Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

Grand Prix athletics

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

133We had a great evening out on Friday at the Norwich Union Grand Prix athletics, Crystal Palace. Thanks to the generosity of a friend we had ringside seats for the pole vault. Sadly Isinbayeva failed to clear 5.02m for a new world record. She did, however, make it over 4.91m, setting a record height for 2006.

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Fantasy orienteering

Friday, July 28th, 2006

Christine is working from home today yet when I left the house she seemed to be distracted by the WOC 2006 O-Manager game. This is your chance to manage a team for the World Orienteering Champs that start in Denmark tomorrow. Your budget is quite limited (you could, for example, spend nearly a third of it on Simone Niggli-Luder for a guaranteed win or four but still have six more people to pick) and, given that you can change your team between rounds, knowing who is running in each discipline must be key. I can think of at least one reader of this blog who is surely up for the challenge…

OK – I couldn’t resist either. You can follow the fortunes of my team Odds On over the next week.

Winchester treasure hunt

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

Many thanks to Steve Pullen for organising an excellent SOC social this evening. The treasure hunt involved answering questions based on visual clues in the vicinity of Winchester Cathedral. Despite turning up late, somehow Christine and myself managed to win although having just one question sheet between the two of us nearly saw us in the divorce courts. What I found most interesting was that, in 90 minutes, we must have covered only a couple of kilometres. Just imagine how much detail of our surroundings we must be missing at a normal walking pace!

Capricorn epic

Monday, July 24th, 2006

127I’m absolutely shattered from a weekend trip up to the Capricorn, held near Ingleton, North Yorkshire (not Ingelton, County Durham where Hedley, our chauffeur for the weekend, was going to take us). The Capricorn is a mix between an orienteering event and a mountain marathon: it takes place over two days and the course lengths (and climb) are high but you return to base between the two days and hence don’t have to carry camping equipment. We were also joined by Matthew Whipple, another SOC member.

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Nike+

Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Runner’s World has an article on a fascinating piece of kit that let’s you turn an iPod Nano in to a speed and distance monitor for running. The Nike+ consists of the usual footpod and then a wireless receiver that plugs in to the base of the Nano. As well as the usual capabilities to record data and then sync with a computer, the unique selling point of the Nike+ is that it can also tell you through your headphones how you’re doing. In theory you need to fork out the £65 for a pair of Nike+ shoes to hold the footpod but the Runner’s World articles suggests that attaching it to the laces does the job just as well. The really unbelievable part of this technology is the price – just £19. Fortunately I don’t have an iPod Nano otherwise the temptation would be there!

Fellow bloggers

Monday, July 17th, 2006

Thought it was about time I recognised a few of my friends and colleagues that blog (I shan’t comment on who fits in to both categories and who doesn’t!).
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Relay disgrace

Sunday, July 16th, 2006

We had to rush away from our hotel this morning – fortunately without a hangover but with less sleep than one might have liked. The occasion to drag us from our bed? The annual Furrow Hoppers relay organised by Wimborne and, this year, being held at Blandford Army Camp.

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Sunny champs

Sunday, June 25th, 2006

We can now breathe a collective sigh of relieve as the Junior Inter-Regional Champs came and went this weekend. Things didn’t get off to a great start when we returned from control hanging to discover that start times had been put back an hour due to transport problems (two squads missing minibuses and a third stuck in traffic). Fortunately the extra wait didn’t result in any controls wandering away and, indeed, we didn’t suffer any vandalism all day.
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