Points East Number 164 - Autumn 2004
![[front cover]](pe164cover.jpg)
Contents
- Editorial
- Chairman's Chat
- Junior European Cup
- Junior Points East
- Results Round-Up
- BOF Membership proposal
- KIMM 2004
- 6-Day Events in 2005
Editorial
It's not often that international competitions come to Britain, let alone East Anglia, so last month's Junior European Cup was something to look forward to, particularly with three local runners representing their country. If you weren't there to watch, I hope Lyn's article brings some of the atmosphere across - a reward for the enormous effort that she and others put into staging the event.
As she mentions, I was frustratingly unable to attend the sprint event that I'd mapped and planned - it wouldn't have looked very good to skive off early during my first week at a new job in Guildford: of course this means that I'm not likely to live in EA again in the foreseeable future, so please pull your typing fingers out and write me some copy to keep me as well as everyone else up to date with what's happening in the region. I've recently joined CROC (and their committee...) so you'll get lots of plugs for their events otherwise!
There are some more junior events to report on too - both SOS and WAOC were well represented at the Peter Palmer relays and Yvette Baker Trophy - but where were the other East Anglian clubs? Junior talent seems to be concentrated in these two at present, and I'm sure they'd welcome some competition.
Perhaps the most important content to this edition, if not the most exciting, is BOF's plans to change their membership structure. Please let Lyn and Dick know your thoughts so that Council gets a representative view of the region's opinion.
Finally - it's a bit early I know, but I hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas and New Year!
Your comments, articles, reports and pictures are always welcome - please email or post them to me at
mark@drongo.org.uk
46 The Crossways, Merstham, Surrey RH1 3NA.
The submission deadline for the Winter 2004/5 edition is January 21st.
Chairman's Chat
There are times when I am proud to be Chairman of EAOA and other times when it just seems like hard work. Co-ordinating the Junior European Cup was typical of the two sides of the role. It was hard work to get it all together although I had an enormous amount of help from a lot of people. This is where the pride in the region comes in. The people that make up the region agree to help when asked and even more importantly volunteer before asked. There was someone from every club in the region helping at one or more days. A big thank you to you all! This is what enables the region to put on successful events.
Having got one event over, we are in the midst of the final preparations for an even bigger event, the British Schools Orienteering Championship. Alan Bedder has been working hard on the organisation. Eleanor and David West have put the finishing touches to their courses and committed them to the printer. I am certain that on the day the event will be successful and that once again the members of the region will be there in force to make it so. It really is a privilege to lead you.
We have an active and committed set of orienteers in the region. Long may it continue. So I am concerned about how the outcome of the current membership debate will affect the way the region works. All the clubs in the region are heavily dependent on “club only” members who are not members of BOF. While the idea of all orienteers becoming members of BOF is good, we need to be careful that the cost does not mean that we lose them as members altogether. Maybe a two tier membership of BOF would be better. Alternatively we can keep BOF membership low enough to attract these members and raise event levies to fund the cost of running our sport. Dick Towler is keen to hear your views ahead of the Management Committee meeting early in December and I would also like your thoughts before the vote on a proposal at BOF Council in January.
Finally Congratulations to SOS on winning the Snail Trail Trophy and to WAOC on qualifying for Yvette Baker Final. Good Luck to them in the Final.
Junior European Cup
I have been a little preoccupied with this event in recent months - how on earth did I get involved? I've wondered that many times! About two years ago, EAOA was approached to host this event formerly known as the Six Nations (although I haven’t established the original six!). "A low key event for 100-150 consisting of individual and relay and you need to provide accommodation" was the brief. "Normally SEOA host it but they are too tied up with the 2005 World Cup to stage it and it needs to be in the south so it is easily accessible". "Oh and how about using Epping?" Well, and I'm sure HAVOC won’t mind me saying so, only the grotty bits of Epping are in EAOA! However, an initial approach to CHIG indicated enthusiastic support for the project and an offer of Epping East for the individual with John Pearce to plan and Tim Pribul as the Controller. Hatfield Forest seemed to lend itself to the relays and was ideally located under the flight path for Stansted to facilitate return journeys on no-frills airlines. Neil Humphries agreed to plan. The YHA were about to open a new 112 bed hostel at Lea Valley. It seemed plain sailing and after my experience with JIRC, a larger event, it didn't seem too big a task, so I agreed to co-ordinate JEC. If only I’d known...
![[action from the JEC sprint]](jec1.jpg)
Keith Marsden sounded a few notes of caution with some horror stories. For his sins he has co-ordinated 3 JECs and no, I'm not going to try and beat it! And the throw away line – I think you need to be a bit more sophisticated with the social these days! What Social?! Then it was mentioned that some sort of training/warm up event on the Friday would be well received. Nothing formal of course...!
I was a little taken aback by the price of the hostel at Lea Valley. Keith had mentioned using army accommodation so I decided to explore this option but a little expedition to Iraq stalled these plans! Bert Park was set on the trail on his return. Meanwhile, I got invited to travel with the British team to JEC 2003 in Germany. On the drive to our accommodation from the airport, Jason Inman asked if we would be staging a Sprint Race on Friday. Er, well I hadn't thought of doing so but apparently this was the style of warm-up event currently in favour with teams. Any small area will do?!
I really enjoyed the trip to Germany. Eleanor and David had grown up in orienteering with most of the Juniors in the GB team so I knew them all fairly well. It enabled me to discuss what they thought about the event and how they would like the event run. There were a lot of things they and I didn't like about the event. Many of these stemmed from the fact that the Germans had chosen to run the German Championships alongside JEC. This took the focus off the Juniors which I didn't feel was right. One example was the Prizegiving on Saturday night. We had to travel into town from our accommodation. When we arrived, the Prizegiving for the German championships was still in progress and so JEC Prizegiving, already scheduled for a fairly late hour, started even later. By the time it was over, many of the athletes, especially as it was an early start next day, wanted to turn in. The Disco didn't really happen. I decided at this point that there would be no other event held with JEC and I really couldn't have coped with any additional workload. Andy Munro, travelling as team doctor, was critical of the commentary... well, Andy, you do better next year then - and so he agreed to act as commentator for JEC 2004. And excellent he was too but then I'm not sure how good it would have been if he'd been speaking German! The Germans gave the commentary in English.
![[action from the JEC sprint]](jec2.jpg)
On my return, I felt I had a much better idea of what I was trying to achieve. And it wasn't really a low key style event. These elite athletes deserved better. Bert got frustrated with the army and came up with a load of Scout locations. One message that I got was that the teams really would like to stay together as much as possible rather than be in several different sites. I revisited the idea of Lea Valley and booked Epping Forest Youth Hostel and several Scout locations as overflow. John Ward, the EAOA treasurer got a bit worried about the amount of money I was spending and whether we would get it back. I had a few sleepless nights over it too! Lea Valley turned out to be a good decision. The hostel staff could not have been more helpful. As we had booked the whole hostel, we could do pretty much as we wanted. The standard of accommodation was high and well received by the teams. In the end I had teams staying at Epping and a Scout Hut as well. Lea Valley provided the evening meal and packed lunches for all. The disco and prizegiving were staged in their TV lounge. The hostel ran a bar (soft drinks only). CHIG came up trumps again with helping with a suitable area for the Sprint and Mark Collis agreed to plan it.
I emailed team managers and Andrew Cordle launched a website. I went off to the Welsh 6-days in August expecting to return to a mailbox crammed with entries. Not so. The closing date came and went with entries trickling in. Sleepless nights about losing money! We didn't have enough entries to fill Lea Valley. I cancelled the scout accommodation and wrote a letter cancelling Epping, but, before I posted it, the Russians sent an entry for 24, and could I arrange transport for them? I was so keen for the entry I agreed. This proved to be the greatest source of hassle. More entries arrived. The French sent an entry less than 3 weeks before the event. I needed the scout accommodation! Of course the best was lost to rebooking, but enough was still available. In the end there were 141 competitors and 24 coaches from 11 nations.
The teams started arriving on the Thursday. John Pearce put out some controls on Epping South East for training on Friday morning and the Sprint Race started at 4pm on Harlow Town Park. Mark was silly enough to start paid employment the week before and wasn't able to view the results of his planning labours. It was an exciting format, with runners appearing from all directions. Andy's commentary added to the atmosphere. The Swiss made it a double, winning both Men's and Women's races but GB's Scott Fraser was second. Winning times were 11:24 for 2.8km (Men) and 12:28 for 2.5km (Women). CHIG have suggested that they may stage the courses as an Open Event at some stage. I would thoroughly recommend giving them a go. (SMOC are to stage the 2006 British Sprint Champs and those will be worth going to watch).
![[Helen Gardner in action at the JEC sprint]](jec_helen.jpg)
Saturday was the Individual Classic Event on Epping East. Again the courses were planned with a spectator control and Andy's commentary set the scene. The competitors found the courses tricky and mistakes resulted. The Swiss weren't used to being able to run that fast, there being no Alps in Epping, and some of their runners suffered as a result. The Brits took M20 by storm. Mark Nixon & Graham Gristwood took Gold and Silver with EAOA's own Chris Sellens beaten by a Russian by 9 seconds to miss out on a clean sweep of the medals. November 14th sees a colour-coded event on Epping East. It is as good a technical area as you will get close to home, so do go and try it out. Two other EAOA runners, Helen Gardner and Suzy Robertson were selected for the British team. Suzy finished 25th in W20 and Helen was 20th in W18.
The relays in Hatfield saw both Chris and Suzy on first leg. Chris teamed up Graham & Mark to win Gold in the Men’s relay. Graham approached the final control in the lead with two Russians hard on his heels. He managed to hold them off in an exciting sprint finish. Suzy Robertson ran first leg for Women's GB1 with the team finishing 10th. Helen ran second leg for GB2, which finished 12th. The performance of the women was rather upset by an organisational foul up by GB team managers and the closure of M25 that left a runner stranded at Lea Valley.
JEC was an amazing event. It was incredibly hard work over a long period of time. I underestimated the complexities of the International element of the event, so this involved more time than I anticipated. The technology that went in to providing the professional commentary was mind boggling. I could not have achieved such a successful event without the help and commitment of a large number of people both from within the region and from outside. I would like to take this opportunity to thank warmly all those who helped in various ways. For full results and pictures of the events, check out the website at www.jec2004.info.
Oh, and I did actually get to enjoy some of the weekend too!
JEC Results
Sprint - Men 2.8km 70m 1. Christian Mathys (SUI) 11:24 2. Scott Fraser (GBR) 11:35 3. Fabian Hertner (SUI) 11:39 4. Mark Saunders (GBR) 11:46 6. Mark Nixon (GBR) 11:50 14. Chris Sellens (GBR) 12:12 33= Andrew Llewellyn (GBR) 13:04 33= Colin Olivant (GBR) 13:04 38. Kyle Heron (GBR) 13:09 39= Dan Halliday (GBR) 13:10 43. James Tullie (GBR) 13:12 58. Andrew Brunton (GBR) 15:27 Sprint - Women 2.5km 50m 1. Ines Brodmann (SUI) 12:28 2. Jana Panchartkova (CZE) 12:50 3. Veronika Krcalova (CZE) 12:55 4. Mhairi Mackenzie (GBR) 12:59 8. Ruth Holmes (GBR) 13:06 20. Suzy Robertson (GBR) 13:57 22. Rose Hodkinson (GBR) 14:02 34. Elizabeth Bridge (GBR) 14:30 35. Lucy Jepson (GBR) 14:40 38. Cerys Manning (GBR) 14:55 44. Helen Gardner (GBR) 15:10 49= Lizzie Adams (GBR) 15:26 53. Jessica Halliday (GBR) 15:45 Classic - M18 8.9km 225m 1. Charly Boichut (FRA) 50:42 2. Jerome Kaser (SUI) 51:10 3. Alexey Zotov (RUS) 51:47 8. Scott Fraser (GBR) 55:43 13= Duncan Coombs (GBR) 59:51 19. Andrew Llewellyn (GBR) 61:12 20. Andrew Brunton (GBR) 61:39 23. James Tullie (GBR) 63:10 31. Kyle Heron (GBR) 73:25 Classic - M20 10.8km 285m 1. Mark Nixon (GBR) 59:24 2. Graham Gristwood (GBR) 60:39 3. Maxim Sychev (RUS) 62:58 4. Chris Sellens (GBR) 63:07 20. Dan Halliday (GBR) 76:37 22. Mark Saunders (GBR) 78:28 24. Colin Olivant (GBR) 80:26 Classic - W18 7.2km 175m 1. Tatiana Rozova (RUS) 50:44 2. Martina Tichovska (CZE) 51:08 3. Lucie Krafkova (CZE) 51:21 12. Ruth Holmes (GBR) 57:17 15. Cerys Manning (GBR) 58:57 17. Jessica Halliday (GBR) 60:56 20. Helen Gardner (GBR) 62:21 24. Rose Hodkinson (GBR) 64:36 Classic - W20 8.6km 205m 1. Lene Bergersen (NOR) 60:04 2. Mhairi Mackenzie (GBR) 63:17 3. Monika Schmutz (SUI) 64:51 16. Elizabeth Bridge (GBR) 72:43 22. Lizzie Adams (GBR) 77:32 25. Suzy Robertson (GBR) 84:30 28. Lucy Jepson (GBR) 89:40 Relay - Men 1. GBR 1 (Sellens, Nixon, Gristwood) 90:54 2. RUS 1 90:55 3. RUS 2 91:08 7. GBR 2 (Fraser, Halliday, Coombs) 94:55 17. GBR 4 (Olivant, Heron, Tullie) 107:34 20. GBR 3 (Saunders, Llewellyn, Brunton) 113:25 Relay - Women 1. SUI 1 94:13 2. CZE 1 95:18 3. NOR 1 95:33 10. GBR 1 (Robertson, Holmes, Manning) 112:45 12. GBR 2 (Jepson, Gardner, Halliday) 113:49
![[routes from 4-5 on sprint]](sprint_routes.jpg)
![[action from the JEC sprint]](jec3.jpg)
Most of the route choices in the sprint race were to go left or right around an out-of-bounds area, but there was one leg in particular (common to both courses) that was a bit more interesting. The five different routes taken by the top three men and top two women are shown on the map. The fastest times of all for this leg were 1:21 and 1:37 for men and women respectively. The control in the picture to the left is number 5, giving an indication of just how fast the terrain is.
Junior Points East
The JEC brought some of Europe's top juniors to East Anglia, but it's two way traffic... as usual some of the region's most promising juniors went on tour in the summer. Here is Jo West's report of her experiences on the Halden tour:
I flew out early in the morning on the 1st August with a group of 12 youngsters and 6 adults to spend two weeks training in Norway. The flight from Stansted to Oslo took 2 hours plus the added hour time difference. We picked up hire cars at the airport and drove 2 hours to the Gimle Club Hut where we would be staying for the next 2 weeks. Everyone was exhausted from having got up so early, but after lunch we had our first training session. The group was split, with about half having orienteered in Scandinavia before and the other not. We started with a couple of simple loops designed to work on the simple technique of attack points. By the end of this first day everyone was incredibly tired so went to bed early.
The following day we trained on an adjacent area, that's one of the things that's amazing about the area around Halden, all the maps of areas join together. The first week was spent getting accustomed to the different terrain. The weather was much warmer than it had been over here, most days into the high 20s. It was important to keep well hydrated. The weather had not, however, dried out the marshes and after the days training we played football in one of these marshes. It was really good fun and probably resembled rugby more than football!
On Thursday we only trained in the morning: in the afternoon we went and found a lake to swim. Everyone had been really keen to go swimming and the lake we went to was really great with two diving boards and a slide. On the middle weekend we made the two hour trip north to take part in a two day competition, it consisted of a short and a classic race. The terrain was slightly different from the terrain around Halden but it was still complex. The Brits did really well, winning our classes on both days.
The second week was spent focusing more on techniques needed for racing, we did sessions on pre-race preparation and racing under pressure. About halfway through the second week we visited the fort in Halden which dated from the time when Sweden and Norway were at war, because Halden is so far south it was a fortified border town. We had three tour champs, a classic, a middle and a sprint. The middle was our first, held on a really nice runnable area, after messing up the first control I had a pretty good run and ended up 3rd out of the 5 girls. The next day we had the sprint, it began and ended in the forest with a few legs in the middle which went through the streets of Halden. I had never run a sprint race before, I adapted quickly to the 1:5000 map and started well but was unable to maintain my focus for the end part of the course.
The classic race was in a more physically demanding area and the area around the finish was incredibly complex. On the final afternoon we did a novelty event where we were tied together in pairs by the arm. We had to visit controls in the area around the hut, using map memory and after each control performing a task. It was really good fun and involved some amusing boy-girl pairings. Saturday morning was spent cleaning the hut before travelling to the airport and making our return journey. The two weeks had been good fun but really hard work and I was glad to be going home.
Meanwhile, the clubs' junior sections have been involved in team competition, starting with the Peter Palmer relays in September:
For those who haven't heard of it before, the Peter Palmer relay is a night/day relay, a junior version of the Harvester, with a mass start at 4.30am. This means that the first two or three runners run in the dark, depending on the speed of their team-mates. The legs vary in difficulty from yellow to green level courses, so that even the younger juniors can take part in the event. This year, there was an extra twist in allowing up to three yellow runners to run in parallel, meaning that more of those younger/less experienced juniors could take part. The event had been cancelled last year and everyone had been looking forward to its comeback; this meant a well attended event, with 32 teams competing.
![[early action at the Peter Palmers]](pp.jpg)
This year's event, organised by City of Birmingham O.C., was held at Sutton Park, where the event actually originated 11 years ago. There was a good contingent from East Anglia, with both WAOC and SOS taking two teams to the event. Well done to all those competing!
With some healthy inter-club competition, the 'WAOC Foxes' set off ahead, with their strongest runners out on the first few legs, to be caught up by 'SOSpeedy' during the orange leg. Overall, 'SOSpeedy' finished 11th, with 'WAOC Foxes' finishing 13th in the main race and in the top 5 in the Joan George trophy (handicap race for teams with total BOF ages of up to M/W90).
Very good individual performances included:
- Helen Gardner (WAOC Foxes) 5th on leg 1 (3rd on Red A, 5.4km)
- Hazel Tant (SOSpeedy) 5th on leg 2 (10th on Red A, 5.4km)
- Emma Johnson (SOSpeedy) 7th on leg 4 (Orange, 3.5km)
- James Lyne (SOSpeedy) 9th on leg 6 (Green, 5.2km)
On the orienteering development side, it was great that both WAOC and SOS managed to take a second team to the event to give a chance to the less experienced juniors to have a go: so well done to all those competing for 'WAOC Cheetahs' and 'SOSlow', especially those for whom it was the first-time experience of the PP relay!
At WAOC's Rowney Warren event last month, several clubs turned out for the regional round of the Yvette Baker Trophy, the national inter-club competition for juniors. OD, raiding from the West Midlands, took the honours with the assistance of a strong Warwick University contingent who they seem to have recruited en masse, but home team WAOC also go through to the final as the leading East Anglians. The top three were:
- OD (G.Gristwood, M.Halliday, B.Ross, E.Kettley, E.Kellaher, H.Elkington, M.Elkington, N.Richardson, S.Starling) - 894 points
- WAOC (H.Gardner, S.Louth, T.Louth, T.Norris, P.Humphries, K.Sengerová, T.Hemingway, S.Gardner, M.Humphries) - 884 points
- SOS (H.Tant, N.Tant, J.Lyne, K.Sellens, A.Machin, J.Park, N.Robertson, E.Johnson, S.Park) - 879 points
Results Round-Up
SOS Hatfield Forest 26/9/04
White 1. Hugh Cashin (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 9:41 2. Marcus Turner (SUFFOC/Barn) M10 10:33 3. R.Coutts/G. Jones (SUFFOC/Barn) 11:23 Yellow 1. Robert Barker (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 14:14 2. Alex Davidson (SUFFOC/Barn) 17:04 3. Christian Gregory (SUFFOC/Barn) 17:23 Orange 1. Jonathan Cronk (WAOC) M12 26:15 2. Peter Heybrock (Ind) M40 27:16 3. Rakesh Chandraker (WAOC) M40 32:17 Light Green 1. David Cronk (Ind) M40 29:28 2. David Birkett (SOS) M40 29:54 3. Alex Edelsten (CHIG) M21 30:04 Green 1. Helen Errington (HH) W40 39:42 2. Peter Duthie (WAOC) M45 44:25 3. Carol Pearce (CHIG) W55 45:19 4. Bob Alderson (NOC) M60 46:07 5. Jenny Collyer (SOS) W55 48:51 Blue 1. Richard Bonnett (SOS) M45 50:50 2. Mike Currie (HH) M21 53:48 3. Tim Street (HH) M16 56:49 4. Edward Louth (WAOC) M14 58:00 5. James Lyne (SOS) M16 61:14 Brown 1. Dil Wetherill (WAOC) M40 59:04 2. Thomas Burke (BAOC) M21 60:21 3. Simon Errington (HH) M40 63:12 4. Martin Sellens (SOS) M50 68:53 5. Simon Gardner (WAOC) M16 74:40
SUFFOC Ickworth Park 3/10/04
White 1. Hugh Cashin (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 8:22 2. Hayes/Cashin (SUFFOC/Barn) W10 9:54 3. Oliver Jones (SUFFOC/Barn) M10 10:00 Yellow 1. Robert Barker (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 13:39 2. Josh Harris (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 16:28 3. Thomas Hemingway (WAOC) M10 16:40 Orange 1. Thomas Norris (WAOC/KCS) M12 26:25 2. Rakesh Chandraker (WAOC) M40 29:18 3. Sue Hooton (SUFFOC) W40 29:30 Light Green 1. James Norris (WAOC) M40 27:51 2. Clive Wilkinson (SUFFOC) M40 31:15 3. Dryden Williams (SMOC) M14 34:43 Green 1. James Lyne (SOS) M16 35:20 2. Martin Rigby (BAOC) M45 38:43 3. Ian Smith (WAOC) M45 39:58 4. Richard Towler (NOR) M50 43:16 5. Ronan Friel (Ind) M21 44:41 Blue 1. Edward Louth (WAOC) M14 46:59 2. Nicholas Pugh (SOS) M50 48:33 3. Bill Morgan (NOR) M55 49:24 4. Mike Bickle (WAOC) M55 52:46 5. Jonathan Pye (SOS) M18 53:59 Brown 1. Tim Lenton (INT) M21 49:12 2. Ian Renfrew (WAOC) M35 57:56 3. Peter Lake (Ind) M40 64:15 4. Phil Marsland (Ind) M35 65:26 5. Glen Richardson (NOR) M21 65:29
NOR Horsford Heath 17/10/04
White 1. Jack Goldsworthy (NOR/Falc) M10 22:03 2. Sarah/Matthew Wardle(NOR) M/W10 22:15 3. Goldsworthy family (Ind) 22:37 Yellow 1. Robert Kateley (CoWA) M21 19:33 2. Jonathan Gritten (CoWA) M18 19:34 3. Alexander Chafey (NOR) M14 22:34 Orange 1. Rob McCarthy (CoWA) M18 27:45 2. Tam Rennie (CoWA) M21 29:07 3. David Vince (NOR) M40 34:12 Light Green 1. Nigel Berry (NOR) M40 30:24 2. Robert Kateley (CoWA) M21 33:24 3. Edward Pugh (CoWA) M18 35:10 Green 1. Alan Spidy (NOR) M40 39:49 2. Robert Harber (NorS) M18 40:59 3. Graham Wardle (NOR) M50 41:25 4. S. Tomlinson (NOR) M40 43:29 5. Steve Nobbs (NOR) M45 44:04 Blue 1. Rolf Crook (WAOC) M21 43:08 2. Glen Richardson (NOR) M21 44:04 3. Michael Belshaw (NOR) M40 47:45 4. John J. Ward (NOR) M35 48:37 5. Danny Goldsworthy (NOR) M21 49:42
WAOC Rowney Warren 24/10/04
White 1. I. Clifton-Brown (SUFF/Barn)W10 9:00 2. Imogen Mansfield (TVOC) W10 9:40 3. Helen Laurie (SUFFOC/Barn) W10 9:53 Yellow 1. Thomas Louth (WAOC) M10 11:22 2. Emma Kettley (OD) W12 12:37 3. Ben Allpass (TVOC) M12 13:09 Orange 1. Ben Ross (OD) M12 15:51 2. Thomas Norris (WAOC) M12 17:01 3. Sophie Louth (WAOC) W12 17:24 Red 1. Paul Rushmer (SMOC) M40 31:37 2. Janis Ryall (WAOC) W50 34:07 3. Ken Prior (Ind) M50 36:16 Light Green 1. Alison Harding (HH) W40 34:26 2. Kevin Machin (SOS) M40 37:04 3. Matthew Halliday (OD) M14 37:26 Green 1. Graham Gristwood (OD) M20 27:21 2. Ed Kelleher (OD) M20 33:42 3. Helen Gardner (WAOC) W18 35:43 4. Bruce Bryant (OD) M45 36:34 5. James Lyne (SOS) M16 37:32 Blue 1. Henrik Landstrom (Amals OK) M35 53:20 2. Adrian Taylor (DEVON) M45 55:34 3. Michael Gryaznevich (TVOC) M50 58:10 4. Graham Louth (WAOC) M40 60:38 5. Carol Lovegrove (HH) W21 62:18 Brown 1. Neville Baker (TVOC) M50 58:58 2. Steve Long (TVOC) M40 62:04 3. Roger Thetford (TVOC) M40 63:23 4. Clive Street (HH) M45 65:30 5. Mike Currie (HH) M21 67:03
HAVOC Thorndon Park 31/10/04
White 1. J. S. Thompson (SUFFOC/Barn)M10 11:28 2. Hugh Cashin (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 11:40 3. Emma Vidler (SUFFOC/Barn) W10 12:01 Yellow 1. Alex Bibby (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 12:30 2. Robert Barker (SUFFOC/Barn) M12 12:40 3. Thomas Hemingway (WAOC) M10 15:14 Orange 1. Craig Manley (DFOK) M21 29:11 2. Stephen McMahon (HAVOC/HFPS) 36:07 3. Jacqueline Heybrook (WAOC) W12 39:39 Red 1. Ursula Kaulmann (Ind) W21 60:10 2. Georgia Salanti (Ind) W21 60:15 3. Butcher/Howard (HAVOC) M21 74:50 Light Green 1. Adrian Mullis (HAVOC/HFPS) M45 33:00 2. Tracy Craig (BAOC) W35 34:49 3. Alastair Muncey (Ind) M21 36:03 Green 1. Mark Morris (CUOC) M21 38:12 2. Sean Cronin (DFOK) M35 39:01 3. Robin Campbell (CHIG) M65 39:47 4. David Float (HAVOC) M35 41:47 5. Jo West (SOS) W16 42:13 Blue 1. Richard Bonnett (SOS) M45 43:55 2. Ann Roller (SOS) W21 51:16 3. Chris Cann (HAVOC) M21 53:15 4. John Pearce (CHIG) M60 53:17 5. Rosemary Dyer (CUOC) W21 56:02 Brown 1. Ian Maynard (HAVOC) M40 51:43 2. Rolf Crook (WAOC) M21 53:23 3. Glen Richardson (NOR) M21 56:26 4. Mike Brett (LOK) M40 57:13 5. Phil Stuart (SOS) M45 59:38
BOF Membership proposal
At its Council meeting on 25th September, the British Orienteering Federation (BOF) discussed a proposal that, if approved at next year's AGM, will make all club members automatically BOF members. This proposal will be finalised at a meeting of BOF's Management Committee early in December, for approval at the January meeting of Council.
I am one of two BOF Councillors who sit on Management Committee; I should like to receive any comments on this proposal by the end of November. Comments should be sent by email, if possible, to towler@acorn-p-p.co.uk or to me at Mornington, Walnut Hill, Surlingham, Norwich, NR14 7DQ. If anyone wants to discuss the proposal with me they should ring 07771 998554. If they leave a phone number, I'll ring them back.
Here is the gist of what is proposed:
The aim of the proposal is that all UK orienteers should take equal financial responsibility for, and share ownership of, the sport by becoming members of the Federation, the sport's governing body.
BOF's membership is declining. It is estimated that only 65% of club members are now BOF members and there is an increasing number of orienteers who are not members of any club. It is suggested that all orienteers benefit from BOF insurance cover, but only BOF members pay for that cover and for all the other services that BOF provides.
The proposal is that all active orienteers should be club members and that all club members should automatically be members of BOF. Current BOF membership fees would be reduced, probably by about a third, though the BOF event levy, which is paid by everyone as part of their entry fees, would have to be increased by perhaps 50%.
BOF office would maintain membership records for each club and issue club membership cards to each club member. Regular participants who could not produce a card at registration would be surcharged, probably £3, this sum to be retained by clubs.
Clubs could opt to pay capitation fees to BOF on behalf of their members, thereby enabling clubs to raise this money by increasing entry fees, rather than by charging local members to pay a much higher club membership fee.
KIMM 2004
As the end of October approaches and the time comes for the clocks to go back, it feels like winter is on the way. So what better way to celebrate than to... compete in a mountain marathon. The Karrimor International Mountain Marathon (KIMM) is orienteering on a grand scale - long courses set amid spectacular mountain scenery (when you can see it). Blanka and I had entered the Medium Score course, which operates in the same way as a conventional orienteering score event but with the start and finish 10km apart, and time limits of six and five hours respectively for the Saturday and Sunday.
This year's competition area was the western Brecon Beacons, which will be familiar to those of you who were at the Welsh 6 Days in the summer - Ogof Ffynon Ddu was actually part of the KIMM competition area, and we'd walked up Fan Brycheiniog, the highest point on the map, on the rest day. This was not as steep as some past areas have been, but compensated for this by having some seriously technical sections. This is limestone terrain, with lines of low crags exposed on the tops and enormous sink holes in the dips, and can be very confusing when misty.
We had one of the first starts, at just after 8am on Saturday, so after a not-too-comfortable night in the back of my car we got ready in the dark and headed down the road to the event centre. Fortunately the weather omens were good, after some bad weather midweek; it was a lovely clear morning, with little breeze. On getting the map, it was obvious that we needed to head as far west as possible to get to the higher value controls, and we set off towards the first control in that direction. It was fortunate that the weather was good, because we took a little while to get used to the level of detail on the map (1:40,000 and 15m contours) and were rather erratic. On the way to the next we climbed up into low cloud, but fortunately dropped back out of it on the other side allowing us to see the approach to the sink hole.
The next leg was a nice downhill run to a stream junction, and here we decided to turn north a bit, missing out a 35 point control because we weren't sure that we were moving fast enough to get to the finish on the north side of the map in time. This turned out to be a poor decision, as we made good progress on a loop to the west of Waun Lefrith, and dropped down on the north side of the main ridge with two hours still to go. There was mist below the ridge, but with some careful (or fortunate) navigation we were soon left with a gentle descent on a faint path almost all the way to the finish. We picked up one control on the way down, but opted out of the other possibility which involved crossing a kilometre of marsh and arrived at the campsite with plenty of time to spare.
The advantage of an early start was being able to choose our camping spot from the four adjacent fields used, so we bagged a nice flat spot next to a fence, and started eating... The fields were filling all afternoon, and even into the night for a few unfortunate late arrivals, so by the morning we could see nothing but closely-packed tents. Balloon beds, the latest weight-saving fad, also provided an entertainment opportunity for Sunday morning as an assortment of animal shapes could be seen in the skip. In contrast to my two previous KIMM experiences, there had been no wind or rain overnight, I hadn't had to hold the tent up overnight, and I felt fresh and ready to go.
![[Llyn y Fan Fawr]](llynyfanfawr.jpg)
The start on Sunday was completely different in character to Saturday, because we were much later - for the first few legs, there was a long line of people to follow, all taking a similar route. We were being taken east to finish on the other side of the valley to the start, so there were slightly fewer route choice options. The long run along a narrow spur below the Fan Hir ridge was my highlight of the weekend - not because I could see the spectacular cliffs above (I couldn't), but because the sharp descent into mist on either side provided a wonderful feeling of being up above everything.
Our only real mistake on the second day was the opposite to the first - being too ambitious. We tried to add an extra 20 point control to our route, but found ourselves a bit too far away from the finish for comfort with only an hour to go. We sacrificed one control from our route by contouring around a spur using a forest track, and then had to keep running hard all the way down the hill to the last control. This was in about the same place as the last control in the summer had been, but the run-in on the KIMM is again on a bigger scale - the finish was down at the bottom of the valley, 2.3km away... Painful as it was, we had to keep going, and eventually arrived at the finish with just 90 seconds to spare!
We had certainly pushed ourselves harder on the Sunday, and it showed in the results. We had climbed from 158th to 123rd in the overall standings (out of 264 teams that started) and as I worked out afterwards, we had also covered more distance despite the hour shorter time limit (25km vs. 23km). Time for some food and drink, and for my legs to seize up... the walk back to the car certainly felt a lot further than it had the other way the previous morning. Remarkably, it still hadn't rained!
Despite lacking anything remotely approaching mountains to train on, a surprising number of familiar East Anglian faces could be seen at the KIMM... and unlike us, some of them figured at the top of the leaderboard. Most impressive was Neil Northrop (WAOC), who won the A course with Rob Little, while Russ Ladkin (WAOC) and Jeff Powell Davies (SOS) were 7th on the same course. Chris Sellens (SOS) was 3rd on the B course, running with Mark Saunders. Congratulations to all of them.
If you haven't run a mountain marathon yet, give it a go! You don't have to be super-fit (I'm certainly not) and it's a great experience, physically and mentally challenging. And once you've done one you can always make an informed decision not to do another, though many people find themselves strangely addicted...
6-Day Events in 2005
Scottish 6 Days - Royal Deeside, 31st July-6th August
![[event logo]](scottish_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
Have you ever been to the Scottish 6 Days? If not, you are missing out on Britain's top multi-day event, one which offers you a week of top class orienteering in an beautiful holiday area. The ethos of the event is to combine quality orienteering in terms of maps, terrain and organisation with a user-friendly approach which enables competitors of all ages, and their non-competing family members, to enjoy the attractions of the local area. So if you are looking for a week of top-quality orienteering in an area of great natural beauty, there's no need to look out your passport - it's all right here on your doorstep at the Scottish 6 Days.
The six areas chosen for 2005 will offer challenging orienteering in classic Scottish terrain - mostly runnable forest with many areas of complex contour and rock detail. Several of the areas can also give you fabulous views of the surrounding scenery if you can spare a moment to look. You will come to understand why Queen Victoria fell in love with this place.
![[Crathes Castle]](crathes_castle.jpg)
The event centre and campsite will be located in the grounds of Crathes Castle (by kind permission of the National Trust for Scotland), one of the finest of Scotland's baronial castles, and this will provide the centre for the week's social events including the traditional ceilidh, to be held this year on the evening before the rest day. Meals will be on offer at the campsite, and for the first time at the 6 Days, a bus service will be provided from the campsite to each of the six events.
As well as the orienteering, there is a huge variety of other things to do in Deeside and the surrounding area. For those wanting some peace and tranquillity, head for the hills. If something more lively is your taste, Aberdeen has much to offer. There are castles and gardens, beaches and theme parks for the kids or follow the Victorian heritage trail to explore the area's royal history. On the rest day, events arranged so far include a mountain bike-O event, a Park Race in Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen (winner of Britain's Best Park in 2004) which will also incorporate the Scottish Park-O Championships, a golf tournament and a treasure hunt by car around the Deeside area. Alternatively, you may just want to rest!
Full details of the event can be found on the website www.scottish6days.com.
Entries for the event open on 1st December. Entries may be made through the event website or by writing for a paper entry form to Scottish 6 Days 2005, PO Box 12053, Mastrick, Aberdeen AB15 7WX, email info@scottish6days.com.
Southern 6 Days - Surrey, 30th April-7th May
Unusually, the biannual Scottish event isn't the only "6 Days" in the UK next year. Much closer to home is the Southern 6 Day event which is being held in conjunction with the World Cup races in Surrey during May bank holiday week. Not only will it share the areas with the World Cup so you can watch the world's best in action, the formats mirror the main event as well, from a couple of short and spectacular sprint races to the National Event which ends the week.
I'm not sure whether I'll be going to Scotland or not yet, but I'll definitely be taking this opportunity to watch a top international event in my backyard (and with my CROC hat on probably helping as well...) and I hope many of you will make the short journey south too. There's more information on the World Cup website at www.wcup2005.org.uk.
This site is maintained by Helen Nisbet on behalf of EAOA.
This page was last updated on 26th March 2006 at 6:10pm