Read on to find out how Helen overcame her fear of planning and ended up helping Simon plan the LOK Badge Event at Holmbury Hill in November 1996.

Dramatis personae

Richard (Blake): Organiser

Helen and Simon (Errington): Planners

Bill (Greep) : Controller

I've bought another PC, which brings with it a new spell checker. This one does the spell checking as you type, and also tries to outguess you on the grammar front. It thoughtfully suggested that I should replace "FROLICS is LOK's main claim to fame" with either "FROLICS are LOK's main claim..." or "A FROLIC is LOK's main claim..." in my chairman's article. Nice try but no banana. I then let it loose on my list of maps. Some of you may recognise some of the following.

A paper to be presented at a scientific conference in London this week could have a profound impact on the future of orienteering. "Predictions of future magnetic field reversals" by Professors Howard Orchard and Alberto Ximenes of the Institute for Applied Physical Research (IAPR) presents the results of a detailed study of movements of the earth's magnetic poles, and uses these observations to predict that a reversal of the magnetic field is imminent. They claim that the north magnetic pole could move from its current position in northern Canada to a new location in Antarctica over a period as short as one year. The impact on the sport of orienteering, where competitors rely on maps aligned to magnetic north, could be severe.