Yesterday was SOC’s annual November Classic orienteering event. This year the venue was Eyeworth and Bentley (around Fritham). I probably made a mistake in asking for my start time to be moved forward to something closer to my brother’s (rather than vice-versa) as we got soaked running to the start. The rain had pretty much ceased by the time my course made it out in to the open though and when I finished the sun was actually shining.
Archive for the ‘Orienteering’ Category
Classic New Forest
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Wet Windy Wales
Monday, October 26th, 2009This weekend was my third OMM partnering with Neil Broderick on the B course, with the Elan Valley as the setting for this attempt. We weren’t due to start until nearly midday on Saturday and, with Christine’s parents our base just over an hour away from the event, it was set to be a very civilised start on the Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Neil was suffering from a stomach bug and on Friday night we weren’t even sure we were going to start at all.
First orienteering for Duncan
Saturday, October 17th, 2009At two weeks old we thought it was about time Duncan experienced some orienteering so we all headed along to SOC’s local event at Avon Tyrrell today. “Local” is a relative term as, being on the far side of the New Forest, it’s nearly 30 miles each way for us to get there. Christine took Duncan and Emma round the white course whilst I did the score event. Simon Whipple had planned an imaginative course to make the most of a small area. There were two sets of master maps, one at each end of the area with half the controls on each. My brain wasn’t entirely switched on having spent an hour or so up with Duncan in the middle of the night and hence trying to track which of 34 controls I had been to proved taxing. Also, despite having been told that one control had the wrong code on it I still ran around like a headless chicken for a couple of minutes when I came to it. It would also have been helpful if there had actually been a feature on the map in the middle of each control circle!
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Dire Dibden
Sunday, September 6th, 2009We went orienteering for the first time in ages today and it showed! We were down at Dibden early to set out the string course (yes – it’s come to that!) so my brain wasn’t entirely engaged. Things started out well enough on my course with reasonable speed and not much requried in the way of navigation. On the way to five I somehow decided I was running along the fence to the south of the control and when I didn’t see a bend in it decided I had overshot. It was only after wasting about three minutes that I eventually hit the open ride and twigged what I had done.
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Damp Dorset
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Anderwood BBQ
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Thanks to Sam Massey for organising a good evening’s entertainment yesterday for SOC. Unfortunately there was a heavy downpour as we approached Anderwood which soaked the BBQ area but the weather then improved. Sam had put on a 45 minute score event with a handicap scheme that meant that the old/young had to get less controls. Sadly that meant I had to try and get all 20. In winter it may have been achievable but the head high bracken (which was also soaking wet in to the bargain) proved too much of an impediment and I only managed 19. The handicapping worked well with lots of different ages getting an adjusted 18-20 controls. Tamsin Moran was the winner having got her 14 controls with time to spare. The subsequent BBQ also went well although it was a shame there weren’t more members present. I dread to think quite how many sausages Emma ate!
New Southampton Orienteering Course
Saturday, June 20th, 2009We went along to Southampton Common this morning for the opening of the orienteering club’s latest permanent orienteering course. The map comes with three course suggestions which I duly ignored and instead went to see how fast I could get all 26 controls visiting them in any order. It took me 29’11 over 6.1km but, given the size of the red and white markers (about 1.5″ square) and the propensity for them to be hidden on the back of something in the general vicinity of the feature, it easily could have been under 25 minutes if I hadn’t had to do so much hunting around. This is at least partly because the club was not allowed to create any new fixtures on the common. Thankfully there was no temptation to dive off down the tiny tracks through the undergrowth as we weren’t allowed to map these either! It certainly took me to corners of the common I’ve never been to in our fleeting trips across the area on Tuesday nights in the winter. If you fancy giving it a go yourself, maps can be purchased from the Hawthorns Wildlife Centre down in the south-east corner of the common (which proved a pleasant enough location for a simple lunch).
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