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Previous Issues: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
Next Newsletter - Copy date March 31st 2002
I can now read Word documents. e-mail to:- b.shaw@dyson-techceramics.com
Please do not feel inhibited about sending hand written articles. Remember technology
is not important - your experiences, opinions, anecdotes, funny stories, snippets
of information and gossip, mistakes, good runs, ailments (especially interesting
ailments) are important so let me have them.
Chairman's Diary
Get out there ... and 'O'
SYO Club Championships Results - 8th December 2001
Jenny and Dave
Fixtures
Sheffield O Net
Bill Edwards' Top 10 ... and Bottom 10
Polish your Technique (1) Pace Counting
Sandall Beat Dec 16th 2001
Wombwell Woods Night Event 12th January 2002
Wombwell Woods Colour Coded 13th January 2002
SYO Committee
Alan Goddard
8th December Club Champs
What a glorious winter's day for the club champs. Sun shining - not too cold and around fifty or so of the club stalwarts out for a run. I spotted one or two rarer birds including that old warhorse John Dyson who usually makes an appearance for this sort of thing. The event was planned by Dave Harris and organised by Hilary Bloor. The courses were planned to start and finish in Lady Canning's plantation in the north eastern corner of Burbage and took in the old quarry workings across the main road. This is a good area and coupled with the good weather made for an excellent little event.
Afterwards we all repaired (odd word but appropriate) to the back room of the Norfolk Arms at Ringinglow. The atmosphere was convivial; we had a very tricky map identification quiz to occupy ourselves with and some substantive if not cordon bleu standard eats. In the past the year's presentations used to be made at the club champs dinner - things like most points scored on each course in the Compass Sport cup - but this tradition has, regrettably I think, ceased.
17th December SYO Committee Meeting
Surely he's not going to give us a blow by blow account of every committee meeting I can hear you ask. No he's not but some of the stuff is quite interesting and we do try and enjoy ourselves at the meetings. We now meet at Guy and Beryl's house and they marked the festive season with hot punch on our arrival.
I mentioned last time that Jenni Fiander was applying on behalf of the club for a grant to assist in putting on events for schools in North Sheffield covering mapping of school grounds, transport to events etc. One of the requirements turned out to be a club constitution that clearly committed us to a number of things including for example not being able to dissolve the club and make off with the grant money. Constitution? What constitution? Remarkably Ray Waight who arrived a little late turned out not only to have a copy of it but had actually written it 23 years ago. Anyway it turned out to promise everything the grant conditions required - so we shall see.
We turned our minds to the issue of how best to use Dave Heath's war chest to the benefit of the club and the two favourites were mapping and club owned e-equipment. Ray is putting some ideas together on the former and Rob and Jo McPherson on the latter which we shall address at the next meeting.
The New Year
I don't know about you but my mind always turns to the summer's multi-day events at the turn of the year. Always a slightly tricky issue in our household since Lynn is not an orienteering fanatic. The domestic 5 and 6 day events aren't an issue but the ones abroad sometimes are. There are of course two major options this year - APOC 2002 in Canada and the World Master's games in Australia. Providing the venues are sufficiently attractive outside of orienteering I'm usually on to a good thing. Either of these two could fit the bill and we've gone for the APOC event. The Rocky mountains, the Calgary stampede, the most scenic of railway journeys from Calgary to Vancouver and, I'm told, the newest biggest mall in the world in nearby Edmonton are all pretty seductive so I don't think I'll be too much missed slipping off to eight or so days equally spectacular orienteering.
The other thing about the New Year is how I come out of it fatter rather than fitter. It's definitely an uphill struggle getting back into shape. So now I find myself on an alcohol free diet pounding the tracks and all in an effort to keep up with the likes of Phil Haywood and Colin Best and try and close the gap on your editor amongst others. Still I guess that's what it's all about. Talking of which ...
Brian Shaw
This is the time of year to get out and do some serious training. With the evenings drawing out and the big events coming up you need to force yourself out onto the terrain. Never mind your Nikes, forget poncing in the parks, don your faithful old 'O' shoes and don't be afraid to get them mucky. You won't be able to compete with the top people unless you can tackle the terrain, hack you way through heather, blast through bracken and slog through swamps. There's plenty of all that in the Sheffield area and I can guarantee your performance will improve. Blackamoor and Burbage are wonderful training areas right on your doorstep. So take advantage ... there's gold in them thar hills!
There are also lots of wonderful events on over the next few weeks, at club, badge and National level, so make every Sunday an 'O' day. I know some of you may have got out of the habit of orienteering because of the unfortunate events of last year but make the effort and you'll soon get back into it. Orienteering is a great sport and the best way to enjoy it is to be fit. It's not half as much fun if you're totally exhausted and keep making mistakes. Orienteering on Sundays plus a couple of outings in the week is enough to get you up to gold standard but the quality of your training must be there if you want to really improve.
Dave Harrison
On an extremely pleasant December day Rob McPherson produced a run that clearly demonstrated my complete incompetence as a handicapper, winning by nearly two minutes from Clive Wilson and beating his handicap by nearly nine minutes. Mark Sutherland was a further two minutes back in third place as he led home a pack of juniors.
Rob seemed surprisingly sanguine about the implications of his victory (i.e. he has to plan next year's event) and by the time he left the pub planning already seemed to be in an advanced state. It looks like 2002 will be the year that the SYO Club Champs go electronic.
Most of those on the longest course option (both loops) suffered from an over optimistic view of their abilities (Or maybe I forgot to factor in Friday night!) but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and despite my worst fears all the juniors seemed to cope extremely well with their courses (being totally unfamiliar with this level of course I was more than a little worried about being the cause of a further down turn in junior participation).
Apologies to Rob Last who suffered from a map mix-up that caused him some confusion and a significant amount of lost time.
Thank you to Hilary Bloor for her assistance, particularly with the organization of the meal and the quiz, without her help the event would not have happened. Also thanks to Ruth, Martin, Mike, Andy and Charlie who helped out on the day.
Finally the day has come & Dave & I are off to Brussels. A promotion with Stanley Tools takes me to their European head office and Dave's business is flexible enough to allow him to join me. He'll travel back & forth to the UK to continue his field work and it doesn't really matter where his office is. Lots of cheap flights to all over the UK from Brussels makes it a very convenient place to live & our new house is near the airport (my work & the Foret de Soignes). We'll stay with SYO so you can expect us to pop up at big races/relays etc, we'll just not training out in the Peaks as often.
So if anyone needs a bed in Brussels then we'll always have some spare room available for those DIY city breaks or visits en route to the continent. We already have maps of the local forest which Dave estimates is 30 times bigger than Ecclesall Woods.
Meanwhile we have a lovely house to rent in Sheffield if anyone is interested or knows anyone coming to the area. Opposite Endcliffe Park, near to Hunters Bar & just great. Seriously we've just put it up to rent out & it's available from mid-February. Victorian stone semi-detached house with 6 bedrooms, new kitchen, integral garage, big lounge and very nice. We also have some small items for sale or to go to the first offer to take it off our hands instead of throwing them away!
For Rent - One house
For Sale / or to have:
Zanussi fridge 50cm wide with freezer box - almost new, fits under work surface.
Video recorder
Trestle legs for a table top - fully adjustable
One wooden rocking chair - great for bad backs
Various trophies that need returning!
Best stop there. See you soon, have a great Spring & we look forward to visitors in Belgium. We'll let you know when the house-warming will be.
Cheers
Jenny James
- see the special Fixtures page.
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It's been a few weeks now since Sue and I moved to New Zealand. At the moment, there's very little in the way of orienteering going on here, as, like Britain, the main season is during the Winter and Spring. This has given me plenty of time to reflect on the past 22 years that I've been orienteering in Britain and Ireland. Over that time a lot of things in orienteering have changed and a lot have stayed the same. It was Autumn 1979 that I ran in my first badge event - the November Classic at Denny Lodge. And strangely enough, that was my last badge event too. In between, orienteering has taken me to all parts of the UK and plenty of other countries, and I've enjoyed it all the way.
It would be possible to reminisce for pages and pages, but it wouldn't make for great reading, so I thought as a parting shot I would pick a favourite 10 orienteering areas in Britain, along with a least favourite 10 ...
So that's what I've done. The reasons for the choices are purely personal, and often based on good or bad experiences at a particular event, but I'd be interested in hearing other people's opinions.
In these lists, I've limited myself to Britain only. There are areas I've run on in Ireland and other parts of the world that would easily make a top 10 of favourite areas, but that'll have to be left for debate over a few beers in a warm friendly pub sometime (lack of which is one of the few gripes I've got against NZ so far).
It's been a lot easier to come up with a favourite 10 areas than a least favourite 10, so I've included a few extras at the end that didn't quite make the list. These are all areas that I would go back to again and again, just to enjoy them. In contrast, the least favourite areas are often ones that have never been given a second chance to impress. I may go back if the event is important enough, but otherwise, you're unlikely to see me there again.
A brief attempt to place the areas in some sort of order has convinced me that it's impossible, so I've just left them in alphabetic order.
1. Bigland. There have been 3 occasions orienteering in Britain when I can remember looking at the map for the first time at the start of a race and thinking "Wow !". Inshriach was one. Then there was Moel Y Dyniewydd (JK 84 - awesome, but too hilly). Finally, there was Bigland at JK 92. One look at the map told me I was going to enjoy it thoroughly, and I did. To a large extent, the best thing about Bigland is the variety of terrain. On that first day of the JK the M21E course visited lots of the more varied and flatter terrain in the Eastern half of the area as well as the steep woods on the West side. Courses I've done since have been less enjoyable because they've stuck to the steep bits, but even there, the quality is such that you can forget the physical aspect.
2. Blakeholme. There are many small patches of deciduous woodland in the Lake District that are delightful for orienteering. Great Tower springs to mind particularly. However, what Blakeholme has that a lot of the other areas don't is an almost complete lack of paths. My first experience of Blakeholme was in the World Cup Short Race in 1998, and my memory is of a course that went through beautiful terrain the whole way, but required complete concentration too - the perfect combination. Return visits have just confirmed that first impression.
3. Bramshaw Wood. The New Forest is an area that's sadly very under visited by orienteers. The restriction to 1200 runners at events means that the very biggest events can't be held there, which is a great shame as the natural New Forest woodland is probably the most enjoyable forest to run through in Britain. I've tried to go to the November Classic most years, and always enjoy it. There are lots of very enjoyable areas in the New Forest, but my favourite would probably be Bramshaw, which is the Northern half of a sizeable map that includes Kings Garn Gutter (a plantation). Bramshaw is entirely natural beech forest with a typical scattering of holly along with assorted New Forest wildlife (ponies and pigs in particular). It's also hillier than most New Forest areas, and the vagueness of the terrain makes it quite tricky in parts. Always a delight.
4. Docharn & Deishar. There's little to say here. Just superb. The detail and the runnability combine to make D&D possibly the best orienteering area in Britain. I've enjoyed it completely every time, whether in 30C heat or -15C cold !
5. Epping Forest. Epping is another area that scores very highly for being natural woodland. Mostly beech forest, but with substantial areas of holly, the orienteering is quite tricky in places as well as being extremely pleasant to run through.
6. Inshriach. Highland '87, Day 4. One minute to the start, a look at the map for the first time. Wow! Without warning, here was some of the most complicated terrain in Britain. A different game. I've been back several times since and each time it's been wonderful, though I still remember that sense of surprise the first time I saw the map! The complexity and variety of the area means it's always a challenge, and the majority of the forest is runnable enough to make the experience wonderful.
7. Mytchett. I'm biased. I lived nearby for 4 years, and all the local areas (Mytchett, Ash Ranges, Star Posts, Long Valley, Bagshot Heath, Yateley Heath, Hawley & Hornley, Frith Hill, ...) were wonderful areas to run round and train in. There are few parts of the country that offer such good training, and I always missed the running and O-training around Farnborough (though, it has to be said, not life in general).
8. Newborough. In 1991 or thereabouts, a group of SPOOK members were staying in Snowdonia over New Year. The weather was so bad all week that on one day we decided to go and investigate a forest on Anglesey .... and it was superb, some of the nicest forest I've ever run through. Runnable pine forest on sand dunes with low enough visibility to make for very tricky orienteering. Wouldn't this be a brilliant area to map. Well, 4 years later, somebody did and the 1995 British Champs confirmed Newborough as one of the very top areas in the country. Unfortunately, poor planning at the 2001 British Champs tried to spoil the impression, but Newborough will always be a classic area.
9. Pembrey. An old favourite. My first experience of running in forested sand dunes, and one that convinced me that this was what orienteering should be. I was an M13 then and after only 1 year of orienteering, it was all a bit beyond me, but I knew I wanted more. I've been back to Pembrey plenty of times since then and enjoyed it every time. Runnable and complicated.
10. The Pludds. For some reason, I always found The Pludds far more enjoyable than the other Forest of Dean areas. It's difficult to work out exactly why. I haven't run there for years now, but I would still go back at the drop of a hat. I guess it was a combination of good runnability, pleasant mixed forest, and various areas of detail. Within a course at The Pludds, there seemed to be more changes of orienteering style than in other Forest of Dean areas. It always had one of the best names too !
Honourable mentions to Loch Vaa (which I haven't experienced properly yet), Ecclesall Woods, Stock Hill (I've never found anywhere similar), Brimham Rocks (again, unique in Britain), Weston Heath (a misplaced piece of the Czech Republic), Leith Hill, Darnaway (only visited once when ill), Ogof Fynnon Ddu (legendary area whose location always seemed somehow secret), Airds Park (great, but why so many ticks ?), Shining Cliff, Stanton Moor (small, but perfectly formed !)
Now onto the hall of shame. Again, I've used alphabetical order to hide the true horrors ...
1. Achray. For some reason, people had left me under the impression that Achray was a classic Scottish area before I went there for the first time. An illusion. Physical challenge? Plenty of that, but mental challenge? No, not at the speed you have to run there. Just lots of big slopes and pine forest of decidedly mixed runnability. Tedious and over physical.
2. Barns Cliff. I've probably been fortunate in that I've only been to the White Rose 3 times. Otherwise, I think the North York Moors would feature rather more highly on this list! I've only been to Barns Cliff once - JK87 I think, but I'm not likely to ever go back. Why would anyone want to orienteer there? It's either too flat or too steep, and the forest's horrible anyway.
3. Breidden Hills. Once was enough, and I don't remember it too well, but that slope really was ridiculous. Way too steep to orienteer on. You're either pulling yourself gradually up the hill or trying to work out how to get down without falling. That was only a small part of the area, but the rest was nothing to write home about. Boring open hillside, or thick steep plantation. Normally, I'm sensible enough to see this sort of thing coming, but I guess it was a National Event ...
4. Clumber Park. Boring, boring, boring. I've picked Clumber, but there are a lot of those NOC areas which bring out the same feelings of dread. Fast running, which I normally like, but somehow, just not nice. For a 30 minute race, it's OK, but 90 minutes is just grinding boredom.
5. Creag Vinean. It's in Scotland and it's got a bit of detail, so it's great, isn't it ? Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! This one was just a great big slope covered in forest. Nothing to recommend it. And don't go thinking Craig A Barns opposite is much better. OK, there's one small interesting bit but most of it's tedious. Too hilly to be fast which means you're running too slowly for it to be difficult. I guess part of my problem is that it was a waste of a JK. Scotland has the potential to put on a brilliant JK, so why bother with this ?
6. Kilnsey. Yawn. If I want a fell race, I'm quite capable of entering one thank you. And don't go saying it's got lots of wonderful contour detail. Sure it's got some lumps and bumps, but the visibility is too good for it to be at all difficult, and you're never too far away from the nearest wall. Just boring really I'm afraid.
7. Macclesfield Forest. Did anyone enjoy that 2 day event a few months ago ? No, I thought not. Too steep and unpleasant. An average of one or two legs per course with any real technical challenge. Can't run fast because the slopes disintegrate underfoot. And it's got brambles too. Just wonderful.
8. The Roaches. An area I've only experienced once, but that was such an experience that I vowed never to return ... It was the ShUOC Club Champs in my first year as a student, and it was also a Churchill Cup match so it was pretty important. Everything went wrong. My memories are of an early start and wading for hours through snow covered heather. The orienteering was boring as the area was all open, but quite steep and rocky in places as well. The crowning moment was finally getting onto a tarred road and being able to run, and promptly slipping on some ice and smashing my compass. Oh the wonderful smell of a broken compass!
9. Symonds Yat. I suspect that few from SYO have seen the dark side of the Forest of Dean, but let me tell you, it certainly exists .... There are actually several areas a bit further west than the main Forest of Dean, that are both steeper and more brambly than the main part - never a good combination for enjoyable running. I could have mentioned Tintern, Trellech or Staunton but Symonds Yat is the one that I remember best as I was foolish enough to go there several times. There were actually some quite nice patches, but there was so much of that steep and/or brambly dross!
10. Wharncliffe. Am I disappointed to be missing the 2003 British Champs? Er... not exactly! Somehow, I've never got to grips with Wharncliffe. My first run there (British Champs 1984) was soured by running into a tree which left a permanent scar on my nose, and it seems as though every run since has left its mark. Wharncliffe has been a good place to train when I want something rocky and unpleasant, but I've never enjoyed it. Somehow it just isn't fun - the forest is too difficult to move across at speed. Too many rocks, too much bracken, too many brashings, too much bramble, too hilly.
So, there you are. 10 of the best and 10 of the worst. Do they agree with yours, or did you love the physical challenge of Achray, but couldn't stand the speed of Mytchett ? Do I dare show my face again ?
Bill Edwards
One of the most difficult things when you start orienteering is judging distance. How often do we overrun controls? Nick Lightfoot in his delightful training sessions used to make us think in terms of football pitches: the length of a football pitch is 100 metres. Fair enough but the trouble is that often we can't see 100 metres in a forest. The answer is pace counting. It sounds difficult but in fact it's just a question of getting into the habit. You just count every other step i.e. every time you put your left (or right if you prefer) leg forward.
Of course you need to know your running pace length. Measure out 100 metres by walking 100 paces or measure a known distance on an orienteering map. Then run it at normal orienteering speed whilst counting your double paces. Do it three times and take an average. For most adults it's around 40 double paces per 100 metres on the flat. Uphill it will be 50 or more, downhill 30-35.
The next thing to remember is that on a 1:10,000 map 1cm = 100 metres. So if you are a 40 pace person and the distance you want to run is 150 metres then you need to count 60.
For 1:15,000 maps 1cm = 150 metres or 60 double paces. So if you want to run 200 metres then count 75.
When I first started pace counting it reduced the number of mistakes dramatically because I would habitually overrun. My idea was to keep running until I came to it, whatever it was. Unfortunately it's very easy to run past 'it' without seeing 'it'. Using pace counting you slow down and start looking once the requisite number of paces approaches. If you haven't found it say 10 paces after you should have then stop and question whether you are in the right place. If you are in rough vegetation or on a steep hill it's quite possible you are OK and just need to go a bit further. Downhill beware! It's very easy to overshoot.
Remember pace counting is no substitute for navigation. If there are features and contours concentrate on using them and forget pacing, there's only so much your brain can handle especially if you are using the compas as well. On rough or technical terrain pacing is of limited value. Where I find it most useful is on paths and tracks where it is easy to switch off especially on long stretches. So as soon as you hit a path start to count so you always know how far along the path you have run - and don't forget to check that compass to make sure you are running in the right direction.
SYO had their customary good luck with the weather and 150 people turned out to enjoy this pre-Christmas event. Pat O'Grady organised and Jim Sutherland planned whilst John Helliwell controlled. A big thank you to all of them plus those who turned out to help especially Pat's family. A first for me was a lost orienteer ringing me on my mobile phone whilst I was officiating at the start to ask for directions to the event! They were not the only ones not to recognise the new BOF signs. Just in case you haven't seen one it looks like this:
image missing!
The weather was very kind to us for a night event in January and we were able to sit in the start/finish tent without feeling cold. Wombwell is really just about perfect for a night event, nice and runnable without too much undergrowth, technical enough to make it interesting but not too technical to make it discouraging. The central location close to junction 36 of the M1 brought a surprisingly good turn out, 50 competitors, which made the whole thing worthwhile although one has to say the SYO representation was disappointing. Perhaps Wombwell is perceived as being the wrong side of the tracks to some of you. Pity because you missed a good event. As usual it was the affability of both the helpers and the competitors which made it so enjoyable and I would particularly like to mention Jenni Fiander, Hazel Gibbs, Ruth Sutherland, Rob Last and Kevin Walters who gave up Casualty to help. (Actually I recorded it and was very glad I did, it was one of the best ever). I would particularly like to thank Rob and Kevin who stayed on to the bitter end to help Phil Haywood and myself after a very long day.
Again we and 160 competitors were lucky with the weather - dry and mild. Helen Hargreaves and Phil Winskill (who incidentally are getting wed next December 21st) did the organising with Phil Haywood this time planning the courses. A much better turn out from SYO (40) was particularly satisfying. The only blemish was a stolen control at the far end of the wood which detracted from the runs of several competitors on Blue and Green. I kicked myself because although I checked it at 9:30 I knew this was a vulnerable control and should have checked it again later.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this a super little event. I sometimes think helping is a lot more fun than running and you find out all sorts of things in the finish tent. For example Pete Lewis, one time SYO chairman, mapper and star M35 became a father a year ago last Christmas. Son David is now 13 months old and Pete and wife Maggie (of DPFR) are naturally delighted. Belated congratulations and best wishes to you both.
PS Perhaps on the next map the burnt out cars, now rusting and beginning to blend in with their surrounds, could be shown. They would make fun control sites.
Chairman Alan Goddard alangoddard10@hotmail.com
Secretary Doreen Best colinallanb@yahoo.co.uk
Treasurer Dave Heath dave@heathcma.fsnet.co.uk
Permissions Guy Seaman Seagoon1@aol.com
Equipment Phil Haywood philh@sypte.co.uk
Fixtures (smaller events) Colin Best colinallanb@yahoo.co.uk
Newsletter Brian Shaw b.shaw@dyson-techceramics.com
Coaching Bill Hanley hanley@rmplc.co.uk
Membership Jo Mcpherson rob.mcpherson@dial.pipex.com
Fixtures (bigger events) Vacant
Club Captain Vacant
Mapping Officer Vacant
Last modified: July 25 2003 10:22.
