You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'historical' category.
Time for a few ads…
1. Harlequins’ Thursday evening series is under way and carries on through August.
2. Droobers’ new park race series begins in Coventry tomorrow.
3. We’ve just had a bank holiday, I know, but the next one is very soon. That means Springtime in Shropshire!
4. Before then, on the 17th, there’s a Level Two event in Bentley Woods, and the entry deadline is this coming Sunday. Maybe the timing is bad, it coming the week after the big races in Nottingham and Thringstone, but I hope the number of entries pushes on well beyond the current 145. (Even assuming they do, I think some of the age classes ought to be combined at smaller regional events like this one: e.g. 18+20, 21+35, 40+45, 65++.)
Although I can’t find the map, I’ve found the results of the only event I’ve run there: it was the Midland Champs in February 1996. A good run by my standards: I got a “silver” time on M21S. This year’s event seems better value for money: the M40L was 8 km in 1996, while this year it’s 10km!
Excluding the string course, there were 637 competitors, and these were the course winners that day:
10 Megan Greenall OD, Nicholas Tinker MDOC
12 Emma Whitehead DVO, David Hodkinson NOC, Matthew Dickinson DVO
14 Julia Leventon WRE, Stephen Wright NOC
16 Hannah Wootton HOC, Alastair Footitt NOC
18 Claire Daniel HAVOC, Adam Harrison WAOC
20 Jo Abbott WRE, David Jenkins LSOC
21 Alice Bedwell BOK, Jamie Stevenson ESOC
35 Janet Evans NOC, Stephen Kimberley DVO
40 Jane Booker NOC, Barry Elkington OD
45 Judith Holt LEI, Roger Richards WCH
50 Sue Porter LEI, Rex Bleakman DVO
55 Judith Powell WRE, Brian Morris WRE
60 Marlene Palmer WCH, Peter Bayliss WRE
65 Barbara Bradley WCH, Frank Smith OD
70 Phillip Broadhead LEI
p.s. I love you too, Mark.
So what kinds of orienteering have I yet to do? Let’s see… First, a list of the kinds I’ve tried:
cross-country (winter 84/85) – two runs while I was at Durham, then a long gap till I did a well-publicised event in the Lickeys about 15 years later
night street (winter 94/95) – a staple of the Harlequins diet – a happy hunting ground!
score (winter 94/95) – the annual New Year’s Day event is great
summer evening (spring 95) – these low-key events have a different feel to them from the regular Sunday-morning slogs
wayfaring (winter 97/98) – I suppose this activity has transmogrified into the mountain marathons. My first and only teljesítménytúra was the Téli Mátra. More on this another time.
string (summer 06)
night cross-country (winter 07/08) – I put off trying this for three reasons: 1 I spend enough time orienteering already, 2 you need special equipment, 3 I thought it would be too hard or not fun. But it isn’t too hard and it is fun! I’ve recommended this video before and it continues to inspire.
relay (easter 08) – thereby hangs a tale. I did put my name down for a team back in 96 or 97, but went to the wrong venue! The venue had been changed but somehow I hadn’t noticed… On Monday I have a chance to make up for last year’s disaster.
sprint (summer 08) – Darwin Park, Stoneleigh and Archeopark
radio O (summer 08) – weird and wonderful
Yet to do:
urban sprint – almost what I’m going to be doing on Friday, but not quite. These events are clearly popular but also seem like an accident waiting to happen
trail O - coming up on Saturday
long O – I entered for the Cannock Chase event last year but couldn’t go. Which reminds me – I ought to ask the organiser for the map I paid for!
night relay – got my eyes on next year’s Jukola – Marti loves Finland and has been wanting to go back for ages
hash
mountain marathon/rogaine – I’m looking forward to doing a few of these in a few years’ time
MTBO – ha!
ski O – even less likely
I had quite a good run at Leith Hill last year, on my first ever outing at the JK. 77 minutes, achieving my target of 12 minutes per kilometre.* There was a touch of frustration though when I looked at the results and saw the winner’s time: 47 minutes by Peter Sacares of LOK. Wondering why he doesn’t run the Long!
Of course I was falling into the trap of expecting other people to use the same reasoning as me. I run Short or B courses because I don’t have the stamina to go further – not happily anyway. I’d get better value doing the long course but it could turn into a dispiriting trudge. And I’ve got more chance of getting my bronze badge (if BOF haven’t abolished them).
But, let’s face it, there are some orienteers who could easily run the Long or A course but just don’t want to. They enjoy a shorter race. And that’s their prerogative.
*(There’s a tad more climb this year but I ought to set my sights on 10 minute k’s and a total cross-country time of around 2 hours.)
1. West Park
After all the fuss and effort it was worth it in the end. It was so kind of so many people to help, including the brilliant Matt Halliday.
2. JK
Thanks again to Rob, Ian and Marti for giving me the opportunity to go on a little orienteering holiday! (The 2009 BOC and JK are both in my diary but chances are I won’t get to either.) The amazing weather added to the experience…
3. Polgár
In the middle of a rather trying week away from home, this odd event was just what I needed. An excellent format that I hope will be taken up by the WMOA when it organises an annual short-course championships.
4. Wisewood
Well, it would’ve been better not to have to travel to Sheffield (even if it is the centre of the orienteering universe) but the coaching course was a great experience with a very useful outcome.
5. Grimsbury
Thanks to Rob and Dave I got off the ground with radio O, enjoyed it very much and was reasonably successful on my first outing.
It was exciting, getting two events in on the same evening! After the disappointment of the Seven Pools, and having to miss a couple of other traditional distance races, I was pleased to get at least one in this year, and to have a run I was happy with. And the Summer Evening Event series was excellent – I took part in eight races: Sedgley, Clent, Highgate, Baggeridge, Cannon Hill, Lickeys, Haden Hill and Kingsford, and planned one, and came 8th out of 46 in the senior men’s class. (Though the confusion about the scoring system rumbles on…)
7. Callow Hill/Uffmoor
My first go at night O, first with an LED and no watch, then with something approaching the right equipment! I’m now keen to take part in one of the great night relays (Tiomila/Jukola) and do some night-O organising: either the Harvester in Wales or the Brumila in – where do you think??
8. Brown Clee
A couple of little things went wrong, which was a shame not because they mattered particularly, but because we ended up focusing a lot on them rather than the fact that it was a beautiful day and a great event. Come and join us back there on May 25th when the hill will host the middle day of SINS ‘09. 
9. WM relays
Relays are great occasions and I had a good run too! (Still waiting for the officials’ comments…)
10. Stoneleigh/Borough Hill
Two novel evening events from the most successful orienteering club on the planet.
11. Castle Vale/Bournville
Night-street events are good social orienteering, and a good confidence boost, seeing as I’ve performed well in them from the get-go.
12. Hawkbatch
Good planning and the retro event was good fun. Such “extras” aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I think every bog-standard event should have a little something extra to encourage/reward participation.
13. Swynnerton
Catherine and I had a fine time at this very popular event.
14. Pendam
One of two trips to Wales this year – there’ll be quite a few more in 2009! Put July 5th Builth Wells in your diary…
15. Sandwell Valley
I enjoyed planning it – it was a shame I couldn’t be there!
And the Worst…
1. Seven Pools
Not only did my knee give way, leaving me to walk most of the way round, there was a cockup with the results so it looks like my time was even worse! On the plus side, I was able to chat to some lovely people and I received a nice t-shirt.
2. Sutton Park (Radio O)
The reason I cocked up so royally was that I took my daughter to the playground beforehand and by the time I was ready to run it was rush rush rush. A classic example of more haste, less speed.
(Since #1 and #2 were both in Sutton Park it doesn’t augur well for January 1st!)
3. Eridge
I rounded off my great time at the JK with an appalling performance in the blizzard-hit relay.
The Far Side of Orienteering…
5. Long O
Not only was the Malvern event cancelled, I couldn’t go to the Cannock Chase event which I’d paid the entry fee for. 
(Elsewhere I’ve mentioned the need for an annual regional short-course championships, and there ought to be an annual long-O champs as well.)
(Elsewhere I’ve mentioned the need for an annual regional short-course championships, and there ought to be an annual long-O champs as well.)
Not a new discovery to many orienteers, but I came across this book in the second-hand bookshop by West Park after the Wolverhampton event. That great cartoonist and humorist, WIllie Rushton, wrote a book about sport in the 1970’s and orienteering is in it.
No run today – I had a christening to go to.
Last month the UK Cup Middle Distance event was held at Weston Heath in north Shropshire. It’s an interesting area and I ran there at POTOC’s badge event on 16/2/03. I wasn’t doing much orienteering at the time so I didn’t register for a race, so I had to make do with a colour-coded course, and it must rank as one of the worst-value trips to an event that I’ve ever made. After driving 50 miles it was quite a disappointment to discover that the course had just six controls, and that I’d only be spending about three minutes of my run in the interesting part of the area.
Walking back to my car after the race I was surprised to hear Hungarian voices. (My wife is Hungarian.) If I remember correctly, it was a lady and her two sons, members of the Chester club.
Meanwhile, here’s a few photos from yesterday’s Ultrasprint in Sheffield.
As I’ve mentioned before, my first two outings were while I was at Durham University, and I’ve just found my map from the more important of those two events:
(Click to open; 800kb)
The Kellas plantations are 5km west of Consett, and are still regularly used by the Northern Navigators for events. I can’t find the control descriptions, but I guess it’s a red course: about 4.5 km, with controls on line features. (That’s if colour-coding existed in 1984…) A bit ambitious for a novice but I obviously fancied a good run.
Question for O anoraks: what’s the significance of the blue shapes in the bottom left-hand corner?
Update: Rob McKenna of Northern Navigators has very kindly sent me the results from events at Kellas dated 25/3/84 and 2/6/85. I was at neither of those events! which leaves me with a bit of a mystery. My current theory is that the event in November 84 must’ve been a student competition, so I’ll see what archives they’ve got at UDOC.
Those old results are fascinating, especially March 84, with 500 competitors, many of them novices. 27 ran White (1.7k), winning time 35:57. 110 ran Yellow (2.2k), winning time 32:58, colour standard 71 minutes, slowest time 137:11. Three competitors on Orange (3.2k) took 3 hours. This led controller John Preston to write:
It was our intention to try for a high success rate on the easier courses. The highest number of failures were on the Yellow and Orange courses. Judging from what we observed in the forest some of these were due to competitors on courses for which they were clearly not ready. The White course was partly taped, with controls clearly visible on rides or roads, yet some children still left the path and went off into the forest.
In future I would consider (a) devising some method to ensure that first-time Yellow course competitors and all children on the White course have their maps marked correctly, and (b) having an official at the first control to establish whether or not youngsters could orientate their maps and to assist if necessary…
Fast forward to June 1985 and there were only 13 competitors on Yellow…
While looking for my photo of Birches Valley I came across this pic of the HOC event by the Severn the following weekend.
After saying that I’d never retired from a race, I discovered in an old AdHoc that I’d retired from the club championships at Postensplain in 1995. I can’t remember the circumstances, but I’m guessing it was either because my knee went, which it does from time to time, or because the course closed before I could finish.
Anyway, the results show that I got round okay ten years later, though 47th out of 60 on Green was nowt to write home about. Interestingly (?) Winsplits shows that my run was purest mediocrity, with no leg 20% worse than any other. In those famous words: Slow but sure wins the race. (Not.)
Well, well. Research has paid off and it appears that I’ve qualified for my M21S, Red and Blue badges. The final piece fell into place when I found the results for the event at Birches Valley 13/11/05. I remember it being a fine day and that when I arrived there was a queue of people waiting for maps. If I’d opted for Orange I could’ve saved myself about an hour in the combined waiting and running time, but I had in mind to do Red. Unfortunately the extra, freshly-printed Red maps included a control that had been removed from the course on the final version, which is why you can see on the results that it took me the best part of twenty minutes to reach control #176. Fortunately the presence of a busload of relatively er, inexperienced orienteers from Manchester Met Uni means that I still came in the top half of the finishers.
Quick question for those of you who weren’t there: why is that wiggly footpath shown as out of bounds?
Among the excellent performances that day I must mention Daniel Hartmann, first out of 130 competitors on the Green course, and Robert Farrington, 1st of 89 on Blue.
I believe that the first time I ever orienteered was in Durham in 1984. Great High Wood (aka Houghall Woods) was the location for DUOC’s freshers’ event. But the only other event I remember going to was in Hamsterley Forest. I remember it being quite wet, and I remember running 180º in the wrong direction along a fence, but that’s about it, apart from the fact that the club members were a very friendly bunch, and we stopped for cream tea on the way back to town. That weekend was equally memorable to me because of the unfortunate consequences of the three-legged bar-crawl my roommate went on the night before… I was quite glad to be out of our room for the morning.
(I wonder where those two maps are?)
I came to Birmingham in 1986 (so I’ve now spent more than half my life here – eek) but I was more interested in politics than sport at that time, and I think it was a couple of years before I took part in my first local event, which was a massive come-and-try-it one hot summer day in the Lickey Hills. That was just before I got contact lenses, and I didn’t find running in glasses a pleasant experience.
But even after I got my first pair of contact lenses it was quite some time before I took up the sport. That seems to have coincided with my starting teaching in 1994. I can remember trying, and somehow failing, to make contact with the O club in Besancon while I was there that summer, but my first real O phase started with an Orange on Cannock Chase that autumn, and it wasn’t long before I was competing twice a week and running a school O club.
My first Ad Hoc is dated December 1993 – I think I must’ve received this in response to an enquiry, because I didn’t start receiving them regularly till October 94. Brian Hughes started about the same time; whatever happened to him?? 
The November 94 issue includes the ominous listing “4th December: Sherbrook. A last chance to run on Cannock Chase?”, the December one an early mention of “orienteering on the internet”, March lists the Chamberses as new members and my name appears for the first time in the May 95 issue!
One good thing about looking back, apart from the warm glow of nostalgia, is that I’m reminded of some good performances. For example, in the “sweltering” evening event on Kinver Edge 19/7/95 I came second (out of 25) on Green, beating third-placed “D Williams” by nearly four minutes. (He claims to have walked round…)
Recent Comments