Every year MDOC (Manchester and District Orienteering Club) arrange a
series of night street orienteering sessions. The series is 8 events
starting in November through to February.
Today the session is in Macclesfield - the venue is
Macclesfield Cricket Club on Victoria Road (so it is 'home territory for some people).
Registration is from 6.00-7.00pm and you can start anytime from 6.30pm. You can do this on your own or in a team of two or three. A head-torch (or a good hand-torch) and hi-viz clothing are essential.
Cost is £3.00 and we do need to let the organiser have an idea of numbers to ensure there are enough maps and also about food (veggie lasagne or hotpot and crusty bread at £4/head) - please let me (Neil) know if you are coming along by 31st January latest.
More information can be found at www.mdoc.org.uk -
CLICK HERE
A few people did it last year and really enjoyed it - a bit of background about Street-O here...
In a street orienteering event the maps are very different to countryside orienteering. The map is really just a series of lines that represent the roads and paths (solid lines for roads, dotted for paths and alleyways). There are no street names but the map does represent reality! An example map is shown below. One the map you will see circles with numbers - there are the 'controls' that you need to find. There is a fixed time limit and the idea is to find as many as you can - each control has a points value with some being higher than others (often the high point value controls are further away and more difficult to find).
A control will usually be a lamp-post (LP), a fire hydrant (FH), a telegraph pole (TP) and the answer will be a number or letter (or similar) written on the control.
The skill is deciding your tactics - get lots of easy low-point value controls or go further for the high points - whatever you decide try not to be late back as there are BIG penalties for lateness.
Call me if you want to know more!
Neil
