By train: Sheffield Railway Station is a 25 minute walk to assembly.

By car: There is street parking around the General Cemetery. Please obey traffic signs and be courteous to residents.  Please note Montague street is double yellow lines.

Assembly

Assembly including registration, enquiries, download, are situated in the cemetery by the Samuel Worth Chapel (S11 8NT) what three words: weds.clip.news.

Please enter the Cemetery by the Montague street entrance - see diagram below. Nearest postcode S11 8HN, what three words detect.carry.pigs. Please do not enter via any other entrances as you will stray into the competition area.

Route to the Short Green to Black starts is out by this exit also.

Access to assembly

Entries

Entries are open on Fabian 4 with self-selected start blocks until Friday 16th June. Please enter in advance if you can.

Entry on the day will also be available (subject to map availability). There is a surcharge of £2 on top of prices quoted below for seniors.

£8 senior BOF members, (+£2 non-members)
£4 Juniors/Students
Dibber hire £1. Lost dibber charge - £30.

Courses

You are welcome to run any course. However, if you would like to to score in the YHOA urban league please select the appropriate course detailed in the table below.

Juniors who have not reached their 16th birthday on 18th June can only run courses 6 and 7 due to road crossings.  Course 6 is only appropriate for M/W 14 and above due to minor road crossings.

Please note: junior courses contain Butterfly loops (this means they visit the same control more than once).

Course distances are provisional and subject to final controlling. Please note distances are straight line route - you will run approximately 50% further than the distances stated.

Course

YHOA Classes

Distance, climb

1 Black

Men Open (M18-M35)

7km, 170m

2 Brown

Women Open (W18-W35)
Men Veteran (M40+)

6km, 170m

3 Blue

Women Veteran (W40+)
Men Super Veteran (M55+)

5.1km, 140m

4 Green

Women Super Veteran (W55+)
Men Ultra Veteran (M65+)

3.4km, 100m

5 Short Green

Women Ultra Veteran (W65+)
Men Hyper Veteran (M75+)
Women Hyper Veteran (W75+)

2.9km, 90m

6 Light Green

Men Junior (M16-)
Women Junior (W16-)

2.5km, 90m

7 Yellow

Men Young Junior (M12-)
Women Young Junior (W12-)

1.5km, 60m

Terrain

The terrain is predominantly urban with a few areas of park, open ground and small patches of woodland.  Full leg cover is not required, though be aware there may be some summer undergrowth around some of the controls in the open areas.

Map

Cemetery map extract

Cemetery map extract

Map Scale: 1:5000 for black, brown & blue courses. 1:4000 for green & short green, 1:3000 for light green and yellow courses. 2.5m contours.

The map is updated in Spring 2023 by Ian Cooper. Map is to ISSprOM 2019-2 with symbols for 3000, 4000 and 5000 scale maps proportionally enlarged or reduced. Contours are 2.5m and updated from latest version of LIDAR.

There is a legend key on the map, but control descriptions may cover part of this. The symbols for uncrossable features will be visible.

The map was updated in Spring 2023 for significant changes by Ian Cooper. Map is to ISSprOM 2019-2 with symbols for 3000 and 5000 scale maps proportionally enlarged or reduced. Contours are 2.5m and updated from latest version of LIDAR.

There is no key on the map.

Mapping Notes

Below are some mapping features explained that will be present on some of the courses.

Please familiarise yourself with them to aid you safely around the course.

mapping notesStarts

10.30am – 12.30pm

It’s a punching start so don’t panic if you miss your start block.

There are two starts:

Cemetery start for the Yellow and Light Green courses. Start is approximately 200m from assemby on the large grassy area.

Victoria road (S10 2DJ) start for Short Green to Black courses: what three words scores.awards.dirt
Approx 800m (10-to-15-minute walk) from assembly. Exit the Cemetery via the Montague entrance (where you came in). Please follow the tapes to the start. The route to the start crosses a busy road. You can head straight to this start without attending assembly if you don't require dibber hire, kit/key drop off etc. Please do not park to the north of Victoria Rd.

route to the start

Finish & Course Closing

The finish is adjacent to assembly. Courses close promptly at 2pm. Please do not be late back. You should retire from your course if you cannot complete it by this time.

Road Crossings

Please note all courses Short Green to Black are subject to using a 1-minute timed out MANDATORY road crossing via a pedestrian crossing over a very busy road. THIS MUST BE OBSERVED for your own safety.

Members of the Public & the Botanical Gardens

All courses visit public open spaces that are often very busy on a Sunday. Please be extremely courteous when passing members of the public. 

The adult courses enter the Botanical Gardens. Please be aware there are organised tours taking part between 11 am to 12pm, and 1pm to 2pm - please try not to disturb the tour guides and participants. 

All flower beds are marked olive green on the map and are strictly out of bounds. Our continued use of the area is dependent on no flowers being trampled on. Please take extreme care not to cross flowerbeds or trample on any flowers.

SI punching

SI timing will be used and controls will be SIAC enabled. You will need to manually punch the start & finish. The brown & black courses have more than 30 controls. If you have a series 5 or series 8 dibber, you will need to borrow a compatible SI card from assembly. Please check whether your SI card is compatible via this link.

Control descriptions

Loose control descriptions are available for all courses. These are pictorial, except for course 7 (yellow) which are written. Control descriptions are also printed on the map.

If you are unfamiliar with pictorial control descriptions, follow this link

Facilities

Toilets and refreshments are vailable at the Samuel Worth Chapel. The cafe will be open 10.45am to 3pm and is being run by the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust especially for our event. Please support them.

Dibber hire, key & bag drop off and first aid provision at assembly.

The Sheffield General Cemetery Trust will be launching their new permanent orienteering course. Maps will be available for you to do the course on the day or to take away for another time.

Nearest hospitals

A&E for adults: Northern General Hospital S5 7AU
A&E for children: Sheffield Children’s Hospital S10 2TH
Minor Injuries for adults: 8am-8pm. Royal Hallamshire Hospital. S10 2TA

Officials

Organiser: Susan Guy (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Planner: Bronwen Doyle
Controller: Clive Wilson

Safety & risk

A comprehensive risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. If a competitor has a pre-existing medical condition that they think should be declared, please complete a medical form at enquiries. The sealed envelope will only be opened in an emergency.

Photography

SYO has an agreed policy on the taking of photographs at events, based on national guidance. This provides a sensible balance between the benefits and risks associated with the taking and use of images. If you are unsure about acceptable practice, please speak to the event organiser. Read our photography policy.

Privacy

When entering our events your personal details (name, gender, age class & club) will appear in the results section of this website. Read our privacy policy to see how we look after your personal data.

Venue

The Sheffield SW maps include the south-west part of the city centre and areas both side of Ecclesall Road (A625).  For the 2014 sprint event the area was split with the prologue north of the A625 and the final south.

Read more: Sheffield City South-West