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Contributors: Charlie Adams; Colin Best; Martin and Judith Checkley; Dave Heath; Dorothy Pelly; Jim Sutherland; Ruth Sutherland.
Thanks to Colin Best for permission to reproduce sections of SYO News below. Copy date for the next magazine is Thursday February 18th 1999 for the issue to be printed by 22 February 1999. Please send contributions to Colin Best or to the Webmaster to be passed on.
Chairman's Comments
Notes from the AGM
Eight Good Reasons for putting on string courses
Orienteering in the Czech Republic and Italy, July 1998
Orienteering in Spain "I TROFO 'CUIDAD' DE TOTANA"
5/6 Dec '98
Event Reports - Sandall Beat
Event Reports - Club Champs
Event Reports - Junior Orienteering
Noticeboard
Mapping Course
A letter
Sheffield Night Orienteering Training
SYO Relay Teams 1999
CompassSport Cup 1999
British Champs May 1999
A Footpath Relay
Fixtures
The end of another year, rounded off with the Club Champs. I'm sorry I wasn't able to take part in what by all accounts was an excellent event. Well done to Jim and Ruth and all their helpers.
So what will 1999 bring? World Cup success? A beating of a close rival? Success in the CompassSport Cup? Fun on an 'O' holiday in Scotland or abroad? Or just the sights and smells of the forest in the early morning light? May 1999 be full of memorable events whether planner or competitor, novice or elite. Happy orienteering .
Sally Soady
Present: Sally Soady, Phil Haywood, Brian Shaw, Eric Shimmin, Dave Heath, Jill Gorvett, Pete Gorvett, Martin Ward, David Pilling, Robin Stansfield, Jim Sutherland, Ruth Sutherland, Janet Haywood.
Apologies: Bill Hanley, Gill Akers, Guy Seaman.
The minutes of the 1997 AGM were circulated and approved.
Chairman's report:
Club Captain's Report: In the UK Relay League, SYO won both the male and female trophies. SYO beat LOC and NOC to win the CompassSport Cup. The first round of the 1999 CompassSport Cup will be on March 14th 1999.
Treasurer's Report: The signed 1997-1998 accounts, as audited by Robin Stansfield, were presented. Stan Maycraft proposed a motion to accept the accounts. This was seconded by Dave Heath. The accounts were accepted by those present at the AGM. Stan also proposed SYO fees remain at the 1997-1998 level, which is £4.00 for seniors, £1.00 for juniors and £5.00 for families. This was seconded by John Soady. The fee level was accepted by those present at the AGM.
The following financial issues were raised:
Election of Officers:
Any Other Business:
Mapping: Wombwell has been identified as an area which needs re-mapping. It is proposed that the area will be re-mapped as a project involving members of the club who are interested in mapping. Dave Peel has agreed to be available to give advice and assistance. A date has been set - January 23rd. It was suggested that Sandall Beat would be a good area for beginners but needs re-mapping because of significant changes.
Club Kit: The committee decided to adopt the yellow and black colours of the Stanley sponsored kit, after the issue was raised for discussion in the Newsletter. Only club tops will be obtained. Any black leggings would complete the club outfit. It was also decided to subsidise junior kit where juniors run for SYO. Those present at the AGM agreed to retain the Stanley logo only if further sponsorship is agreed. The sponsorship money would be used to reduce the cost of the shirts. Charlie Adams agreed to take orders for kit. The Fianders will be approached to hold and sell any excess kit.
Annual Dinner: The dinner was felt to be an event which should be held again on a similar date in 1999. Cheaper venues and bands should be investigated. The ceilidh was felt to be appropriate because it enabled all to be involved. It was suggested that there should be another event which was more suitable for juniors. A picnic after a summer event was suggested.
Juniors: Jim and Ruth Sutherland suggested that SYO should offer string courses as these are good for encouraging families. It was agreed that SYO should offer string courses and that the organiser should aim to find a volunteer to plan the course. Jim noted that he would be prepared to plan string courses where the event has been publicised as putting on a string course. It was also noted that fliers for events should indicate how far the start and registration are from the car park, as this is useful information for families.
I believe that string courses should be put on at all SYO events in order:-
Ruth Sutherland
The first Italian 5-day event seemed an excellent opportunity for our first visit to Italy, combined with the World Masters (WMOC) in the Czech Republic the week before. Having decided to drive there, we encountered the worst part of the journey very early on - the M25 on a Friday night! After that it was relatively easy and with two overnight stops reached Czech. on Sunday afternoon.
We spent a day walking in the spectacular sandstone Lusation Mountains in North Bohemia before heading for the event centre at nearby Novy Bor. Accommodation, food and drink (25p for 0.5l Bud.) is very cheap, although non-meat eaters may find themselves on a restricted diet. We stayed B&B with a lovely Czech family who made us very welcome and, along with fellow guests (also orienteers), all watched the World Cup matches in a very cosmopolitan atmosphere. The only problem was with language as very little English is spoken. Everyone else seemed happy with their accommodation although the Seamans and Coopers in the 'summer chalets' had to smuggle in a supply of Lion Bars to keep them going until the healthy appetites of orienteers was realised.
The orienteering started with a training say on the Wednesday, qualifying days on Thursday and Friday to determine if you went through to the A, B, C or D final on Sunday, and a rest day between which we used to visit Prague. All the areas were very close with buses organised. The maps were good, 1:10,000, and made of tyvek. The terrain was wooded, fairly steep hillside of variable runnability with some very technical areas of sandstone crags, crevices and rock pillars (mapped as boulders!) where you could lose lots of time very easily - and I did. I just scraped into the A final, where I finished 41st out of the 79. Other A finalists included best Brit J Musgrave 5th in M35 and SYO's Monika Cooper 34th in W50 - excuse me not putting in lots more results. The competition was very tough with a large entry due to the central European location. The final day was unfortunately marred by heavy rain, and we left before the prizegiving, arriving in Italy on the Monday morning.
The orienteering event was in the Val de Non, a plateau above Bolzano in Northern Italy, famous for its apple growing. The event was very well organised with good apartment accommodation prearranged for us, although the custom of grouping together entries, invoices, results etc of all the members of a club caused a few minor headaches.
All the accommodation was in the small villages close to the event centre, with everyone bussed to the events, high up in the mountains. The alpine scenery and forests were beautiful and the atmosphere very relaxed, helped by the good weather. The areas were all very technical woodland with intricate contour detail; some interspersed with patches of alpine meadow, possibly the most difficult areas I have run on. The complexity took many of us by surprise on the first day and led to some very long times. I think I started to get the hang of it by the last day, my only mistake free day (well almost). The maps were excellent and the terrain a pleasure to run through, with generally little vegetation ( I didn't wear gaiters all week and came back without a scratch). The distraction of wild orchids and lilies were my excuse for not doing better in the results, or could it be too much pasta and Chianti.
We were able to compare the two electronic punching systems, Emit being used for WMOC, Ident for the Italian. Ident came out a clear winner for us, being easier to carry and punch (though not having the Emit physical record of having been to a control). In Italy, as soon as you had finished you could collect a printout of your splits and, later in the day, a printout of your relative performance on each leg and overall position at the end of each leg. An analytical orienteer's paradise!
Driving overnight again, we arrived back in England on Sunday morning, a 1,000 mile round trip taking in 8 countries! Both Martin and myself thoroughly enjoyed both events despite rather disappointing results. The Italian event was very successful, with 2,800 competitors and we look forward to their 2nd multi-day event.
Dorothy Pelly
Two weeks ago we received a list of national events in Spain from their equivalent of BOF. This was the first info we had about orienteering in Spain and so we decided to take a chance and enter the above event. We sent a brief letter with our age class details and an envelope to be delivered to the campsite in Totana if possible.
On arrival at the campsite at 6pm on Friday 4th our entry acceptance awaited us! Hand delivered by a local club official! Control cards, numbers and start times were to be collected either that evening or early the next morning. We decided on the latter as we had travelled far enough that day and didn't fancy trying to find the event centre in the dark.
7.30 Saturday morning we left the campsite to find the event. 'O' signs were found from the village of Totona, leading us into the mountains for 16k.
The event centre was a campsite and restaurant in the Sierra Espuna national park, which had evidence of recent snowfalls.
After overcoming language problems we received our entry and start times but no control descriptions. These we found out were handed out at the start. We were to run at 10.15 and arrived at the start in good time to find that the start clock hadn't arrived so starts were delayed by 10 minutes. (This was a national event!)
Looking around us we were conspicuous by the fact that we were wearing lycra tights and 'O' shoes: almost everyone else wore 'O' suits and ordinary running shoes.
The courses for both days were 4.2k for D40 and 4.7k for H45 which we though was rather short - but we didn't know what the terrain was like. It turned out that the terrain was mainly pine forest with areas of cultivated land - not out of bounds - and was hard and rocky underfoot. The map was accurate and the controls quite visible. The ground was dry - even the streams - no wet feet after orienteering in winter. Course lengths were OK for the terrain. The finish was at the restaurant which was in the middle of the map. As you finished the map was collected and kept until the next day. All competitors were handed a plastic cup, a can of fruit juice and 2 muesli bars, courtesy of local sponsors!
The second day started in the day place as day 1 and courses ran in the opposite direction and went into slightly different areas. The finish was the same as well.
This was a national event but there were only about 300 competitors. Most of these were H/D21s. There are very few older orienteers in Spain and for the first time this year they have introduced H/D50 classes which is the oldest age group.
The interest in orienteering in Spain (and in this region in particular) has increased since the holding of the 'World Vets' a few years ago. Each region has an enthusiastic, family based club who put on an event every weekend. The produce a glossy calendar for each region and to enter events you 'phone a central number on the Thursday before the event to register. Entry fees are quite cheap - for the two day national event it was 4000 pesetas which is approximately £17 for two people. Regional events appear to be approx 750 pesetas but we'll find out soon as next weekend we're doing a regional event and the weekend event after that we're trying a Spanish score event.
Orienteering here remains a minority sport which is a pity because with the extensive areas, dry parking and excellent winter temperatures (at present approx 16C which the locals say is uncharacteristically cold) a British organiser would have no worries.
If we have anything of interest to report we'll write again, especially when we orienteer in Portugal next year.
Martin and Judith Checkley
Roving Reporters
Sandall Beat currently has the reputation of being the oldest map in regular use by SYO. Consequently as a result there are a significant number of inaccuracies on the map which do not make it easy for the planner or competitor. Also the area is totally devoid of contours (apart from the railway bridge!). It lacks sufficient fine detail with the result that the supposedly technical courses are perhaps easier than they ought to be. Nevertheless the planner wasted a lot of time looking for the pit where the map exchange was situated when he was putting out controls on Sunday morning. There must be a moral in there somewhere!
Hopefully the powers that be in SYO will agree that a revision of the map is now in order along with some minor landscaping to make things a bit more interesting in the future.
Much of the planning was done in September when the leaves were still on the trees rather than on the ground. Hopefully obscured paths did not cause anyone too many problems.
I would like to thank Eric, John and Martin who helped with the task of putting out and taking in controls.
Dave Heath (Planner)
See the results page.
There aren't a lot of juniors in the club at the moment so I've decided to do something that might help
I've set myself the task of raising a team of juniors from the students of the school where I teach who would be able to represent SYO at the British Relay Champs in the Lakes in 1999.
I offered the opportunity of getting some training and then of running for SYO in the British Champs to all the students in my school and to those who were interested I gave a letter outlining three training sessions in November/December 1998. About eighty students took letters but fortunately only twenty-six returned reply slips to say they would like to attend all three sessions.
The first session was on a bitterly cold evening after school using a black and white map of the school grounds. Jenny James helped me and was able to demonstrate that this wasn't a sport just for geriatric old men!
About sixteen survived the initiation to meet on Loxley Common and do a map walk and some simple star exercises. Jill Gorvett, Gill Akers, Karl Marshall and Ted Morton all helped with small groups.
Two dropped out but others replaced them at Ecclesall Woods where Bill Hanley put on some training for junior and senior beginners. Martin Smith and Guy Seaman helped to put out controls and Bridget, Helen Turton, Alan Goddard, Emily Seaman, Dorothy Pelly and Bill and myself worked with small groups. The training finished with all the juniors doing a white or yellow course.
The culmination of all the training came on Dec 20th at Storthes Hall which fifteen Bradfield students attended. They all tackled either a white or a yellow course either on their own or in pairs. Because of all the training they had had from willing SYO members they all succeeded in completing their courses without any major mishaps and they are now all fired up to go to our next event at Strines on Jan 3rd.
So now we have 3 M/W12s (1999 age classes), 6 M14s, 3 W14s, 2 W16s and 1 M16 as well as Owen Dickinson M18 (who has been orienteering for some time).
The plan from now is to get them all up to Orange standard so that they could run Orange for the club in CompassSport Cup in March with the M16 getting up to Light Green.
I have a minibus and a driver who happens to be the father of one of the M14s and of one of the M12s and so shall be going to Crich Chase and Sherwood. There are also some local SYO events - at Strines, Blackamoor, Coneygree and Ecclesall Woods - which they can get to with parental transport. There is also some more training for them in February, March and April. So there is plenty of opportunity to reach their targets. Hopefully they will remain enthused by their success and keep going right up to the British.
But if anyone could help out by taking an interest in their progress, and listening to them after a run and letting them talk you through their courses I would be very grateful.
More news in the next newsletter.
Colin Best
- see the special Noticeboard page.
Dave Peel will be offering advice and help to anybody who wants to learn how to do a field survey for a map. The idea is to take an old map of Wombwell Woods and to resurvey it as the basis for a new map which Ray Waight will draw up for the Club in time for an event to take place later in 1999.
It is an ideal opportunity for anybody who wants to learn about mapping or wants to learn more about mapping to get some real help and at the same time contribute to a new map.
Those who are interested should contact Colin Best who is co-ordinating the day.
Dear Editor,
I just wanted to write and say how much we enjoy SYO events and how much we appreciate all the hard work members put in. Your Christmas run and meal out was lovely. Laurenne (5) enjoyed the run, the treasure, the meal and the quiz and chose to come to the SYO event instead of the Young Ornithologists Christmas Party - praise indeed!
It is remarkable that the club can accommodate elite runners, people of all ages and fitness levels and make young children and families feel so welcome too.
Many thanks - keep up the good work and hopefully when our brood are a little older we'll be able to give some help too.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs A K Taberner on behalf of the Taberner family
There is usually just one course. It is not suitable for beginners but those people who want to hone up their night orienteering skills are very welcome.
Mass Start 7pm
Phone the organiser to get an overprinted map
Course time 50-60 minutes
| Jan 12th | Ecclesall / Limb Valley | Bill Edwards |
| Jan 19th | Rivelin | Charlie Adams |
| Jan 26th | Canklow | Helen Hargreaves |
| Jan 30th | Blacka Moor | Dave Peel (Proper SYO Night Event) |
| Feb 2nd | Beeley Woods | Oli Johnson's house |
| Feb 9th | Greno Woods | Night Lightfoot |
| Feb 16th | Venue TBA | Hilary Bloor |
| Feb 23rd | Lady Cannings Plantation | Ricky Baxter (new map) |
| Mar 2nd | Hathersage Moor | Al Buckley (new map) |
Any queries phone Richard Baxter or Dave Peel.
It's time to start thinking about entering the major events for 1999 and that includes the relays. The first of there are the JK relays on 5th April at Hawley and Honley Commons near Camberley and the British Relays are on May 9th at Holker estate in South Cumbria.
SYO has decided that the club will not be subsidising members' entries for the JK, British and Scottish relays as has happened in the past. Instead the money will be used to pay fully for any teams we enter in the Harvester Relay in September 1999.
The Relay classes available at the JK and British are similar to last year with far more choice at the British as compared with the JK - contact Charlie Adams for details and entries.
As those who attended the AGM will know, it has been decided to adopt the new black and yellow Silva 'O' top (as worn by the SYO runners in the 1998 UK Relay League) as club kit. Black bottoms by Silva are available separately. The cost for the top is £30 for seniors and £5 for juniors.
Selection Policy for 1999 Relays
As usual selection for the SYO relay teams looks necessary, particularly in the Men's Open. As a result I am nominating the following as selection races for the JK Relay Teams:
UK Cup, Round 1, Cannock Chase, 6th April
UK Cup, Round 2, Cannock Chase, 7th April
CompassSport Cup, Arnecliffe, 14th March
JK Day 1, Leith Hill, 3rd April
As usual, 'al known form' will be considered as well.
The SYO teams for the British Relay Championships will be selected on JK Relay performance, plus results from the British Individual Championships, both Short and Classic.
We start the defence of the CompassSport Cup on March 14th at Arnecliffe near Scarborough. The committee has decided that following the success of last year's final, SYO will take a coach to this event. Unfortunately the Club cannot afford to pay for the coach again so this time we will be charging £5 for seniors and £2 for juniors.
No arrangements have yet been made, but it is envisaged that arrangements will be similar for those for the final last October (but hopefully with a slightly later departure time!).
There are only two rounds this year. Round 1 is Regional and we are competing against AIRE, CLOK, EBOR and NATO. The winner goes through to the final on May 23rd.
If we can have a good turn out again we should have a good chance of progressing to the final - but we need our strongest runners to be available. Please let me know if you would like to come on the coach.
Charlie Adams.
Advance Information! We have secured the use of Cartmell Fell Village Hall for the weekend of the British Champs in 1999 ie 8th and 9th May.
There is floor space for sleeping, four massive woodburning stoves to keep everybody warm, a kitchen and washing facilities. Cost will be roughly £2 per person per night.
Contact Sally Soady if you want some floor space.
A race against other 'O' clubs and running clubs over footpaths of the Northern Peak.
20 legs of varying distances and difficulties to suit all abilities.
Start/Finish at Redmires, Sheffield.
If you are interested contact Colin Best.
- see the special Fixtures page.
Last modified: July 25 2003 10:22.
