Urban League 2012
The following 6 events have been selected for the Scottish Orienteering Urban League 2012.
There remains 1 vacant slot which will be allocated once a suitable event is nominated. Contact Andy Paterson if you have an urban event planned that might fill a gap.
Interlopers have brought forward their Livingston event to the weekend of 6/7 October. The Livingston urban event will be held in conjunction with a SoSol. It is not yet confirmed which event will run on which day - this is dependent on permissions.
- SOUL 1 Edinburgh EUOC Saturday 21 Jan Part of EUOC Big weekend
- SOUL 2 St Andrews ESOC Sunday 4 Mar In conjunction with Scottish Sprint O Champs
- SOUL 3 Banchory Maroc Monday (pub Hol) 4 Jun Part of the Jubilee 5 event
- SOUL 4 Strathaven STAG Sunday 12Aug
- SOUL 5 Livingston INT tbc 6/7 Oct in conjunction with SoSol
- SOUL 6 Dunblane FVO Saturday 20 Oct In conjunction with SOL 6
- SOUL 7 tbc tbc tbc
That leaves SOUL 7 as the only unallocated date in the schedule. It may be that the urban scene in Scotland is best suited by a league of 6 events this year. I'll leave the slot open for now and update if there are any suitable events which crop up!
We have a good spread of events so far with one to come, and its nice to be able to include Maroc’s sprint race which should be a popular event as part of the Scottish Champs long weekend. We are lucky to have 3 Nopesport Urban League events in Scotland this year - all three of these are included in the Scottish League too.
Following feedback from the discussion on the SOA website and on Nopesport, the proposed league guidelines have been amended to allow competitors from non-Scots clubs to be competitive in the league. With the 3 Nope events included it is hoped that some non-Scots Nopers can be persuaded to enter one or more of the other events to post a competitive score.
send emails for Andy to: website@scottish-orienteering.org
Join the SOUL Facebook Group
Last edited: 22nd Jan 12
by Andy Paterson - Urban League Co-ordinator
5 thoughts have been shared.
Most recent first
Gross said:
Have a look at the publicity stuff that coaching NI is pushing out…. SOA should at least be matching this level of publicity / support
Roger Scrutton said:
I think Ali makes a good point. If Clyde’s efforts to advertise beforehand failed then reporting afterwards could raise interest. However, given the wide distribution of events across Scotland this would have to be at a Scotland-wide level, such as myRace.
Ali Robertson said:
Maybe video footage taken from some of the early urban events could be made into an exciting video that showcases the sport, the maps, the terrain and the buzz we get from the sport?
I’ve seen some good footage of the Venice race taken from a head camera, and some closeup footage around controls from this year’s WOC that I’m sure could be recreated given a bit of thought/planning. Any budding media students in the sport currently looking for a project?
It’s a great step forward though setting up the Urban League, I hope it can work this year and become as regular a series as the SOLs.
Andy Paterson said:
Roger
I think thats a good point, but as you say, possibly a step too far for the fledgling league at this stage. The league might well be a good vehicle for advertising the sport if it is successful going forward.
Anecdotal evidence (from my wife’s performances) suggests that urban O is easier than Orange standard cross country O for novice adults, suggesting it may well be a more productive avenue for enticing newcomers to a form of Orienteering.
I had thought of looking for some sort of sponsorship although the recent controversy with the compassport cup has left me wondering how feasible external sponsorship would be.
Im certainly open to suggestions. Clyde’s experience of advertising the Erskine Urban event last April locally in sports centres (with very professional fliers), through the Scouts, local athletics club and in the local free press produced zero results. I spoke to a local athletics coach this week who’s awareness of orienteering as a competitive sport was zilch. I’m sure the urban league might help address some of this credibility gap but it would have to be part of a broader initiative I think.
Andy
Roger Scrutton said:
Andy, this might not relate to the league as such, but could some thought be given as to how newcomers might be attracted to the sport through urban events. In much the same way as fell runners and wilderness adventure racers might be attracted to cross-country O, road runners and urban adventure racers might be attracted to urban O. A good place to start would be to widen the range of places in which the events are advertised.
