SOCK – Autumn 2012 the Magazine of Southampton Orienteering Club
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SOCK – Autumn 2012 The Magazine of Southampton Orienteering Club Swiss 5 Days & The Classic Not One Relay WOC 2012 but two Page 2 Page 7 Page 13 YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU! Enter the November Classic using the helpers code from the website and volunteer to help make the Classic Weekend events a huge success. See page 2 Club Survey Olympic Story Beginners’ Corner for more details. Page 11 Page 5 Page 10 Follow Us: Join in online. Search for Southampton Orienteering on Google, Twitter or Facebook. Lepe for Joy! Event Calendar Events Hotline: Page 18 SCOA Bulletin Page 22 Page 17 Call 07570 627716 for the latest details of our next event. Subscribe to our email newsletters: Club News Urban Fest Pages 14 - 15 Blowout! Page 19 Page 16 bit.ly/JYLZZK And there’s more . Orienteering – it’s the thought that counts! SOCK 185 October 2012 2 Editorial Pete Davis The buzz in the Club is now building as we approach the November Classic weekend. See below for the latest news. By now you will have volunteered your services to help on one or both days. Your team leader will be in touch with details of where you need to be, when and with what. If you have not yet entered, perhaps because you are unsure of your team leader’s requirement for you to run early or late, please do enter now. As we get closer to the weekend, team leaders will be able to sort out start times for helpers that fit in with their, and your, needs. And remember – with your helpers code you get half-price entry to two of the UK’s best orienteering events. You can get your helpers code from http://www.southampton-orienteers.org.uk/document/november-classic-2012-helper- discount-code and enter at Fabian4. Kevin Bracher has carried out a very useful survey that shows a high level of interest in participating in regular orienteering activities. We have a full report from Kevin on that and the plans for an interesting and varied programme. The club committee are focusing on improving the longer term planning of club events and activities. We now have a confirmed event list for next year and soon will have the same for activities. It has been good fun putting together this edition of SOCK – many thanks go to all the contributors. I hope you like the new format. November Classic Weekend – the tension mounts There is a furious amount of activity now for both events but particularly for the Southampton City Urban on Saturday 3rd November. Why so? This is a new initiative for us and the decision has been made to take up the offer of using the new EmiTag proximity controls so there has been some effort put in to understand how they work and their strengths and weaknesses. With so many controls in urban areas we will also be adopting “gripples” to secure them in place. Gripples are wire loops with a built in locking device and help to deter people from removing controls. With EMIT UK providing the EmiTags and sponsorship from Up and Running in Chandlers Ford, you can actually get paid for competing and helping in the Urban event! Up and Running bibs will be worn by the urban competitors and each bib is also a voucher for £10 off a pair of running shoes purchased from the store within two weeks of the event. With the helpers discount, that means the Club pays you £6 to help and you get a free run! On the Sunday we have the all-important November Classic, the event that defines Southampton Orienteering Club. We will be welcoming more than one thousand competitors to the beautiful area of Kings Garn Gutter to compete on 14 courses. The event is being used for an Interland match between England, Belgium, Germany, Holland and France. There is bound to be a great buzz around the event. As we go to press there are over 300 competitors already pre-entered. If you haven’t yet entered be aware that the early entry discount ends on 21st October with late entries accepted up to 28th October. There are also a number of courses on the Wayfarers for EOD and a free string course. All of these courses and facilities need marshalls and helpers to keep things running smoothly. Don’t forget that this is our chance to show the orienteering community what a great club we have. Competitors will need your help to make the best of the day – please keep smiling as you guide and control them whether it is car parking, the start or any other aspect. SOCK 185 October 2012 3 Brian Watkins Following a short illness Brian passed away on 18th August. He will be sadly missed by many club members, none more so than Ray Massey, close friend and neighbour: “Brian and Shirley Watkins moved to Crampmoor, near Romsey, in 1972 and soon became an important part of a small, very friendly local neighbourhood. The numbers were always small - never more than eight families, and now they have dwindled again. When Sue and I moved to Crampmoor in 1974 we were delighted to find such a friendly lot of neighbours, and it was to be expected that we all became good friends. Brian and I particularly so, we had a lot in common: a light-hearted view of life coupled with a strong sense of responsibility. That's not to say we didn't have our differences; some were small, like politics, but some were large, like the colour beer should be. One of Brian's less serious objectives was to form a society for the preservation of brown beer. Brian was a traditionalist. Brian was an excellent family man: his family were the most important part of his life. And he worked hard to provide for them as well as possible. In his youth he wanted to be a farmer: the nearest he ever got to that was when he rented the field next door and kept sheep on it for a few years. He was an accountant by profession, passing his final examinations whilst living in Crampmoor. In those days he worked for the Hamble School of Flying. Later he worked for a large decorating company for several years. After that he worked for Webbs Frozen Foods for a very long time. He seemed to develop a complex love-hate relationship with that company, of which he was company secretary. Brian started orienteering in the early 90’s. Within a couple of years he became heavily involved in the running of the Club sharing the roles of Treasurer and Auditor with Tim Angel. Between them they looked after our monies with great accuracy and professionalism for more than two decades. Brian has also done his fair share of organizing and planning as his orienteering experience grew. His first event as planner was at Bolderwood, notable because Bratley Water was in flood, and several runners ended up swimming across the river. In 2011 he planned a very successful November Classic on Ocknell and Slufters. Brian retired in 2002, and was delighted then to become a member of the SOC Wednesday gang - that section of SOC who delight in going to the mid-week Army orienteering events. He had looked at our joyous Wednesdays with some envy, now he was a crucial member. He was party to many shared beers whilst discussing the joys and woes of the day's event. In 2005 Brian was the proud recipient of the Pits Trophy for an episode that must rate highly as one of the funniest nominations over the years: Brian won the award for an event at Longleat where, with difficulty, he clambered over a high fence, believing his control to be somewhere on the other side. However, he had unwittingly trespassed into the Center Parcs holiday village, where he was quickly picked up and escorted off the premises by security guards! Orienteering involves a lot of travelling. I spent many hours with Brian driving the roads of England (and Wales - Brian had a lot of welsh ancestry in him). During those journeys, other sides of his character emerged. He was a very good driver, I felt safer being driven by Brian than anyone else I can think of. He was also very good company, always ready with a view on any topic. Never a boring journey with Brian. Now he's gone. I still have difficulty believing that. Life isn't fair.” Ray Massey SOCK 185 October 2012 4 World Masters Orienteering Championships 2012 Robin Smith As part of my on-going Jubilee celebrations (I’m a first year M60), I went to the recent World Masters Orienteering Championships, held in the Harz region of Germany. I went as part of the Global O Tours group, there were 40 of us, and all we had to do was to remember what time breakfast was and when the coach left. The rendezvous point was Hannover airport and like all orienteers, some went direct (Southampton or Birmingham), whilst others took the scenic route (Gatwick), arriving well after bedtime. The races themselves take the form of qualifying races and a final – an urban ‘sprint’ and a forest ‘long’. The qualifications are just to sort you out in to ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ etc., based on position, and not your time, from which ever heat you were in. So if there were 4 heats, the top 20 of each went through to the ‘A’ final (the meaningful one), the next 20 to the ‘B’ and so on.