Maprunner - O Articles

O Articles

Hertfordshire Youth League 2008/9

Fleetville team at Cassiobury Park Fleetville Junior School dominated the Hertfordshire Youth League 2008/2009 and came away with both major trophies. They came first in the overall competition, as well as winning the Maureen Webster Memorial Trophy for the school with the most competitors taking part over the five races.

Ellie Clark and Shauna Lils finished first and second on the Girls' Yellow Course, and Michael Woodford and James Errington finished first and second on the Boys' Yellow Course. There were also top 10 places for Emily Webster, Lily Kattenhorn-Black, Lydia Grinsted, Hannah Clark, James O'Higgins, Matthew Exact, Benj Parikh and Peter Errington.

Full results are on the HH website, along with pictures from the last event of the season at Cassiobury Park, Watford.

British Schools Orienteering Championships 2008

Fleetville team Two months ago Helen decided to organise a Fleetville Junior School team for the British Schools Orienteering Championships. Since then they have been to events in places like Epping Forest, Verulamium, Rothamsted and High Wycombe, as well as having a coaching day in Highfield Park during half term.

Yesterday the team of 16 put in a fantastic performance and came away with three medals: third school in Girls Year 5, second school in Boys Year 6, and third place in the overall Primary Schools competition.

Some more photos here.

Punching Technique

Sometimes the hardest part of orienteering is punching the controls, never mind finding them in the first place.You will no doubt have spotted that the three year old having trouble on the left is the same person as the resourceful ten year old on the right who found a novel way of punching at the City of London Orienteering race.

There is lots more about the London race on the website , including a fantastic video by Graham Gristwood.

Coming Soon - London City Race

I'm controlling the City of London Orienteering Race in October. The picture on the left shows some of the things I ran past when checking control sites.

It's going to be a great race. Don't miss it.

JWOC Database

Just in time (well, almost) for JWOC 2008 in Sweden I have finally got round to following up the success of the Maprunner WOC Database and have created the Maprunner JWOC Database. Now you can find out who did what and when at JWOC, as well as working out whether Hollie Orr's 37th place in the Sprint Race was Great Britain's best ever women's sprint result . (Answer: it was.)

Scottish 6-Day 1991

(Reflections on Day 3 of the Scottish 6-Day 1991 reproduced from Lokation 79. I believe it's normal to apologise to Wordsworth at this point.)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

Upon a distant Scottish hill,

When all at once I saw a crowd,
Not one of them was standing still,
Beyond the lake, above the trees,
And there amongst them Helen Teece.

Continuous as the stars that shine,
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line,
But only eight from LOK,
I gave the map a hopeful glance,
I'm in the circle now perchance.

The pack ran left, and then ran right,
And up and down, and to and fro,
But number five was out of sight,
Full fifty metres down below,
And then it struck me clear as day,
I'm off the map by half a k.

For oft when on my couch I lie,
And contemplate this sport of O,
I wonder how I passed five by,
And why didn't Ian or Tim or Ro,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And least I didn't count Bowhill.

Canadian Orienteering Championships 1996

(From Lokation 108 in December 1996.)

Honeymoon day one, and a chance to test the large sports bags that LOK gave us as a wedding present. (Thanks to everyone who contributed: we decided we'd leave the wine at home, which just about gave us room for O-kit for two weeks.) The flight to Boston passed slowly enough for me to plan most of the Holmbury badge event, and we managed to get about one hundred miles north before finding a motel.

Day two was a day for culture. We stopped at Fort Ticonderoga to discover how the Americans had whopped the Brits during the War of Independence. Then on north west into the Adirondack mountains, and a visit to Lake Placid. We did the tour of the Olympic ski jumping complex, complete with lunatic people out dry slope ski jumping. The highlight of Helen's trip came when she spotted that Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards was one of the people training with the American team. We have a blurred photo of the back of his head to prove it. And then the final drive into Canada, through Ottawa and on to Wakefield, about twenty miles north of the capital. We arrived at the event centre just in time to miss the opening ceremony.