SLOWprint
143
APRIL
2003
http://www.sloweb.org.uk/
Club Officers 2002–2003
|
Chair:
Chris Robinson, : |
Secretary:
Don McKerrow, : |
Ladies’ Captain: Karen Jones, : |
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Treasurer:
Liz Armitage, : |
Mapping Officer, SEOA Rep. and Fixtures Secretary: Andy Robinson : |
Club Kit:
Teresa Turner, : |
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Men’s Captain:
Peter Huzan, : |
Publicity Officer: Paul Canham, : |
Social Secretary: Vicky Robb, : |
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Membership
Secretary: Ginny Catmur, : |
Beginners’ Rep. and Training Officer: Heather Walton, : |
Equipment Officer: Chris Fry, : |
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Archivist:
Sue Lumas,
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SLOWprint Editor: Sarah Brown, : |
Webmaster:
Andrew Trimble, : |
Copy date for
Issue 144 will be early June 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:
PLEASE READ
PAGE 5 AS TRAINING IS GOING TO CHANGE
OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS - on going to
press ‘ training is 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
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
After a relatively quiet start to the year, SLOW leapt into action in March with, in quick succession: the Box Hill Fell Race, the Holmwood Trail Challenge, Pancake-O, CompassSport Cup regional final (a pity we didn’t win; how do we make sure we win next year? however it was a most enjoyable occasion, sheltering in the club-tent from the glorious sunshine!) and another beneficial coaching weekend in the New Forest. Many thanks to Andy R, Andrew T, Jackie C, Peter H, Heather W and Chris F for organising these events.
Another achievement is that we have succeeded in expanding our Sport Ident expertise with Andrew Trimble and Chris Fry now becoming proficient. We plan to hold some training days for planners and others who would like to get to grips with the SI software in the near future.
Several SLOW members are involved in planning for the World Cup to be held in the south-east in May 2005. You will be hearing more about this as plans progress. It will mean a lot of work but it will be a wonderful opportunity for orienteering to raise its profile and image and SLOW, like other clubs in the area, will benefit enormously.
Unfortunately numbers attending Tuesday training in the winter have dwindled beyond critical mass and so a change is being considered for next winter. However, those lovely summer evenings are nearly upon us and Alan Leakey has kindly offered to co-ordinate a series of orienteering exercises and races at various venues, catering for orienteers of all standards. [see page 5] Hope to see you there…
… and also at our next Hot Picks, [see page 9] which, now we are into the main season, include some real goodies: JK, British Champs and Harvester Relays.
Finally …with a gentle hint from our webmaster, I have ‘noticed’ our new noticeboard on the SLOW website. At the moment I seem to be the only person to have visited it. Surely someone else out there has got something to say??
Chris Robinson
Chair
************************************************************************* Message to SLOW members forwarded by Chris
Macmillan Cancer
Relief
from Lynne Rudd, Chairman Merton Committee,
Macmillan Cancer Relief
Brian Roberts has given me your contact details as I am involved as a volunteer fundraiser for Macmillan Cancer
Relief in Merton. We are holding a
sponsored event on Wimbledon Common on Sunday, 18 May 2003. I wondered if any
of the Orienteers might be interested in running the course, raising money for
Macmillan or perhaps helping to
Do let me know if you
might be able to participate in this event in some way.
Lynne Rudd
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COACHING CORNER
from Heather Walton |
Close on the heels of
the last SLOWPRINT was another junior coaching day on Wimbledon Common. Many thanks to Nicky King for planning and to
all those who helped including Keith and Sue Marsden. A good time was had by all particularly
during the puddle splashing competition.
The next coaching day will be on SUNDAY 22ND JUNE - put the
date in your diary now!
More recently we have
had another coaching weekend in the
And I haven’t
forgotten to keep my eye on the junior results, at least at some of the
events. Good to see Matthew Jones
emerging as a regular competitor on M10B including 1st place at Box
Hill and Greg Street has been making his mark on M10A (2nd at Box Hill, 1st
at Burnham Beeches). Robert Jones was 2nd
on M12B at Burnham and Charles McMillan has been making 5th place
his own at both Box Hill and Burnham.
Well done to Katherine Skingsley 1st on her first ever W12B
at Box Hill.
I wrote an idiots guide to age classes and procedures for entering events for those going to the coaching weekend (who are not idiots I assure you!). If anyone else would find this useful please let me know. Heather Walton
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SUMMER TRAINING from Alan Leakey |
Andy
Robinson has sent out several emails on future plans for SLOW Tuesday evening
training and certainly stirred up some comments from the SLOW membership. It is
clear that a lot of people are interested in Tuesday evening training, even if
they can't get there very often. In particular there is most interest for
summer evening events. Discussions are still going on with Thames Hare &
Hounds about switching winter training to Wednesday nights to combine with them
but we will certainly be keeping SLOW summer "orienteering" training
on Tuesday evenings.
I
have volunteered to coordinate SLOWs summer evening training sessions this year
and am now working on a schedule of events in conjunction with Croydon OC and
Volunteers
so far: Diane & myself, Andy Robinson, Peter Huzan,Jeff/Liz Armitage.
We
have managed to start our planning nice and early this year so we have the
chance of some really good summer evening training - but it you want it to
happen you have to contribute. You can contact me to volunteer - I look forward
to being swamped by offers. Alan
Leakey
***************************************************************************
AU REVOIR AND THANKS from CHARLES BROMLEY
Dear Ginny - and all SLOW Members
As some of you know I have been posted to
I have enjoyed my 3 years as a member of SLOW and am grateful for the new
friendships that have been offered, whether through orienteering, the
I will be living in a 4-bedroom house by myself, so there's plenty of room for
visitors. I am not sure of my home telephone number yet, but 0047 5157 2107
will find me in the office. " is the postal address and for a while anyway
I will keep as my email address. It is nowhere near this year's World Veteran
Champs, but if any of you do drive out,
|
SLOW members’ news, January - April
2003 from Ginny Catmur, Membership Secretary |
Welcome to Charlotte Walmsley (W2), born in 2002.
Welcome to the following
new members
Elliot Norton (M21)
Andy Cook (M40)
The Farmery Family (actually, not new, so much as lapsed!): Mike (M50), Karen (W45), Hannah (W8), Emma (W8), Ellis (M8), James (M4)
Katherine Skingsley (W12)
Amy Willis (W21) and Adrian Sarkies (M21)
Urs Zinniker (M40)
Chris Marsh (M21)
David Pilling (M35)
Heather Monro (W21)
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FUTURE TEAM EVENTS from Captain Pete |
I want to look ahead to the busiest time of the year for
"orienteering teams". If you are able to go along to any of these,
then please do - in my opinion they are usually the most enjoyable orienteering
days of the year. And they show what orienteering can be like - good
competition but still with courses for everyone, & very sociable. Look out
for the SLOW banner and club tent, & cheer very loudly!
Remember that there will be courses suitable for absolutely
EVERYONE (adults & juniors), and juniors & full-time students are paid
for by the club.
JK Relays (21st April). Now confirmed on Hambleden (as JK Day 1). We shall have about 17 teams, including 4 open & 2 junior. The major selection issues will be in the M120 & W120 teams, especially with our Swiss contingent (Bonafinis, Stephan, Urs) coming over. There will be opportunities for the 2nd teams to beat the 1st teams! All form but ESPECIALLY the individual days' results will be used for selection. I shall have team details after we have run on day 2 - please ensure you go to the tent, or talk to me. It is still possible to get late entries. There are also courses up to 4km available for entry on the Saturday & Sunday (£3) for any newcomers interested.
South-East Relays (11th May).
British Relays (18th May). Greno Woods,
Harvester Night & Day Relays (14/15th June). Longshaw, Derbyshire. Adults £9. Please tell me by ***18th MAY***. For teams of 7 or 5, with 40% of runners at night. Our only team in Northumberland last year won the A Handicap Trophy. The event is a lot closer this year, so let's have more teams. We may be able to lend headlamps as required.
Other events include:
Scottish Relay Championships (25th May). Speak to the Leakeys.
Junior Team Relay (7th September).
If you want to go to any of these relays, then please send a cheque (payable to SLOW) to Liz Armitage - one cheque can cover all the events. Then tell me by email or phone that you're coming.
Best wishes
Pete Huzan
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|
This is planned to run on Saturday
21st June. Last year we lost the trophy by only a few seconds over the whole day.
I'll be looking for 16 runners who are comfortable running about 8 miles of
Long Distance Path and who are able to recce their route before the day.
Properly organised we should be able to regain the shield.
The plan is to recruit some new, faster runners each year whilst still relying
on a core number of regular team members. If you haven't run before the event
starts at 05:00 in
More recently the relay has been dogged by progressive delays throughout the
day and a very late finish. This year steps will be taken to guarantee an
earlier finish (and hence more time to eat and drink at the end of the day) and
to make start times more reliable - last year's scheme of keeping a running log
of lost time on a mobile message pad worked OK, but we're
looking to improve on this.
So if you are new to this event and fancy a run just make contact with me,
Dick Clark. Or mention it to Andy Robinson if you see
him on Tuesday training nights.
As most of you know, we came 2nd
out of 9 teams in the CompassSport Cup Regional round at
|
COMPASS SPORT CUP REGIONAL ROUND ( |
I would like to thank everyone for turning up to run for the club, especially the juniors - you were all important! We were under strength in some of the classes due to holidays & injuries - thanks again to those people who covered for this, especially on Women's Open. If we get a full strength team out next year, we can get through to the final!
Some good performances include: Peter Haynes (2nd) & Andy Robinson (5th) on B. John Dowty (1st) & Trevor Jones (4th!) on C. Diane Leakey (1st) & Chris Robinson (4th) on E. James McMillan (5th) & Michael May (7th) on G. We had the most juniors & most M/W21's at the event! (7 runners within 14 minutes of each other on Women's Open).
The next major team event is the JK relays where we have 17 teams entered! Let me know if you find out late on that you can come along - we may be able to get more entries.
from Peter Huzan
utututututututututututututututututututututu HOT PICKS
See you at -
SLOW's top five summer hot picks
your
guide to the best fixtures coming up
This is now the main competition season. So the
current "hot picks" are spread all around the country. We've
abandoned the idea of specifying pubs, as meeting round the SLOW tent and banner
has proved much more sociable. All these big events usually have good assembly
areas which make this much the best way to go.
April 19-21. The Jan Kjellstrom Festival.
The annual Easter shindig usually rates as more
prestigious than even the British Champs and this year it's just down the road
in South Central region. Day 1 on Hambledon and Day 2 on Star Posts are
individual races while Easter Monday we're back on Hambledon for the relays. We
all need to be up to speed for the fast and furious terrain.
May 11. South-east relays.
A low-key local thrash staged by Dartford OC in
May 17-18. The British Championships near
Saturday sees the individual race on the infamous
Wharncliffe, feared the world over for its boulder strewn scarp slope. For
those with their ankles still intact Sunday's relays are in the adjoining
forest that is much more runnable.
June 8. National event on High Dam in the Southern
Lakes on the west side of Windermere.
To be running on the outstanding piece of terrain that
is being used anywhere this year, this is a "must do" race for all
the real aficionados. The British Elite Champs are being staged here over this
weekend.
June 14-15. Harvester Trophy.
It's back to
utututututututututututututututututututututu
IT'S FIXING TIME from Andy Robinson
Well I haven't exactly been inundated with volunteers here, and have now reached the stage where I am seriously leaning on likely looking candidates. I am of course talking about planners and organisers for SLOW's next few events.
Orienteering is a sport put on entirely by amateur volunteers. If you want it to operate with paid organisers you can expect entry fees to double at the least. This means that anyone who orienteers has an obligation to put something back into the sport. If you attend events fairly frequently it does mean a bit more than just agreeing to turn up on a morning when somebody has phoned you about it. Remember that person who phoned you is a volunteer too.
What we have coming up is this
April 12 (so this will happen while SLOWprint is with the postman) Southern Express. The Nower. Organiser Diane Leakey. Planner Mike Murray. Controller and on-the-day planner - Charlie Turner. SportIdent - Andrew Trimble
May 31. 3 colour-coded courses. The Nower (while Moles doing the Surrey Hills Race). Planners - Nicky and Ruth King. SportIdent - Gordon Parker. Organiser & controller - vacant.
July 20. Frolic (3 or 4 colour-coded courses) Ham Riverside. New map. Planner - Frank Lyness. SportIdent - Gavin Andrews. Organiser and controller - vacant.
12 October Yvette
Baker Trophy - regional qualifier.
13/14 December. Hankley Common. Southern Night Champs with the next day
OK Nuts mass start races (and some shorter colour coded courses). All jobs vacant and may well be simpler if the same organiser and the same planner did both.
Also we expect to have a summer series of evening events/ races / fun O etc. These will be from early May to Mid August and we hope to manage about one every other week, mostly on a Tuesday, but some on Wednesdays. If you enjoyed these last year, try putting one on this year by volunteering your services to Alan Leakey
Races we have put on in the last 2 months have been interesting and instructive.
8 February. Senile.
1 March. Box Hill Fell Race. Thanks to all the usual suspects for turning out and making this go well again. A different winner for a change! Yes - Chris Beecham was beaten and by a clubmate he'd brought along too!
2 March. Holmwood Common. 2 Trail Challenge races and some colour-coded courses. It was good to get Holmwood back into use since the last (pretty poor) map back in about 1990. Big credits to Andrew Trimble who not only organised but got the SportIdent under control using different software in Gavin's absence. Also to John Dowty who for his first planning job had a sizeable assignment - new map, unfamiliar area and 2 trail challenge courses.
Due to a publicity ****-up the turn-out for the trail challenge races was very low, but despite that they were the highlight of the day from where I was standing - which was a point in the middle of the Common where the races passed twice and it all looked really exciting from there. Sarah Rollins led for most of the race, dragging in her wake several heavy-breathing old men (AJ to name but one), but was caught just before the end by her husband who had to chase hard after an early mistake.
So I was really pleased to see the GB No. 2 at the prize-giving beaming so enthusiastically about the race format. Equally I was disappointed by the number of regular orienteers trundling off to their blue and green courses without showing the spark or imagination to try something different. There's going to be more of these sorts of races; it's the way ahead and it ain't going to be stopped.
Andy Robinson
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Box Hill Statistics
from Dick Clark |
A little bit of trivia for those who are interested. We
had a full entry for the third year running and the analysis of the entrants
was as below. The average age of all entrants was 42.1 this year as opposed to
41.8 in 2002. Not a great increase. Once again it would seem that the over 40’s
advance by 1 year without many new ones entering the race. Interestingly only
72 people entered the race both in 2002 and 2003. Andy and I imagined the
number would be much higher.
We had 33 ladies this year as opposed to 35 the year
before. The average age of the ladies was 37.6 as opposed to 39 last year. Two ladies teams entered, although I believe
none finished on the day.
Last year we had a big entry of Independent men, but
we reverted to mainly attached runners this year (only 14 Independents
entered). The early cut off date meant that old faithfuls such as Worthing
Harriers and Cambridge Harriers had much reduced entries, although the Essex
bunch from Bishops Stortford and
No graphs again this year….
|
Class 2003 |
21 |
40 |
45 |
50 |
55 |
60 |
70 |
U21 |
|
Female |
22 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
Male |
66 |
31 |
36 |
24 |
12 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Class 2002 |
21 |
40 |
45 |
50 |
55 |
60 |
70 |
U21 |
|
Female |
22 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
Male |
75 |
39 |
33 |
28 |
11 |
5 |
1 |
|
|
Class 2001 |
21 |
40 |
45 |
50 |
55 |
60 |
70 |
U21 |
|
Female |
15 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Male |
63 |
39 |
33 |
22 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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)
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13/4 |
SAX Colour Coded Event. Bedgebury, Hawkhurst. TQ/722336. Jean Fitzgerald, £4.00/£1.50. |
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JAN KJELLSTROM ORIENTEERING FESTIVAL |
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BADO Harearound Badge Event. Butter Wood, Hook. SU/722522. Organiser: Mike Broderick, |
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4/5 |
|
SO Colour Coded Event.