SLOWprint 149

October 2004

 

 

 

Chair: Chris Robinson, + :	Secretary: Don McKerrow, + :	Ladies’ Captain: Karen Jones,   :
Treasurer: Liz Armitage,   :	Mapping Officer, SEOA Rep. and Fixtures Secretary: Andy Robinson,   :	Club Kit: Teresa Turner, +Little Orchard, Newdigate Rd, Beare Green, Dorking, Surrey RH5 4QD   :
Men’s Captain: Peter Huzan,   :	Publicity Officer: Paul Canham,   :paul.canham@btinternet.com	Social Secretary; VACANT
Membership Secretary: Ginny Catmur,   :	Beginners’ Rep. and Training Officer: Heather Walton,   :	Equipment Officer: Chris Fry,   :
Archivist: Sue Lumas,	SLOWprint Editor: Sarah Brown,   :	Webmaster: Andrew Trimble,   :

 

Copy date for Issue 150 will be late early December 04. Letters, event reports, articles, cartoons, gossip, scandal, notices, small ads, court circulars, births, deaths and marriages should be posted to Sarah Brown (address above); electronic copies via e-mail are particularly welcome.

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

World Cup Fever has really kicked in!

 

In case you need reminding:

 

 

There is huge interest in the World Cup, particularly the Young Orienteers Festival, amongst schools and local authority sports development units.  Primary schools are required to provide outdoor adventurous activities;  canoeing or rock climbing in the playground might be a wee bit difficult, but orienteering can be done pretty easily.  So the World Cup is already beginning to raise interest in orienteering and there is a growing demand for school grounds mapping, for training for teachers and for orienteers to put on activities for schools.  Hence there is a Mapping Small Areas course being held on 9 October, we are planning to hold Level 1 Coach courses for teachers (and orienteers) and next spring I will be looking for people to help put on schools’ activities during the week.

 

 

MASSIVE COACHING DAY

It was superb to see such a large and enthusiastic turnout for the SLOW coaching day on 4 September.  Over 50 people came: 32 athletes being coached, 18 coaches plus a few parents I lost count of.

 

As there were so many enthusiastic beginner juniors at the coaching day, we decided to put on extra courses at the Trail Challenge races on 3 Oct.  This provided  some extra practice before the Yvette Baker Trophy regional final on 24 October, which is the big date coming up for SLOW’s juniors.  Don’t let your team mates down: put the date in your diary now.  We won the regional final last year and came 5^th in the national final.  Can we match that or do even better this year? 

(The national final is on 5 December on Cannock Chase – let’s hope we need to put that date in the diary too!)

 

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

Whilst we were training on Wimbledon Common, Ralph Street was representing England in the Junior Home International in the Lake District.  Ralph won his M14 course by nearly two minutes.  Congratulations are due to Ralph also for being invited to join the Start Squad, the junior section of the GB National Orienteering Squad.

 

One day Ralph may emulate SLOW’s star member, Heather Monro, who competed for Great Britain in the  World Orienteering Champs in Sweden.  Heather finished in 12^th place in the Long Race Final and a superb 9^th in the Middle Race Final, only 3mins 17secs off the gold medal time!  Heather rounded off a successful week by storming through on the last leg of the Women's Relay to bring Team GB up to 6th place.  These are fantastic results for Heather after many months of injury and an operation.  We al wish Heather well for the final round of the World Cup in Germany in October.

 

TAKE ON THE GB SQUAD!

Trail Challenges are a SLOW invention and word is beginning to spread.  They are long and easy courses aimed at runners.   The World Cup public race programme will include Trail Challenge races – to attract runners so they can be part of the excitement of the World Cup Long Race Final day.  To raise awareness in advance, another Trail Challenge race is being held on 3 January on Wimbledon Common.  Several members of the GB Squad have already signed up for this race: it will be billed as ‘come and take on the GB Squad – if you’re hard enough!!’.  It’s a Bank Holiday and the day after the Ash Ranges National Event, so we expect a big turnout.  Another date for the diary!

 

NEW LOGO

A new SLOW logo is looming.  It will be based on the design used on the new fleeces, which itself was based on the ‘River Thames’ banner design.

Look at http://sloweb.org.uk/Docs/SLOWlogo.htm  for a preview: 

Hope you like it.

 

PS I’ve put in a late bid for injury of the year: sensibly not running as my hamstring was twinging, I went blackberry picking on Pitch Hill and slipped into an unmapped ditch and twisted my knee.  Four weeks on I’m still not running…  I hear knees can be very dodgy.  Gloom.

 

Chris Robinson

Chair

Please note my new email address:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South London Orienteers and Wayfarers Annual General Meeting

will be held on

Tuesday 23 November 2004

at 8.00pm

at Jackie Steinitz’s house, 26 Geneva Road, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2TW  Tel 020 8541 4482  Email 

 

We will adjourn afterwards to the The Spring Grove pub in Bloomfield Road, less than 5 minutes walk away.

 

The meeting will include presentation of reports from Chair, Captain, Membership Secretary, Fixtures and Mapping Officer, and Treasurer.

Plus elections of officers (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Men's Captain, Ladies' Captain, Membership, Fixtures, Mapping, Social, Training, Publicity, SEOA Rep, SLOWprint, Equipment, Archivist, Webmaster).

 

We always are looking for new people to get involved in helping SLOW, so please get in touch with Chair, Chris Robinson, if you are interested in putting yourself forward for one of the officer posts or to offer help in any capacity.  We are especially keen for people to take on organizing social events and publicity.  As the World Cup looms, many of the club officers will be increasingly devoted to that and so the need for new people to help run SLOW is even greater than usual.

 

 

 

CRB CHECKS

There is a growing requirement for coaches to have had a CRB (criminal records bureau) check.  It’s an easy and painless process and costs nothing.  The SLOW Committee recommends that all our coaching helpers do this. 

 

All you do is ring up and answer a few questions:

Ring:  0870 90 90 844

Type of disclosure? Answer:  Enhanced

Provide:  Name, Address, Telephone Number, National Insurance Number, Place of Birth, Date of Birth

Who has asked you to provide the Disclosure?  Answer:  British Orienteering Federation

In what capacity is the Disclosure provided?  Answer:  Volunteer coach (no charge is then made for the check.)

Who will countersign the application? Answer:  British Orienteering Federation

The reference number for the Countersignatory:  2029 290000 8

 

When you receive the pre-printed form:

Complete any relevant sections and check that the pre-printed sections are correct, then send the form, with the relevant documents (recorded delivery is recommended) to BOF office marked Confidential for the Attention of Alex Ross.  Make sure you use black ink!

 

 

SLOW members’ news, June – October 2004

Welcome to the following new members

Anja (W21), Peter (M35) and Emma (W2) Stratford,  ;

Keira (W21) Vyvyan-Robinson (Mark’s wife), , 

Simpson family: Janette (W40), Neville (M50), Sarah (W12), Hannah (W10), Jack (M8),  , Teddington TW11 9LR;  ;

Rapley family: Carol, Ella (W4); Sophie Collin (W10),  , Twickenham TW1 1ET;  ;

Maria David (W35), Flat 4, The Gables,   Upper Norwood, London SE19 2JA;  ;

Moss family: Gareth, Michelle, Lottie (W10), Jack,  , Thames Young Mariners OEC, Riverside Drive, Ham, Richmond TW100 7RX;

O’Dea family: Paul, Julie, Laura (W10),  , Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT2 5RY;  ; ,

Phil Davies (M45),  , Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT1 3SA;  ;

Jeremy Snelling (M40),  , New Malden, Surrey KT3 3HO;  ;

Welcome to the following returning members

Chris Marsh,  , Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 0HZ;  ;

3rd Molesey Matravers Scout Group, c/o Tyrone Weller,  , Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 3HB;  ;

Changes of address

Jenny Costigan,  , London SE1 2YR;   

Mike Garvin,  , London SE11 5QN;  ;

Charlie and Teresa Turner: ,

Simon Turner:

Mark Glover,  , Bedford MK40 1EA

Terry Dooris,  , South Croydon CR2 6LP

Chris Robinson:

Adrian Ducker (1st Hinchley Wood Scout Group):

Kate Thomas:

Charlie Whetham:

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

WINNING WITH THE WORLD CUP - DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

 

Saturday, 16 October 2004   10.00am - 4.30pm  at The Spectrum, Guildford

 

PROGRAMME includes talks by Hilary Palmer, BOF Development Manager and Heather Monro, GB Squad & BOF Regional Development Officer (NE & NW)

 

This is a vital opportunity to discuss how orienteering generally can capitalize on the staging of this exciting week of world-class races in the south-east of England.  It will bring increased media attention and public interest – so we need to make sure we are ready to grasp the opportunity when it comes.

 

Vacancy for Club Treasurer

I would like to stand down as treasurer at the agm in November and was wondering if anyone was interested in taking on this role.  You will have plenty of support and guidance from other committee members about what to spend all the club’s money on!

 

If you are interested or want any further information, then please contact me on 020 8394 0184 or

 

Thankyou,                Liz Armitage 

 

 

SLOW can offer transport from south west London.  For this we suggest start times from 11.00-12.00 for Sunday events.  If possible, we will have the Club tent for changing, coaching, etc.  We aim to meet afterwards for a drink at a nearby pub.  See us at the event to find out where we’re going.

 

 

24^th October   Yvette Baker Trophy and Colour-Coded Event, Bagshot.

Full range of colour coded courses.  For juniors (very youngest up to M/W20) there is also the Yvette Baker Trophy SE region qualifier.  There’s a good chance of making the national final again this year with a full turn out from our juniors.   EOD. 

 

7^th November Venice Street-Orienteering Event

Annual event Orienteering through the streets of Venice.  Quick decision making of route choice are particularly challenging especially with limited crossing points of canals!  Contact Pete Huzan for more details or the event website.  www.orivenezia.it

 

7^th November SOC November Classic Regional Event, Bolderwood, New Forest.

A great UK alternative to the above.  Mainly deciduous forest and indented hillsides of open forest and heath.  CD: 23/10/04. Lim late entries.  No Badge EOD.  Long and Short Wayfarers EOD only.

www.hants.gov.uk/soc

 

12^th December            SLOW OK Nuts Trophy, Hankley Common.

Mass start loop race.  CD: 27/11/04.  Lim EOD. Lim Colour coded courses white to light green sloweb.org.uk

 

2^nd January                 SN National Event. Ash Ranges, Aldershot.

www.geocities.com/southern_nav

 

3^rd January                 SLOW Trail Challenge, Wimbledon Common.

 sloweb.org.uk

 

To arrange transport, contact Ginny Catmur   020 8398 8190

CD = Closing date. It is often possible to get late entry or EOD = entry on the day.

 

COACHING CORNER

 

We opened the season with a coaching day on Wimbledon Common and had over 30 participants!  Many thanks to Chris Robinson for planning a wide variety of exercises to suit everyone from the youngest juniors trying orienteering for the first time to adult beginners to experienced older juniors.  It was even dry enough for Orienteering Twister (doesn’t work too well if its muddy!).  The relay teams to end the day were named after elite orienteers and the ‘Sarah Rollins’ team (Michael May, Charles McMillan, Jenny Steinitz and Alice Clemens) won over the ‘Heather Monro’ team (James McMillan, Guy Hiddleston, Holly Clemens with her friend Issie, and Sarah Simpson with Hannah Farmery).  The ‘Jamie Stevenson’ team (Nigel Clemens, Linda Clemens, Alex Robinson and Ellis Farmery with William Tyler) were 3^rd and the ‘Jon Duncan’ team (Chris Wroe, Ian Hiddleston, Alex’s friend Sam and a trio of Emma Farmery, Hannah Simpson and Emily Tyler) were 4^th.  Many thanks to the coaches that helped – anyone else who wants to help at future coaching days please let me know.

 

An events coming up which will be good for beginners is on 24th October on Bagshot Heath just down the M3.  This has courses of many different standards including ones suitable for juniors.  In fact, the event incorporates a competition between juniors from different clubs including SLOW.  The competition takes place on the Green, Light Green, Orange and Yellow courses and any junior can take part – see Captain’s page for details.  There will also be an even simpler course, the white course, available.  There should also be longer and more challenging courses for the adventurous adult beginners and a string course for younger children where in addition to having a map there is a string to follow and colourful pictures at each control.  So everyone is welcome whether or not taking part in the competition and lots of SLOW members will be around to give advice.  Details will appear in due course on www.geocities.com/Yosemite/2227/fix.html

 

If you cannot make either of these dates, an adjacent club Mole Valley are putting on a couple of events for beginners on 2^nd and 16^th October – see www.mvoc.org

 

Looking further ahead, I am organising a coaching weekend in South Wales on the weekend 5^th/6^th March 2005.  The British Championships next year is on sand dunes so this weekend will be an opportunity to learn techniques to weave your way through sand dunes wonderfully rather than wildly.  We hope to train on Broughton Burrows on the Gower Peninsula on Saturday and then compete in an event on Pembrey (down the coast beyond Swansea) on the Sunday.  For the maddest among you, there is a night event on Pembrey on the Saturday evening.  I have provisionally booked 3 cabins at the LA Riding Centre which is just off the M4 before Swansea (see www.lariding.co.uk).  Put the dates in your diary now!

 

Congratulations to Ralph Street who has been selected for the Start Squad – a national squad who are given coaching and support towards future national and international competition.  Ralph has just won M14 at the Junior Home International in the Lake District and also won M14A at the Welsh 6 days earlier in the summer.  Greg Street and James Haynes had a ding dong battle on M12A and well done to Guy Hiddleston joining Michael May on M16A for the first time and whittling his times down as the week went on.  Also good to see Matthew Haynes gaining experience on M10B.  Well done to Thomas Jones 4^th on Yellow at the Sheen Frolic and to Ali McKerrow who won the handicap.

 

That’s it for now.  I’ll watch to see you all put what you learnt at the coaching day into practice…

 

Heather

 

Yvette Baker Junior Competition

24th October

BAGSHOT

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Yvette Baker Trophy junior competition is at Bagshot this October. This is for *ALL* juniors (from the very youngest up to M/W20) of *ALL* standards from Yellow through to Green. You run a course appropriate to your ability (based on gold standard) rather than your age. Last year we did amazingly well to come 5th in the National Final. To get there again, we need a full
turnout of our juniors at Bagshot Heath. So please I'd like EVERY SINGLE ONE of our juniors to be there - the rest of your team will be so glad! (The final is on 5th December at Cannock Chase.) The club will pay for all the junior entry fees for this event. There are courses up to Brown for all
adults as well. So please confirm your availability NOW. I would like to hear from EVERY junior/parents where the junior is happy to go round at least a yellow standard course. (It is also possible to go around a yellow course as a junior pair.)

Pete Huzan

 

 

 

 

 

THE FIXTURES BIT

 

For a change this time, this column consists of the report to this month’s committee, suitably amended for matters discussed there. Although an expeditious decision on my part (copy date falling the day after committee) it still includes a rant about World Cup matters, as no fixtures column would be complete without one of them!

 

FIXTURES 

 

Fixtures past. 

None. Whoopee!! The quiet time of year. Well, there was the last of the summer evenings (Richmond - 3^rd Aug) when Don helped me set up a re-run of a couple of courses from last year’s YBT, and Gavin finally made it to the pub to sort out results. - that was the evening the heaven’s opened, the trains went AWOL and still enough people turned up for us to run out of maps!!

 

Fixtures future

3-10-04. Trail Challenge from the Hawker Centre. TC courses are “half-marathon” (i.e. 21.1km), 12km and 6km. Also orange, yellow and white. Gordon is doing the SI. Helpers gradually coming out of woodwork - more are needed. [highlighted for Slowprint – all offers to me]

 

12-12-04. OK Nuts. Hankley Common. 3 loop races – replacing brown, blue and green. 4 shorter CC courses. I’ve booked the area with the Army. Nicky is planning; Gordon is on the SI. Philip Robinson has agreed to organise (remember he did last year – hero!). I'm still to find a controller.

 

03-01-05. A Trail Challenge related to World Cup development. Based on getting Squad members along who would be around for the previous day’s National. Run it from the Windmill on the Common. I was so excited by this I went and planned the courses immediately (8 controls – 2 spectator legs)

 

22-01-05. Box Hill Fell Race. Agreed by National Trust. Still to hear from Friends Provident.

29-01-05. Senile. Reigate Priory. Paul Nixon planning. Organiser needed.

13-02-05. Holmwood Score. Officials needed.

 

Southern Express. With any luck our only contribution will be Battersea Park on World Cup day.

 

30-05-05 Surrey Hills races.

-Date. Although we wanted 15^th, I failed in the horse-trading. Bank holiday Monday seems a reasonable date though

-Ginny is officially installed as co-ordinator.

-Given that there is a lot of Trail Challenge stuff coming up (mostly World Cup driven) it would make sense (or at least would be consistent) if the Surrey Hills were to be re-marketed as a TC.

-This would then be a sensible time to re-do the map.

 

WORLD CUP (May 2005)

 

The Committee may want to discuss at this stage is the two things arranged for next month :-

                1)  Mapping small areas. 9^th Oct. St Paul’s School. A useful skill, much needed pre (and post) World Cup and you can get paid for doing it.

                2)  Development Conference. 16^th Oct. Guildford. Called “Winning with the World Cup”. I thought it should be called “Orienteering is dying. What are you going to do about it?” as that seemed more pertinent, but it was considered too negative (surprise), but we have heard stories from other SE clubs of people saying, “This World Cup is x  miles away at Guildford; so it can’t have anything to do with us”. Scream!! Bang head on wall!!

 

 

LONGER TERM PLAN

 

For those who haven’t seen this before, it lists the things we normally do each year in approximate chronological order with notes as to where they are each year.

 

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Box Hill	Yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Senile	Holmwood	Reigate	Hankley	Esher	Wimbledon
Spring event	CSC Cup Esher	Holmwood S4	Glovers Wood loop	C4 Esher	Winterfold C4
Southern Express	Reigate	Battersea Park	Hankley	The Nower	Esher
Nower/Hill race	Hill race	Nower CC	Hill race	Nower CC	Hill race
Trail Challenge	3 summer eves + Oct	W Cup run-up	yes	yes	yes
Frolic	Richmond (inc Sheen)	Wimbledon	Riverside	Putney	Richmond
Autumn introductory	TC half marathon
Dec event (OK Nuts)	Loop race Hankley	C3 Esher	C3 Winterfold	C3 Punchbowl (or loop race)	time for Hankley again
Other		World Cup TC 3rd Jan	BOC

 

The “autumn introductory” is a new item as the committee noted this is a good time of year for this sort thing. This follows on from the successful Yvette Baker Trophy qualifier staged last October in Richmond Park and the exciting prospects for the races next Sunday (3^rd). So we expect to stage something local for novices next October, possibly including a Trail Challenge.

 

MAPPING.

Bushey Park. A Eureka moment has occurred. More by luck than judgement we discovered that Ed C had an OCAD base map of this (but he couldn’t remember why or how!!). So Ed is now doing some survey and drawing work for which he is to be paid but the amount is to be agreed.

 

Glovers Wood. Provisional idea for loop race on 22-01-06. Next move is for me to visit area with Charlie. It has been asked why we don’t use this area in summer/autumn, as it (allegedly) has no vegetation or environmental problems. Charlie then pointed out that any likely car park would be too muddy in January and so I’m back to the drawing board with that one.

 

Surrey Hills map. See above. Expect to engage a professional.             Andy Robinson

 

Cerkno Cup, Slovenia

 

It was all Peter Huzan’s idea: ‘Why not try somewhere new this summer?’ So, enthusiastic to visit a another country and try orienteering on good terrain a group of us headed for the 3-day Cerkno Cup in Slovenia.  The deciding factor was that the budget airlines now fly to Slovenia and points nearby, so that’s how five of us came to be flying to Venice on a Wednesday in August (well actually, being Ryanair, an airport-not-terribly-near Venice). 

 

Cerkno is located north-west of the capital, Ljubljana, in the Limestone Julian Alps which have similarities to the Dolomites across the border in Italy. 

 

To get a taste of Slovenia and its renowned white water rafting we arrived a couple of days before the competition and headed for our first night to the mountain town of Bovec, where we met up with Peter Huzan and Mike Garvin, who had booked themselves, and us, into the swankiest hotel in town.

 

Next morning we had our first real taste of Slovenia.  Heaven! The weather was sunny and warm, the town clean, looking very alpine with colourful flowers everywhere, the people very friendly and mainly speaking very good English.  Over breakfast, we discovered that Slovenia’s highest peak,Triglav, 2864m, was close by and catching the “because it’s there” bug, Peter, Paul Whisden and Simon Evans decided to miss out on the rafting to have a go at this summit. 

 

Meanwhile, Kate Thomas, Sarah Covey-Crump, Jenny Costigan and Mike first had a short walk up a nearby peak, Prestreljenik, 2499m, (slightly assisted by the sauna cable car which goes up to 2202m). Typical of ski areas in summer the mountain was dry and rocky with few trees, but happily the limestone produces a wonderful array of alpine flowers.  The peak was a bit like Piccadilly Circus, with a variety of Italians, Croatians and Slovenes arriving while we were there.  All peaks in Slovenia have a rubber stamp located in a protective tin on the summit – unfortunately for us the only papers to hand to stamp were our passports!

 

Next came what the beautiful Soca valley is famous for: the rafting.  The river was low compared to its spring level, with the consequent reduction in excitement level, but was more than made up for by some uncoordinated French guys in our boat who seemed totally incapable of stroking in sync, and nearly managed to tip us over several times.

 

We then drove off to Cerkno, event centre for the competition, and found ourselves in yet another swanky hotel along with orienteers from many nations. The boys arrived very late, having unfortunately only having made it to around 2400m on Triglav.  Having set out very late, running short of time and with encroaching heavy clouds it had seemed a sensible decision to turn around.

 

As the competition website had not allowed any prepayment we were glad to find our names on the start lists - not as SLOW, because of our CROC cuckoo-in-the-nest Paul, but as Sauf London, a sobriquet much appreciated by other Brit entrants.

 

Most days the weather was hot and sunny until the early evening when often a thunderstorm would erupt and Day 1 of the Orienteering was no exception.  This was a hot day, based near a small village, with its characteristic white church and tower, common across the country.  This first day (Predgrize) was particularly fast and not as technical as we’d expected but was a nice start to get the legs stretched.  Each of the subsequent 2 days (Klavzar and Godvic) became more technical with a great number of large depressions and rocky ground.  The event was enjoyable with a very international flavour including several familiar faces from back home.

 

Keen that the holiday was going to be more than just orienteering we tried to fit things in every day after the events.  We visited Predjama, a stunningly dramatic castle built into a sheer rock face.  On a ‘short cut’ to the castle, following a premature comment about how good the roads were, they suddenly deteriorated into heavy gravel tracks and things became rather hair-raising.  However, this did give Paul the opportunity to show off his excellent off-road rally skills.

 

Being a limestone area this part of Slovenia is riddled with major cave systems and everyone was keen to visit one of those open to the public.  However, instead of going to the most famous show caves we found the less-visited Krizna Jama, and had an interesting trip involving an underground boat ride.  Another day we visited a reminder of the fierce fighting which took part in north-west Slovenia during WWII: a large partisan field hospital, secreted from the Germans in a narrow gorge in the mountains near Cerkno, now preserved as a museum.

 

Once the orienteering competition was over we decided to go back up to the mountain region in the north and found a very cosy (!) apartment in the beautiful though rather touristy town of Bled.  We hired a rowing boat on the famous Lake Bled to go out to a tiny island (complete with ubiquitous white church) and took turns at rowing, unsuccessfully, in a straight line.

 

For most of us our final full day was spent in and around an even lovelier lake, Bohinj.  Hiring mountain bikes we pootled around the lake, viewing waterfalls, swimming and lounging around in the sun.  Simon meanwhile, having caught the “because it’s there” bug and having not quite succeeded in the first attempt at Triglav, was keen to have another go and Jenny decided to go with him.  Having had a days rest after the Orienteering and being in Bled seemed like a good place to get an early start. 

 

Starting from the valley floor in beautiful sunshine, it was not long before the footpath became steep, rocky and way-marked by paint.  At particularly steep points there were foot-long metal hand holds to assist.  With only 300m to go, the steepest part yet was a narrow arête with cables and stakes (similar to the Via Ferrata in the Dolomites).  The views on the way up were spectacular but unfortunately by the time they reached the summit the clouds had closed in but they did not seem to mind as the walk itself had been so enjoyable.

 

After a short stop, and getting the all important Triglav stamp on their map, they started descending.  Their progress was followed via text messages and they were eventually picked up at a pub near Lake Bohinj, looking tired but jubilant.

 

Driving back to the airport we used a spare hour before checking in for our flight to take a lightning detour to Venice.  We had problems finding our way around, which doesn’t bode well for the next Huzan-inspired tour, the annual street-O in Venice. (see Hotpicks)

 

We left behind the warmth of the Adriatic and arrived back home around 2 am (hey, but the flight only cost us £5).  Slovenia had provided a great cheap alternative to Scandinavia with good complex terrain and some interesting sightseeing.

 

See you in Venice, booking now………………………………Kate Thomas

 

 

SLOW BARBECUE

 

There was a good turnout for this social event and the pre-meal race through Ashtead Park and the non-stop games of badminton, cricket and rugby certainly kept the cold away for all the juniors.

The moveable feast kept the senior members of the party warm too as we needed to dash under the gazebo when it showered briefly and into the house when the rain came on for longer, then at the first glimpse of any sun, the chairs were rearranged around the garden.

 

The fun event was exactly that with the trickiest element deciding on when to stop to pick blackberries, a bonus part of the competition.

 

Thanks to the McMillans for being splendid hosts - they not only organised plenty for everyone to enjoy but also prepared a  massive spread of food. Naturally once the blackberries had been picked and Karen Jones appeared with a crop of apples we just had to throw together an apple crumble. Huh, none of this -here’s one I’ve prepared earlier!

 

 

Results of the Ashtead Park Fun Run – 29 August 2004-08-30

 

 

Name	Run Time	Quiz Time (5 m allowed)	Quiz Overtime	Quiz Score	Blackberry Bonus
James	9:57	-	-	-	-
Michael	17:54	5:32	0:32	10	Best Jam
Guy	24:49	5:52	0:52	5
Ian	19:02	5:01	0:01	6
Anne	48:25	4:49	-	4	Excellent
Simon	18:08	5:20	0:20	3	Highly Commended
David	17:57	1:33	-	3
Pete	17:15	2:43	-	5	Highly Commended
Sarah	18:12	6:56	1:56	8
Paul	17:36	6:32	1:32	8
Ralph	18:36	3:54	-	6.25
Chris	18:30	1:50	-	5
Andy	20:30	1:50	-	7
Jones Team	19:30	2:20	-	7

 

 

Without trying to explain the whole complex format, competitors were asked to balance run speed with blackberry picking followed by a quiz using the control numbers and letter codes.

 

Note    James’ straight run time is shown for comparison.
            Very few adults knew that Shrek married Princess Fiona.
            Charlotte Bronte did not write Emma.
            The blackberries were made into a blackberry and apple crumble and eaten.

 

The winner was 5,4,3,12,8,1,17 (aka Michael May)

 

 

 

 

Croeso South Wales August 14th-20th

 

This summer’s Croeso was underestimated by many people, who didn’t think the areas would be good enough. They were, however, mistaken although the areas were not wooded, there were plenty of technical legs with day 4 being the best for this.

            The weather was not amazing, it rained most days but brightened up later on. This meant your start time mattered more as visibility could get bad.

            Sennybridge was the most used area. It was mainly very fast terrain, with thicketed earth walls making for easy navigation and very sparse army forest. The tripwires in the woods did slightly complicate things and the occasional tank (yes, TANK!) control meant a change from the norm.

            Pwll Du (day 3): this day  was very open with clear views over most of the area. Most courses were running a butterfly stretch to eliminate trailing. Most people saw it as an unnecessary precaution.

            Carneddau (day 4): with a shower early in the day the short grass became very slippery this combined with some steep sided hills meant many people having grip problems.

            Ogof Ffynnon Ddu and Pant Mawr: the terrain on this day was incredibly tough and nearly imposable to keep a fast pace on. Due to the technical nature of this run you were better off taking a slower pace.

            The campsite was a big let down with no hot water on the first night and no sinks to wash up in. The leisure centre was well equipped with a pool, bowling allies and more. Entertainment was well planned with the quiz night, bowling competition and celidah proving popular hits.

            The general atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly making for a good way to see of the last of the summer.

 

Guy Hiddlestone

 

 

 

 

 

Finally Crossing the Finnish Line

 

In the last full week of July, several misguided and foolhardy souls left London Heathrow Airport looking forward to a fun week of Finnish orienteering at the Fin5 festival.

 

Not quite knowing what to expect, we felt quite daunted on the first day of competition to see so many contours, marshes, crags and especially boulders crammed into such a small area and the mistakes were frequent.  Dad’s worst moment came on Day 2 – ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ – which gave heart to Charlie and me and we didn’t feel quite so disappointed with our runs afterwards.  After a few days, any hope of salvaging our wrecked reputations was out of the question and we invented a competition of our own: who could be furthest from the bottom of their class by the end of the week?  Charlie on H13 won handsomely, leaving me, H16A, a disappointing 2^nd place with Dad, and his years of experience, in a resounding last. 

 

Oddest moment – not being able to see a 5m boulder from 6m away – surely they can’t hide that !! – well they can by using an even bigger (and very thick) tree.

 

Despite the huge catalogue of errors that we collectively amassed over the week, by the end we were ‘mixing it with the best’ and we had a great time in the process, learning how to do things the Finnish way.  The good news was that we all had our best runs on the last day.

 

It was just as well that we didn’t win as the top prizes were a selection of chainsaws, strimmers and lawnmowers.  However, we all got Fin 5 medals and added to our T shirt collection.

 

Best family moment - specifically the strawberries (such varieties and such intense flavours) and generally – the weather (it only rained at night).

 

Back to the maps.  The detail was incredible.  The mapping of the vegetation took a lot of getting used to as did the open rock on the top of many of the hills.  Underfoot was slowish run and working out which boulders were mapped and which were not was sometimes difficult.  I’ll certainly never look at an English map in the same way again.

 

We thoroughly recommend Fin 5, which is held again next year between 10 & 15 July.

 

James McMillan

 

 

PS        On the Fin 5 website (www.sipoo.fi/fin5) as well as the usual results and splits you can also see the routes of some of the competitors marked on the course maps for each of the days and re-run them head to head on the website.  (Go to the English pages and look up ‘Draw your course’, it reverts to Finnish but pick a day, then a course, then some runners, then click on ‘Lataa animaatio’ and press start.)  We have not seen this on UK results but it is very effective.

 

 

 

 

A reflection on 2004 British relays

 

Dear Slowprint,

I want to write about the line between success and failure. It is a thin line, not well marked and this year I have crossed it in the wrong direction. I hope to achieve two things by writing: firstly to pass on experience that fellow club members hoping to avoid ignominy and embarrassment may find useful, secondly, to get it off my chest, forget the pain, lance the boil etc.

1. Winning the M45 British relays in 2003 was the orienteering equivalent of Millwall beating Manchester United. As last springs Cup Final showed, that sort of thing doesn’t happen very often.

2. Teamed up with orienteering machines John Dowty and Pete Haines, I allowed myself to feel too confident about our prospects and not concentrate properly beforehand.

3. I spent 1 hour in the start pen with the juniors, not only watching them go the right was out of the start field (the wrong way for me) but also not preparing for the race ahead.

4. I tore some skin off my ankle at the JK by leaving my ankle tape on too long. Wishing not to repeat this, I taped my ankle at the last minute, making things a bit of a rush.

5. There was a slow and stressy queue to get into the changeover pen, just to distract me further.

6. As Pete handed over to me and I ran out of the start, I realised my compass was in my pocket. So I was running along trying to  open up my map and get my compass string round my wrist at the same time. I was encouraged by everyone’s shouts and calls, until I realised they were shouting that I’d gone the wrong way out of the start field.

7. Got ahead of runners who had overtaken me in the start field by No. 2 but there was a certain inevitability about the 2 x 4 minutes errors that followed soon after. I’m too traumatised to give you the full story, suffice to say that overtook Mark Smith of GO’s 2nd team three times, the last time on the way to the final control.

Thanks to John and Pete we finished 3rd but a half decent run would have put us 2nd or even 1st. As my old university chum Colin Howles used to say  ‘Orienteering is a sport that highlights people’s ability to make mistakes.’

You have been warned!

Andy Jones

 

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