SLOWprint 149
October 2004
Club Officers 2003–2004
|
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; VACANT |
|
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 150 will be late
early December 04. 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:
… 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 |
World Cup Fever has really kicked in!
In case you need reminding:
Orienteering World Cup 30 April – 8 May 2005
SLOW is organising the Sprint Final in Battersea Park on Bank Holiday
Monday 2 May. A Young Orienteers
Festival, featuring an inter-borough competition will be held on this day also.
Helpers will be needed throughout the week as well.
We have also been asked to provide two people who could help run the
Event HQ at The Spectrum in Guildford for a few hours during the week. This would include promoting orienteering to
passing members of the public as well as dealing with enquiries from World Cup
teams and press.
Please offer your help for Battersea/the Spectrum to Andy Robinson
Please offer your help for during the week as a whole to Alan Leakey
You get to run too!: there is a full week of public races, the Southern
6-Day, running in parallel with the World Cup.
See last SLOWprint for details or www.wcup2005.org.uk
There is huge interest in the World Cup, particularly
the Young Orienteers Festival, amongst schools and local authority sports
development units. Primary schools are
required to provide outdoor adventurous activities; canoeing or rock climbing in the playground
might be a wee bit difficult, but orienteering can be done pretty easily. So the World Cup is already beginning to
raise interest in orienteering and there is a growing demand for school grounds
mapping, for training for teachers and for orienteers to put on activities for
schools. Hence there is a Mapping Small
Areas course being held on 9 October, we are planning to hold Level 1 Coach
courses for teachers (and orienteers) and next spring I will be looking for
people to help put on schools’ activities during the week.
MASSIVE COACHING DAY
It was superb to see such a large and enthusiastic
turnout for the SLOW coaching day on 4 September. Over 50 people came: 32 athletes being
coached, 18 coaches plus a few parents I lost count of.
As there were so many enthusiastic beginner juniors at
the coaching day, we decided to put on extra courses at the Trail Challenge
races on 3 Oct. This provided some extra practice before the Yvette Baker
Trophy regional final on 24 October, which is the big date coming up for SLOW’s
juniors. Don’t let your team mates down:
put the date in your diary now. We won the
regional final last year and came 5th in the national final. Can we match that or do even better this
year?
(The national final is on 5 December on Cannock Chase
– let’s hope we need to put that date in the diary too!)
INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS
Whilst we were training on Wimbledon Common, Ralph
Street was representing England in the Junior Home International in the Lake
District. Ralph won his M14 course by
nearly two minutes. Congratulations are
due to Ralph also for being invited to join the Start Squad, the junior section
of the GB National Orienteering Squad.
One day Ralph may emulate SLOW’s star member, Heather
Monro, who competed for
TAKE ON THE GB SQUAD!
Trail Challenges are a SLOW invention and word is
beginning to spread. They are long and
easy courses aimed at runners. The
World Cup public race programme will include Trail Challenge races – to attract
runners so they can be part of the excitement of the World Cup Long Race Final
day. To raise awareness in advance,
another Trail Challenge race is being held on 3 January on Wimbledon Common. Several members of the GB Squad have already
signed up for this race: it will be billed as ‘come and take on the GB Squad –
if you’re hard enough!!’. It’s a Bank
Holiday and the day after the Ash Ranges National Event, so we expect a big
turnout. Another date for the diary!
NEW LOGO
A new SLOW logo is looming. It will be based on the design used on the
new fleeces, which itself was based on the ‘River Thames’ banner design.
Look at http://www.sloweb.org.uk/Docs/SLOWlogo.htm for a preview:
Hope you like it.
PS I’ve put in a late bid for injury of the year:
sensibly not running as my hamstring was twinging, I went blackberry picking on
Pitch Hill and slipped into an unmapped ditch and twisted my knee. Four weeks on I’m still not running… I hear knees can be very dodgy. Gloom.
Chris Robinson
Chair
|
World Cup Rap Got my compass Got my map Gonna get down With a world cup rap Don’t just sit there When life’s a drag gotta go and find That red and white flag Putting on the lycras And the spiky shoes Lookin’ so good No way I can lose. Not by 0.7 of a second No way dude! Look out! look out! I’ve got a dibber And I’m not afraid to use it! W Lynas-Petty + AJ |
South London
Orienteers and Wayfarers Annual General Meeting
will be held on
Tuesday 23 November 2004
at 8.00pm
at Jackie Steinitz’s house,
We will adjourn afterwards to the The Spring Grove pub
in Bloomfield Road, less than 5 minutes walk away.
The meeting will include presentation
of reports from Chair, Captain, Membership Secretary, Fixtures and Mapping
Officer, and Treasurer.
Plus elections of officers (Chair,
Secretary, Treasurer, Men's Captain, Ladies' Captain, Membership, Fixtures,
Mapping, Social, Training, Publicity, SEOA Rep, SLOWprint, Equipment,
Archivist, Webmaster).
We always are looking for new people
to get involved in helping SLOW, so please get
in touch with Chair, Chris Robinson, if you are interested in putting yourself
forward for one of the officer posts or to offer help in any capacity. We are especially keen for people to take on
organizing social events and publicity. As
the World Cup looms, many of the club officers will be increasingly devoted
to that and so the need for new people to help run SLOW is even greater than
usual.
CRB CHECKS
There is a growing requirement for coaches to have had
a CRB (criminal records bureau) check.
It’s an easy and painless process and costs nothing. The SLOW Committee recommends that all our
coaching helpers do this.
All you do is ring up and answer a few questions:
Ring: 0870
90 90 844
Type of disclosure? Answer: Enhanced
Provide:
Name, Address, Telephone Number, National Insurance Number, Place of
Birth, Date of Birth
Who has asked you to provide the Disclosure? Answer:
British Orienteering Federation
In what capacity is the Disclosure provided? Answer:
Volunteer coach (no charge is then made for the check.)
Who will countersign the application? Answer: British Orienteering Federation
The reference number for the Countersignatory: 2029 290000 8
When you receive the pre-printed form:
Complete any relevant sections and check that the
pre-printed sections are correct, then send the form, with the relevant
documents (recorded delivery is recommended) to BOF office marked Confidential
for the Attention of Alex Ross. Make
sure you use black ink!
SLOW members’ news, June –
October 2004
Welcome to the following new members
Anja (W21), Peter (M35) and
Emma (W2) Stratford
Keira (W21) Vyvyan-Robinson
(Mark’s wife), ,
Simpson family: Janette
(W40), Neville (M50), Sarah (W12), Hannah (W10), Jack (M8), ,
Rapley family: Carol, Ella
(W4); Sophie Collin (W10),
Maria David (W35),
Moss family: Gareth,
Michelle, Lottie (W10), Jack, ,
O’Dea family: Paul, Julie,
Laura (W10), ,
Phil Davies (M45), ,
Jeremy Snelling (M40), ,
Welcome to the following
returning members
Chris Marsh, ,
3rd Molesey Matravers Scout
Group, c/o Tyrone Weller, ,
Changes of address
Jenny Costigan, ,
Mike Garvin, ,
Charlie and Teresa Turner:
Simon Turner:
Mark Glover
Terry Dooris
Chris Robinson:
Adrian Ducker
Kate Thomas:
Charlie Whetham
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WINNING WITH THE WORLD CUP - DEVELOPMENT
CONFERENCE
Saturday, 16 October 2004 10.00am - 4.30pm at The Spectrum,
PROGRAMME includes talks by Hilary Palmer, BOF Development Manager and Heather Monro, GB Squad
& BOF Regional Development Officer (NE & NW)
This is a vital opportunity to discuss how orienteering
generally can capitalize on the staging of this exciting week of world-class
races in the south-east of England. It
will bring increased media attention and public interest – so we need to make
sure we are ready to grasp the opportunity when it comes.
SLOW will pay for any SLOW member who wishes to attend this
conference. Full details on the World
Cup website www.wcup2005.org.uk or contact Chris Robinson.
Vacancy for Club Treasurer
I would like to stand down as treasurer at the
agm in November and was wondering if anyone was interested in taking on this
role. You will have plenty of support
and guidance from other committee members about what to spend all the club’s
money on!
If you are interested or want any further
information, then please contact me
Thankyou, Liz Armitage
|
HOT PICKS (and
more!) |
SLOW can offer transport from south west London. For this we suggest start times from
11.00-12.00 for Sunday events. If
possible, we will have the Club tent for changing, coaching, etc. We aim to meet afterwards for a drink at a
nearby pub. See us at the event to find
out where we’re going.
24th
October Yvette Baker Trophy and
Colour-Coded Event, Bagshot.
Full
range of colour coded courses. For
juniors (very youngest up to M/W20) there is also the Yvette Baker Trophy SE
region qualifier. There’s a good chance
of making the national final again this year with a full turn out from our
juniors. EOD.
7th November Venice Street-Orienteering Event
Annual event Orienteering through the streets of
7th November SOC November Classic Regional Event, Bolderwood,
A great
www.hants.gov.uk/soc
12th December SLOW OK Nuts Trophy, Hankley Common.
Mass start loop race.
CD: 27/11/04. Lim EOD. Lim Colour
coded courses white to light green www.sloweb.org.uk
2nd January SN National Event.
www.geocities.com/southern_nav
3rd January SLOW Trail Challenge,
www.sloweb.org.uk
To arrange
transport, contact Ginny Catmur
CD = Closing
date. It is often possible to get late entry or EOD = entry on the day.
COACHING CORNER
We opened the season with a coaching day on
Wimbledon Common and had over 30 participants!
Many thanks to Chris Robinson for planning a wide variety of exercises to
suit everyone from the youngest juniors trying orienteering for the first time
to adult beginners to experienced older juniors. It was even dry enough for Orienteering
Twister (doesn’t work too well if its muddy!).
The relay teams to end the day were named after elite orienteers and the
‘Sarah Rollins’ team (Michael May, Charles McMillan, Jenny Steinitz and Alice
Clemens) won over the ‘Heather Monro’ team (James McMillan, Guy Hiddleston,
Holly Clemens with her friend Issie, and Sarah Simpson with Hannah
Farmery). The ‘Jamie Stevenson’ team
(Nigel Clemens, Linda Clemens, Alex Robinson and Ellis Farmery with William
Tyler) were 3rd and the ‘Jon Duncan’ team (Chris Wroe, Ian
Hiddleston, Alex’s friend Sam and a trio of Emma Farmery, Hannah Simpson and
Emily Tyler) were 4th. Many
thanks to the coaches that helped – anyone else who wants to help at future
coaching days please let me know.
An events coming up which will be good for
beginners is on 24th October on Bagshot Heath just down the M3. This has courses of many different standards
including ones suitable for juniors. In
fact, the event incorporates a competition between juniors from different clubs
including SLOW. The competition takes
place on the Green, Light Green, Orange and Yellow courses and any junior can
take part – see Captain’s page for details.
There will also be an even simpler course, the white course,
available. There should also be longer
and more challenging courses for the adventurous adult beginners and a string
course for younger children where in addition to having a map there is a string
to follow and colourful pictures at each control. So everyone is welcome whether or not taking
part in the competition and lots of SLOW members will be around to give
advice. Details will appear in due
course on www.geocities.com/Yosemite/2227/fix.html
If you cannot make either of these dates,
an adjacent club Mole Valley are putting on a couple of events for beginners on
2nd and 16th October – see www.mvoc.org
Looking further ahead, I am organising a
coaching weekend in South Wales on the weekend 5th/6th
March 2005. The British Championships
next year is on sand dunes so this weekend will be an opportunity to learn
techniques to weave your way through sand dunes wonderfully rather than
wildly. We hope to train on Broughton
Burrows on the Gower Peninsula on Saturday and then compete in an event on
Pembrey (down the coast beyond Swansea) on the Sunday. For the maddest among you, there is a night
event on Pembrey on the Saturday evening.
I have provisionally booked 3 cabins at the LA Riding Centre which is just off the M4 before Swansea (see www.lariding.co.uk). Put the dates in your diary now!
Congratulations to Ralph Street who has
been selected for the Start Squad – a national squad who are given coaching and
support towards future national and international competition. Ralph has just won M14 at the Junior Home International
in the Lake District and also won M14A at the Welsh 6 days earlier in the
summer. Greg Street and James Haynes had
a ding dong battle on M12A and well done to Guy Hiddleston joining Michael May
on M16A for the first time and whittling his times down as the week went
on. Also good to see Matthew Haynes
gaining experience on M10B. Well done to
Thomas Jones 4th on Yellow at the Sheen Frolic and to Ali McKerrow
who won the handicap.
That’s
it for now. I’ll watch to see you all
put what you learnt at the coaching day into practice…
Heather
Yvette Baker Junior
Competition
24th October
BAGSHOT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Yvette Baker Trophy junior competition is at Bagshot this October. This is for
*ALL* juniors (from the very youngest up to M/W20) of *ALL* standards from
Yellow through to Green. You run a course appropriate to your ability (based on
gold standard) rather than your age. Last year we did amazingly well to come
5th in the National Final. To get there again, we need a full
turnout of our juniors at Bagshot Heath. So please I'd like EVERY SINGLE ONE of
our juniors to be there - the rest of your team will be so glad! (The final is
on 5th December at Cannock Chase.) The club will pay for all the junior entry
fees for this event. There are courses up to Brown for all
adults as well. So please confirm your availability NOW. I would like to hear
from EVERY junior/parents where the junior is happy to go round at least a
yellow standard course. (It is also possible to go around a yellow course as a
junior pair.)
Pete Huzan
THE FIXTURES BIT
For a change this time, this column consists of
the report to this month’s committee, suitably amended for matters discussed
there. Although an expeditious decision on my part (copy date falling the day
after committee) it still includes a rant about World Cup matters, as no
fixtures column would be complete without one of them!
FIXTURES
Fixtures past.
None. Whoopee!! The quiet time of year. Well,
there was the last of the summer evenings (Richmond - 3rd Aug) when
Don helped me set up a re-run of a couple of courses from last year’s YBT, and
Gavin finally made it to the pub to sort out results. - that was the evening
the heaven’s opened, the trains went AWOL and still enough people turned up for
us to run out of maps!!
Fixtures future
3-10-04. Trail Challenge from the Hawker
Centre. TC courses are “half-marathon” (i.e. 21.1km), 12km and 6km. Also
orange, yellow and white. Gordon is doing the SI. Helpers gradually coming out
of woodwork - more are needed. [highlighted for Slowprint – all offers to
me]
12-12-04. OK Nuts. Hankley Common. 3 loop races
– replacing brown, blue and green. 4 shorter CC courses. I’ve booked the area
with the Army. Nicky is planning; Gordon is on the SI. Philip Robinson has
agreed to organise (remember he did last year – hero!). I'm still to find a
controller.
03-01-05. A Trail Challenge related to World
Cup development. Based on getting Squad members along who would be around for
the previous day’s National. Run it from the Windmill on the Common. I was so
excited by this I went and planned the courses immediately (8 controls – 2
spectator legs)
22-01-05. Box Hill Fell Race. Agreed by
National Trust. Still to hear from Friends Provident.
29-01-05. Senile.
13-02-05. Holmwood Score. Officials needed.
Southern Express. With any luck our only
contribution will be Battersea Park on World Cup day.
30-05-05 Surrey Hills races.
-Date. Although we wanted 15th, I failed in the horse-trading.
Bank holiday Monday seems a reasonable date though
-Ginny is officially installed as co-ordinator.
-Given that there is a lot of Trail Challenge stuff coming up (mostly
World Cup driven) it would make sense (or at least would be consistent) if the
Surrey Hills were to be re-marketed as a TC.
-This would then be a sensible time to re-do the map.
WORLD CUP (May 2005)
The Committee may want to discuss at this stage
is the two things arranged for next month :-
1) Mapping small areas. 9th Oct. St
Paul’s School. A useful skill, much needed pre (and post) World Cup and you can
get paid for doing it.
2) Development Conference. 16th Oct.
Guildford. Called “Winning with the World Cup”. I thought it should be called
“Orienteering is dying. What are you going to do about it?” as that seemed more
pertinent, but it was considered too negative (surprise), but we have heard
stories from other SE clubs of people saying, “This World Cup is x miles away at
LONGER TERM PLAN
For those who haven’t seen this before, it
lists the things we normally do each year in approximate chronological order
with notes as to where they are each year.
|
|
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
|
Box Hill |
Yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
|
Senile |
Holmwood |
Reigate |
Hankley |
Esher |
Wimbledon |
|
Spring event |
CSC Cup Esher |
Holmwood S4 |
Glovers Wood loop |
C4 Esher |
Winterfold C4 |
|
Southern Express |
Reigate |
Battersea Park |
Hankley |
The Nower |
Esher |
|
Nower/Hill race |
Hill race |
Nower CC |
Hill race |
Nower CC |
Hill race |
|
Trail Challenge |
3 summer eves + Oct |
W Cup run-up |
yes |
yes |
yes |
|
Frolic |
Richmond (inc Sheen) |
Wimbledon |
Riverside |
Putney |
Richmond |
|
Autumn introductory |
TC half marathon |
|
|
|
|
|
Dec event (OK Nuts) |
Loop race Hankley |
C3 Esher |
C3 Winterfold |
C3 Punchbowl (or loop race) |
time for Hankley again |
|
Other |
|
World Cup TC 3rd Jan |
BOC |
|
|
The “autumn introductory” is a new item as the
committee noted this is a good time of year for this sort thing. This follows
on from the successful Yvette Baker Trophy qualifier staged last October in
Richmond Park and the exciting prospects for the races next Sunday (3rd).
So we expect to stage something local for novices next October, possibly
including a Trail Challenge.
MAPPING.
Glovers
Wood. Provisional idea for loop race on 22-01-06. Next move is for me to visit
area with Charlie. It has been asked why we don’t use this area in
summer/autumn, as it (allegedly) has no vegetation or environmental problems.
Charlie then pointed out that any likely car park would be too muddy in January
and so I’m back to the drawing board with that one.
Surrey
Hills map. See above. Expect to engage a professional. Andy Robinson
Cerkno Cup, Slovenia
It was all Peter Huzan’s idea: ‘Why not try somewhere new this
summer?’ So, enthusiastic to visit a another country and try orienteering on
good terrain a group of us headed for the 3-day Cerkno Cup in
Cerkno is located north-west of the capital, Ljubljana, in the Limestone Julian Alps which have similarities to the Dolomites across the border in Italy.
To get a taste of Slovenia and its renowned white water rafting we arrived a couple of days before the competition and headed for our first night to the mountain town of Bovec, where we met up with Peter Huzan and Mike Garvin, who had booked themselves, and us, into the swankiest hotel in town.
Next morning we had our first real taste of Slovenia. Heaven! The weather was sunny and warm, the
town clean, looking very alpine with colourful flowers everywhere, the people
very friendly and mainly speaking very good English. Over breakfast, we discovered that
Meanwhile, Kate Thomas, Sarah Covey-Crump, Jenny Costigan and Mike first had a short walk up a nearby peak, Prestreljenik, 2499m, (slightly assisted by the sauna cable car which goes up to 2202m). Typical of ski areas in summer the mountain was dry and rocky with few trees, but happily the limestone produces a wonderful array of alpine flowers. The peak was a bit like Piccadilly Circus, with a variety of Italians, Croatians and Slovenes arriving while we were there. All peaks in Slovenia have a rubber stamp located in a protective tin on the summit – unfortunately for us the only papers to hand to stamp were our passports!
Next came what the beautiful Soca valley is famous for: the rafting. The river was low compared to its spring level, with the consequent reduction in excitement level, but was more than made up for by some uncoordinated French guys in our boat who seemed totally incapable of stroking in sync, and nearly managed to tip us over several times.
We then drove off to Cerkno, event centre for the competition, and found ourselves in yet another swanky hotel along with orienteers from many nations. The boys arrived very late, having unfortunately only having made it to around 2400m on Triglav. Having set out very late, running short of time and with encroaching heavy clouds it had seemed a sensible decision to turn around.
As the competition website had not allowed any prepayment we were glad to find our names on the start lists - not as SLOW, because of our CROC cuckoo-in-the-nest Paul, but as Sauf London, a sobriquet much appreciated by other Brit entrants.
Most days the weather was hot and sunny until the early evening when often a thunderstorm would erupt and Day 1 of the Orienteering was no exception. This was a hot day, based near a small village, with its characteristic white church and tower, common across the country. This first day (Predgrize) was particularly fast and not as technical as we’d expected but was a nice start to get the legs stretched. Each of the subsequent 2 days (Klavzar and Godvic) became more technical with a great number of large depressions and rocky ground. The event was enjoyable with a very international flavour including several familiar faces from back home.
Keen that the holiday was going to be more than just orienteering we tried to fit things in every day after the events. We visited Predjama, a stunningly dramatic castle built into a sheer rock face. On a ‘short cut’ to the castle, following a premature comment about how good the roads were, they suddenly deteriorated into heavy gravel tracks and things became rather hair-raising. However, this did give Paul the opportunity to show off his excellent off-road rally skills.
Being a limestone area this part of Slovenia is riddled with major cave systems and everyone was keen to visit one of those open to the public. However, instead of going to the most famous show caves we found the less-visited Krizna Jama, and had an interesting trip involving an underground boat ride. Another day we visited a reminder of the fierce fighting which took part in north-west Slovenia during WWII: a large partisan field hospital, secreted from the Germans in a narrow gorge in the mountains near Cerkno, now preserved as a museum.
Once the orienteering competition was over we decided to go back up to the mountain region in the north and found a very cosy (!) apartment in the beautiful though rather touristy town of Bled. We hired a rowing boat on the famous Lake Bled to go out to a tiny island (complete with ubiquitous white church) and took turns at rowing, unsuccessfully, in a straight line.
For most of us our final full day was spent in and around an even lovelier lake, Bohinj. Hiring mountain bikes we pootled around the lake, viewing waterfalls, swimming and lounging around in the sun. Simon meanwhile, having caught the “because it’s there” bug and having not quite succeeded in the first attempt at Triglav, was keen to have another go and Jenny decided to go with him. Having had a days rest after the Orienteering and being in Bled seemed like a good place to get an early start.
Starting from the valley floor in beautiful sunshine, it was not long before the footpath became steep, rocky and way-marked by paint. At particularly steep points there were foot-long metal hand holds to assist. With only 300m to go, the steepest part yet was a narrow arête with cables and stakes (similar to the Via Ferrata in the Dolomites). The views on the way up were spectacular but unfortunately by the time they reached the summit the clouds had closed in but they did not seem to mind as the walk itself had been so enjoyable.
After a short stop, and getting the all important Triglav stamp on their map, they started descending. Their progress was followed via text messages and they were eventually picked up at a pub near Lake Bohinj, looking tired but jubilant.
Driving back to the airport we used a spare hour before checking in for our flight to take a lightning detour to Venice. We had problems finding our way around, which doesn’t bode well for the next Huzan-inspired tour, the annual street-O in Venice. (see Hotpicks)
We left behind the warmth of the Adriatic and arrived back home around 2 am (hey, but the flight only cost us £5). Slovenia had provided a great cheap alternative to Scandinavia with good complex terrain and some interesting sightseeing.
See you in Venice, booking now………………………………Kate Thomas
SLOW BARBECUE
There was a good turnout for this social event and the pre-meal race through Ashtead Park and the non-stop games of badminton, cricket and rugby certainly kept the cold away for all the juniors.
The moveable feast kept the senior members of the party warm too as we needed to dash under the gazebo when it showered briefly and into the house when the rain came on for longer, then at the first glimpse of any sun, the chairs were rearranged around the garden.
The fun event was exactly that with the trickiest element deciding on when to stop to pick blackberries, a bonus part of the competition.
Thanks to the McMillans for being splendid hosts - they not only
organised plenty for everyone to enjoy but also prepared a massive spread of food. Naturally once the
blackberries had been picked and Karen Jones appeared with a crop of apples we
just had to throw together an apple crumble. Huh, none of this -here’s one I’ve
prepared earlier!
Results of the Ashtead Park Fun Run – 29
August 2004-08-30
|
Name |
Run Time |
Quiz Time (5 m allowed) |
Quiz Overtime |
Quiz Score |
Blackberry Bonus |
|
James |
9:57 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Michael |
17:54 |
5:32 |
0:32 |
10 |
Best Jam |
|
Guy |
24:49 |
5:52 |
0:52 |
5 |
|
|
Ian |
19:02 |
5:01 |
0:01 |
6 |
|
|
Anne |
48:25 |
4:49 |
- |
4 |
Excellent |
|
Simon |
18:08 |
5:20 |
0:20 |
3 |
Highly Commended |
|
David |
17:57 |
1:33 |
- |
3 |
|
|
Pete |
17:15 |
2:43 |
- |
5 |
Highly Commended |
|
Sarah |
18:12 |
6:56 |
1:56 |
8 |
|
|
Paul |
17:36 |
6:32 |
1:32 |
8 |
|
|
Ralph |
18:36 |
3:54 |
- |
6.25 |
|
|
Chris |
18:30 |
1:50 |
- |
5 |
|
|
Andy |
20:30 |
1:50 |
- |
7 |
|
|
Jones Team |
19:30 |
2:20 |
- |
7 |
|
Without trying to explain the
whole complex format, competitors were asked to balance run speed with
blackberry picking followed by a quiz using the control numbers and letter
codes.
Note James’ straight run time is shown for comparison.
Very few adults knew that
Shrek married Princess Fiona.
Charlotte Bronte did not write
Emma.
The blackberries were made
into a blackberry and apple crumble and eaten.
The winner was 5,4,3,12,8,1,17
(aka Michael May)
Croeso South Wales August 14th-20th
This summer’s Croeso was
underestimated by many people, who didn’t think the areas would be good enough.
They were, however, mistaken although the areas were not wooded, there were
plenty of technical legs with day 4 being the best for this.
The weather was not amazing, it rained most days but
brightened up later on. This meant your start time mattered more as visibility
could get bad.
Sennybridge was the most used area. It was mainly very
fast terrain, with thicketed earth walls making for easy navigation and very
sparse army forest. The tripwires in the woods did slightly complicate things
and the occasional tank (yes, TANK!) control meant a change from the norm.
Pwll Du (day 3): this day
was very open with clear views over most of the area. Most courses were
running a butterfly stretch to eliminate trailing. Most people saw it as an
unnecessary precaution.
Carneddau (day 4): with a shower early in the day the
short grass became very slippery this combined with some steep sided hills
meant many people having grip problems.
Ogof Ffynnon Ddu and Pant Mawr: the terrain on this day
was incredibly tough and nearly imposable to keep a fast pace on. Due to the
technical nature of this run you were better off taking a slower pace.
The campsite was a big let down with no hot water on the
first night and no sinks to wash up in. The leisure centre was well equipped
with a pool, bowling allies and more. Entertainment was well planned with the
quiz night, bowling competition and celidah proving popular hits.
The general atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly
making for a good way to see of the last of the summer.
Guy Hiddlestone
|
South London Orienteers and Wayfarers
Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 23 November 2004 at 8.00pm |
Finally
Crossing the Finnish Line
In the last full week of July,
several misguided and foolhardy souls left London Heathrow Airport looking
forward to a fun week of Finnish orienteering at the Fin5 festival.
Not quite knowing what to
expect, we felt quite daunted on the first day of competition to see so many
contours, marshes, crags and especially boulders crammed into such a small area
and the mistakes were frequent. Dad’s
worst moment came on Day 2 – ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ – which gave heart
to Charlie and me and we didn’t feel quite so disappointed with our runs
afterwards. After a few days, any hope
of salvaging our wrecked reputations was out of the question and we invented a
competition of our own: who could be furthest from the bottom of their class by
the end of the week? Charlie on H13 won
handsomely, leaving me, H16A, a disappointing 2nd place with Dad,
and his years of experience, in a resounding last.
Oddest moment – not being able
to see a 5m boulder from 6m away – surely they can’t hide that !! – well they
can by using an even bigger (and very thick) tree.
Despite the huge catalogue of
errors that we collectively amassed over the week, by the end we were ‘mixing
it with the best’ and we had a great time in the process, learning how to do
things the Finnish way. The good news was
that we all had our best runs on the last day.
It was just as well that we
didn’t win as the top prizes were a selection of chainsaws, strimmers and
lawnmowers. However, we all got Fin 5
medals and added to our T shirt collection.
Best family moment -
specifically the strawberries (such varieties and such intense flavours) and
generally – the weather (it only rained at night).
Back to the maps. The detail was incredible. The mapping of the vegetation took a lot of getting
used to as did the open rock on the top of many of the hills. Underfoot was slowish run and working out
which boulders were mapped and which were not was sometimes difficult. I’ll certainly never look at an English map
in the same way again.
We thoroughly recommend Fin 5,
which is held again next year between 10 & 15 July.
James
McMillan
PS On the Fin 5 website (www.sipoo.fi/fin5) as well as the usual
results and splits you can also see the routes of some of the competitors
marked on the course maps for each of the days and re-run them head to head on
the website. (Go to the English pages
and look up ‘Draw your course’, it reverts to Finnish but pick a day, then a
course, then some runners, then click on ‘Lataa animaatio’ and press
start.) We have not seen this on UK
results but it is very effective.
A reflection on 2004 British relays
Dear Slowprint,
I want to write about the line between success
and failure. It is a thin line, not well marked and this year I have crossed it
in the wrong direction. I hope to achieve two things by writing: firstly to
pass on experience that fellow club members hoping to avoid ignominy and
embarrassment may find useful, secondly, to get it off my chest, forget the
pain, lance the boil etc.
1. Winning the M45 British relays in 2003 was
the orienteering equivalent of Millwall beating Manchester United. As last
springs Cup Final showed, that sort of thing doesn’t happen very often.
2. Teamed up with orienteering machines John
Dowty and Pete Haines, I allowed myself to feel too confident about our
prospects and not concentrate properly beforehand.
3. I spent 1 hour in the start pen with the
juniors, not only watching them go the right was out of the start field (the
wrong way for me) but also not preparing for the race ahead.
4. I tore some skin off my ankle at the JK by
leaving my ankle tape on too long. Wishing not to repeat this, I taped my ankle
at the last minute, making things a bit of a rush.
5. There was a slow and stressy queue to get
into the changeover pen, just to distract me further.
6. As Pete handed over to me and I ran out of
the start, I realised my compass was in my pocket. So I was running along
trying to open up my map and get my
compass string round my wrist at the same time. I was encouraged by everyone’s
shouts and calls, until I realised they were shouting that I’d gone the wrong
way out of the start field.
7. Got ahead of runners who had overtaken me in
the start field by No. 2 but there was a certain inevitability about the 2 x 4
minutes errors that followed soon after. I’m too traumatised to give you the
full story, suffice to say that overtook Mark Smith of GO’s 2nd team three
times, the last time on the way to the final control.
Thanks to John and Pete we finished 3rd but a
half decent run would have put us 2nd or even 1st. As my old university chum
Colin Howles used to say ‘Orienteering
is a sport that highlights people’s ability to make mistakes.’
You have been warned!
Andy Jones
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)
