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The latest of my biannual Queslett events is coming up on Sunday week, the 25th. Start times 4.30-5.30 pm. This one is designed mainly for kids and beginners but there’ll be a cobbled-together course for the old hands (about 4km). For a change we’ll be using the Asda car park and all the money (£3/£1.50) will be going to Children in Need.
Meanwhile (cue fanfare) Community O arrives in the West Midlands this week with the launch of the Wednesday night sessions in Sutton Coldfield. Dave Ellis and co will be running these at Clifton Road Youth Centre (between Wyndley Leisure Centre and Town Gate) between 6 and 7.30, and your first two visits are free.
Above is my and Dave’s little bit on the back cover of the September issue of Families Birmingham and Solihull, which I think I did well to arrange. 
(Thanks, Wendy!) Thousands of copies of each issue are distributed free via schools, libraries, etc.
Alan Halliday was printing the leaflets for the Birmingham parks events so I went to collect them at OD’s Memorial Park event. Not an especially exciting venue if you’re a Droober, I’m sure, but it was my and Catherine’s first visit, and it was a lovely evening to boot. Stupidly I forgot to check the map scale and mucked up the first control… The other mistake I made was the map’s fault though. (Really!) Meanwhile, Amy Kirk very kindly escorted Catherine round the Yellow course.
I went to the SEE in the Lickeys yesterday evening and I won the Green. Although I’ve been tootling around some Orange courses with Catherine lately, this was my first proper run out since I injured my ankle, and it seems to have held up okay.
So, that’s the good news out of the way. A closer look at the results suggests that my performance was hardly impressive. Firstly, I’m younger than almost everyone who ran Green. Secondly, 58 minutes for 4.2 km is slow. Could it even be the slowest winning time this year on a Green course? Thirdly, I got lost twice, the second time so badly that I stood still in bafflement for over a minute. (It was quite a shock on the way to #15 to come out on a path and the compass said I was looking south-west…)
The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between these two assessments. John, the planner, had clearly done his job well and devised a tricky course in area that most of us should know pretty well. Apart from a couple of the guys on Blue, everyone found it tough. (Which goes to prove one of my old orienteering maxims: if you’re finding it hard, so’s everybody else, so don’t give up!) The results 3 years ago were pretty similar, though that night Colin Spears edged me out by 10 seconds. The youngsters will be here in November for the qualifying round of the Yvette Baker Cup and it’ll be interesting to see whether the Lickeys have the same disorienting effect on young brains!
Finally, I hope he doesn’t mind, but a word about David Hemmings. I caught David up at the second control, and I realise the same thing happened at Kingsford in ’08. That night I blasted round in 42 minutes (but didn’t win!) while he had a few problems. Last night was a different story – it was nip and tuck between us all the way round and in the end I was lucky to beat him. Good to see that some of us are improving!
More, and better, here.
Off to junction 12 of the M40 with Andy W and Barry M. Itchington Holt is a lovely little wood and it’s a lot drier underfoot today than it was the last time I was here. I set off first on the 4.7 km course but I made a mistake straight away and Andy caught me up at the 2nd control! I didn’t think I’d see him again, so I was surprised to catch him back up at #5, and again at #13. He’s definitely got the legs though, not me, so I could never keep ahead of him and his time for the course was about 47 minutes compared to my 49.
One problem we both had was the 2-dimensional control markers OD use for these events. Andy ran past #5, we both ran past #6, and I didn’t see #14 despite spiking the feature!
Having just spent 12 hours in the company, one way or another, of West Bromwich, I feel that for ever more this date will be associated with that unsung town. First I drove and walked around to check the OpenStreetMap of the area – quite a challenge for one person, but I got half the job done – and to identify lampposts with hydrant signs on them, which I’ll be using as controls for Thursday’s event. Then I came home to fetch Catherine and we went to explore The Public, a somewhat infamous building I’ve heard plenty about but which I’d never set foot in. We had a good time and were even shown around some of The Non-Public (!) areas by the duty manager. Finally I’ve been editing the aforementioned OpenStreetMap via the interwebs, which has been made less easy by the fact that for some reason the text is displaying in Japanese…
Three runs this week to get back into the swing of things. Tuesday was a street event in Shrewsbury. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t use the proper O map, but I didn’t mind the quiz format too much – it’s a nice bit of fun for the summer. A pity though that the central area was so faint – it made my progress to the finish even slower, having already succumbed to a case of vibrating kneecap.
But that didn’t put me off travelling to Hinckley on Thursday for LEI’s end of season Burbage event. The ground there was much springier than the streets of Salopia and my legs were much happier. I wondered whether this event was sponsored by IOF, to trial the mass-start ”Hagaby” style of race that they’re thinking of introducing into the world championships. What you do is split the course into sections, and have alternative routes for each section. The runners go round the course twice, but the second time they do the controls they didn’t have the first time round.
Today I took Catherine to the first event of the new season: a middle-distance event on Cannock Chase. Thanks to the Mitchells and the Whites both Catherine and I were able to run. She was brilliant today, zooming round the White in under 10 minutes, coming first overall. She even said to me that it’s a good idea to check which way you need to go next before you arrive at a control. My performance was a more modest 13th out of 28. I was 3rd after 4 controls, but later on I managed to take 4 minutes to do a 100m leg…
A new season is almost upon us, and this was to be my first run for a while: Kingsbury Water Park. Marti and Catherine decided to come with me; somehow we’d never been there, for orienteering or anything else. Well, that’s almost not true; I did once take Catherine to Broomey Children’s Farm, which neighbours the park. Kingsbury’s one of those areas that regular orienteers in the Midlands have little enthusiasm for: running there once is enough! But, luckily for me, this was my first time.
Turned out a bit of previous knowledge would’ve helped. We got there in good time but the promised signage from the main road was nowhere to be seen. Also at the main entrance to the park, nothing. Could it be that the event had been cancelled? Just my luck! Maybe they were using a different car park. So off we set on the very long journey anti-clockwise around the park, via Kingsbury village, Tamworth, Fazeley, Drayton Manor and the Aston Villa training ground. No sign anywhere, including at the Broomey Croft car park. Finally we returned to the main entrance and met a gentleman holding a compass, seeking change for the car park barrier. It was at this point that Catherine noticed that there was a O sign, but it was on the other side of the barrier. So I did get my run, in what for me at least was an interesting new area…
(Kingsbury Water Park is exotic, but this guy has orienteered in some amazing places this year!)
The World Masters is taking place this week in and around Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Photos here. The long-distance final is tomorrow (Friday) and Andy Hemsted lines up in a tough field in the M60 class. The big event in Britain this month is the Lakes Week starting on the 22nd.
Meanwhile, I need to get running – I can feel my bones setting like concrete. Here’s what’s available. The events I’m thinking of going to are starred (but I could be persuaded to go to one or two of the others) - if you want to share a lift, I’m on 07792 049556. No voicemail, please.
Tuesday 10th: Lyth Hill (Shrewsbury)
Tuesday 10th: Loughborough*
Wednesday 11th: Ashorne (Warwick)
Sunday 15th: Biddulph
Tuesday 17th: Cannock Chase*
Tuesday 17th: Llanymynech (Oswestry)
Wednesday 18th: Kingsbury* (Sutton Coldfield)
Wednesday 18th: Oakham (Rutland)
Sunday 22nd: Suckley (Malvern – mountain-bike event)
Tuesday 24th: Twemlows (Market Drayton)
Tuesday 24th: Evington (Leicester)
Tuesday 31st: Shrewsbury*
Up to Barr Beacon last night for possibly the first-ever event there. Organised by Barry McGowan, this area was mapped under the same auspices as Fibbersley and Rough Wood, thereby providing Walsall borough with several new useable areas.
As well as the first use of the map, this event marked the launch of the permanent orienteering course, and the turnout was excellent. As well as lots of familiar faces from Harlequins and Octavian Droobers, Peter Sunley brought a group from Queen Mary’s Grammar School, and there were also some members of the public.
The Beacon is nice for O training, only spolied by a pesky reservoir that splits the area in two. I did the long (7k) course in 54 minutes.
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