Hi Everyone,

I have just had confirmation from the Lake District Access Officer for permission to use an area of Graythwaite known as High Dale Park for coaching on Saturday 7th March 2020.
This area has been used for British Championships, JK’s and other prestigious events and is some of the best technical orienteering terrain available.

Routegadget link: www.mdoc.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#292

Graythwaite is in the south Lake District between Lakes Windermere and Coniston.


I hope to be able to provide coaching exercises to help you develop your orienteering skills without the pressure of competition on the Saturday.

On the Sunday there is a WCOC event on High Rigg; an area of complex open fell just north of Thirlmere when you will be able to put into practice your impressive range of navigation skills!

Debbie is looking for suitable accommodation for groups with self catering and rooms to sleep 2-4 people.
To help with the planning could you please let me know:

1. of your intention to come to the coaching.
2. if you need accommodation on Friday and Saturday.
3. Let me know as soon as possible but no later than 14th February.
 
Please make your own arrangements if entering the WCOC event on the Sunday.
 
Best wishes
 
Andy Clough.
just had confirmation from the Lake District Access Officer for permission to use an area of Graythwaite known as High Dale Park for coaching on Saturday 7th March 2020.
This area has been used for British Championships, JK’s and other prestigious events and is some of the best technical orienteering terrain available.
Graythwaite is in the south Lake District between Lakes Windermere and Coniston.
I hope to be able to provide coaching exercises to help you develop your orienteering skills without the pressure of competition on the Saturday.
On the Sunday there is a WCOC event on High Rigg; an area of complex open fell just north of Thirlmere when you will be able to put into practice your impressive range of navigation skills!
Debbie is looking for suitable accommodation for groups with self catering and rooms to sleep 2-4 people.
To help with the planning could you please let me know:
1. of your intention to come to the coaching.
2. if you need accommodation on Friday and Saturday.
3. Let me know as soon as possible but no later than 14th February.

Please make your own arrangements if entering the WCOC event on the Sunday.

Best wishes

Andy Clough.

Final details for the upcoming West Midland League event on the 26th January 2020 are available here and from the events pages of the Wrekin website

A news sheet for WREKIN Orienteers about forthcoming events and to advertise a significant organising opportunity. 
This isn’t everything you need so please check details on a relevant website. There are other events in January- check out Thursday nights with Harlequins.

Until Jan 5th
CHOC-O
Priors Halt
A great chance to wander around the southern Long Mynd

January 1st
Laurie Bradley New Years Day West Midland Team Score Event
Baggeridge and Himley Hall
A race for everyone- the more of us who attend the more points we can score in a competition against the other West Midland Clubs.
Score event with handicap points for everyone. Time limit I hour.

January 4th
WREKIN Club Championships
Madeley Court, Telford
Many trophies available to compete for and gain the honour of being a WREKIN Champion

January 5th
West Midland League Race 1
Brindley Heath, Cannock Chase
WREKIN finished second last year. Can we go one better in 2020? Let’s get off to a good start for the New Year

January 14th
WREKIN Street Series
Bridgnorth
45 minutes of night time street action- If you like lamp posts this is the race for you.

January 19th
MERCIA Hill Trial
Priestweston
A navigational Fell Run Competition planned by our own Tim Kieniewicz

January 26th
WREKIN event.
West Midland League Race 2
Wrockwardine Wood, Telford
WREKIN first event of the year- Ian Hopkins planning and Richard Lewis Organising. 
We will need all our usual team efforts to help out. Watch out for request for helpers

February...TBC
WREKIN Club Dinner
Corbet Arms Uffington
Save the date- further details to follow.
Presentation of Club Championship trophies and a general celebration of the past year.

April 5th
WREKIN Orienteers UKUL and WMUL Event
Woodside, Telford
A high class event in the UK and West Midland Urban Leagues. It is early in the season so we should have a good quality turn out.
Clive Richardson is planning but we need an ORGANISER. If interested please let Adrian Pickles know asap.

 
In February we have West Midland League 3 at Nuneaton and the CompasSport Cup Knock-out round in the Wyre Forest to look forward to.
Thanks to everyone who has helped in any way over the last year. Orienteering only happens because we make it happen and in 2019 we have sustained our efforts as a club involving more people which is a good thing. The more the merrier as we continue to develop Shropshire Orienteering.
 
Wishing a Happy New Year to everyone
 
Adrian Pickles

Two of our club officials have children who crossed the Atlantic to live and work. Club Secretary John Broadhead has a son in Vancouver, British Columbia while Club Chairperson Adrian Pickles’ daughter works in New York.
​
During recent family visits to see their children both John and Adrian co-incidentally managed to find Orienteering Events to run in. John participated in the West of Canada Championships while Adrian along with Jac Stevens completed the Older Dash US Masters Championships. 


Older Dash..Boulder Dash.   WREKIN Orienteers on tour  Adrian Pickles and Jac Stevens.

​
The Boulder Dash is an annual Orienteering event put on by Up-North Orienteers in New Hampshire, U.S.A. 

The cunning event name gives a strong clue about what you will find in the terrain and the event format is a two-day version of our own Springtime in Shropshire. Overall results are determined by total time over both days. For 2019 the US Masters Championships was incorporated into the weekend, so the event was cunningly renamed the Older Dash, despite this the boulders and rocks remained as plentiful as ever.

This year’s venue was Gunstock Mountain, a winter ski resort near Alton, N.H. with a wide range of summer activities also on offer. This enabled the planner to start the longer courses at the top of a ski lift, including the ride-up in the entry fee. The mechanically assisted ascent was replaced by the pull of gravity as the courses descended 220 m in the first 2 kilometres. Despite the steep descent, progress was slow through natural woodland made up of a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees. 


​The famous Fall display of autumnal colour was in full swing, so the woods were beautiful with a full range of leaf colours from yellow to deep red covering the trees and the ground. Although there were no nettles or brambles the forest floor of boulders, rocks, grasses, moss and an understorey of shrubs and close growing trees made progress slower than expected. 
 
300 competitors had travelled across the USA and some from Canada. Only two were from Overseas from anywhere else; both WREKIN members. We had travelled further than anyone to be there, but only just, thank goodness no-one came from Alaska or Hawaii. The size of the USA and Canada means a huge commitment of time and money is needed to participate in National events and makes the concept of National Championships challenging. The organisation was helpful and easy for an experienced orienteer to work out. Although my (M60) course was Green, just like a West Midland league event, the colour coding system for courses is quite like, but not the same, as ours. Even in US dollars this was the most expensive event we had ever entered but the event was well done with relatively low numbers.
 
There were two sociable activities which were different to our way of doing things. One was a bring-and-share table on which people put cakes, crisps, raisins, biscuits, sliced fruit etc. Many conversations started around the sharing table and I met up with some people I last ran against in Devon, back in 1986. It was nice but could be tricky to replicate in November on Titterstone Clee. On the first evening there was an event meal in a school hall, followed by people discussing the race using the course map projected onto a big screen. Although I was a bit wary of this it was quite interesting: Seeing how people lost time was actually more informative than hearing about how people didn’t make mistakes. 
 
The map was very good, the main navigational challenges were implementing your planned route and accurate relocation. Ski-runs provided clues about your position across the slope, but many had diffuse edges and encroaching vegetation which made using them for exact relocation harder.  The combination of steep slopes and tough going made it easy to drift off-line and arrive somewhere which could be confusingly similar to the correct location. Good distance judgement, following a bearing accurately and maintaining the correct height were the key factors in successful control finding.

Day 1 Green Course- Fastest Time 47 mins..Adrian Pickles 62
Day 2 Green Course- Fastest Time 47 Adrian Pickles 54.

Results- Jac Stevens ran the Orange(R) course at sort of Light green+ standard and I (Adrian Pickles) ran M60 on the Green course. 
​
I was first M60 on both days some time behind some nippy M55s . Although I didn’t count for the US Champs I was awarded the M60 prize. 
 
The presentation did involve a podium but was definitely a classic Orienteering prize giving i.e. long, mysterious and confusing which WREKIN would do so much better. Prizes were specially made bars of soap, of which I am so proud I haven’t used it yet. There was some debate if there were gold silver and bronze soaps but it was nice to have a useful memento even if it won’t last forever!

We got our money's worth today! Great challenging courses and perfect weather... Thanks to Adrian and helpers Results here and on Results 2019 pages

Start and Finish this year is in Gogbatch at the north east tip of the Long Mynd. Three courses all hard some some less hard. Initial details here More details to follow. 

A great turn out on a lovely summers evening at Attingham Park - a total of 86 competitors. Hopefully the courses were interesting whilst being limited by river crossings and deer avoidance measures. Apologies for a couple of slightly misplaced controls and the difficulties getting to 110 - the nettles grow quickly at this time of year!
Thanks to all who helped with the medical incident, Eric is making a rapid recovery. Plus those who helped collect in the controls, much appreciated.
James, Jo, Cathy and Gemma

Last nights results are up on the Wrekin website
html.wrekinorienteers.co.uk/Attingham%20Park%20SEE%202019/

​Wrekin member Duncan Bayliss has launched a website BetterOrienteering. org

https://betterorienteering.org/ 

For a long time there has been a need for an easy place to point people to who are interested in starting orienteering, or who have been going for a while and want to improve.

Better Orienteering helps you get better at orienteering whether you are a newcomer or have been going for a few years and have plateaued and stopped improving.  The website is structured in sections:
Beginner - Intermediate - Advanced - Beyond Advanced.

There are 9 skills videos in collaboration with SLOW,  and a series of free downloads on orienteering skills and links to many useful resources on orienteering.  It really is a one stop shop if you want to improve and are wondering how to work on your technique.

The Quick Start section helps you navigate the website and find material that is relevant to the level of experience you have whether you are just starting orienteering or are wanting to find resources to help you stop repeating the same mistakes again and again.


Orienteering is something where there is always room for improvement.  It is a great combination of navigation challenge and test of fitness and even orienteers who have been competing for 25 + years are still learning!

Duncan

Congratulations to Rod Postlethwaite for being awarded the prestigeous Chichester Trophy. We are very fortunate to have a mapper of Rod's ability in the club and we are looking forward to some exciting new projects..
​
https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/news/4667

Please find attached entry details for the WM Schools event for 2019, due to take place on 11/05/19 at Shoal Hill.
 
I would ask you to please send this around your clubs to be passed onto parents and teachers for entries. Please share this widely to allow everyone who wants to enter to do so. Details will be added to the WCH website shortly.

Entries close on the 3rd of May. For any queries, please contact the event organiser Vicky McCreadie (copied).

Kind regards,

Kristian Roberts

WCH Fixtures Secretary

​Please contact our Schools rep Tony Callow for more information..

Quick reminder of the free Coaching Session at Lizard Hill on 10th March.
Please reply if intending to attend to;
andy.debclough@tiscali.co.uk
By today, 28th February
Thanks
Henry Morgan
​POTOC

Thanks for attending the Activities we have put on over the last few weeks etc.

I think they have all been a success, and introduced some new runners to running and reading a map etc.

In total we had 57 adults and 18 juniors over the 3 activities

Each week we had some close battles to get all the codes within 45 minutes allowed,

Newport was no exception with Richard Przce just edging it and getting a full list,followed by James Ingram and Tom Lewis.

Local knowledge may have helped Tom although Duncan Bayliss found paths he didn't know existed 

Thanks and well done to Matt Price and his team Phil,Dawn,Rob and Shirley who along with Richard Przce, we just need to get you to come along and try our Summer events,they are just as enjoyable.

Our next event is Saturday 16th March at The Cockshutt Wood, parking at the rear of Oakengates Leisure centre starts from 10.30 to 12.00

See our events page for full detail

Regards
Richard Lewis

Congratulations to Di Jacks for picking up a Bronze medal at the British Night Championships held in Northern Scotland on Saturday Night. This is a fantastic achievement on a very tough and technical course..at night!

Full Results and Race analysis on the MAROC website here..