Contents
Editorial
So this is the last paper edition of Points East. To those of you who, like me, regret the end of an era and who have urged me not to give up as Editor I must apologise for pulling out at this time without being able to find a replacement. In mitigation, could I point out that I feel that, particularly since my 3 years' tenure of the office has not been free of controversy, East Anglia is due for a change of editor, that the new structure of EAOA has both doubled the print run and created big distribution problems (which have had to be shouldered by the editor), that your committee was keen to move to an electronic solution to these hardcopy problems and that for the last 20 months Points East has been produced through a particularly debilitating attack of shingles which is still with me.
The really good news is that EAOA is now going to have an e-Points East and that Mark Collis, who represents CUOC on EAOA and who already maintains the EAOA web-site, is willing to co-ordinate PE Online. See Mark's article later in this PE, and keep the contributions coming in to him. We very much hope that all club newsletter editors will be able to access the on-line edition of Points East and will incorporate relevant bits from it into their own newsletters, since the majority of EAOA members is probably not yet e-enabled.
One of the real bonuses of editing a regional newsletter is that of being on the circulation list of lots of club and regional newsletters. It has been great fun having so many so different newsletters arriving on my doorstep: I have read them (nearly) all and marvelled at their diversity. A big thank you to all the editors who have swapped newsletters with me - I shall miss you and them.
I shall not, however, miss the huge frustration of not being able to get Points East to print in the time slot that I have set aside for it, usually because it has been held waiting for essential content, and this frustration has been compounded with the new EAOA constitution by pressure from clubs who, naturally, want to send both their club newsletter and PE out in the same envelope and who send me ratty e-mails when I cannot produce PE on time. The problem, as always in orienteering, is that we are all volunteers and a number of work and holiday schedules have to intermesh to produce PE.
After the AGM this year, BOF circulated clubs with a questionnaire and invited them to send 2 delegates each to a BOF Club Conference, with a view to producing a firm re-structuring proposal for the AGM next Easter. The WAOC committee, as I imagine other committees did, filled in the questionnaire with care and selected 2 delegates for the conference, only to hear that there is to be no conference, and now, I gather, no re-structuring proposal at the AGM. The reason, apparently, is that the Scots do not approve of the funding proposals for the new BOF. With a relatively small membership and fantastic terrain which attracts many thousands of orienteers every 2 years, the Scottish OA resents paying the BOF event levy and requires BOF to be funded entirely on a per capita basis. It would be no problem for SOA to use some of their huge event income to pay a BOF contribution for SOA members calculated this way, but what about the majority of orienteers, represented by the 7 English Associations? Our per capita event income is nowhere near that of the Scots. BOF have interpreted the SOA displeasure as a veto; I don't know. Maybe we need a Nice Club Conference to sort out vetoes and qualified majority voting?
Once again, I hear, BOF have asked EAOA to put on the British Championships in 2003 and the Committee has said that we do not have the terrain for it. Then it was proposed that we might put on a BOC in another region and I gather that Wales was suggested, and dismissed as being too far away. Why not have a rethink, EAOA? Surely there are a couple of planners in EAOA who would think the effort was worth it to plan a BOC on quality terrain, and EAOA clubs always rally round and do a fantastic organising job. It would be much more worthwhile, and profitable, than losing money on a Harvester or a British Night Champs.
Ursula Oxburgh (WAOC)
Chairman's Chat
Once again the summer is drawing to a close although many of you will say 'what summer'! I must admit that the two summer events that I competed in, in this country, namely the Welsh 5 Days and the White Rose, I got extremely wet at both events. Fortunately the trip to the Belgium 3 days was much better and it was sunny for most of the time.
The summer has produced some very good performances for members of the Junior squad but the most notable achievement has been the success in the Inter-Regional Championships. The squad have been getting stronger each year in this competition and with the event being hosted by East Anglia they were expecting to improve even further. However I don't think any of them expected to be leading after the individual day. This was a tremendous effort by all the team and although some of the bigger squads did better in the relay competition we were still able to come third overall. Well done to all the junior squad members and to all the coaches and co-ordinators.
The squad also had three competitors selected for the England team to compete in the Ward Junior Home International, namely Helen Gardner, Edmund Kelleher and Suzy Robertson. All three did well in the individual event with any excellent run by Edmund to come 2nd in M14, and all three featured in the winning relay teams which is a very high achievement. Congratulations to all three.
This summer also saw a record number of Junior squad members being selected for National and International training tours. Hopefully reports on these tours and other successes will be featured in other Points East articles.
I mentioned that the JIRC event was hosted by EAOA and by all accounts everything went very smoothly including the use of the new SportIdent electronic punching system for the first major event in East Anglia. Congratulations to all who helped to make the event a success.
I note that in the recent fixtures list, several clubs are planning to use the SportIdent equipment for their local colour coded events, it is great to see the benefits of the lottery award being spread around the region so quickly. Perhaps we should have asked for more equipment and more money!
The EAOA AGM took place and was surprisingly well attended given that the date clashed with the Twin Peaks event, due to my error in changing the date. The main topic of discussion was the production and distribution of Points East and how any changes would have to be taken into account in the next years capitation fee. This will be discussed at the next committee meeting and will reported back to clubs later.
Finally according to the fixtures list, EAOA should be hosting the first round of the CompassSport in the Spring next year. We hosted this 2 years ago and it was very successful both in terms of the competition and of the additional funds that it brought into East Anglia. Hopefully we can do as well this time around. Look out for more details in the near future.
It looks like another busy year with plenty of local fixtures and a lot of proposed changes to BOF, probably meaning even more meetings!
Happy Orienteering. Enjoy the forests.
Tim Eden (NOR)
[This arrived on 22 September, while I was in Australia and 3 weeks before my daughter got married - sorry, Tim. ed]
Points East Online
While this is the last edition of Points East in print form (for now, at least) the name will live on in the form of the online edition, which can be found at the EAOA website (www.cam.ac.uk/societies/cuoc/eaoa/ in case it's not already one of your bookmarks) The site will act both as a source of information on East Anglian orienteering and as a forum for discussion.
The information section of the site has been there for some time, and has the advantage that fixtures details, in particular, can be updated and corrected continuously so that you will always be able to see the up-to-date version. If there is any other type of reference material that is currently missing and you would like to be able to find there, let me know and I'll do my best to supply it.
What will be new is the 'editorial' side of things: regular features such as Tim Eden's Chairman's Chat will still be written, and posted on the site. I hope that others who have contributed articles in the past will continue to do so, and if anybody else has either written or wants to write about any aspect of the sport, please do. Similarly, there will still be the opportunity to write letters to the editor which will appear in their own section.
The transition to an electronic format has many advantages: firstly, the costs of printing and distributing the old-style Points East disappear, which is a significant reduction in the Association's budget, and will be reflected in a reduced capitation fee for clubs. From an editorial point of view, articles can be published one at a time, as soon as they arrive, rather than having to wait for the next publication date. Article length is unimportant, so feel free to submit a 5000 word epic if you want to! And older content will remain available long after most printed copies would have been lost or discarded.
In fairness, I must accept that there are disadvantages as well - unless you are prepared to print everything out you will need to be at a computer screen to read it. And there will be some of you that do not yet have access to the Internet - I hope that the editors of club newsletters will pick up any articles that they feel to be particularly interesting or relevant and reproduce them.
I hope that you will find the new Points East interesting and useful, and please send your articles and letters to the address below. Please can submissions be in plain text format, not a proprietary word processor, as any formatting will have to be re-done in HTML. Of course, if you want to add in simple markup tags (eg. (italic) or (bold)) please do.
Mark Collis (CUOC/WAOC)
mwc22@cam.ac.uk
Veteran Home International
We have recently become used to tales of our Juniors, who represent club, association and country with distinction in a variety of competitions, including Junior Home Internationals; so it is a particular pleasure to record the success of our most consistent Vet, currently ranked first in W55L (though I must admit that I don't usually think of you as a Vet, Jenny, as you rush past me in the forest). I received reports from both Sarah Brown, the team captain, and Jenny herself (you see, Juniors, editors harass Vets as well as you!)
The 12th Veteran Home International was held in Northern Ireland on 14th and 15th October. The individual event was held on Mullaghmore and the relay at Drum Manor Forest Park. Leaving southern England under a deluge of water, we were blessed in Northern Ireland with bright sunshine, little wind and plenty of very generous Irish hospitality.
The VHI is a chance for top individuals from the four nations to compete against each other, but also for teams to come together socially at the events and at the Saturday evening meal. The social spirit was enhanced by the marvellous weather and on Saturday afternoon, the Giant's Causeway was overrun with orienteers relaxing after the individual event. The Northern Ireland clubs had found us all splendid accommodation from the modern conference centre to the historic Drumcovitt House where the England team stayed. Our host nation were also extremely generous in terms of prizes, and thanks go to all those behind the scenes for all their hard work and organisation.
Nations are represented by teams of 20: 2 per age category from M/W 40 - 60 for the individual event where everybody scores (1st = 8 points...8th = 1 point), and relay teams of 4 runners with the top three teams counting.
Mullaghmore is a combination of physical forest and open moor land with a plethora of rocky features. The men's competition was close between England and Scotland with winning margins of only seconds in some places. Maximum points for England in the M50 class helped tipped the balance in England's favour. In the women's competition, the winning individuals were from England and Wales, though in the majority of classes Scotland finished in the top 5. England scored well in the W60 class which meant the England women won overall by a reasonable margin.
The Sunday relay was on Drum Forest Manor Park, a small area of intricate vegetation, mapped at 1:7500 which made overshooting a possible hazard. A spectator control by the finish area added to the fun and competitors were variously cheered, heckled (along the lines of "He's just behind you:") and even in some cases urged to punch the control ("No, this isn't mine" "Oh yes it is"). Nations soon got some idea how quickly runners should appear at the finish having gone through the spectator control, and there were some nail-biting moments in the changeover area. Fine runs by Peter Gorvett, Jenny Thompson and Tim Tett built up a good lead on which Jackie Hallett capitalised to bring the England team home in first place. A much closer battle for second place came between Wales and England. Together on the final leg at the spectator control, but Janet Rosen edged ahead of Colin Powell on the last loop to bring the team (Hilary Simpson, Charles Bromley Gardner and Andy Hemsted) home second. Wales came in third position and England followed shortly with fourth and fifth positions thanks to some steady team performances. England therefore won the relay event and were presented with the trophy, a fine pewter bowl with Celtic designs on the handles, (given to the VHI by Scotland).
Next year the British Championships are due to be held in Northern Ireland. From our experience at the VHI weekend, it should be an event worth travelling to and there is plenty to enjoy apart from the orienteering.
Sarah Brown (Team Manager)
Having been selected to run for England in this competition I had to make sure I arrived well prepared both physically and mentally. To prepare for running competitively on two consecutive days I managed to find events on both Saturday and Sunday on 3 out of the 4 preceding weekends and these were all on areas which were technically challenging. I needed to be able to prepare for the concentration required as well as the fitness. The "CHIG" Short Race series in Epping Forest (the nice bit!) on 3 Saturdays in September was very useful. This is actually the 2nd year I have done this series and is well worth going to as long as you don't mind an early start on Saturday morning. Other events included the Berkshire / Hampshire areas of Long Valley, Star Posts and Frith Hill - the latter being in pouring rain which could have been useful practice as well! For fitness I kept to my Wednesday evening training session with my Running Club, although to avoid any chance of injury I gave it a miss the Wednesday before the competition.
Travelling to the competition was a bit of a challenge, using three buses to get to Stansted and then a flight to Belfast where I was picked up by some team members. (Overheard on first bus - old lady speaking to driver, "It's Friday 13th, I wouldn't want to be up in one of them planes.") Oh well - I had already decided to pack all my "O" kit in my hand luggage as my sister had told me the night before about their tandem not arriving back with them from Denmark!
Saturday morning dawned sunny but chilly. We headed for Mullaghmore in the Sperrin Mountains - an area comprising forest and moorland. The forest was fairly thick, steep, intricately contoured and rocky and my progress felt slow. The moorland was steep and rocky with little to navigate by and the marshes were not obvious, but at least the visibility was good and it was more runnable underfoot away from the rocky bits. Some of the steep grassy / mossy slopes were very slippery and the best way down wasn't always on foot! My final four controls were back in the forest and I finished in 52 minutes (4.1km and 150m climb) without making any mistakes. After a long wait for the results I discovered I had won my course with the next competitor, a Scot, taking 60mins. England won the individual day - I am not sure of all the scores at the moment.
Our accommodation was a very friendly and comfortable B & B with huge rooms and I was looking forward to returning for a relaxing bath and collapsing for a while but a chance to visit the Giant's Causeway put paid to this. It was well worth the visit and the rush back to attend a team meeting and then a Reception (a huge meal) in the evening for all the teams.
Sunday morning we were whisked off early to the Relays as the first leg runners were off at 9.00. Each country has 5 teams of 4 runners, equally mixed in age and sex. The first three run a long, medium and short course in varying order and then all the 4th leg runners do a short course. This time the area was a wooded parkland near Cookstown - fairly flat with an intricate path and ride network and very fast going (more like southern England). Again the weather was sunny but very cold. I ran a 2nd leg (short 2.8km) making no mistakes and our team was 4th. An England team were 1st and 2nd with a Welsh team 3rd. The first Scottish team was uncharacteristically 7th - all their teams had problems on this un-Scottish like terrain. So England won the Relays as well and the overall prize.
Altogether this was a fantastic weekend, very hectic but the hospitality of the Irish was great and the scenery wonderful. I hope I am able to get to the British Championships next May which will for the first time ever be staged in Northern Ireland. I would like to thank the officials of this event with a recommendation to everyone to go to next year's British. Finally a huge thank you to Sarah Brown, our Team Manager.
Jenny Collyer (SOS)
Individual Winners
Relay Results
Full England Team
M40
Tim Tett (SYO)
Charles Bromley Gardner (SLOW)
M45
John Rye (RMOC)
Vince Joyce (SO)
M50
Andy Hemsted (HOC)
Peter Gorvett (SYO)
M55
Ivor Noot (EPOC)
Brian Shaw (SYO)
M60
Arthur Boyt (KERNO)
Les Swindin (NGOC)
W40
Jackie Hallett (BOK)
Stella Lewsley (BL)
W45
Hilary Bloor (SYO)
Janet Rosen (HH)
W50
Margaret Jagan (EPOC)
Hilary Palmer (NOC)
W55
Jenny Collyer (SOS)
Hilary Allen (AIRE)
W60
Jenny Thompson (SOC)
Hilary Simpson (OD)
Junior Points East
[This is filed in my Points East file as Junior PE July 00, reflecting the time that it was originally submitted, as indeed you can see from Eleanor's opening remarks (it was, of course, subsequently updated with a selection of articles from the summer tours). Thank you, Eleanor, for your utter professionalism and 100% efficiency as JPE editor. I am very sorry that this particular tale of junior triumph has been so long in the pipeline. Our juniors have enjoyed unprecedented success during my time as Points East editor, culminating in this superb Junior Inter-Regional result, but it is thanks to you that we have all been able to enjoy and even participate vicariously in it. ed.]
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! As I write this I am still smiling from the results of JIRC. Orienteering came to East Anglia in a big way. We hosted the biggest junior event of the year with nearly 250 competitors from 11 regions. The junior inter-regional championships are a fiercely competitive weekend of racing, consisting of one day of individual competition and one day of relays. Two years ago East Anglia had been last for as many years as most people could remember. Last year we raised this to 8th overall and this year we had cause for celebration. Our squad of 24 slew the might of North West and Scotland to win the Individual Day trophy - a title only previously won by three other regions (North West, Yorkshire and Scotland). Our relay runs were perhaps not quite up to standard but we finished 3rd overall - with all scorers coming home with a bronze medal. Personally, this has to be the highlight of my orienteering career and judging from the reactions of my team mates it ranks pretty highly for them as well. See the next page for a full report written by squad coordinator Colin West. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Colin and his team of coaches - especially Heather Sears - for all the hard work they have put into the squad. It has certainly paid off. Also, can I thank NOR, WAOC, the SportIdent team and Lyn West (weekend coordinator) for making the weekend happen. Winning at home made the occasion even more special.
Onto other news. I've nabbed a report David West wrote about his experiences as a member of the British team at the World Schools Champs in Israel in April - well done to David for a silver medal and Nicola Robertson for her bronze medal.
The World Schools Orienteering Championships
Nicola and Suzy Robertson and I jetted off as part of a 40 strong team from Great Britain. There were two age classes, 83/84 birth and 85/86 birth (M and W separately). There were five selected from Britain for each age class and the remaining places were filled by school teams.
The weather was very hot, between 30 and 35 degrees centigrade most of the time. I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit (85-95 ed.), but it was 100 when we landed at around 10.30 at night. We flew from Heathrow with EL AL; their security is incredibly tight. When we arrived at Tel Aviv we were bussed south for about an hour and a half to Ashkelon where we were to be staying. We stayed in an army recreation village, with rooms of five. We didn't arrive until about 12.30 at night, but we had to be up early as the training event was a chance to inspect the terrain and to get used to the Emit punching system. It was not as bad as I had remembered it although I still prefer SportIdent. We wandered about in pairs for around an hour, checking out some features on the map, and getting an idea of what to expect. We were training on the northern end of the map that was to be used for the classic race.
After we returned to the village, we were then taken to the opening ceremony in Ashdod, the event centre. There were lots of speeches and a bit of dancing. The next day was the classic race. We made a very early start and were taken straight to the start; there was no assembly area. Fortunately the British had relatively early starts, and as elephant tracks would not be a problem, running before the midday sun was important. The terrain was very open, trees were present but did not hinder running at all. There were many deep gullies and valleys with steep sides. Running up and down these was a real challenge. But apart from these the contours were mainly undulating. My course was 5.0km and I ran it with very few mistakes, my only errors being going up and down the gullies instead of round. Also toward the end of the course the heat began to tell. However I was very pleased with my time of 30 minutes that finished me 4th. I was really happy, coming about 4 minutes behind the Latvian winner. Nicola went one better, and picked up a fantastic Bronze medal. Suzy also did well, coming in a very good 11th. After the classic race it was back to the village for bit of sunbathing, then off to the first of 3 discos, which gave us a chance to meet with and get to know people from all around the world, although the Israelis were definitely the best dancers!
The trip to Jerusalem was the next day, it was a very interesting day, visiting a beautiful city. It was very long and very hot but still enjoyable. I touched the Wailing Wall!
The short race was held close to Jerusalem, with the terrain being much slower and more rocky, also more technically demanding. I again had a good run, although I made a few mistakes, from trying to go too fast. I picked up a silver medal, less than a minute behind first place.
In the evening there was a cultural evening combined with the prize-giving. Each country got to show off a part of their culture and the atmosphere was indescribable. The less competitive friendship relay was held the next day. Teams of three were made up from three different grades of runner, for example I was grade one. I my team was Belgian girl and a Chinese girl. It was a score event, and then we had to hold hands down the run in, in the true spirit of the International Schools Federation. After this we swapped tops, I got an Austrian and an Italian top.
After the closing ceremony and farewell party, it was time to pack, and then we left the next morning. I have several addresses of people whom I intend to keep in contact with. The experience was truly amazing, and I'm aiming for Portugal in two years!
David West (SOS)
Congratulations to the Robertson twins of SOS. Nicola became W16 British Champion with Suzy just behind in second place Other top ten results showed that we have a good spread across the age categories:
Philip Humphries WAOC 5th M10A Simon Gardner WAOC 9th M12A Edmund Kelleher NOR 6th M14A Chris Sellens SOS 4th M16A David West SOS 10th M16A Joanne West SOS 6th W12A Helen Gardner WAOC 8th W14A
Well done to all of you - keep up the good work next season. This year was a record one for the number of juniors representing the region on British training camps in the summer. Edmund Kelleher (NOR), Helen Gardner (WAOC) and Laurence Ball (NOR) were all chosen by East Anglia to attend the under 15 camp at Lagganlia in Scotland. Laurence reports:
Lagganlia
After a quite eventful (and slightly uncomfortable) journey, I arrived at Lagganlia at about 7:30 on Saturday night, and it was raining hard. My first impressions of the centre were quite good; it looked a lot more modern and comfortable than I had expected and the coaches and juniors seemed friendly. After eating we had a briefing about what the rest of the week would be like, and then we retired to bed.
The next day we were divided into 3 groups of about 7, and each group was assigned a different part of the local area Inshriach to go to. In the morning my group went to Inshriach north. I found this area reasonably easy, with contours being quite clear and simple to navigate off. In the afternoon we went to the south of Inshriach, which was definitely more technical with far fewer obvious features. After we had finished all the day's exercises we drove back to the centre and played football.
On the second day my group went to Inshriach middle and did a pacing exercise. We ran 1.2km in terrain and then the same distance on paths, and compared the times. I found that I was a bit faster on paths than in terrain, but not as much faster as some of the other people who did it. In the afternoon we went to Strathmashie and did a 1-man relay with gaffled controls. On this the navigation was quite hard, but I managed to do okay with no major mistakes.
The next day we went to Craig Bui and did a simplification exercise, some compass work and pacing, and a short attack points run. In the afternoon we did an odds and evens relay, which is basically when there are 3 people in a team, and 2 people go out to different controls, and the first back hands the map and control card over to the third person, until you have collected all of your controls. I didn't make any mistakes on this and our team was joint first.
On Wednesday we drove to what I thought was the nicest area of the week, Anagach, and did a control flow and route choice exercise. After devouring our packed lunches, we then had a free afternoon. We drove to Aviemore and had a bit of time to look round. I (and a few others) headed straight for a funfair and spent a considerable amount of money. Then we drove back and had an early supper, and set off for Glenmore for the annual rounders match. We arrived and soon realised that we had found somewhere with even more midges than Lagganlia. The game actually started off as football, which everyone seemed to enjoy more than the following rounders match, which Lagganlia won.
On day 6 we drove to Docharn, and did a relocation exercise, and then a short course. After lunch, we did a short race, which was part of the tour champs. On the way to the first control I suddenly realised that my compass wasn't on my wrist anymore, and spent 15 minutes looking through the undergrowth for it, and then to make up for it, I totally messed up the next control as well. After that we went back and analysed our courses. After dinner we played football and basketball until bed-time.
On the last day we had the classic race of the tour champs. I had a good start, but I messed up a quite simple control which threw my confidence so I made another even more major mistake and ended up quite far down the results. After lunch we had the relays, and thankfully I made up for my disaster run on the classic by coming back first out of the juniors on leg one. Meanwhile, Oleg Chepelin managed to do a faster time on the classic and the relay than the M21 coaches did! After that we drove back and had dinner, played football, had a final talk from the coach and went to bed quite early.
Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile tour for me to go on. I went there quite nervous that they would already be expecting a very high standard of navigation from me, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they started from almost the basics. The most valuable things I learnt were how to visualise complex terrain and how to get around contoured areas, both of which I was previously weak on because of the fairly few opportunities in East Anglia for this type of orienteering compared with places like Scotland or the Lakes. I feel I have gained more confidence in navigating in this type of terrain and that this will certainly help me in future events.
Laurence Ball (NOR)
The others all had to perform in selection races and were chosen by a board of selectors. Chris Sellens (SOS) and Suzy Robertson (SOS) jetted off to Norway for two weeks on the under 17 A tour, and Neil Northrop (WAOC) traveled to Scotland, this time on the under 19 B tour to Grantown-on-Spey.
Halden 2000 (Week 1)
In July this year Chris Sellens and I were lucky enough to head off to Halden, Norway for two hard weeks of training on the BOF M/W16 tour. For some reason a party was sent over early in the day (5am start!) and I was one of the lucky people to be sent with this group. We spent the day picking up the hire cars, shopping for food (and trying to learn Norwegian at the same time) and generally sorting out Gimle Hut, our home for the next two weeks. The 'hut' was not actually a hut at all but a large wooden chalet in the middle of the Norwegian woods (we did a star relay from its door one day) about ten minutes drive from the centre of Halden. Since the second half of the group arrived at half past midnight we were kindly allowed a lie-in the next day with breakfast at 9am not 8am. Soon after that, however, it was down to work.
By the end of the first day I think just about everyone had got at least a little lost. Norwegian forests are lovely and white and contain a lot of rock features, marsh and contours and it is easy to panic when you first see a map of one especially since they all tend to be A3 size and you can struggle to find any paths at all. So the first few exercises were designed to make us concentrate on our fine orienteering, making us use attack points and bearings on everything we did and finding the not so obvious line features people forget about like the edges of marshes and spurs. We soon developed a routine of a few exercises in the morning and a fun relay or course in the afternoon to practise what we had learnt.
On the Saturday evening we were joined by Heather Monro who is a member of Halden Skiklubb, an excellent local orienteering club, who told us all what it was like to be a top-level orienteer. The following day we were on Venasmarka, the area next door to the one Gimle Hut is on, and there was an opportunity to do a 3km warm-up. All the boys and one brave girl volunteered while the rest us took the cars up the dirt track. On reaching the top we realised we had lost the back car. Ten minutes later we discovered what had happened when the four girls who had been travelling in the car came running up the road to tell us it was in the ditch 3km down the road. A party was sent down to push it out but failed; eventually a tractor was used to pull it out. This day however turned out well when a carload of us spotted our first moose grazing in a field. By the Tuesday everyone was very tired so after an exercise to practise long legs (I was fine after I realised I was running on a 1:10,000 map not a 1:15,000 one) we were awarded a half rest day. During this we swam in some of the glorious sunshine we had for most of the time, visited the Svinesund bridge which has one end in Sweden and one end in Norway and bought cuddly moose!
Norway taught me a lot. Before the tour, if I had been given some of the legs we had (especially the long ones) I would have taken a bearing and checked off everything along the way, but I now have the confidence to run on a rough bearing to a large obvious feature near the control and then use fine O. Two things that we were taught that I found very useful are:
1. To hold the compass up while running on a bearing so you are checking the bearing all the time because simply going round a tree or bolder can take you slightly off your bearing especially in low visibility.
2. To look around you so you don't miss a control or feature that might tell you where you are. I managed to walk, sorry run, past a control while being shadowed when the coach had just looked slightly to the right and seen it, but I overshot slightly and wandered around wasting several minutes.Suzy Robertson (SOS)
Halden 2000 (Week 2)
After the half-day rest everyone felt slightly refreshed and eager to do battle with the Norwegian forests again. It was Wednesday the 2nd of August, we spent the whole day in an area adjacent to where we were staying, called Musehogget. This is where the Halden Skikubb have their club hut. In the morning we did a relocation exercise in groups of four with a coach. The coach would take our maps from us and then drop us somewhere in the forest. We were then expected to relocate and navigate to a control. This was a very effective exercise and definitely helped me to relocate on other exercises in the week.
Following the relocation exercise we did a short leg course which made us look at the contour detail and follow the map carefully. In the afternoon we had a longer course of about 6km which concentrated on route choice. The course consisted of some short and long legs to test route choice to the limit. The evening consisted of chores such as: washing cars, washing up and cleaning the toilets with a debrief about the day's training.Thursday the 3rd August brought with it the Tour Champ short races. These took place in Hauglund to the east of Halden on the way to the Swedish border. The area was very runnable, yet you had to keep in contact with the map, as there were only crags and water features to relocate on. Although the area was quick and the courses short the winning times were about 15 minute per km. In the afternoon we stayed in the same area and did a relay simulation exercise. This is when the controls are gaffled and every one sets off at the same time. On the 4th two of the boys on tour had their 16th birthdays. The girls bought them each a pair of moose boxer shorts which they wore on the moose hunt that evening.
The area that we went to on Friday (Lindtjem) was apparently one of the nicest areas in Norway. It was northeast of Halden and adjacent to the area where we had spent the second day. It is lovely with open woodland (a runner's heaven). We spent the morning doing two simplification exercises, which are very useful, as there is so much detail on the map. After a few renditions of Yellow Submarine we were back at the car park eating our lunch with the Bloodhound Gang blurting out of the car speakers. After lunch we did a compass exercise where you take a bearing, run 20 paces, add 120 degrees to the bearing, run another 20 paces, add 120 degrees to the bearing again and run 20 paces. You should end up in the same place you started! We then went back to Hauglund and the coaches played a practical joke on me. They had made a window exercise especially for me, which did not exist. As I was getting ready the coaches told all of the other juniors about the joke. It was only when I got to number one and no control that I got suspicious and when I saw leg 4 -5 was across a lake I realised I had been caught out and went back to do the Talk O.
On Saturday the 5th we did not do any training and drove up to Oslo to participate in the Norwegian main event, the Hovedlop. We spent Saturday walking around Oslo and in the evening went to the school where the Norwegians were staying. This event was a bit like our junior inter-regionals but on a larger scale. On Saturday evening everyone was shown a very professional video of the area we were to run on showing how physical the area was going to be.
On Sunday we were all bussed to the area to compete. My course was 5.55km with lots of climb and it took me 56.42mins. This was a good run yet I was still 10 minutes down on the winner. There were 6 age catergoies M14, MI5, M16, W14, W15 and W16.
On the Monday we joined in with the Norwegians for training before going back to Halden. In the morning we did our course again but trying different route choices. In the afternoon there were a number of exercises involving relocation.
On Tuesday we were back in Halden doing the classic race for the Tour champs. The terrain was similar to the short races but the times were better. Both courses for the boys and girls had a 2km leg, which was a nice path run if you found the path. All the overall times were close with 5 minutes splitting the first four on both courses. In the evening we had a hash prepared which ended up being a massive mud fight, in which nobody managed to remain clean or dry. Mud was still being found more than 12 hours later.
On the final day, Wednesday we had a star relay on the map, which had the hut on. Heather Monro and Sarah Price won the relay (which was not a surprise). After cleaning the hut we were in the cars heading towards the airport.
I would like to thank the East Anglian Orienteering Association and SOS for helping Suzy and me with the cost of this tour. I would also like to thank Colin West and Heather Sears for the time they have put into the squad to get us to the standard needed to go on tour. Also many thanks to the coaches that looked after us for the two weeks. The tour was great fun and for all you younger juniors it is something you should aim for. If any one would like to have a look at some maps of Norway, then just ask or e-mail me at csellens@somakam.freeserve.co.uk
Chris Sellens (SOS)
Meanwhile Nicola Robertson (SOS), David West (SOS) and Peter Gardner (WAOC) stayed at the National Orienteering Centre at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland for a week on the under 17 B tour.
Glenmore 2000
It was early on Saturday 29th June that David West and I (along with Ian Nixon who was going to Scotland for the M/W18 Grantown tour) were showing how much our navigational skills needed improving by making an 180° error and catching the train heading in the opposite direction to the optimum route to Scotland. Eventually we managed to relocate and meet up at Peterborough with the rest of the East Anglian Junior mob going to the three Scottish tours among whom was the third junior selected for Glenmore, Peter Gardner. We arrived in Inverness a little later than planned but luckily Jon Carberry (one of our coaches for the week) was waiting with a minibus to collect us. Glenmore Lodge was only a short drive away and it was here that we met the other juniors we would be training with, our coaches and cook.
Once we had had dinner we had a quick introductory talk (we'd missed the earlier one) and were given a tour handbook. This contained all we were going to do for the week and information on the skills that we would be practising and the evening talks. Each evening we had a talk from one of the coaches on an aspect of orienteering, covering a range of topics from race preparation and training to nutrition and the British Orienteering Squad. On the first night we were told the benefits of a warm up and cool down. In order 'to release some energy before our first night away' we had some team building exercises and, although not all were orienteering related, they did include a puzzle which involved contours and a mini team score event from the door of the chalet. On Sunday we went to Docharn and Deshiar and started with control picking in order to familiarise ourselves with the Scottish terrain: a sharp contrast to that of East Anglia. The second exercise of the morning involved being separated into small groups and taken into a section of forest where we had to relocate and navigate to a control. In the afternoon we headed to the south west of the area for a clock relay which enabled us to practise our skills at speed.
On Monday we went to Darnaway, the area that I believe was used for the 1976 World Championship (but don't trust me on that). Here we started with a bearing and pacing exercise. Most people are familiar with picking an object on your bearing in the distance, running to it, checking your bearing then repeating the process. Some advice I picked up to make this method faster was not to stop once you had reached the object but to hold your compass flat about 5 metres before you reach it and retake the bearing, therefore you should not need to stop at all. The second morning exercise was a map memory exercise in pairs, which involved going round a short course taking it in turns to lead the other into the control. In the afternoon we did a Norwegian style race. At each control there was either a bearing and a distance (to practise our bearings and pacing) or a small section of map with the control we were at and the next one marked on it (we had to memorise the route).
On Tuesday we went to my favourite of the week, an area called Lossie. If you are unfamiliar with this area you should know it lies on the coast and has a 300 metre band of intricate wooded sand dunes, it is so intricate that it has a 1:10 000 scale and 2.5m contours. The rest of the area is fast forest with very vague detail, only a few form lines and rides to navigate by. We started the day by doing two of three simplification and visualisation exercises. The intricate section was a challenge but surprisingly the hardest part was going from the intricate detail to the vague area, it was on one of these legs I ran off the map and found it hard to relocate but was chased after by a coach. Luckily I was undaunted by the thought of going out again on the following exercise (I've had lots of experience of running off maps prior to this occasion). In the afternoon we ran a race with various leg lengths. Coaches were positioned around the course to see us come in and out of the controls as well as taking split times so we could compare our performance with our peers.
We only did half a day's training on the Wednesday, as it was our rest day. In the morning we were joined by Derek Allison, director of BOF coaching, when we did two exercises focusing on attack points (you should have one for every control) and traffic lighting (going fast then slowing down once you've reached your attack point and are navigating into the control). In the afternoon we had a game of marsh football (football played on a marsh with very relaxed rules!) so we ended up a little bit muddy. Once we had showered, the Grantown tour (M/W18s) came down to have a joint talk on injuries by Gordon, the physio for Glenmore Lodge. Later the Lagganlia tour came for a social evening with games (football and football frisbee [what about the rounders, Nicola? ed.]).
On Thursday we went to Loch Vaa where last year's WOC relays were held. In the morning we competed in the tour championships short races. We had a prologue followed by a chasing start. On the second race we had the WOC relays spectator control and last control, we even had to run down a section of the steep run in! Overall I came third but it was a close race. In the afternoon we ran a type of clock relay where two people competed against one another. David managed to win the mini tournament we had. In the evening we had a coaches' review where we were given feedback on how the coaches thought we were doing and any areas they thought we could work on or discuss any problems we had, I found this very useful.
On the final day we had the tour championships classic race on Uath Lochans. This was where we were meant to combine all the skills we had practised under race conditions. My race went well apart from a mistake at number one (it was a long leg and I made the mistake of not having a clear attack point.) We finished the week off with a fun Puzzle-O where there was a question at each control and the answer determined where the following control was.
I really enjoyed the week and felt I learnt a great deal. I learnt not to panic when looking at a difficult leg (in the case of Lossie) but to simplify it and have a clear attack point. I learnt to relocate sooner rather than later i.e. not to take the approach that 'the control should be around here somewhere' but to go back to my attack point or to another obvious feature. I also learnt how important it is to look around you and move if you cannot see the control because it could be hidden behind a tree or something similar. It is these things, obvious as they sound, that determine who the winner is in a race. The week was also fun socially and I would like to thank the East Anglian Orienteering Association and Essex Stragglers for contributing to the cost of the week. I would also like to thank the coaches (and cook) who gave up their free time for our benefit. I would especially like to thank the lead coach Heather O'Donnell and team manager Anne Salisbury who also gave us a lesson on the climbing wall. If anyone would like to see the tour handbook or my maps please just ask or e-mail me at Nicola @robertson-sos.freeserve.co.uk
Nicola Robertson (SOS)
And on that note I will sign off my last Junior Points East. I've had fun writing it and I hope it's performed the two jobs of keeping you informed and at least partly entertained over the last couple of years.
Eleanor West (SOS)
[All our juniors know that there is no such thing as free support for tours and international competitions and respond positively to requests for articles - the quid pro quo of regional and club funding! Reading through this particularly impressive set of accounts - aren't our juniors amazing? - I realise how many O skills I have learnt over the years from accounts of junior training, and there are still some new ones this time. Thank you, Eleanor, and Abi Weeds before you, for coordinating the efforts of East Anglia's talented and lucid juniors. I hope to continue to read about your exploits on the Web. ed.]
EAGAL 1999
The EAGAL results can be found here. Please address any queries to Pat and Alan Bedder (NOR) [The columns are a bit of a mess, I'm afraid, and don't complain to me about the spelling... - MC]