SLOWprint 143

APRIL 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://sloweb.org.uk/

 

 

Chair: Chris Robinson,   :	Secretary: Don McKerrow,   :	Ladies’ Captain: Karen Jones,   :
Treasurer: Liz Armitage,   :	Mapping Officer, SEOA Rep. and Fixtures Secretary: Andy Robinson,   :	Club Kit: Teresa Turner,   :
Men’s Captain: Peter Huzan,   :	Publicity Officer: Paul Canham,   :paul.canham@btinternet.com	Social Secretary: Vicky Robb,   :
Membership Secretary: Ginny Catmur,   :	Beginners’ Rep. and Training Officer: Heather Walton,   :	Equipment Officer: Chris Fry,   :
Archivist: Sue Lumas,	SLOWprint Editor: Sarah Brown,   :	Webmaster: Andrew Trimble,   :

 

Copy date for Issue 144 will be  early  June 2003. Letters, event reports, articles, cartoons, gossip, scandal, notices, small ads, court circulars, births, deaths and marriages should be posted to Sarah Brown (address above); electronic copies via e-mail are particularly welcome.

 

New Members: If you are new to SLOW, you might not know about ... Training:

PLEASE  READ PAGE  5 AS TRAINING IS GOING TO CHANGE OVER THE  NEXT FEW MONTHS -  on going to press ‘ training is Tues. eve. (7.15 pm) training open to all, of all standards: every Tuesday at the clubhouse (Thames Hare and Hounds, Richard Evans Memorial Playing Fields, Kingston Vale);  After Tuesday evening training, following the closure of the Robin Hood Pub, the club has decided to try the Albert Arms until further notice. The Albert Arms is at the junction of Kingston Hill and Queens Road (the road out from Kingston Gate), up and over the hill towards Kingston from the Robin Hood.
Like the Robin Hood, it is on the 85 bus route, but it's also close to Norbiton Railway Station. Food is served until 9pm, about the time people usually arrive after training.

            … and Transport: we can organise lifts to events: ring any of the club’s officers, as listed above, and one of us will sort this out for you.

 

 

MIDGE'S MUTTERINGS

 

After a relatively quiet start to the year, SLOW leapt into action in March with, in quick succession: the Box Hill Fell Race, the Holmwood Trail Challenge, Pancake-O, CompassSport Cup regional final (a pity we didn’t win; how do we make sure we win next year? however it was a most enjoyable occasion, sheltering in the club-tent from the glorious sunshine!) and another beneficial coaching weekend in the New Forest.  Many thanks to Andy R, Andrew T, Jackie C, Peter H, Heather W and Chris F for organising these events.

 

Another achievement is that we have succeeded in expanding our Sport Ident expertise with Andrew Trimble and Chris Fry now becoming proficient.  We plan to hold some training days for planners and others who would like to get to grips with the SI software in the near future.

 

Several SLOW members are involved in planning for the World Cup to be held in the south-east in May 2005.  You will be hearing more about this as plans progress.  It will mean a lot of work but it will be a wonderful opportunity for orienteering to raise its profile and image and SLOW, like other clubs in the area, will benefit enormously.

 

Unfortunately numbers attending Tuesday training in the winter have dwindled beyond critical mass and so a change is being considered for next winter. However, those lovely summer evenings are nearly upon us and Alan Leakey has kindly offered to co-ordinate a series of orienteering exercises and races at various venues, catering for orienteers of all standards.  [see page 5] Hope to see you there…

 

… and also at our next Hot Picks, [see page  9] which, now we are into the main season, include some real goodies: JK, British Champs and Harvester Relays.

 

Finally …with a gentle hint from our webmaster, I have ‘noticed’ our new noticeboard on the SLOW website.  At the moment I seem to be the only person to have visited it.  Surely someone else out there has got something to say??

 

Chris Robinson

Chair

************************************************************************* Message to SLOW members forwarded by Chris

Macmillan Cancer Relief Wimbledon Walk  Sunday, 18 May 2003

from   Lynne Rudd, Chairman Merton Committee, Macmillan Cancer Relief

Brian Roberts has given me your contact details as I am involved as a  volunteer fundraiser for Macmillan Cancer Relief in Merton. We are  holding a sponsored event on Wimbledon Common on Sunday, 18 May 2003. I wondered if any of the Orienteers might be interested in running the course, raising money for Macmillan or perhaps helping to marshall the event. We are fundriasing for a Macmillan Specialist Gynaecological Nurse at the St Helier and Epsom Hospital.

Do let me know if you might be able to participate in this event in some way.

 Lynne Rudd    Tel/fax 020 8286 1482

Close on the heels of the last SLOWPRINT was another junior coaching day on Wimbledon Common.  Many thanks to Nicky King for planning and to all those who helped including Keith and Sue Marsden.  A good time was had by all particularly during the puddle splashing competition.  The next coaching day will be on SUNDAY 22^ND JUNE - put the date in your diary now!

 

More recently we have had another coaching weekend in the New Forest.  I was impressed with the number of new enthusiasts - just Marie and Chris Wroe had been to the previous one.  Mervyn and Justin managed to make this one - it was Richard Harpin’s car’s turn to break down, fortunately only after he had got to Lyndhurst.  Many thanks to Chris Fry for planning and to Nicky King, Mike Garvin and Trish Robinson for helping with the coaching.  The open heathland of Hampton Ridge showed the shape of the land wonderfully and gave the coaches a good view of a few mistakes……  After lunch in the company of a few New Forest ponies, there was some manic competition in the star relay where Matt provided good spectator value by approaching a control from at least 3 different directions!  Many thanks to Rachel and Matt for sorting out the food for Saturday night - they obviously have the magic touch getting 16 people into a pub in the good pub guide with only a few hours notice.  The following day people tried out their skills at the Dorset Delight event.  Well done to everyone for completing their course.  Several people ran the same courses leading to a sunlit splits fest at the end.  Particular congratulations to Chris Wroe 2^nd on Light Green by just 34 seconds, gaining his light green badge and beating Mike G in the process.  The dive in the deep end duo Francisco and Franck had a go at M21S - many respectable splits from both but Francisco won out in the end.  Janie beat me in the walkers competition on W40S and Tony cracked the 11 mins/km barrier despite the physically challenging previous day.  I look forward to great things from you all in future events.

 

And I haven’t forgotten to keep my eye on the junior results, at least at some of the events.  Good to see Matthew Jones emerging as a regular competitor on M10B including 1^st place at Box Hill and Greg Street has been making his mark on M10A (2nd at Box Hill, 1^st at Burnham Beeches).  Robert Jones was 2^nd on M12B at Burnham and Charles McMillan has been making 5^th place his own at both Box Hill and Burnham.  Well done to Katherine Skingsley 1^st on her first ever W12B at Box Hill.  Ralph Street was 2^nd on M14A at Box Hill and first junior in the 6km trail race at Holmwood, Michael May was 3^rd on the light green course at Holmwood and James was 3^rd on M14A at Box Hill.  Ali McKerrow has been doing respectable times on several green courses and was 1^st on W18B at Burnham and Box Hill.  Of those not mentioned already, there were helpful scores from Charlotte Turner and Matthew Walter on course F at the Compass Sport Cup and useful backup from James Haynes and Anna Steinitz on course G.  Although the white course was not part of the Compass Sport cup, good to see Jenny Steinitz (6^th) joining in and keeping up the practice for Compass Sport Cups in future years!  I am sure you have all been doing well at other events too.  And best of luck to those of you going to the JK.

 

I wrote an idiots guide to age classes and procedures for entering events for those going to the coaching weekend (who are not idiots I assure you!).  If anyone else would find this useful please let me know.                                                Heather Walton

 

Andy Robinson has sent out several emails on future plans for SLOW Tuesday evening training and certainly stirred up some comments from the SLOW membership. It is clear that a lot of people are interested in Tuesday evening training, even if they can't get there very often. In particular there is most interest for summer evening events. Discussions are still going on with Thames Hare & Hounds about switching winter training to Wednesday nights to combine with them but we will certainly be keeping SLOW summer "orienteering" training on Tuesday evenings.

I have volunteered to coordinate SLOWs summer evening training sessions this year and am now working on a schedule of events in conjunction with Croydon OC and Mole Valley. Unfortunately I am very short of people to actually organise the individual events, so I need some volunteers from out there. I have plenty of ideas for exercises that we can put on so you don't need to worry about a shortage of inspiration. What we are intending are training exercises, not full blown events so things are generally ultra simple. In each case you probably need to visit the area (Wimbledon/Sheen/Richmond Park etc) once beforehand to compare the map against reality and tape some sites, then plan your event and finally just get there early on the actual evening concerned. I will try and pair up novice volunteers and am more than happy to give advice and guidance where required.

Volunteers so far: Diane & myself, Andy Robinson, Peter Huzan,Jeff/Liz Armitage.

We have managed to start our planning nice and early this year so we have the chance of some really good summer evening training - but it you want it to happen you have to contribute. You can contact me on 01932 864347 or at to volunteer - I look forward to being swamped by offers.                                          Alan Leakey

***************************************************************************

AU REVOIR AND THANKS    from CHARLES BROMLEY GARDNER

Dear Ginny - and all SLOW Members

As some of you know I have been posted to Norway and depart next week to Stavanger to work at a NATO headquarters. A long way away from any Gulf action!
I have enjoyed my 3 years as a member of SLOW and am grateful for the new friendships that have been offered, whether through orienteering, the SouthDowns Way or the Bob Graham Round. I will certainly be back in UK at some time, it remains to be seen if it is to work in London; in the meantime I may see some of you at one or other of the large events - not that I am rushing back for this year's JK. I am sure that your M40 Relay Team will still have a good battle with BAOC.

I will be living in a 4-bedroom house by myself, so there's plenty of room for visitors. I am not sure of my home telephone number yet, but 0047 5157 2107 will find me in the office. "Office of the Chief of Staff, JHQ North,   BFPO 50" is the postal address and for a while anyway I will keep as my email address. It is nowhere near this year's World Veteran Champs, but if any of you do drive out, Stavanger is one of the ports on the SW coast served by ferry from Newcastle.                                Charles

Welcome to Charlotte Walmsley (W2), born in 2002.

Welcome to the following new members

Elliot Norton (M21),  , Putney,   

Andy Cook (M40),  , Bramley, Surrey  ; e-mail:

The Farmery Family (actually, not new, so much as lapsed!): Mike (M50), Karen (W45), Hannah (W8), Emma (W8), Ellis (M8), James (M4), Teddington,  ; e-mail

Katherine Skingsley (W12),  , Richmond e-mail

Amy Willis (W21) and Adrian Sarkies (M21),  , Ealing,  e-mail

Urs Zinniker (M40),   Aarburg, Switzerland;  e-mail

Chris Marsh (M21),  , Thames Ditton,   e-mail

David Pilling (M35),   Richmond  e-mail

Heather Monro (W21),   Halden, Norway; e-mail

Please note the following changes of address:

Michelle Barrows (W21),   Richmond, Surrey

Richard Lloyd (M35),  , Brixton, London 

Rick Pearson (M21),   Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent 

David (M35) and Elisabeth (W35) Finch:   Vancouver, British Columbia   Canada; tel: 00 1   email as before:

I want to look ahead to the busiest time of the year for "orienteering teams". If you are able to go along to any of these, then please do - in my opinion they are usually the most enjoyable orienteering days of the year. And they show what orienteering can be like - good competition but still with courses for everyone, & very sociable. Look out for the SLOW banner and club tent, & cheer very loudly!

 Remember that there will be courses suitable for absolutely EVERYONE (adults & juniors), and juniors & full-time students are paid for by the club.

JK Relays (21st April). Now confirmed on Hambleden (as JK Day 1). We shall have about 17 teams, including 4 open & 2 junior. The major selection issues will be in the M120 & W120 teams, especially with our Swiss contingent (Bonafinis, Stephan, Urs) coming over. There will be opportunities for the 2nd teams to beat the 1st teams! All form but ESPECIALLY the individual days' results will be used for selection. I shall have team details after we have run on day 2 - please ensure you go to the tent, or talk to me. It is still possible to get late entries. There are also courses up to 4km available for entry on the Saturday & Sunday (£3) for any newcomers interested.

South-East Relays (11th May). Shorne Country Park, Kent. Adults £4.50 (+£1 if non-BOF). Please tell me by ***21st APRIL***. There are Open, Handicap & Junior classes - we are the current Handicap trophy holders! An enjoyable day out, especially if there are lots of SLOW teams like last year.

British Relays (18th May). Greno Woods, Sheffield. Adults £8. Please tell me by ***15th APRIL***. That's soon! Back to the standard age group courses.

Harvester Night & Day Relays (14/15th June). Longshaw, Derbyshire. Adults £9. Please tell me by ***18th MAY***. For teams of 7 or 5, with 40% of runners at night. Our only team in Northumberland last year won the A Handicap Trophy. The event is a lot closer this year, so let's have more teams. We may be able to lend headlamps as required.

Other events include:

Scottish Relay Championships (25th May). Speak to the Leakeys.

North Downs Way Relay (Saturday 21st June). Can we get two teams of 16 this year? (see page 8)

Junior Team Relay (7th September). West Midlands. Are the juniors up for it this year? We need 8 people (ranging from yellow to blue standard)  to make a full team - extra training can be organised!

If you want to go to any of these relays, then please send a cheque (payable to SLOW) to Liz Armitage - one cheque can cover all the events. Then tell me by email or phone that you're coming.

Best wishes                                                                       

Pete Huzan

 

This is planned to run on Saturday 21st June. Last year we lost the trophy by only a few seconds over the whole day. I'll be looking for 16 runners who are comfortable running about 8 miles of Long Distance Path and who are able to recce their route before the day. Properly organised we should be able to regain the shield.

The plan is to recruit some new, faster runners each year whilst still relying on a core number of regular team members. If you haven't run before the event starts at 05:00 in Dover and finishes in the early evening in Farnham. Some hardy members stay with the run from start to finish, others for a few legs and some turn up, run and go home again.

More recently the relay has been dogged by progressive delays throughout the day and a very late finish. This year steps will be taken to guarantee an earlier finish (and hence more time to eat and drink at the end of the day) and to make start times more reliable - last year's scheme of keeping a running log of lost time on a mobile message pad worked OK, but we're
looking to improve on this.

So if you are new to this event and fancy a run just make contact with me,
Dick Clark. 020 8336 8800 (W) 01737 379894 (H) 07956 668 728 (M)
. Or mention it to Andy Robinson if you see
him on Tuesday training nights.

 

 

As most of you know, we came 2nd out of 9 teams in the CompassSport Cup Regional round at Redlands.  The main scores were SO 451, SLOW 389, SN 366, HH 344. Good luck to Southdowns in the final in June.

I would like to thank everyone for turning up to run for the club, especially the juniors - you were all important! We were under strength in some of the classes due to holidays & injuries - thanks again to those people who covered for this, especially on Women's Open. If we get a full strength team out next year, we can get through to the final!

Some good performances include: Peter Haynes (2nd) & Andy Robinson (5th) on B. John Dowty (1st) & Trevor Jones (4th!) on C. Diane Leakey (1st) & Chris Robinson (4th) on E. James McMillan (5th) & Michael May (7th) on G.  We had the most juniors & most M/W21's at the event! (7 runners within 14 minutes of each other on Women's Open).

The next major team event is the JK relays where we have 17 teams entered! Let me know if you find out late on that you can come along - we may be able to get more entries.

from Peter Huzan

utututututututututututututututututututututu                                      HOT PICKS

 

See you at - SLOW's top five summer hot picks  

   your guide to the best fixtures coming up

 

 

 

This is now the main competition season. So the current "hot picks" are spread all around the country. We've abandoned the idea of specifying pubs, as meeting round the SLOW tent and banner has proved much more sociable. All these big events usually have good assembly areas which make this much the best way to go.

 

April 19-21. The Jan Kjellstrom Festival.

The annual Easter shindig usually rates as more prestigious than even the British Champs and this year it's just down the road in South Central region. Day 1 on Hambledon and Day 2 on Star Posts are individual races while Easter Monday we're back on Hambledon for the relays. We all need to be up to speed for the fast and furious terrain.

 

May 11. South-east relays.

A low-key local thrash staged by Dartford OC in Shorne Country Park. Will good weather and pleasant assembly area outweigh what may well be a low quality area?

 

May 17-18. The British Championships near Sheffield.

Saturday sees the individual race on the infamous Wharncliffe, feared the world over for its boulder strewn scarp slope. For those with their ankles still intact Sunday's relays are in the adjoining forest that is much more runnable.

 

June 8. National event on High Dam in the Southern Lakes on the west side of Windermere.

To be running on the outstanding piece of terrain that is being used anywhere this year, this is a "must do" race for all the real aficionados. The British Elite Champs are being staged here over this weekend.

 

June 14-15. Harvester Trophy.

It's back to Sheffield for the 7 or 5 person overnight relay, that SLOW have such a fantastic record in.

 

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IT'S FIXING TIME                                                 from Andy Robinson

 

Well I haven't exactly been inundated with volunteers here, and have now reached the stage where I am seriously leaning on likely looking candidates. I am of course talking about planners and organisers for SLOW's next few events.

Orienteering is a sport put on entirely by amateur volunteers. If you want it to operate with paid organisers you can expect entry fees to double at the least. This means that anyone who orienteers has an obligation to put something back into the sport. If you attend events fairly frequently it does mean a bit more than just agreeing to turn up on a morning when somebody has phoned you about it. Remember that person who phoned you is a volunteer too.

 

What we have coming up is this

 

April 12 (so this will happen while SLOWprint is with the postman) Southern Express. The Nower. Organiser Diane Leakey. Planner Mike Murray. Controller and on-the-day planner - Charlie Turner. SportIdent - Andrew Trimble

 

May 31. 3 colour-coded courses. The Nower (while Moles doing the Surrey Hills Race). Planners - Nicky and Ruth King. SportIdent - Gordon Parker. Organiser & controller - vacant.

 

July 20. Frolic (3 or 4 colour-coded courses) Ham Riverside. New map.  Planner - Frank Lyness. SportIdent - Gavin Andrews. Organiser and controller - vacant.

 

12 October Yvette Baker Trophy - regional qualifier. Richmond Park. Organiser - Ginny Catmur. All other jobs vacant.

 

13/14 December. Hankley Common. Southern Night Champs with the next day

OK Nuts mass start races (and some shorter colour coded courses). All jobs vacant and may well be simpler if the same organiser and the same planner did both.

 

Also we expect to have a summer series of evening events/ races / fun O etc. These will be from early May to Mid August and we hope to manage about one every other week, mostly on a Tuesday, but some on Wednesdays. If you enjoyed these last year, try putting one on this year by volunteering your services to Alan Leakey (01932-864347)

 

Races we have put on in the last 2 months have been interesting and instructive.

 

8 February. Senile. Wimbledon Common. Thanks to Chris Owen (planning) and Andrew Trimble (SportIdent). A poor attendance - only 35 runners - we'll have to think a bit about the timing of our night event next year.

 

1 March. Box Hill Fell Race. Thanks to all the usual suspects for turning out and making this go well again. A different winner for a change! Yes - Chris Beecham was beaten and by a clubmate he'd brought along too!

 

2 March. Holmwood Common. 2 Trail Challenge races and some colour-coded courses. It was good to get Holmwood back into use since the last (pretty poor) map back in about 1990. Big credits to Andrew Trimble who not only organised but got the SportIdent under control using different software in Gavin's absence. Also to John Dowty who for his first planning job had a sizeable assignment - new map, unfamiliar area and 2 trail challenge courses.

 

Due to a publicity ****-up the turn-out for the trail challenge races was very low, but despite that they were the highlight of the day from where I was standing - which was a point in the middle of the Common where the races passed twice and it all looked really exciting from there. Sarah Rollins led for most of the race, dragging in her wake several heavy-breathing old men (AJ to name but one), but was caught just before the end by her husband who had to chase hard after an early mistake.

 

So I was really pleased to see the GB No. 2 at the prize-giving beaming so enthusiastically about the race format. Equally I was disappointed by the number of regular orienteers trundling off to their blue and green courses without showing the spark or imagination to try something different. There's going to be more of these sorts of races; it's the way ahead and it ain't going to be stopped.

 

Andy Robinson (020-8255-7176; )

 

 

A little bit of trivia for those who are interested. We had a full entry for the third year running and the analysis of the entrants was as below. The average age of all entrants was 42.1 this year as opposed to 41.8 in 2002. Not a great increase. Once again it would seem that the over 40’s advance by 1 year without many new ones entering the race. Interestingly only 72 people entered the race both in 2002 and 2003. Andy and I imagined the number would be much higher.

 

We had 33 ladies this year as opposed to 35 the year before. The average age of the ladies was 37.6 as opposed to 39 last year.  Two ladies teams entered, although I believe none finished on the day.

 

Last year we had a big entry of Independent men, but we reverted to mainly attached runners this year (only 14 Independents entered). The early cut off date meant that old faithfuls such as Worthing Harriers and Cambridge Harriers had much reduced entries, although the Essex bunch from Bishops Stortford and Springfield were very much present as usual.  South London Harriers put forward 10 runners this year. One team of 5 from Aylesbury, Bearbrook Joggers, enterprisingly called me about 13 hours before the start to check they were entered .. and none of them turned up! Mind you were a lot of pub-like noises in the background, so maybe they just couldn’t be bothered to get up next day. Thames once again took the run seriously, with the deserved first place, even though Highgate occupied first and second spots.    

No graphs again this year….

 

Class 2003	21	40	45	50	55	60	70	U21
Female	22	2	4	2	1
Male	66	31	36	24	12	1	1
Class 2002	21	40	45	50	55	60	70	U21
Female	22	2	3	3	5
Male	75	39	33	28	11	5	1
Class 2001	21	40	45	50	55	60	70	U21
Female	15	3	2	1
Male	63	39	33	22	4	1	1	2

 

EVENT INFORMATION

You are strongly urged to confirm these events using the following answerphone services. The SEOA website has links to SE clubs and other regions.

 SEOA (020-8948-6056): http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.errington/seoa/seoa.htm

(SCOA (0118-946-4354)           (Army (01256-883265)               (SO (01903-239186)

(SAX (01303-813344)                (MV (01372-279295)

 

13/4	SAX Colour Coded Event. Bedgebury, Hawkhurst. TQ/722336. Jean Fitzgerald, 01622 686779. £4.00/£1.50.
19-21/4	JAN KJELLSTROM ORIENTEERING FESTIVAL
27/4	BADO Harearound Badge Event. Butter Wood, Hook. SU/722522. Organiser: Mike Broderick, 01256 351624. Entries: Andy Macgregor, 12 Douro Close, Baughurst, Tadley, RG26 5PG, 01189 812589. CD: 05/04/03. £6.50/£3.50 but late entries +£1.00.
4/5

SO Colour Coded Event. Angmering Park (East), Arundel. TQ/070080. Jane King, 01903 731234. £4.50/£2.00. EPS-SI. String course. Parking £1.00.