The Charlton Chase Package

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 70

Introduction¶

The package was written to help control the “Charlton Chase”, an annual event organised by West Sussex County Council Youth Office. The event consists of teams of four young people (15-19 years) walking from checkpoint to checkpoint, back and forward across the South Downs, overnight and in the middle of winter. The weather is usually bad and the event demands map reading and night walking skill of the highest quality from the participants.

In previous years, the event was controlled manually with the obvious results that the HQ staff were never sure if a team was late at a checkpoint; arithmetical errors were made in calculating results; final results were not available until a fortnight after the event finished etc.

In 1987 a computer was used for the first time. This was a great success. The organisers decided always to use it in future. It automatically provided warning information on teams that were late at a checkpoint during the night, teams were given their printed result immediately on their return, interim results were available while teams were returning; final results were available immediately the last team was in, etc.

The package was written in PC APL to run on an IBM PC.

An Offer¶

I have been advised by IBM that the package belongs to me as I wrote it in my own time. It was written and run – with IBM’s permission – on equipment belonging to IBM.

Whilst retaining ownership and copyright of the program, I am happy to make it freely available to any youth or other charitable organisation who would like to use it. An IBM PC or equivalent machine, running PC APL will be required. If other organisations or individuals wish to purchase the right to use the program I will be happy to negotiate with them.

The Package¶

Input starts by recording the teams as they register. This can either be done before the event or early in the evening of the event. Teams then acquire the status ‘Entered’ and are allocated a team number.

When the teams arrive for the event this is recorded, their status is changed to ‘Arrived’ and they are allocated a route.

When the teams have had their kit checked, they are started on their route. Their status is changed to ‘Walking’ and the program sets up the necessary variables to record the teams’ times and points.

During the night as the radio messages come in from checkpoints, each team’s arrival and departure times are entered into the computer for each checkpoint. The time for each leg of the walk is calculated as each arrival time is entered.

If a team retires during the night this is also recorded and its status is changed to ‘Retired’.

When a walking team returns its status is changed to ‘Finished’ and the return time and the points it won at checkpoints and the optional orienteering points are all recorded.

When a retired team is brought back its status is changed to ‘Back’ and the return time and the points gained are all recorded.

There are facilities for entering and updating the names of the checkpoint staff and the locations of the support vehicles.

Checking¶

All possible checks are done. For example a team can’t arrive if it was not entered, nor start walking if it has not arrived. It can’t finish if it was not walking nor can it be reported back if it was not retired.

Zero and negative leg times are rejected as are negative periods at checkpoints.

Teams can only walk through checkpoints on their allocated route and if a team is reported as going through a checkpoint before we hear that it has gone through a previous checkpoint (perhaps because of radio breakdown), a warning message is given. So when a team is reported as going through a checkpoint not only is the previous leg time calculated but a check is made to see if the following leg time should also be calculated.

Reports¶

The reports described below are all available on screen or on paper.

A complete list of all teams that have entered or those of any particular status, sorted alphabetically or by team number or by order of arrival within route.

A team report listing team details, times through checkpoints, leg times, a message (if it is walking and late) saying it is late for the next checkpoint and full details of all points gained (if the team is finished or back). This was given to each team on its return and was very popular.

A checkpoint report listing the teams due through the checkpoint on all routes containing the checkpoint and the actual times for all teams as so far reported.

A route report listing the above details for all checkpoints on a route with details for each leg on the route. These include the expected time, the panic time (if a team exceeds this it is reported late) and the minimum, maximum and average of the actual times so far reported.

A late report listing all teams that are then late.

Other reports list staff at any checkpoint or the location of any support vehicle.

Results¶

There are two sorts of result:

Interim

Once the first team returned interim results were produced at regular intervals, and placed teams in order within their categories (finished, retired and back and still walking). These were posted on a notice board and were very popular with the participants.

Final

When all the teams were either finished or back the final report listed all finished teams and all the retired teams each in order according to the number of points they had gained. The ability to do this at once when all teams were back was also very popular.

Conclusions¶

Several suggestions for improvements were made by staff during the night and these will be incorporated for the 1988 event.

For example the new status of ‘Scratched’ and (unfortunately) ‘Disqualified’ will have to be added. The layouts of the various reports will be changed and one or two new ones will be added. Finally there was the old and unresolved discussion on what is the right order for sorting numbers and letters.

I was told that the use of the computer was an “unqualified success” and that it will definitely be asked for again next year.

Further Information¶

Whilst retaining ownership and copyright of the package, I am happy to make it available to any youth or other charitable organisation that feels it could use it. For more information on this and a more technical description of the package, contact me, Paul Barnetson, at my home address: [address omitted]