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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!
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?
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!
1. Simon Errington’s blogged nicely about our plinthing efforts. In the end it all came and went so fast; I managed to forget most of Roger’s tips but I still had a great time. The sun shone, and I felt fine. I nearly tripped a couple of times on the stakes though, which I had to lay vertical (and all the bending down and leaning out over the edge gave me aching legs for the City Race next day). Thanks to everyone who helped beforehand and on the day.
2. It was a bit manic chez Bailey when I got home – the Himley event was just a few hours away. Come the morning, the sun shone again, the courses were good (even if I say so myself) and it was a pity that there were so few people there. I’m beginning to think that the Black Country is more like a Black Hole… My publicising efforts seem largely to be a waste of time, and I think I’ll go back to taking a back seat and/or organising things bog-standardly.
3. Yet another sunny day on Sunday for OD’s league event at Oakley Wood, with its mysterious “fort”. I thought I ran well, with only a couple of mistakes, and was disappointed to be so far down the results. I think the truth is that I haven’t got my speed (such as it was) back from before my injury. Also, of course, in most of the events I’ve been entering lately he average ability of the competitors has been quite high, making me look (even) worse!
Warwick Council bought Oakley Wood last year and is now consulting about its future.
Himley and Baggeridge are nextdoor to one another so I thought it’d be a good idea to have an event with two races, a sprint around the parkland and woods of Himley Hall followed by a normal (or “Middle”) race around Baggeridge Country Park. Thus next weekend’s Black Country Championships were born. It’s clearly a bit more complicated to organise than a single competition, but in effect it’s only about an hour longer than a normal event would be. The Sprint starts are between 10 and 11, and the Middle ones between 12 and 1.30. The event details are here. For the sake of the championships aspect, the courses are organised according to age class, but people can treat it just like a normal colour-coded event if they like.
Paul Basher is planning the Middle race on Baggeridge, and Alison Sloman, as well as doing an excellent job updating the maps, has been out for us checking the controls. Updating the Himley map is a continuous process – trees keep disappearing!
I’ve been over there a couple of times this week and one of these mild days we’ve been having of sunshine and showers would be perfect. Poster
Managed to squeeze in a visit to the Harlequins’ event at Uffmoor Wood on the 14th. The Whites have been busy, organising and planning the Sandwell Valley event, running the weekly sessions there, and organising here!
I was looking forward to trying my first proper run for a while, but Marti asked me to take Catherine, so we did the Yellow. Well done to C for being so positive: not minding the longish walks to the start and from the finish, running quite a bit of the way round the course, and waiting for me while I went to check on the Hungarian mother and son we’d given a lift to. As it happened, I picked a good moment to go and check: they were having trouble finding the “clearing – North side” control that was a bit hard to access!
SINS is West Mercia’s two-yearly orienteering weekend, and this year it’s been blessed with perfect weather. I’m walking (as opposed to hobbling) again but I decided not to overdo it and “ran” course 12 at Brown Clee today, which was the shortest “expert” course available, at 3.2km. It was a good course, I made mistakes on a couple of the legs even though I was walking, and I got round in 80 minutes. I overshot #3, ending up at the lower pond, and after #8 I was dim enough to follow some tapes that I wasn’t supposed to follow…
The next couple of weeks will be taken up with various committee meetings. Checking the fixture list, unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be ready to run at Kingsford (June 4) but I’ll try and make my comeback (!) at Uffmoor Wood on the 14th.
Yesterday morning Catherine was sent home from school after being sick on the classroom floor; soon after she got home she fell down the stairs. Not a fun day for her, or for Marti, who was feeling under the weather herself. So it was kind of them, soon after I got home, to let me go for my Thursday evening run – at Mike Baggott’s event in Redditch. But the family stars must’ve been in misalignment. I hit my right calf on a thin rootstock just after the first control, and it was a bit sore but I thought I’d run it off as usual. Bad idea. Running uphill to #4 the calf went bang and my race was over. “Calf strain” doesn’t sound too serious but I can hardly walk and I’ll be out of action till June…
Oh, and when I stopped on the way home to buy myself a treat, I discovered that one of the two quids I’d got at the event in change was a fake. Never rains…
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