Does anyone remember JK Day 1, on Leith Hill? Many of us were intrigued by the c. 10 × 10 m square earthbank enclosures that appeared every 50 m along the rides on the NW part of the map. It turns out that they were ‘fir pounds’ built to protect little fir trees when they were first introduced in Surrey in the 18th century! It seems strange to think that fir trees were once ‘exotic’ species.

Two sunny Sundays have greeted our group of beginners, taking part in SLOW’s ‘inaugural’ beginners’ introductory series. Twenty people signed up for the series - more wanted to join, but this was the number deemed to be the maximum. Also several passers by on Wimbledon Common showed great interest. Andrew and Anne Leaney have put in a lot of hard work into planning the coaching and publicity respectively to make a success of this venture. And a success it certainly is. Look out for our home-bred ‘beginners’ tackling a light green course at Esher.

Congratulations to SLOW’s winning Handicap team on the B course - one of only two SLOW teams which managed not to be disqualified. My abiding memory of this year’s Harvester is of lying awake in my tent listening to the gruesome sound of four SLOW Juniors disembowelling the remaining team member who had mispunched.

Congrats too to SLOW members selected for this autumn’s Home Internationals: Tom Fry, Caroline Catmur, Sarah Brown and Mike Murray.

SLOW has decided to give electronic punching (Sport Ident) a go at our OK Nuts Trophy colour coded event at Esher on 24 October. The debate over the advantages and disadvantages of this new technology will no doubt continue for some time yet - so come and see for yourself what it’s all about. The more people who have informed opinions on this subject the better. From the competitor’s point of view, I can’t think of any disadvantages (other than what will I do with my lifetime supply of map-sealing offcuts I am slowly using up as control card cases) - so I shall await with interest the post-event verdicts of planner, controller and organiser.

Any officers intending standing down at this year’s AGM - please inform me as soon as possible, if you have not already done so.

Sat. 23 Oct.: SENiLe (night orienteering) event, Esher Common, parking / registration at Sandy Lane.

Sun. 24 Oct.: ‘OK Nuts’ full colour-coded event, Esher Common, parking at Garson Farm. Contact Ann-Marie Kjos for details of both events

Tues. 16 Nov., about 8 pm, after the evening training run: SLOW AGM, Clubhouse, Richard Evans Memorial Playing Fields, Kingston Vale (off the A3).

Fri. 3rd Dec., Wine-tasting. See below for details.

I have had notification of a Development Conference to be held in York on Saturday January 29th. This conference will be aimed at helping all those with an interest in club development. Look out for adverts and flyers later this month.

New Members
Noemi De La Fuente
Fiona Greenwood
John Quayle
Karin Lindskog
Robert and Alexander Robinson

Change of Address
Sue Hatton
Nick Holliday
The Cranfields

Full addresses and telephone numbers available from the membership secretary upon request.

We have finished with the main team competitions now until March next year, when we start again with the regional round of the Compass Sport Cup. I hope that your highlights of the year included some of the team competitions. Now a recap of the recent results.

First of all, congratulations to the club for getting out six teams, more than any other club. What a keen lot we are, especially when it comes to being prepared to run at night. However I would like to see a few more under-M45s at next year’s event.

Unfortunately, there were a few mispunching disasters. Next time, please please check your control codes carefully, especially when running in a team event.

A Handicap (4^th handicap - 26 minutes down on MV, 15^th overall). Solid, but I’m sure they are disappointed not to have won.

B Handicap (1^st handicap, 5^th overall - 18 minutes down). Congratulations to Mike Murray, Pete Huzan, Chris Fry, Teresa Turner and Tom Lillicrap. In the past, Chris Fry has told me that he seems to do well when he is in the same team as Mike Murray. I can now say the same! Thank you all for giving me my first team trophy.

B Juniors (mispunched - otherwise would have won the B race). A real shame for this excellent group of juniors. But they will still all be eligible next year!

B Women (mispunched - otherwise would have been 6^th women - 1 hour down on SYO). If there had been a women’s handicap competition, they would have possibly finished 6 minutes down on Bristol, depending on the handicap limit.

B Women 2. It was good to see a second women’s team out. Well done, especially to those running a little further than they might have wanted.

B Open (mispunched, n/c - otherwise would have been 14^th). Solid, with a good performance by Gordon Parker on his night-orienteering comeback.

I know that there were a few small complaints about mini-mass starts, multiple last controls and trophies. Hopefully these things will be improved for next year, once some guidelines have been written up. Overall, though, an enjoyable event.

The winter season provides an opportunity to practise those night-orienteering skills in the South-East Night League (SENiLe) series of colour-coded events on Saturday evenings. This includes the SLOW event at Esher Commons on 23^rd October. See the fixtures lists below for more details.

Disappointingly, we were unable to raise a team this year for the competition at Beverly, near Hull. We needed eight M/W12–18, with at least two each of girls and boys. But with Caroline, Guy and Simon Evans now W/M20s our pool of juniors has rather shrunk! Next year the event takes place in the South-East, so we should find it easier to get a team out.

To ease everyone into the festive season and make choosing drink to go with Christmas food that bit easier, a wine tasting has been organised for Friday 3 December. Venue is Chris and Vicky's, from 8pm onwards. Cost £4 adults, £1.50 juniors to cover wine (plus soft drinks) and nibbles. Grateful if you could let me know if you intend to come anytime before the actual day. Cheers!

Vacancies still exist for experienced non-Guardian readers!

I’m gratified by the response to my call in the last issue of SLOWprint for mapping volunteers. The JK Day 1 planning team duly took up the challenge of the Nower, and there were enough novice volunteers for Wimbledon to keep me fully occupied in a supervisory category: thank you to Vicky, Gavin, Jenny and John P. However of those with some surveying experience only Paul Street responded, although I do remember Paul Szarvas mentioning it a few months ago.

Anyway to make it all run smoothly I would really like just one or two more experienced surveyors who can put in a bit of time on Wimbledon. It may be that the style of the article last time confused the non-Guardian readers amongst you and you didn’t recognise it as a request for help.

I hope it’s now a bit more obvious and I will be allocating areas and probably (if the novices can make it) have a starting session some time in earlyish November

Andy Robinson

Fixture List 1999–2000: (confirm via SEOA answerphone, ( 020-8948-6056)

Other night events: 6 Nov. 99: Northern Night Champs; 13 Nov. 99: Scottish Night Champs;

4 Dec. 99: Southern Night Champs, Blackwood, Basingstoke; 11 March 2000: British Night Champs, West Midlands

Internet: For those with e-mail access I issue regular fixtures details and results. Let me know if you wish to be added to my regular distribution list (senile@guildfordo.free-online.co.uk).

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