So where has the ‘summer’ gone? Autumn is definitely in the air now, which I personally don’t mind (especially as I’m off to Italy for a month in two weeks time!), but hopefully we’ll have a lovely September, and maybe, even, October. Often the loveliest months.

Anyway, last weekend saw quite a few club members down on the sand dunes at Hayle for the Caddihoe Chase, organised by Kerno. It was a weekend of two halves: bright and dry on Saturday, grey, damp and windy on Sunday. In fact, it was so windy overnight that one of the main event tents had to be dismantled in the early morning, and a lot of the material inside was ‘trashed’, in the words of the Controller. One of the items that was destroyed was the printed start list so this resulted in quite a casual start line on Sunday morning – just turn up at the pre-start box, and if there was a space on your course, you could go! Great.

Saturday was the Middle Distance event on Mexico Towans, the southern part of the dunes complex and provided some challenging but thoroughly enjoyable orienteering. Sunday was the Long Distance event further north on Upton and Gwithian Towans. Again, challenging – made even more so by the drizzly and later, foggy, conditions. There was the usual spectacle in such terrain of ‘meerkats’ popping up on top of dunes, looking around, then popping back down again. Quite comical – until you are one of those ‘meerkats’ yourself!

So to the results. I’ve put them in a table, here,  to make it a bit clearer (hopefully). Please note that the positions in the SW Middle/Long Distance Championships are based on my calculations – discounting all non-SW club competitors. I may have got it wrong in some cases! But certainly a big congratulations in particular to Lyra and Arthur for having a clean sweep of the results.

And well done to everyone for taking on the challenge of the dunes!

So now looking forward to the coming weeks…..

Monday 11th  – WIM  Informal evening event at ByTheWay, Wimborne. All welcome. Also Final Summer League event.

Friday 15th – our AGM and Quiz. it’s still not too late to let me know you’re coming.

Saturday 16th –  Southampton Orienteering Club Event at Hasley Hill, New Forest.

And don’t forget to enter the November Classic on fabian4 by the end of the month! This is our Club Championship event – so you must enter your normal age class in order to qualify.