WREKIN News October 2020 
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2020 grinds on and orienteering is beginning to emerge around the country in a variety of forms old and new. It is possible to go orienteering but you have to plan ahead to get an entry, print a map or retrieve an access code. It is a new world for experienced Orienteers and sharing experiences will help us all learn as we go. If you have anything to share please write a small piece for the club website and send it to Richard Pay for publication richardpay@hotmail.co.uk
Thank you for several positive responses to the July job adverts- as you will realise from the Future Events section our ability to hold events changes from day to day. We need to be light on our feet and responsive to sudden changes if we are going to go to or hold events. I will be in touch about opportunities as they arise.

HISTORY SECTION
John Bennison Long-O September 13th
WREKIN held the first WM event since lockdown. Thanks to Heather and Tim Kinienwicz for planning and organising this so successfully. We had more participants than usual, almost 100 competitors including many local fell runners.
 
Summer MapRun Score Series thanks to Richard Rogers and Lawrie Jones for setting this up-
The MapRuns  in the street series were released from June to August and are still open for anyone who wants to visit postboxes around the County.
Each course has been completed by around 20 people

10 July Shrewsbury
17 July Bridgnorth
24 July Church Stretton
31 July Newport
7 August Shifnal
14 August Oakengates

 
MapRunF linear courses
Two areas are set up with linear courses- Carding Mill Valley and Haughmond Hill. These are open for anyone to use. Each is different and there is specific information that is worth knowing before you go. If you want to run them please see the MapRun section on the Club Website for more details.
 
FUTURE EVENTS

• Nesscliffe Club Event 29th November. This will probably take place. Duncan Bayliss and John Broadhead have been planning courses and working to get car parking. We are currently checking final details with Shropshire County Council COVID response team to get a final go-ahead.
• Club Championships 20th December. We have not got an area for this yet.
• CHOC O- this annual festival of fun should happen almost as normal in the rain, wind snow and, usually for me, the dark. Thanks to Lawrie Jones who has offered to organise it.
• Laurie Bradley New Year’s Day Score Event; Krystof Nowicki has been working to get permission to use Haughmond Hill. Whether it happens depends on how Forest England are managing Orienteering access
• West Midland League event in January/February 2021.
• Springtime in Shropshire May 2021- The whole event is under review. On a positive note we have got permission for access to the main parts of Corndon and Stapeley.

 
 
Winter Street MapRunF Series
Over the winter we will hold a Winter Street Series using MapRun. This will be similar to the Summer MapRun Score event series using street maps with most controls on post boxes
 
There should be with 5 or 6 courses released over a 4 month period from December to March
The event time limit will probably be 45 minutes- this allows for colder weather and also enables use of smaller areas. Please let me know if this is, or isn’t, is a sensible time limit.
 
Richard Lewis has volunteered to compile a results league using each persons first run score during the “Event window of competitive opportunity”. There may even be a small prize for the overall winner.
 
Date opens:
Location:
Organiser:

1/12/2020
Priorslee Telford
Lawrie Jones

15/12/2020
Gains Park, Shrewsbury
Adrian Pickles

12/1/2021
Tbc
 
2/2/2021
Tbc
 
23/2/2021
Tbc
 
16/3/2021
Tbc
 
Opportunities for setting up MapRunFun exist it is a satisfying and enjoyable thing to do; you get to know your local area even better.
So, if you would like to fill in one of the Tbc gaps and organise one of these events then please let  Richard Rogers, Lawrie Jones or Adrian Pickles know. You could have an area in mind or need a suggestion for an area.
Richard Rogers- Richard@ricardito.me.uk, Richard Lewis-wroxell@gmail.com, Lawrie Jones Lawriej@gmail.com
 
WMOA news
WMOA are working out how to hold events- WMOA Championships could well happen and a Map Run West Midland League for 2021 is being discussed
 
British Orienteering News
BO hosted a sharing experience webinar on October 20th . I think a recording of this will be available soon and it will be useful to see what is happening around the country.
 
BO EVENT SAFETY ONLINE QUALIFICATION; this is a required qualification for anyone organising or planning orienteering events so the more club members who have it the better. More members with this qualification makes event organisation simpler for the club. BO has launched an ONLINE COURSE which is available currently free for any BO member to complete. If you are ever likely to take on an event organisation role, small or large from the Summer Series to SinS please consider completing this course.
 
Hoping to meet up again sometime safely somewhere
Adrian Pickles
 
Any questions, comments, offers or requests please get in-touch by email or phone adrian.pickles@gmail.com. 07846301251

To get some training on terrain there are now some colour coded courses set up on Haughmond Hill with MapRun and using some of the Permanent Orienteering Course marker posts.  We are trying a new combination whereby you visit some POC marker posts with a few virtual controls in between to vary the route from the normal POC.

Don't be confused, its easy really!
All you do is just start the MapRun app at the start, do the course and get a result at the end, that's it.  There is nothing else to do!


Follow these steps:
1  Visit Wrekin's website, download and print the map to navigate with for the course you want to run.
 

2  Log in to Map Run then go to Haughmond Hill. Only click "Go to Start", when you are about to start and are at the start point

3  Navigate on the paper map, ignore the MapRun map on your phone it does not have the POC controls and is not a proper detailed orienteering map.  Go to all the controls, but not all will give a Ping in the Map Run App.

4 When you finish MapRun gives you a result.


So, some controls are virtual MapRun ones and there is no marker there, but you will get a Ping when you are within the circle.

Some controls are POC marker posts and you will not get a MapRun Ping, you just find the post and move on for those ones.  There is nothing to write down or punch.  But if you have visited all the controls then MapRun will have a series of controls you were timed at and a GPS track showing that you went round the whole course.  

All you do is just start the MapRun app at the start, do the course and get a result at the end, that's it.

We have done it this way so that the MapRun controls are in places where there should be a good GPS signal to help avoid people struggling to get a Ping at some controls under tree cover..

Have fun,
Duncan Bayliss