SLOWprint
142
JANUARY
2003
MARIE THIROUARD
http://www.sloweb.org.uk/
Club Officers 2002–2003
|
Chair:
Chris Robinson, : |
Secretary: Don McKerrow, + |
Ladies’ Captain: Karen Jones, : |
|
Treasurer:
Liz Armitage, : |
Mapping Officer, SEOA Rep. and Fixtures Secretary: Andy Robinson, : |
Club Kit:
Teresa Turner, : |
|
Men’s Captain:
Peter Huzan, : |
Publicity Officer: Paul Canham, : |
Social Secretary: Vicky Robb, : |
|
Membership
Secretary: Ginny Catmur, : |
Beginners’ Rep. and Training Officer: Heather Walton, : |
Equipment Officer: Chris Fry, : |
|
Archivist:
Sue Lumas, ( |
SLOWprint Editor: Sarah Brown, : |
Webmaster:
Andrew Trimble, : |
Copy date for
Issue 143 will be early March 2003. Letters, event reports, articles,
cartoons, gossip, scandal, notices, small ads, court circulars, births, deaths
and marriages should be posted to Sarah Brown (address above); electronic
copies via e-mail are particularly welcome.
New Members:
If you are new to SLOW, you might not know about ... Training:
Tues. eve. (7.15 pm) training open to all, of all standards: every Tuesday at
the clubhouse (Thames Hare and Hounds, Richard Evans Memorial Playing Fields,
Kingston Vale); After Tuesday
evening training, following the closure of the Robin Hood Pub, the club has
decided to try the Albert Arms until further notice. The Albert Arms is at the
junction of Kingston Hill and Queens Road (the road out from Kingston Gate), up
and over the hill towards Kingston from the Robin Hood.
Like the Robin Hood, it is on the 85 bus route, but it's also close to Norbiton
Railway Station. Food is served until 9pm, about the time people usually arrive
after training.
… and Transport:
we can organise lifts to events: ring any of the club’s officers, as listed
above, and one of us will sort this out for you.
MIDGE'S MUTTERINGS
The spice of life
What was special about SLOW's events in 2002? In case you hadn't noticed, there was a very wide variety of formats: UK Cup Sprint, Southern Express, Trail Challenge, FROLIC, SE Score, fell race, age-group. To bring a little spice into the potentially boring diet of colour-coded and b***e events, SLOW will again be putting on a diverse programme in 2003. Our major event of the year will still be the OK Nuts Trophy in December. The 2002 Trophy held last month was a superb event all-round; thanks and well done to all involved.
Nearly twenty club members attended the Coaching Weekend in the Forest of Dean in November, which I unfortunately had to miss as I was at the other end of the country visiting my mother. Many thanks to Training Officer, Heather Walton, for organising this and to Chris Fry, chief coach.
The coaching we have been providing is helping the SLOW Junior Squad, culminating in winning a place at the final of the Yvette Baker Trophy, the national inter-club competition for juniors. All our juniors performed extremely well in this high-class competition. More importantly their enthusiasm and team spirit at the final was quite uplifting - we deserved a trophy for being the loudest club on the run-in and at the prize giving.
Our strategy of selecting 'hot pick' events and arranging transport seems to be working well; let me know if it isn't!
Can you co-ordinate?
We are in need of a new co-ordinator for Tuesday evening training. Heather's role as training officer involves her increasingly in organising training days and weekends, so we would like someone else to take on the Tuesday evening role. This means drawing up a programme of street events and runs in the winter, plus some orienteering training on different areas in the summer. I stress it is a co-ordinating role - the ability to delegate is a key requirement! Please have a chat with me if you think you would like to do this.
And finally… several of us are involved in preliminary discussions concerning the possible hosting of a week of World Cup races in 2005 in the south-east. Watch this space!
Wishing you all well for 2003.
Chris Robinson
Chair
JUNIOR TRAINING DAY: 25TH JANUARY
EVERYONE INVITED PLUS BEGINNERS
CALL CHRIS FRY IMMEDIATELY
see page 7
COACHING
CORNER
from Heather Walton
We’ve
had some close packed coaching activity recently starting with a
beginner/juniors coaching day at Wisley on 17th November joint with
Guildford Orienteers. Many thanks to
Angela Darley from
I am hatching plans for another beginner/juniors coaching day, probably on Hankley, probably on Sun 26th Jan (I will not be able to organise (work crisis looming); anyone willing to volunteer please let me The juniors had a chance to put their skills into action at the Yvette Baker Trophy final on 8th December. Details elsewhere but it was great to see you all enjoying yourselves.
Other highlights (rather randomly chosen, tell me if I’ve missed anything) include Greg Street making his mark 1st on M10B at both Hankley and Frith Hill – well done Greg! James Haynes was 2nd on the same course at Hankley. Robert Jones was 2nd on M10A at the November Classic and Charles McMillan 3rd on M12A at Hankley. Good packing on M14 A, James McMillan 1st with Ralph Street and Michael May 4th and 8th on Frith Hill and Ralph 2nd (by 35 seconds) with Michael 3rd and James 5th at the November Classic. Charlotte Turner was 2nd on W16A at the November Classic and Ali McKerrow was 2nd on W16A at Frith Hill. Well done all of you and to anyone else whose performances I have missed.
Heather
And now for some sunny memories…
It was good to see so many SLOW juniors competing at various events over the summer, often competing against other juniors from across the country. Alex Roach has really got going orienteering this year and was 6th on Day 4 at the Lakes 5 days. Ali McKerrow has emerged from exams and was 20th on W16A. Ralph Street was second overall at the Lakes 5 days and Anna, Christina and Rosa Bonafini were all 1st on W14B, W16B and W20S – pity they don’t visit more often! Michael May was 4th on the short course at the SE score beating a number of adult competitors and it was good to see Anna Steinitz in 12th competing on the short course too. Emily and Sophie Morrison were 2nd and 3rd on yellow and Greg Street and Jenny Steinitz were 2nd and 3rd on white. We even had a rare appearance from William and Rachel Andrews. Ralph advanced to M14A at the Caddihoe and was 3rd with Michael May in 4th . Robert Jones was 1st on M10B but moved up to M10A at the National Event in Wales and came 3rd. And it was an excellent team performance at the Yvette Baker trophy regional round – well done to all of you. Our dominance on the light green course (Ralph Street1st, James McMillan 2nd and Michael May 4th) was of particular note and good to see Alex Robinson (now the cricket season has finished) and Chris Wroe (a new member) contributing points. More details in the Captains report.
TRAINING DIARY
Richmond Park is closed for culling 4 Feb-4 March, hence the number of street events. Any offers to hold a street event? - contact Chris Robinson.
Training runs are 7.15 for 7.30 from the Thames Hare and Hounds Clubhouse, unless otherwise stated.
21 January Run
28 January Hill session
4 February Street Event - details to be announced
11 February Headlight run (prior to British Night Champs)
18 February Street Event - details to be announced
25 February Marc Bolen Memorial Run to Sheen Common
4 March Pancake Day Street Event at Jackie Chapman's house - starts 7.00-8.00pm - one hour score event
11 March Run
18 March Hill session
25 March Run
SLOW
members’ news, October 2002–January 2003
From
Ginny Catmur, Membership Secretary
Welcome
to the following new members
Tarjei Sandnes (M21)
Tony Jones (M35)
Janie Petersen (W40)
Ruth King (W21)
From Ann-Marie Kjos
Dear all SLOWies,
I see that you are having a street-O in Richmond today. I miss you all and I with I was there.
Looking out of my office window it has just started to snow. We got some during the weekend, but it has already melted away. I do not expect it to last, but I am looking forward to the skiing season which I hope will start late November.
After my illness last year my stamina has been very bad, I did some orienteering this summer and last month I joined a gym. I have made a 3 times a week training programme and hope to improve firstly for the skiing season and thereafter for my orienteering trip to China in April next year (5 days in the Yunnan province).
Hope to see you for the Box Hill race next year and maybe earlier.
Love from Ann-Marie
Hi Everyone
Just to let you know that Anna Jo Cory-Wight was born by caesarean section
at National Women's Hospital Saturday, 30th November 2002 at 7.41pm
weighing in at 5 pounds. We're all delighted and Anna of course is
gorgeous! Anna and Mum are fit and well and doing fine. Dad is over the
moon!
Love
Mary, Guy & Anna
Auckland
More news from Down Under......
Several SLOWies ventured to the World Masters in
Australia, October 2002. Above is a snippet of the Final Day’s map.
Junior coaching day is
Sunday 26th January. This will probably be on
Hankley, south of Guildford (land permission to be confirmed). As I have a
work crisis looming, can you let Chris Fry know
whether you can come by Saturday 18th January to give him time to arrange
any extra coaches needed. Directions to follow nearer the time.
.
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HOT PICKS
See you at -
SLOW's top five winter hot picks
your guide to the best fixtures coming up
At each of these fixtures, SLOW will organise:
·
transport from
south west London
·
suggested block
of start times so we can all meet up (11.00-12.00)
·
club tent for
changing, free coaching - or whatever!
·
apres-O pub or
café
There will be courses suitable for both novice and experienced
orienteers at all these events.
19
Long Valley is always excellent and SLOW are
defending champions.
60 or 40 mins score course
enter on the day
apres-O: The Windmill,
9 Feb National
Event Box Hill & Headley Heath, nr
Dorking
The nearest ever National to SLOW's home ground with
car parking at Friends Provident (home of our Box Hill Fell Race) make this a
'must-do' event.
age group courses + entry on day for yellow, orange
& light green
enter by 18 Jan
apres-O: Friends Provident Sports and Social Club bar
16 Feb BOF
Ranking & SE League event Burnham
Beeches, nr
Burnham and Egypt offer enjoyable fast running making
this a cut above other age group events.
*age group courses + entry on day for white, yellow,
orange, red, light green, green & string
enter by 26 Jan*
apres-O: Red Lion, Stoke Green grid ref: SU985823
2 Mar SLOW
Trail Challenge + Colour Coded Courses
Holmwood Common, nr Dorking
Our own spring event on an area not used for over a
decade.
10k & 6k mass start races + white, yellow,
orange, light green, green, blue & string
enter on the day
apres-O: The Plough, Blackbrook grid ref: TQ181467
16 Mar
CompassSport Cup Regional Final
THE BIG ONE - with three line whips all round. Be there! Our ticket to
the final is at stake.
*age classes A-G (equivalent to brown, blue, green, light green, orange)
+ entry on day for red, yellow & white & string
enter by 28 Feb*
apres-O: The Plough, Coldharbour
grid ref: TQ152441
*At the age group events, if you do not enter in advance, you should be able to enter on the day, though you will pay more and have less choice which course you can run.
See fixtures list for full event details.
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FUTURE TEAM EVENTS from Captain Pete
-------------------------------------
Here's the choice so far for next year - tell me if you find any more team events. Remember that EVERYONE is welcome to all these events. I will arrange teams to suit people's ability. The most important event is the Compass Sport Cup - everyone put it in your diaries now!
19th January - South-East Score Champs at Long Valley, Aldershot
We are the current holders when the event was held at Wimbledon Common last August. It will be harder to win this time. This is a good area, described as typical Surrey heathland with pine forest. It is entry on the day with start times from 10 to 12. The format is a 60 minute score event (with a 40 minutes choice for ages <16 or >60). I suggest we go for late starts - I hope many of you come along.
16th March - Compass Sport Cup Regional Round at Redlands, Dorking
This
is the premier team event for clubs. People from all age groups count, ranging
from juniors on the
21st April - JK Relays at Bloom & Horton Wood, High Wycombe
Over this Easter weekend, there are also the JK Individual races at Hambledon (Henley) & Star Posts (Bracknell).
11th May - South-East Relays at Shorne Country Park, Gravesend
More recently SLOW teams have been going to this event. We won the handicap trophy last year and had many teams of different standards. Again, this should be a good social occasion.
18th May - British Relay Champs at Greno Woods, Sheffield
The individual champs are at Wharncliffe the day before.
14th June - Harvester Night&Day Relay at Longshaw, Sheffield
A lot closer than last year and there may be a JOK Chasing Sprint earlier in the day. After the keenness for night orienteering at the training weekend, I wonder if we can get a few teams to this unique event. We can practice night-O in the lead-up if necessary.
7th September - Junior Team Relay in the West Midlands
Calling all juniors - didn't we have fun at the Yvette Baker Trophy final this month. This Juniors-only relay is for teams for 8 with courses ranging from yellow to green. 2 or 3 of the legs are at night. If you are potentially interested or have any questions then please let me know - this will be a great experience if we can get 8+ juniors interested. We will oraganise special training if necessary.
Of course, there will be the North Downs Way Relay in June. And possibly another assault on the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District in June/July - anyone interested? Watch out for the special orienteering events, namely our Hot Picks (where it would be fun to run on the same course as each other - M21L for the men?) and any club coaching. Also the Scottish 6 Day Event from July 27th to August 2nd looks very good. And there is the World Champs week (with spectator races) near Zurich in Switzerland - there is an option to go just from Thursday 7th August to the weekend - Stephan Rudolf may be able to help with arrangements. I had a great time street-orienteering in Venice last month - there will be another opportunity next year. Or what about a warm-weather weekend in the spring, using a budget airline.....? It's your choice!
YVETTE BAKER FINAL From SLOW Team Captain, Peter Huzan
What a great day! I think we'd win any prize for cheering in the finish area.
Like Andy Kelly said at the prizegiving, it was a success to get to the
national final of the best junior orienteering competition in England.
You should be proud holders of
your Yvette Baker certificates!
The overall results were: Nottingham (879), Walton Chasers (869), Octavian
Droobers [Coventry] (868), Sarum (851), Airienteers [Yorkshire] (842),
Southdowns (818), South Ribble [NW England] (816), Southampton (816),
Stragglers [Essex] (811), City of Birmingham (810), Cleveland (801), SLOW
(780). So we were effectively 12th out of over 50 clubs around the country.
Two interesting points are that
Here are some nice words (I hope!) about all of our junior team, with their
points. First place for Yellow Girls gets 100 points etc.
Yellow - this was quite a difficult course, especially control 9. Most juniors
found it hard in places. Anna Steinitz (87) - Anna has some speed. She was 5th
at the 1st control, came 3rd on the hard control 9, & was 6th on the
run-in. If it wasn't for a parallel mistake at control 3, she could have been
head girl.
Andrew Williams (81) - Andrew had a consistent run. If it wasn't for a little
hiccup at control 3, he could have been in the top 5. I hope he can come along
to some junior coaching days next year.
Robert Jones (66) - Robert was an excellent 7th after 8 controls, till that
hard control 9. Apart from that, very steady.
Orange
Helen Walter (91) - Helen had a consistent run to end up in a good place.
Matthew Walter (87) - And so did Matthew, but a bit faster!
Charles McMillan (71) - Charles had a steady run, and also helped an injured
competitor - what a gentleman!
Chris Wroe (57) - Chris managed to put his recent club coaching to good effect
as he scorched round the course to be 2nd with one control to go. Unfortunately
he didn't notice the last control under his folded map. He still went back to
finish the course for the team. This was so close to being the run of the day.
Next time...!
Light Green
Ali McKerrow (91) - A very consistent run with a good result. Was as fast as James
on the run-in!
James McMillan (90) - James said the course looked a little short so raced off
the start and was in 1st place at the 1st control! If it wasn't for a small
mistake at control 6, he could have come 3rd.
Green
Ed Catmur (94) - Ed had our best score of the day. He drove down all the way
from the Lake District to run for SLOW. Best wishes for M21E next year.
Simon Turner (88) - Simon showed he can still orienteer very well. One of the
most consistent runs of the day, and sets him up for an illustrious career on
M21 short next year!
As you can see we had some really good points scorers (especially Ed, Ali,
Helen) and a few if onlys! For example, we could have got an extra 28 points if
Chris had continued his great run.
Thank you to all the parents, Heather & Chris for bringing you and
contributing to the atmosphere on the day.
So let's look forward to next year. The main interclub competition is the
CompassSport Cup, which is for all ages. The first round is on March 16th near
Dorking. The rules have changed for next year so now SIX juniors score in the
competition (and 15 adults). This should be a good day out for all of our
adults and juniors. After this, we have the various relays. First
up is the JK Relays on Easter Monday. We will be able to organise things so
that you're in a team with people of the same standard, and hence under no
pressure. Several SLOW juniors had their first relay runs last year and enjoyed
them a lot.
Also look out for the junior coaching days organised by Heather. These are such
a good way to improve your skills, and are good fun too!
Best wishes
Pete Huzan (SLOW Team Captain)
TIME FOR A FIX
from Andy Robinson
(This is the fixtures and mapping report for last November's AGM with some updates for the year ahead)
Many of you will know Andy Kelly, the English Development Officer. He tells the story that soon after taking up the post he went to a National Fixtures meeting and asked the people there what their development policy was. He was met with a complete blank uncomprehending silence. Their implied answer being "we're fixtures people; we shuffle lists about. Development?? - that must be someone else's job".
The message in this story (and I rather hope you're ahead of me here) is:
Orienteering
fixtures are the showcase of our sport and as such are the most important means
of development. They need to be co-ordinated in a way that both attracts
newcomers and keeps current members interested and motivated.
Now I'd be one of the first to admit that over the years SLOW's development efforts with respect to newcomers has been pretty mediocre. But development applies across the board and at the elite/racing end SLOW's record is up there with the best. An obvious example is the UK Cup Sprint Race in Battersea Park when most of the country's elite orienteers came to London, enjoyed the racing and made a highly amusing number of mistakes.
The other major development was the invention of the "Trail Challenge" race format and the other evening events staged with MV and CROC. Our own strategy review coupled with BOF's NOW week got us thinking "outside the box" and trying to make the orienteering fixtures list look exciting again.
Now I'm someone who's been bored silly for years by the diet of wall-to-wall "Badge Events" and "colour-coded events" and I doubt if I'm the only one. But it still took a mental jump to connect that with the decline in the sport's numbers and twig that much of the missing generation had a similiar view. The first step has been to ban the two terms above and replace them with "age-group/trophy/league" events and "club/training/ novices/introductory" events respectively and/or name each event as part of a specific series e.g. SENiLe race no. 3. (The AGM then suggested the term 'Open Race' which we are using for Holmwood in March)
The other step is to stage exciting, meaningful fixtures. This is not as hard as it might sound as it's really a development of what we've been doing anyway. So I hope you will agree with me that the events listed below, especially for the year ahead, fit in with this vision.
Now all of this is a big bag of wind with a Committee that's been blowing hot air at each other if it does not get the support of the majority of the club. And that means active support by getting involved in the fixtures we are staging. By now I suspect some of you may be ahead of me again. Yes, it's the regular call for people to be the major officials at the club's fixtures for the coming year.
Finding planners is always the easier bit as planning's the nice job because it gets you out in the forest. In some cases it's a question of "book early to avoid disappointment"; I had three people inquiring about planning the Hankley OK Nuts but Chris Fry was the first. Organisers are harder to come by, despite the fact that it's a much easier job than it used to be now that SportIdent takes care of so much. Mind you a few volunteers to get trained up on SportIdent wouldn't come amiss and would give Gavin some relief. For either job previous experience is no barrier. There's masses of help and support available for anyone new to either role. And the varied nature of the fixtures means that most of them are quite small (less than 100 runners) and therefore not onerous.
Now it's time to role the credits for those who have taken on jobs in the last year:
9 December 2001. Winterfold. OK Nuts Trophy Event.
Organiser: Nigel Saker Planner: Paul Canham. SportIdent: Gavin Andrews. Controller:
Philip Robinson. Entries: Andrew Trimble
12 January 2002.
19 January. Box
Hill Fell Race. Organiser: Andy Robinson. Entries: Dick Clark.
2 March.
25 May Pitch Hill Southern
Express. Organiser: Diane Leakey Planner: Karen Jones Controller: Tim Denton
(GO)
26 May Surrey Hills Races
Organiser: Jeremy Denny
12 June Wimbledon Trail
Challenge. Organiser: Andy Robinson.
Planner: Alan Leakey
14 July. Frolic. Putney Heath.
Organiser:. Kay & Jeremy Denny.
Planner: Kate Thomas SportIdent: Gavin Andrews. Controller: David May
26 August. South-east Score
Championships Wimbledon Common.
Organiser: Chris Robinson.
Planner & SportIdent: Gavin Andrews. Controller: Philip
Robinson
In addition there were summer evening events arranged in conjunction with Mole Valley and Croydon. Mike Garvin, Peter Huzan and Alan Leakey (twice if not thrice!) providing SLOW's contribution. And if Gavin's name is missing from any of the above as SportIdent supremo, that's an omission on my part as he was there doing the business at every single one of them.
PLANS FOR 2002/03
|
Date |
Venue |
Event |
Courses |
Organiser |
Planner |
|
15-12-02 |
Hankley Common |
OK Nuts Trophy |
13 age group 5 colour |
Charlie Turner |
Chris Fry |
|
8-02-03 |
Wimbledon Common. |
SENiLe |
3 night colour |
Andy Robinson |
Chris Owen |
|
01-03-03 |
Box Hill |
Fell race |
a real goody!! |
Andy Robinson |
N/A |
|
02-03-03 |
Holmwood Common |
Open races |
6 colour 2 Trail Challenge |
Andrew Trimble |
John Dowty |
|
12-04-03 |
The Nower |
Southern Express |
3 short age group |
Diane Leakey |
Mike Murray |
|
31-05-03 |
The Nower |
Surrey Hill Races link |
3 colour |
VACANT |
VACANT |
|
a Weds in June |
Wimbledon Common. |
Wimbledon Trail Challenge |
2 Trail Challenge |
Andy Robinson |
VACANT |
|
20-07-03 |
Ham Riverside |
Frolic |
3 (maybe 5) colour |
VACANT |
VACANT |
|
5-10-03 (or 12th) |
Richmond Park |
Open maybe with YBT heat |
6 colour |
VACANT |
VACANT |
|
13-12-03 |
Hankley Common |
Southern Night Champs |
5 age group |
VACANT |
VACANT |
|
14-12-03 |
Hankley Common |
Open |
4 colour 3 mass start loop |
VACANT |
VACANT |
Vacancies in the early part of the year were filled at the AGM, but from May onwards volunteers are needed. This means you. Please form an orderly queue.
and then of course there is the World Cup in May 2005. Now there's an example of an event being staged for development purposes.
MAPPING REPORT Andy Robinson
Mapping has also been subjected to the strategic review that took place early in the year. The conclusion was that volunteer time is best used on other things and we should use professional mappers where possible. This is a continuation (and reinforcement) of what has been the club policy for some years. The downside of this is that some of us (myself included) actually like mapping not least because we know it improves our competitive skills, by knowing what should and what shouldn't be on the map.
Fortunately for us the other development in the year comes to our rescue. That is the increasing use of laser printed maps which is a direct result of the improved quality of and experience in producing maps that way. With laser printing a minor re-survey is done for each event with the touching up etc done by the planner or the club's amateur mappers.
An example of this was the club's major mapping activity in the year, which was by Alan Leakey in Battersea Park. Alan took the 18 month old version by Vyacheslav Smirnov and gave it a major re-working for the UK Cup Sprint race. The laser printing was done by Kallkwik of Leamington Spa - an OD orienteer.
The club has upgraded to OCAD8 in the year. Chris Fry arranged this as part of his planning work for next month's OK Nuts. This latest version of OCAD can manage the planning aspects for which we had previously been using Picover. We intend to use OCAD8 to assist all planners from now on.
The new Hankley Common is about to be released. The work was
done professionally in the early autumn. The same professional has been booked
for Holmwood Common. However it is intended that the Ham Riverside map will be
done by us amateurs - well, I do work in the middle of the area. (any
volunteers for doing survey work in the spring will be gratefully received).
Two
Reports on the ACTION PACKED TRAINING WEEKEND Friday 29 November to Sunday 1 December 2002
From Charlie Whetham
The feelings of guilt subsided as we neared the Forest of Dean – sitting (dare I say occasionally sleeping) in the front, whilst three others were forced to squash up in the back for the three hour drive from South London to the Dean Field Studies Centre in Parkend, in the centre of the forest of Dean. The travel had been coordinated fantastically, as seems to be usual, by Ginny (one of those in the back!) between a number of different cars. But once we arrived, mid-evening on Friday, people seemed to fit roughly into one of two groups:
Dave Finch, Peter Huzan, Juliana Grant, Ginny and Richard Catmur, Chris Fry and Heather Walton – those with what I imagine cannot be less than 6 or 7 years orienteering experience each. Then Vicky McDonald, Ran and Erica Blatchford, Chris Wroe, Mark Vyvyan-Robinson, Marie Thirouard and me – a cumulative total of 6 or 7 years experience for the whole of that group would seem to be a reasonable estimate!
After a brief meet-up in the pub, Chris, who, with Heather, led
the training exercises, gave us an introduction to the various exercises we
could expect over the next two days. Daunting though these sounded, at least
the terrain sounded perfect for some good running. The Forest of Dean is one of
England's few remaining ancient forests (although it’s just about in Wales),
with runnable deciduous forest and trails with good views and is apparently
well known in orienteering circles for platforms (from past charcoal burning)
scattered across steep slopes and intricate mineworkings.
After a good night’s sleep (with those in the prime of life seeming to be the ones to bed first), and a hefty breakfast courtesy of Ran and Erica who had volunteered to procure the food and who carried out the task magnificently, getting just what was wanted – large amounts of good uncomplicated food – we started the Saturday morning training in a semi-wooded area with muddy paths, and minor inclines (is that a good enough sounding orienteering description!):
Control Pick exercise: this exercise involved a loop consisting of short legs, each representing the attack point to the next control. Being new to orienteering (a background in athletics) practice in the choosing of attack points has certainly been required! – so this was a very useful exercise.
Bearings exercise: conceivably a more limited exercise if things are going well – it just involved taking bearings between markers on two parallel paths. Luckily (for the sake of interest), but frustratingly, I didn’t seem to be able to carry even this out correctly. Reluctant to ‘blame my tool’, I always seemed to be to the right of the correct bearing. At least having covered the distance I will know to look left for the control!
Attack Points exercise: longer legs but with very distinctive attack points.
Saturday afternoon provided the opportunity for some more joined-up training in a more forested area:
Corridor exercise: this is really excellent training. I ran this one shadowed by Peter. My bearings seemed to work well (incorporating the automatic bearing-off discovered yesterday when necessary!). After a good start (from which Peter later confessed he thought himself redundant) a few mistakes crept in, which, in that that reflects the reality of my O-events, pleased me – Peter’s presence was really useful in showing me which (seemingly obscure) markers I should use to keep on track. Apparently my gait over the terrain is good; I would never even have thought about that…
Map Memory exercise: another really, really good one. I ran this with Mark, who seems to be in a similar situation to me: fast runner with a little finessing required on the quick-map-to-ground-application. The exercise involved one of us leading on each leg without reference to a map, whilst the other followed behind, memorising the route for the next leg. We adopted the additional rule that you could look at the map once more if in difficulty (eg we found it particularly awkward to plan contingencies if the leg did not go exactly as expected), but only if we returned to the previous control. I find myself looking at the map far too much when orienteering so this was really good in encouraging the confidence and educated-risk taking that comes with experience. Mark seemed to be on the way there with those aspects already!
Aiming-Off exercise: I didn’t have time to do this one…. but seem to have an in-built ability to do this (for better or worse).
Saturday evening (you didn’t think we’d finished training did you?) meant some night-O. My first experience of this (though by the time we got to it, I knew most of the control sites pretty well from the previous exercises). Good fun, but without the chance to stretch your legs to the extent you can in daylight-O I didn’t find it quite as good as the real thing.
Then some preparation for Sunday’s exercise – draw your own map – putting on those features you think necessary. Followed by a trip to a local pub for dinner – really nice, but I was absolutely knackered – can I claim mitigation in having to collect the furthest controls during the day whenever controls were to be collected in….
Sunday morning commenced with the usual banter from Peter – I hope there’ll be an interesting O-event soon involving both the impudent newcomers with their running backgrounds and the club’s (elder!) statesman so we can see where we stand! Then the training continued:
Draw-your-own-maps exercise: lots to be learned from this including contingency-planning (again!), and (for me) the extent to which contours are useful, but also, are sometimes difficult to use when both you and they are in the middle of a forest.
Control Picks exercise: another one – the orienteering was really starting to feel natural!
Final Relay: this involved teams of three, but with only two maps per team and a limit of one control collection per foray from the start area. The teams were designed for equality – which was achieved in my team by putting Mark and me with Heather who is only able to walk at the moment (but whose accuracy at controls is obviously top-notch). This of course meant the long-legs for me and Mark (I don’t think I’ve ever covered quite such a distance in one weekend as this one) but we won!
Then (having collected in the controls!) we ate – and never did cheese, ham and tomato sandwiches taste so good! Finally the long (relative of course, as regards good orienteering areas) journey home (soon back into the traffic jams of SE London).
What an excellent weekend. Many thanks particularly to Chris for his planning of the exercises; to Heather for her planning of the weekend; to Ginny for her coordination of the transport; and to Peter for this ad-hoc coaching – I learnt so much and got entirely back into an orienteering frame of mind, which after the summer break I’d found had slipped a bit. I felt much improvement particularly in running on a bearing, pacing, attack point selection, route selection and, confidence on running a route. Is that all?!
From Erica & Ran Geffen
The 29th November, first day of Hanukah, and the first SLOW training weekend. Well the first in recent history anyway. 12 foolhardy SLOWies braved the cold and fog and headed west to the Forest of Dean, with a few more showing up on Saturday. The Dean Field Studies Centre in Parkend offered surprisingly generous accommodation - small dorms and doubles, with kitchen, drying room and ping pong table also at our disposal.
The weekend was masterminded by Heather Walton, who with the expertise of Chris Fry offered an array of imaginative, challenging and dare I say it fun activities. Both were on hand throughout for debriefings, advice and handy technical tips.
Saturday started in Soudley and Blakeney Hill Woods with a choice of 3 activities of varying difficulty. A simple compass bearing exercise to test our accuracy using the compass with a choice of simple routes between 6 controls spaced 100m apart. Second a control pick exercise to put our compass skills to the test and third an exercise highlighting the importance of identifying and using suitable attack points.
Saturday afternoon offered up a further 3 activities, becoming progressively more complex. Firstly practicing aiming off, a particularly useful technique when navigating towards a linear feature. Also using a Corridor, i.e. when only the narrow section of the map directly between controls is provided. The map memory task required pairs working together doing alternate legs from memory whilst their partner carried the map
Finally, for those still wanting more Peter Huzan organised an impromptu night exercise. At 5p.m. with the light fading fast we headed back into the forest geared up with industrial strength head torches courtesy of the Catmurs.
And then on Sunday we did it all over again, but not before hot showers, a meal in the local pub and homework. Homework consisted of drawing our own maps around Sunday’s route. A daunting but excellent activity to focus the mind on only the essential features needed to navigate between controls. Putting our home made maps to the test was interesting but no one veered too far in the wrong direction.
Following one further control pick exercise the weekend climaxed in the star relay. 3 teams of 3, 2 maps per team and endless strategic possibilities. In the end Charlie, Heather and Mark triumphed.
A great weekend, great atmosphere and a great range of activities – can’t wait to put our new skills into practice!!! All agreed it was a raving success. When’s the next one?
NOVICES AT THE KIMM: 26/27 October 2003
With a combined age of 88, Mervyn and I thought it was time to try a Karrimor. A score course would be a suitable mental challenge, together with the 5 and 4 hours of physical effort over the weekend. Picking up a map with dispersed controls and agreeing a good course in a few minutes, well that tests the teamwork!
In a bit of pre-empting that Andy R would have been proud of, we did the Phoenix event in the Cheviots in August. The KIMM was there too. What we hadn’t allowed for though, was the large spread of controls. In this terrain, it looked like we’d get less than half of them. Did we pick up the long course map by mistake? Nope.
Our route was due west to the zone beyond the overnight camp, picking up controls along the way, but hoping for that 50 pointer too. Pace in the terrain may not have been as fast as the planners hoped, due to lack of sheep grazing, so we missed the 50 and took a much shorter closing route to the finish. The shape of our overall route was like a hook, rather than a big zig-zag that we’d envisaged on a one way score course.
Boil the water? Well, our stove could have done it, but we didn’t feel like spending the rest of the day over a billy. The overnight camp was near a small river and this was your water. That and what came down during the night. We pitched our tent amongst the others in a grassy field. Changed into dry clothes then I checked the map for alternative routes (of course there was a better one) while Mervyn recuperated without snoring too loudly.
An early bed proved fruitful as the night unleashed a storm. It tested our tent, which was more of a summer camping variety. Firstly, we had to get up and put all 6 of our pegs (weight saving) on the windward side when the outer flapped up. Not long later a sharp sound awoke us, as if something had fallen on the tent. But no, the lopsided shape meant something was wrong – a snapped fibreglass pole! Boy scout splice, with that curved pole just a bit shorter now. Well, no use worrying, we still had more string in case the other pole broke. But the storm passed and we survived.
We’d cunningly avoided the early chasing start, but even with the extra hour in bed, we had to scamper to the day 2 start. Route planning was a bit easier, as we knew it was a choice of either north or south then head east towards the finish. We chose south, which meant a long straight run up a valley, mostly on a track, followed by a bit of up and down, then bolt home 10 km along another valley. This option also had the tantalizing prospect of two controls up the side of the last valley.
However, lashing wind and rain over the tops. Mist making navigation difficult. Freezing hands not able to tie loose shoelaces. Perversely, I enjoyed it, as I’d heard so much about the KIMM that I was happy to experience one in bad weather. And that method of looping your laces twice through the top holes kept my shoe on for two hours when undone.
Looking
back, we had good runs. We stuck together, had route choice options,
orienteered well and didn’t incur late penalties. And next year? Well,I hear
that the Italians do mountain running and my wife has already moved to
EVENT INFORMATION
You are strongly
urged to confirm these events using the following answerphone services. The
SEOA website has links to SE clubs and other regions.
SEOA (020-8948-6056): http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.errington/seoa/seoa.htm
(SCOA
(0118-946-4354) (Army
(01256-883265) (SO
(01903-239186)
(SAX (01303-813344) (MV (01372-279295)
NB: 26-Jan-03
Southdowns Colour Coded at East Friston,
|
01-Feb-03SO SE "Tortington Com, Arundel" TQ 005067 02392- 240529 |
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02-Feb-03 TVOC SC Chiltern Challenge Stokenchurch |
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08-Feb-03SLOW SE SENiLe Wimbledon 020-8255-7176 |
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08-Feb-03HH SE Chipperfield TL 046015 01727- 842883 |
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09-Feb-03MV SE Nat Headley / Box Hill TQ 171506 01372 813047 |
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15-Feb-03SAX SE Thorndon & West Blean 01622 730628 |
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15-Feb-03SO SE "Marlpost Woods, Southwater" 01293 412366 |
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16-Feb-03HH SE Badge Burnham Beeches & Egypt 01727 842,883 |
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22-Feb-03SN SE C5 Short/S Express Blackdown 01932 340,062 |
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22-Feb-03SO SE C5 Angmering Park East 01903- 603336 |
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23-Feb-03DFOK SE C4 CC Shooters Hill TQ 440760 020 8466 6370 |
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23-Feb-03 BKOSC C4 Concorde Chase |
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01-Mar-03HH SE C5 Verulanium TL 137072 01727 842883 |
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01-Mar-03 SOSE C4N SENiLe |
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02-Mar-03SLOW SE C4 Holmwood 020 8715 8063 |
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08-Mar-03SN SE C5 TryO/Jun League Hindhead 01483 489,868 |
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09-Mar-03SO SE C3 Badge Worth Lodge Forest 01273 472824 |
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09-Mar-03TVOC SC C4 Wycombe Abbey |
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15-Mar-03DFOK SE C5 Greewich Park TQ 390770 02987760831 |
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16-Mar-03GO SE O3 CSC 1st round Redlands |
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22-Mar-03SN SE O Cross/S Exp Whitmoor |
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22-Mar-03SO SE C5 "Stanmer Park, Brighton" 01273 820,032 |
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23-Mar-03HH SE C4 CC Hatfield Park |
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23-Mar-03SAX SE C4 CC Brede High Wood 01622 686779 |
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29-Mar-03SN SE S5 Jun League score Wisley 01483 489868 |
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30-Mar-03CHIG SE C4 CC Hainault Forest |
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05-Apr-03HH SE C5 Rothampstead TL 121137 |
|
BOKSW Br Sprint Champs |
NB: 26-Jan-03
Southdowns Colour Coded at East Friston,