SOCK 183 April 2012 1

SOCK 183 April 2012 1 SOCK 183 The Newsletter of Southampton Orienteering Club The Club AGM is on 25th May at Fleming Park . forget what you may have read before! The AGM is on th Friday 25 May (not on the 18th). See full details on page 8. In this Issue . Welcome to the April 2012 edition of SOCK and junior SOCK. We have event reports from Tamsin Moran, Anthony Simmons and Lisa James. Lisa’s “hill of bitter memories” is not at Queen Elizabeth Country Park! See her article on her orienteering experiences during a recent visit to New Zealand on page 5, complete with map. Robin Smith carries on what is fast becoming a regular feature of SOCK, another orienteering top 10. When will it stop? British Night Champion This month we have a caption competition for your delight – Congratulations to Tamsin complete with a bevy of valuable prizes! Moran on her class win at the The Club officials’ reports are followed by the latest standings British Night Championships at in the Club Championships and the all-important Event Hamptworth. Calendar for the next few months. I hope you enjoy this issue. Thank you to all subscribers. Follow Us: Pete Davis, SOCK Editor. Join in online. Search for Southampton Orienteering on Getting started Google, Twitter or Facebook. Orienteering can seem to be complicated but the learning curve is not that steep! And there are lots of online resources Date for your diary: to help you get started. Scan this QR code This year’s Dorset Coastal Path with your smart phone to visit our Getting Relay will take place on Started pages at http://www.southampton- Saturday 1st September. More orienteers.org.uk/getting-started. details in the next edition of SOC’s Summer Series runs from April to July SOCK. and provides a great introduction to the sport. All ages and fitness levels can take part and we always Southampton Summer have coaches available at the events for free tuition! See the Series: back page for dates, times and locations. Kick off this week at And we have tuition nights every Thursday at the Gregg Southampton Common – meet School, SO18, 2GF. These run for six weeks from 19th April to just south of the Bellemoor 24th May. entrance. For more information visit our website or email your questions to [email protected]. SOCK 183 April 2012 2 An ‘O’de Jim Prowting TVOC Death to the planner Who hid a control In ten foot high bracken In a specially dug hole. On a featureless hillside Except for the hole In what he thought was amusing To hide a control. He'll no longer be laughing And regret he was born When he's marched to the hole And shot there at dawn. Orienteering Music Robin Smith Perhaps I should get out more? 1. Something to hum whilst waiting for that 2am handover at the Harvester Trophy . Running Through the Night (1984) – Lionel Richie 2. Or it could be a . Night of Fear (1966) – The Move 3. Where the CSC final is this year . Miles Away (2008) – Madonna 4. Remember master maps, pin punches, black and white maps? Those Were the Days (1968) – Mary Hopkin 5. When there’s no event on this week . Cold Turkey (1969) – John Lennon 6. I may not win but . I get Around (1964) – Beach Boys 7. Bit obscure this one . The Long Red Line (1989) – Mary Cutrufello 8. Perhaps that ‘short cut’ through the fight wasn’t such a good idea . There Must be a Way (1967) – Frankie Vaughn 9. 10 seconds to go, step over the line, go on the long bleep . The Final Countdown (1986) - Europe 10. Finally, what all planners and organisers like to hear . Thank You Very Much (1967) – The Scaffold Now who’s going to do an album chart? Maybe Parallel Lines by Blondie for starters? SOCK 183 April 2012 3 A round-up of events Tamsin Moran Welsh Champs My dad and I travelled to Pwll Du near Abergavenny in South Wales for this year’s Welsh Champs. Some people may remember the area from the British Relays in 2007, but for those who haven’t been there before, it is typical Welsh mountainside enhanced by some spoil tips from redundant coalmines, with some intricate contour detail. We left early on the Sunday morning, and soon after we crossed the Severn Bridge it began to snow. Consequently cagoules were made compulsory, which was probably a good idea as the area was also very exposed. I ran the blue course, and we were immediately thrown in the most technical part of the area. Having not been orienteering on open mountainside of this type since the JK last year, I struggled to get into the map, and consequently lost time on the first couple of controls. After this I began to get into the flow of things and had a pretty good run. We had a mixture of longer and shorter legs which certainly required concentration. Unfortunately my dad beat me by just over 3 minutes, but I really enjoyed the area and still glad that we made the journey. The village hall proved to be very popular with competitors after the event, where one could warm up, stay dry and enjoy some fine food courtesy of the Welsh Junior Squad. Malvern Urban Race I attended the Midland Championship’s weekend with the South Central Junior Squad and we had the option of running the Urban race or doing some training and the majority opted to do the Urban race, so this is what we all did. The weather was fine the map was good and the area was a mixture of urban, parkland with a small bit of woodland. There was only a little fine navigation required, but some long legs had some excellent route choices where clearly the right choice led to some time saving, but this was only apparent on the post-race visit to WinSplits. The squad visited the local swimming pool for some fun, games and a shower and in the evening we had dinner at a fish and chip shop. We were intending to go ten pin bowling, but it seemed like the local population had similar ideas, so we aborted this idea and went back to our village hall. Midland Champs Harlequins hosted this year’s Midland Champs on Foxley and Garnstone, part of an area once used for a JK. The terrain was a complete contrast to the previous weekend. The map in the assembly area did not look inspiring, but we just hoped that the brashings, which appeared to cover 80% of the map, had been removed. I had 40metres of climb to my first control, and I’m sure many other courses had more than that. The orienteering in itself was pretty straight forward, but once you got off the paths, it was very slow going as it was very brambly and clearly the ground cover had not improved! The feeling of many attending the event was that the area was not up to championship standard and those running the senior courses would not be in a hurry to return given the options of path running or bramble hoping. As for the good points, the weather was fantastic and a complete contrast to the previous week’s snow and the walk to the start was picture postcard stuff. As for the event food, well we were spoilt for choice with the local village selling a huge range of cakes, soup, etc., the West Midland Junior Squad’s cake stall and another retailer that sold very tasty chilli! junior SOCK Edited by Tamsin Moran SOCK 183 April 2012 4 Queen Elizabeth Forest Anthony Simmons There were quite a few surprises at this event. Who would have expected such a steep climb from the Master Maps to the second control. Straight up from the valley floor to the top of the hill! And who would have expected Stig Berge, Norwegian champion, to appear at the registration table in St John’s College? Surely he wasn’t impressed with the quality of the black and white map? Nevertheless the event produced some interesting results and generated some interest in the local press. Not 2012 but 1969, and to my best knowledge the first orienteering event to be held on what is now Queen Elizabeth Country Park. The article on the left was submitted by “Wayfarer” otherwise known as Keith Parris, who contributed weekly articles on orienteering to the Southern Evening Echo for many years. Current SOC members at the event were Ray Massey, John Clarke, Di Smith (then Di Raggett) and Nick Bosbury. I competed on the boys’ course (map below). SOCK 183 April 2012 5 Should I Zig or should I Zag now? Pete Davis At the Ocknell event I sought the advice of wise orienteering minds on why I seemed to drift off course when running through wooded areas. None were available but Colin and Simon would do, surely? Well, they said, you’ll be zigging. Zigging? I asked. Yes, they said, zigging. And that is your problem. Problem? I said. Well, pray kind Sirs, how can I overcome this problem I have? That is simple, they replied, you need to mix in a healthy dose of zagging. In fact, they went on, unless you run with a balance of zigging and zagging, when running through open woodland on a bearing, you will, Sir, drift off course. Problem solved. Orienteering in New Zealand – February 2012 Lisa James Touring New Zealand in February I took the opportunity to check out a few Orienteering events.

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