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Club Development Plan This was developed at an open club meeting on 10th January 2008 and will run until January 2010 Click here to find out about the plan Latest News New to Orienteering?
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News March JK 2008 Success
Traditionally
the JK is held over the Easter bank holiday weekend and in recent years has
extended to four days of racing, with a sprint race being held on the Friday.
This year the sprint race was held at Guildford University which provided
competitors with some high class sprint racing.
Sprint
races seem to be a bone of contention in the orienteering world with the
‘traditionalists’ who do not feel that it is proper orienteering and
disagree with the whole concept of orienteering anywhere that is less technical
than Moel y Dinewyd; and those of us who enjoy trying out the newer disciplines
in orienteering (of which sprint racing is one of many).
I have to say that I only heard praise for a very high standard race on
Friday (that may be because those people who disagree with sprint racing
didn’t attend?) and the challenges of map reading at high speed and selecting
the best route choice can catch many people out.
The best club result of the day goes to Delyth Darlington, finishing 5th
on W14. As
I am unable to run at the moment Helena and I opted to go mountain biking
instead. We went to a well visited
area some might know—Cannock Chase and had a good ride around, managing not to
fall off any boardwalk this time (Helena!).
Stopping for a breather at one point I remarked that I had run up a steep
hill off to our left and was able to recall where the control was (must have
been at least 6 years ago!). After
the ride and the mandatory post ride hot chocolate we continued on down to
London to stay in luxury on the banks of the river Thames with family (I don’t
envy those of you who were camping). Saturday
morning and with late starts we were able to have a leisurely breakfast and then
off to the event. The weather was
bitterly cold and regular hail showers were the theme for the day.
With a 1km walk from the car to the race arena we wrapped up warm,
however, it was soon time to take some of those layers off and head for the
start. The weather seemingly a
little better in the cover of the trees. Due
to injury I was only running W21S (usually it would be elite) so a nice short
5km for me. Luckily most of the race
was on small muddy paths or in terrain so I was able to jog some of the course.
The challenge for the day was to stay in control when you hit the very
technical sections of the course, which on the whole I managed.
The course was a great mix of fast running and control picking in very
technical areas, somewhere near the end I was caught in the mother of all hail
showers as I ran through a large open area, it must have put me off as the very
next control I messed up—navigating very precisely to someone else’s
control! In the challenging
conditions there were some good club performances with Delyth finishing 3rd on
W16A and Fran and Jene both winning their respective classes. The
evening held the joys of the BOF AGM, an event which I have never been to
before. I have to say that it was
much more interesting than I expected it to be.
Among the proceedings were the elections of members of the new board of
directors, where David May was successful and we are sure that he will represent
Wales well on the board. The
next morning dawned with snow on the ground and as we sat in the car getting
ready to run the snow came down in heavier and heavier flurries.
Standing (shivering) at the start I overheard a number of people
reminiscing about the JK 10 years earlier in Wales, when we awoke to a thick
covering of snow on the day of the event. My
prediction for JK 2018 is for snow! Off
I went into the snow and a long leg to the first control.
Another clean run and after startling a couple of deer it was a long pull
up to the final control and then the finish.
By now the weather had brightened up some and the sun was actually trying
to come out! Good runs were had by
both Darlington girls, with Anwen finishing 2nd on W18E only 6 seconds behind
her rival, thus beating her into 4th place overall.
Unfortunately for Anne she was not able to replicate her storming run
from the first day and she dropped down the order somewhat. Monday
saw the relays with Anwen, Delyth and Jene running the women’s short hoping to
bring back the trophy to Eryri (won last year by Kath, Heather and Jene).
Good runs by all three girls saw them eventually win by over a minute
from their nearest rivals. For
Helena and I again it was a day for mountain biking and we stopped off on the
Long Mynd (near Church Stretton on the Welsh borders) to don our rather muddy
kit. Off we went riding up the
valley to the bewilderment of many families out walking in the valley.
Many fords needed to be crossed as we worked our way up onto the top of
the hills and unfortunately Helena managed to fall off in the middle of the
first ford getting both feet soaking wet for the rest of the ride!
However, we eventually made it to the top and then had a lovely ride
along the top of the hills, before too long we had reached the descent and
turned onto a very muddy section of
single track which even beat me, this flattened out a little before long and we
were able to buzz on down the hill at a rapid rate of knots.
Rounding a corner I met a group of walkers coming up the valley, I’m
not sure what they thought as I grinned at them, face plastered in mud!!! Again
the obligatory post ride hot chocolate, and again it was snowing!
A good weekend of running and riding. January A very chilly January morning saw many club members turn out to represent the club at the first round of the Compass Sport Trophy at Frodsham. It was a very closely fought battle with Eryri beating PFO into second by only 11 points! As always we need as many members as possible at these events, even if your score does not count towards the overall club score you will still be taking points away from our rivals. It is also a good social event, often with all club members travelling together. Good results from Ian Jones (brown), Heather Burrows, Kath Broatch and Jenny Hemming (blue ladies), Anwen Darlington and Fran Hoare (green ladies) amongst others helped to secure the victory. A big thank you to all those who turned out on the day. The final is on Sunday, October 19th at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, Birminghom
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Summer Evening Series The Summer Evening Series starts on Thursday 8th May at Glynllifon. See the Events page for details of all the summer series events
Welsh Champs Mug Challenge The challenge is to see how many different places the Welsh Champs mugs can make it to! Hilary is off to a flying start presenting a mug to a slightly confused Patagonian earlier this year.
Get your mug out and about and photograph it in the weirdest and remote places you can. |
