putting my back into orienteering
A new area (for me): the army training camp at Swynnerton. Nice and flat, so I managed 10 minute k’s, even though my knee was a bit dodgy towards the end. Running round, it was fascinating to imagine what a hive of activity this place had been 65 years ago.
I managed to underestimate how long it would take to get there, and then I took a wrong turning, so thanks to Jean for kindly letting me register and run.
I intended to take part in the radio-O competition at Hay Wood today but some idiot at the Department for Transport decided it might be fun to close M42 junction 6 for a couple of hours, thereby creating a massive tailback and making me an hour late to the wood. So I ran a standard Green course instead – a small disappointment but Hay Wood is a good, challenging little area so I got a lot out of my substitute run. This was one of the first areas I wrote about when I started blogging early last year. My compass work has improved but I still made a couple of mistakes today, and – horror of horrors – I mispunched…
Just after I crossed the track on the way to #10 I could see a control in the distance, seemingly in the right place. When I got there I saw 137, thought that was right, punched and turned away to head for #11. Oops. 137 was on the path, a few metres north of the depression, which was control 138.
This was a very rare occurence for me. I can’t remember mispunching before, but I’m sure I must have. Even so, I’m sure I’ve mispunched no more than 3 times in 15 years. It’s not as if I wasn’t aware that one can come across several wrong controls on a course – I’d already bumped into a couple today, including one of the radio-O controls! The mistake I made was to start thinking about the next control without concentrating enough to notice that this one was only approximately the right code in approximately the right place…
Onwards and upwards. 
And I look forward to getting another go at Radio-O in the not too distant future!
We had a good day in Shropshire – cold but mainly sunny, with mist drifting in and out to increase the challenge. It seems difficult to get good turnouts at events south-west of the conurbation and Sunday was no exception, even though the hill is one of the most interesting areas available for orienteering in the region. I enjoyed my run – the rough open land is tussocky but is almost all runnable, which is more than can be said for some areas! – but made a couple of small navigating errors and ended up 21st out of 42 on Blue.
On Tuesday I came first on the middle course at the first event of this year’s Night Street League, 54 minutes for 6.1 km. Though I know the town quite well, I don’t think I’ve run round Walsall before, and don’t remember having come across the windmill, which was one of the controls.
At both events I was being careful not to jar my left knee, after the trouble it gave me at Fineshade, but it seems fine. I did make a point of trying to keep to the grass alongside the tracks on Titterstone – there’s not much cushioning in my O shoes!
Sorry to see Chasers’ night events have been cancelled. 
But there’s still plenty to do…
Saturday 7th: Brandon Wood, Coventry (OD)
Sunday 8th: Titterstone Clee (HOC)
Tuesday 10th: Walsall (HOC) – evening
Saturday 14th: Brocks Hill, Oadby (LEI)
Sunday 15th: Eyam (DVO) and Wroxall Abbey, Solihull (OD)
Tuesday 17th & Thursday 19th: Outwoods, Loughborough (LEI)
Sunday 22nd: Aberedw Rocks, Builth Wells (POW)
Wednesday 25th: Worcester (HOC) – evening and Burbage Common, Hinckley (LEI) – night
Saturday 28th: Charlecote Park, Warwick (OD) and Wyche Ridge, Malvern (HOC)
(Wyche Ridge is hosting a day event and a night event that day.)
Sunday 29th: Swynnerton (POTOC)
I was late getting to the Chase today for the Brindley league event, and made myself later by parking in the wrong car park, meaning I had an extra climb up to registration… Then I nearly put the kibosh on my run altogether by somehow losing my hired dibber by the time I got back to the car on the way to the start. But, weirder still, my own dibber, which I thought I’d lost, suddenly turned up, so I ran using that!
Like Fineshade a couple of weeks back, Brindley Heath is somewhere you stick to the paths, and it wasn’t surprising that my attempt to run direct through the heather to the sixth control (#171) ended in tears. Still, I ended up 8th out of 48 on Green. I chose a shorter course because my left knee is a bit iffy and I need it for next Sunday’s run at Titterstone Clee. Looking forward to it.
A common complaint or comment from runners after the short race at Himley last month was that there was something amiss with #42 (south part of copse):
Certainly quite a few people lost time on it, some claiming that it was in the wrong place or that the map was wrong. But I was happy with it, and so was Alison, who mapped it and checked it, and Richard, who controlled it. John Embrey went and had a look afterwards and confirmed that the control was in the right place but something doesn’t seem quite right – I wonder if we’ll ever get to the bottom of it?
Took Catherine to the Droobers event at Brueton Park on Saturday morning. As you can see it was a bit damp, but not dispiritingly so. By the evening I was feeling quite ill though, so wasn’t up to the trip to Fownhope yesterday.
My legs didn’t enjoy the 12 km they had to traverse at the Compass Sport Cup Final, and my brain didn’t enjoy some of it either, though the Brown course did make pretty good use of an area that turned out to be as grotty as predicted. The Leicestershire club ran the show well though, and the sun shone for us too.
Early on in the proceedings, Harlequins were constantly in the medal places, but some of the other teams saved their best till last and we eventually ended up fifth. A very good result for our first time in the Final. Congratulations to team captain John Embrey and to the 70 club members who took part.
The next big event for me and the rest of my club is the CSC Final at Fineshade in Rockingham Forest. Unbelieveably, it’s the first time Harlequins have qualified, and at least 17 of us will be travelling over to Northamptonshire on the 18th to do our best to put Worcestershire (and environs) on the orienteering map. As you can see from the 1994 map, it’s a complex area:
Good luck to us!
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