Member News

Ralph in British Team

Ralph receives a lucky mini-control from SLOW clubmate Nikolay Kolev earlier this year.

SLOW Member Ralph Street is selected in the British team for next month’s World Championships (WOC). He runs the middle distance and relay.

The GB WOC Team – On the Red Line.

The team includes the presenter of our “Start Orienteering Video” Graham Gristwood who will be running his fourteenth World Championships.

Other presenters of videos in our Get Up To Speed series of coaching videos are also selected: Hector Haines, Megan Carter-Davies and Charlotte Watson.

As there has been in previous years The Orienteering Foundation are collecting donations for support towards athlete expenses at the World Championships. The appeal explains the background.

Event Bulletins

London City Race 2019

12th London City Races

20 -21- 22 September 2019

1 City = 3 Races = 1 Great Weekend of Orienteering

Join the 12th annual London City Race for a weekend of high quality orienteering across London .

  1. Kings Cross – Friday Evening – 20th September – This newly redeveloped area in the centre of London provides an excellent start to the weekend.
  2. Limehouse & The Isle Of Dogs – Saturday 21st September – Take on the big challenge with a full distance urban event on an extended map that lets us make the most of dramatic scenery and complex residential areas – all whilst avoiding the dull bits!
  3. Greenwich Park plus Sunday Morning – 22nd September – Finish the weekend with a park race in this World Heritage Site spanning two hemispheres

Special Announcement

Our apologies for the late opening of entries for these events. However, there is a land permission issue that we need to resolve before we can provide entrants with appropriate details of the events and format. We expect entries to open later in July.

Think Hard – Run Fast – Feel Good

These and other events are organised by your London orienteering clubs: London Orienteering Klubb, South London Orienteers and Dartford Orienteering Klubb.

Results/report from the 2018 London City Race.

Event Reports

Barnes Common GLOSS

Thanks to The Spencer for hosting our race on Barnes Common today. And thanks to Nikolay Kolev and Vesela Chokoeva for planning and organizing it all, and to the several members of SLOW who helped it happen.

This was the second of a five race series called GLOSS, in which most runners all take on the same 4km course.

Please add your route (and view others): Routegadget

Results Version 2 ( updated 22:50 30th June with two changes from version 1)

Results after handicap on the London OK site (SLOW won.)

Event Bulletins

Streatham Common and Norwood Grove

The eighth race of South London Orienteers’ nine event 2019 Park Race Series takes place at Streatham Common and Norwood Grove on Tuesday 16th July 2019.

The areas are gently sloping with a mix of short and longer grass parkland, small areas of woodland with small paths and formal gardens. It was last used for a park race in 2016. Like all races in the series, the race is suitable for beginners. Full leg cover is not required – running in shorts, T-shirt and trainers is fine.

Norwood Grove History.

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Race Centre

The race centre is The Bull at Streatham, 498 Streatham High Road, Streatham, London, SW16 3QB. The nearest stations are Streatham Common (with services from London Bridge, London Victoria and East Croydon) and Streatham (services from Wimbledon, Sutton, central and north London) both of which are 10 minutes walk from The Bull. We will be set up in the “Sheds” in the patio garden area on the south side of the pub. There is a full menu served at the pub until 22:00 – details can be found at: https://www.thebullstreatham.co.uk/food-drink/

LocationStreatham Common and Norwood Grove
AddressThe Bull, 498 Streatham High Road
Latitude/longitude51.4194, -0.1282
OS grid referenceTQ302706
MapsGoogle Maps, OpenStreetMap

Race Details

The entry fee is £5 for seniors plus a £1 hire charge for hiring a SIAC and £3 for members of SLOW, LOK, DFOK and MV and for students and juniors with no hire charge for a SIAC. The race will use SIAC contactless punching.

Long and short courses are offered. They are both suitable for juniors but they must be escorted across the road and back between the pub and the start/finish.

·         Long: this will be approximately 5km with 50m climb. It is primarily grass based with some paths and tracks. There is some bramble in the forested areas but the courses are planned to avoid them as much as possible.

·         Short: this will be approximately 3km with 40m climb. It is primarily grass based with some paths and tracks. There is some bramble in the forested areas but the courses are planned to avoid them as much as possible.

Time

Registration: 17:45 – 19:25

Start (150m away across a road): 18:00 – 19:30
Finish (near the start): closes at 20:15, so we can collect the controls by 21:00 when the park is locked.

Other Details

All competitors take part at their own risk. Entries and results will be processed by computer, your entry will be taken as agreement to this. The competition is run under the rules and guidelines of, and sanctioned by, British Orienteering.

Results will be available on the SLOW website soon after the race.

Organiser/Planner: Gordon Parker  

Event Reports

Imperial – Park Race

It was a lovely warm evening for the second race of the 2019 park race series, kindly hosted at Imperial College, and organised and planned by Michael Crone. Thanks for coming along: we hope you enjoyed the evening, running in such a pleasant part of London and the challenges the courses offered.

Park Race Series Website.

One of the characteristics of orienteering is that the runner takes responsibility for their route. The planner makes it more than a run in the park by setting interesting and challenging legs that require the competitor to interpret the map, and make route choices.

Leg 9 to 10 on the long course is such a leg. There is a large building between the control sites, and there are two levels at number 9 . It’s a good leg, with there being alternate ramp and stair choices – which did you pick? (The Routegadget link below has the full map.)

But it’s a University building and it had open doors at least at some of the time we were racing. Several runners on the course ran directly through it. The map clearly does not have this “route”.

For newcomers to orienteering, oops. Maybe you didn’t realise or you saw others doing it. There are no disqualifications.

For experienced orienteers – and many of the transgressors are members of SLOW or other clubs – this is poor and you should know better. Please stick to the rules and don’t do this sort of thing.

If you can see from the map that there isn’t a legal route don’t go that way. Do not cross impassable wall /fence /vegetation /access forbidden /out-of-bounds – you need a different way. If a road is cross-hatched in red do not cross it even if you can. If you find an open gate or a hole in a fence that is not on the map don’t go through.

The serious aspect is that deliberate action of this type can cause us to lose access to part of a map, or even to be unable to get permission for future races: “last time your people did this…” In any case it damages the sport’s reputation. We need to try hard to maintain a good reputation, especially with site managers and landowners.

Of course it’s tricky at times – and most people make some mistakes some of the time, but really it is hard to imagine that so many experienced runners misread the map to think it was OK to run through the building here.

Leg 9-10, Long course, Imperial College Park Race, June 2019.

We have removed this leg from the total time taken.

Please add your route (and view others): Routegadget

The race on Attackpoint.

Results

Orienteering in London and Surrey. British Orienteering's Club of the Year 2013. Community Amateur Sports Club accredited.