Co- Chairmans Chat 5th November

Posted on Tue, 5th November 2019 by Jason Falconer
BOF News, Club News

Remember Remember, the fifth of November, I hope you will as Guy Fawkes was the the only honourable man to ever enter Parliament, have a good Guy Fawkes Night.

Big round up this week of a big weeks Orienteering. Southdowns set a challenge via Twitter of doing all 5 Local Hampshire events- did anyone do all 5?

I managed 4 – not a bad weekends activity. Heres a round up in a mega-post of dedication for all of you who took part in some of the moodiest weather weve seen for a while.

You might remember last March we had Compass Sport Comp in Roundhill New Forest? well we were back there for a MLS event on wednesday, good turn out with the Medlocks making it over for half term training. Great training on the pure white map areas of the New Forest, where every decision is important. Jolyon beat me by a minute to get a 3rd from 44, just behind I was 5th on the Blue 7. 2km  Lyra led the 43 runners on the Light Green, just another walk in the park for her.

Couple of days later on Friday was the third Night League of season over at Southsea, a car load of us went over from Poole and found our way to the church base for this one, again organised by B.A.O.C.  Alan Faringdon deals with the tech and the emit system of contactless punching works really well. Wednesdays and this event use the Race Results-info platform that provides live results – both at these events and online, which is now the most up to date you can get. I like seeing my name in 1st (before anyone else has finished of course, but always nice for while) This Wessex Night event had 78 runners! biggest ever for sure, with several runners from Czech Republic  over for the November Classic making this the first race of the weekend. There were also a team of Norwegians booked to come however their plane got delayed so missed out on the action. Straight Score here, using the double sided A3 map for a well planned event, Alan getting a respectable 5th and another 5 of us in the results too. How Nick Jarvis can sequence 30 controls in 47 Minutes and post a 9.99km distance on Strava I will never know….

Saturday. Another lovely day outdoors- Lyra and the S.W squad put on training in our Coldharbour Map, yes that’s the Saturday you remember, youth runners out in the forest honing their skills. Southdowns put on the Chichester Urban, again in pouring rain…a few WSX went and raced this new area for us – must be getting towards a serious amount of Urban maps now nationally, someone should put on a Cathedral City series now that is something Id be prepared to travel for.  Well done to those representing the Club on the day.

Sunday. The big day. Annual November Classic which brings people from all over the world to experience what we lucky Dorset folk have on our doorsteps- some of the best old growth forest in the world.  High clouds and Blue Skies on a chilly day were what greeted us for whats also the WSX club championships- where you have to enter your age class to or run up to compete in the handicapped tables. My Short Brown course being 9.2 KM. and thats the direct line route. Bramshaw is just over the road from where I coached a couple of weeks ago, a fairly unvisited part of the forest and not used for many years, its wild. Wet, and unforgiving with perhaps only Nomansland in the north seeing many regular visitors. SOC worked hard to get this area so well done to them, FC are getting more demanding every year, and you can see why as on the day our parking area was also the site of a big 10 Mile X-Country race undertaken by several hundred distance runners. Pressure on the Forest is heavy, and it has to be managed- Im just glad that even with all this you can take an O.S Map and compass , and if you have the ability get into the wildest places going undisturbed by anyone else. Back to the racing, First up Lyra who had an Interlaken selection race running up to win 1st from 37 and also our Lady Club champion. Tight at the top however many wins, and every leg counts, and as Shakira said the splits dont lie, so check them out.  Another top performances from John Cook to get the Mens Club Champion My effort fell short of finishing as I jumped a log and collapsed an ankle (again) which was a shame but I enjoyed the challenge as always, this type of area is all about good compass direction and very hard to maintain contact with the map with so little detail within the white area. Julie’s write up here too:

November Classic
What a difference a day makes! From the gales and rain on Saturday to the gloriously sunny day for the event on the Sunday. Unfortunately, the bussing system and the spread out start times meant that I didn’t see many of our club members. But everyone I did meet afterwards was saying what tough but enjoyable courses they had. Looking at the results , it was clear that MANY people had problems on nearly all but the shortest courses. I did a totting up of all the DNFs and DSQs to find there were 130, out of a field of 802. That’s 16%! And on the Short Blue, that figure rose to 23%, 35% on VSG and 28% on Orange. I’ll leave you to conclude what that says about the courses!! I have to point out, however, that on a couple of courses, there was quite a number of competitors who were disqualified for missing the last control (10% of competitors on Short Blue, for instance). The reason, apparently, was that there were two controls on the courses very close to each other near the Finish  – so that the 3 control circles were overlapping, and hence not as clear to see. You could argue that most people DID punch both controls, but it begs the question “Why have two controls so near each other so close to the Finish? What purpose did that serve?”.
Anyway, just to persevere and complete the courses was a victory in itself and several club members certainly got their money’s worth! I, for one, spent 26 minutes finding my first control (as did quite a few competitors – one even taking 50 minutes!!) The most notable result, however, was Lyra who finished 1st/37 on Light Green. Other good results were Esk – 5th on Yellow, and Agnes  – 11th/149 and 3rd in W16. So it’s not surprising that these three junior members came 1st, 2nd and 3rd in our Ladies Club Championship. Congratulations to them.
On the mens’ side: John Cook once again managed to achieve a better adjusted minutes/k than anyone else, thus winning the Mens Club Championship for the 7th consecutive year! Ian, however, came in 2nd in the Championship, and actually beat both Roger and Tim on the Blue course. Rob was 3rd in the Championship having put in a solid run, as usual.
Overall, it was a really great day, I feel, and with a decent club turnout. So well done everyone.
Julie
Welcome to our newest member Ian Wall- other IND people appearing in the results-come and join us now and get 14 months for the price of 12 at the British Orienteering website.

 

 

 

 

Monday. And still it goes on, Night League Event 4 planned by Becca Ellis in Wareham. Odds and Evens on a rainy school night this brought out 49 keen beans to take on the Wareham Walls, and boy was it hard, first runners went out in the rain and splashed their way around the course- with puddles like lakes on all the old roads and mud slides around the grassy walls. Joy. Our James Crickmore did the club proud for the win   Thanks to WIM for putting this on and well done to all our club members who braved the night, special mention to the Kings Arms pub too that looked after us with great food and beer after.

 

ACROSS THE POND. Our Peter Suba had a great time winning a rare event in Houston– Texas!!

“As work forced me to be away for the Club Championship, I looked for some similar challenges in Houston. Texas and especially this area not being very favourable for O-terrains, nevertheless just so happens, that one of about 10 events they organise in a year in the state was falling on the same day that the November Classic. I entered and got a lift from US international runner Jordan Laughlin who also planned the course. This made for some interesting conversations about US Orienteering. For example I learned that this was going to be the very first score event the club ran with e-punching, having used traditional card punching until very recently…!
The format for the day was a mass start 1 hour score event, in what was more a park setting in our standards, although some of the “rough open” was more a marsh, with heavy running and long grass underfoot. Navigation was not a challenge in european standards, though.
Most of the attendees (about 160 of the 170) were bussed in by the various military cadet schools and were juniors – this being part of their training regime.
With all that, I ended up winning it, clearing up in about 31 minutes with about a 4 minute lead to the next person. Can I please get my pace calculated for the club championship? To help repay the lift I received (there are serious distances in Texas even when an event is nearby), I jogged 2/3rd of the course again to collect controls.
That set me up for the next day where, there being no more orienteering available anywhere nearby, I ran the “Katy 10 miler”, a much more straightforward street running race, setting off at 7am in unusually cool conditions for Texas, and finishing in just over 1 hour 8 minutes (again, racing the day before did not really help), finishing 13th overall and 1st in my age class (amongst some 300 runners).”
 Well if that read hasnt tired you out- Tuesday  training tonight, Medium hills so meet at BU or at the bottom of Alder Hills next to Langside special school for the 6 Oclock start. Share this on facebook and any other networks you have and Ill see you soon, Next race- WIM in Ringwood Forest North.
.
Orienteering Club