The Six Days Of Scotland.

I know its the Scottish Six Days, but what the heck! it was six days in Scotland and lets face it, it was good.... and the orienteering was ok too-.

We stayed in the old log cabin in Pitlochlry, Yes I will show you a picture if you behave yourselve's, but for the time being listen and you might learn something.The reason we stayed in Pitlochry was firstly it was a great place, it was quiet, the location was what you would expect in Scotland and Lastly Teresa did the booking and she always does a good job and we could not have done better.

I trust the rest of the gang agree with me that it was a great week, so what about the rest of the story.

Day one for me was a disaster, sorry but there is no other way to describe it, control one was ok and so was control number two.... then I went to pot- on my way to three I found number six, what happened then, only the man above knows, I suddenly realized I was on the wrong side of the map and I navigated the whole length of the map to find number 3.

I found number 4 and 5, thought I knew where 6 was, ( I had been there before) I never found it and I headed home to creep in to the finish by the back door, I was devastated.

Day 2 If you were to remember started on top of a steep re-entrant, I found the start flag but found nothing after that for 65 minutes, until I found number 2 control. I then found number one and back to 2, never found 3 went home (who wants to orienteer in Scotland anyway).

I had already decided not to go on day three, the long walks to the start were not inviting and niether was the weather so I stayed around the camp and had a nice restful day. Have a look above and see our cabin.

The rest day and we all went our own ways, Raymond and Teresa went to Inverness to see Che,

Bill, Marella and Nadine went cycling and Jim and myself stayed on camp and then went for a walk.

Day 4 was quite a distance away and I think I annoyed everybody by getting up too early, anyway it was a better day for me and I finished the course in a respectable time so I was feeling a little happier, I must say that the rest of the club were having a great week on the orienteering side and putting in some good times.

Again Day five was good for me and for the rest of us, but I knew Raymond could not go a full week without an epic!

If you look at the picture of Raymond above you might notice the black face and the dirt on the red top. This was because he had decided that shortest way between two points was a straight line, of course this icluded a river, and, wait for it the bottom of the river was thick mud and so he got covered, when will he learn.

The last day was as it usually is a bit of a rush to get away for the boat but once we managed the 2K to the start it was mostly straightforward and downhill towards the finish.

It was a good week and in enjoyable company.

Days of Wine and Roses.

How do I begin to describe this 'man'.
Master planner! Organiser! Coach! a dedicated follower of fashion but above all a great guy!.
It would appear that Raymond is becoming a better orienteer as he matures. Last year he won 3 Regional championships and already this year he was runner up to the winner of the Leinster and now he has won the the M55 middle distance championship at the Irish and he was third in the Long distance classic.
His enthusiasm knows no bounds, he is a good club member and goes to great lengths to promote orienteering.
All I can add is to keep a sharp lookout for Raymond if you are around his age class, I think there is more to come in the next few years, like a good wine, he is maturing with the years.

The Girls from the South West.

Hi Folks, What's this I hear, Bill's talking about the fair sex, well, yes and I've really got something to talk about.

A few years ago Ferm O decided that we needed some more young people in the club and we set about doing just that.

Teresa the club coach with the assistant of yours truly and Jim organised a group of Juniors under the Millennium Scheme.

All of the group received several weeks of coaching and most of them remained with the club for a couple of years, some remained longer and there are current members who were in that group. Why do I tell you this, well, it was from that group that we have today's juniors and our Elites who have reached the 21 classes, two of these, and they are both female are running in competition at Elite status, Ciara and Rosalind and are very successful.

Both of them are from Omagh and the club is very proud of them.

They ran in the Irish championships this year in Donegal.

Rosalind was 7th in the middle distance and 8th in the Long classic. Ciara was more successful and was 2nd in the middle distance and wait for it,

she was in first place in the Long Classic ( She is the 2009 W21 elite Irish long classic Champion)

So now you know why Bill is waxing lyrical about the girls from the south west.

We have had lots of successful results from our members over the years and though we do not have a large membership we do occasionally produce quality results.

All I can say now is to the juniors we have, don't ever give up trying, it takes time and effort and a lot of dedication, if you want it enough its there for the taking and to the girls from the South West, well done and Thank You.

Local Come and Try It Orienteering, Esso Series

Good Ho! We are back to local orienteering at last, and although it involves more work it is in my estimation more rewarding especially if new faces turn up at the events and this was indeed what happened at our first local cati (come and try it) event on the 23rd April. Of course it is nice to see the event supported by club members, even members of other clubs who are willing to give advice and support to newcomers who I'm sure are somewhat daunted of the prospect of going orienteering for the first time.

We were well prepared and even the prospect of heavy rain did not seem too hard to overcome.

We also had a good spread of juniors, who helped putting out controls and surprisingly added a competitive spirit over what was as you would expect from a Cati event short and easy courses.

It just goes to prove that Orienteering can be fun if you want it to be, and what better way to enjoy it than on a Thursday evening in the rain at the local Leisure centre, personally I'm looking forward to the rest of the events. So, if you want fun orienteering come and join us, see you next week at the Lakeland Forum.

Parkanaur LVO Event Spring Cup 2 14th March 2009

This was the first time that I have ever visited this forest and believe me I saw plenty of it at this event, not since the days of spending hours in the forests of Scotland have I experienced such a long time and I have only myself to blame.

My problems began back at home by studying an Eco map of the place which was 1:5,000, this was foremost in my mind when I set off for my first control, I failed to notice we were using a 1:10,000 map. My second problem was the river, I was in no position to wade across, so I had to retrace my steps and go back to the nearest bridge, I still thought I was on the 1:5,000 map at this stage. After floundering around in the wrong place for 15 minutes I realized my mistake about the scales, maybe I should have packed it in then but I'm made of sterner stuff and I relocated and eventually found the first control, exactly where the map stated, slapping my wrist I carried on, now twenty minutes into my course.

I found my number 12 control next before going higher up the ditch to number two, maybe it was trying to tell me something, about packing it in I mean, I over ran number 3, wasted time going back but at last I was orienteering, or so I thought, a long run on a distinct path got me to four and then I saw the awful long leg I had to negotiate next. Off I went, through the Deer Park, I saw no deer, I think they must have been ashamed for me and my performance and would not show themselves.

I had no idea Parkanaur was so hilly, but up the hill I went after find a bridge to cross the river.

It was at this stage that two young children past me and they were walking, I presumed they were on the orange course, after getting lost again I got my control and headed for the river, but could not find a bridge so backtracked up the hill and took another path, said Hallo to Daphne and found a bridge.

This story gets worse and worse but I managed to get back to my final control that I had visited 2 hours previously and punched thankfully, my control descriptions said 175m to the finish, that is directly across the river, I had to go round, I could not raise a run at this stage, it took me about 17 minutes to do the 175 metres, I did complete the course, in a fashion, but what a fashion, fortunately at my age I can get plenty of sympathy. Next morning I was up bright and early for a spot of technical training at Necarne with my club members.

Ni Colour 1 2009 Somerset.

Hi Folks, well you will all be pleased to know that I managed to get to the first NI Colour for 2009, the venue was Somerset Forest near Coleraine.

Somerset was not a very enjoyable experience the last time I visited this forest which I must admit is very flat with lots of paths and tracks and I noticed it was well visited by the local populace. The weather was very good during my run, or should I say a walk; with some slow run in places, anyway I was on the Light Green Course, which is about my limit at the moment. Now with all my "experience," finding the controls is not my problem, getting to them in a reasonable short time is my problem and this proved the case at this event. Now, I can't blame the terrain, or the planning, or the brambles for my slow progress, so it must be me and my fitness, (what did I hear you say, old age), well I won't admit that, ha,ha, you're only as old as you feel and anyway the Chinese say there's no such thing, you are just more experienced and should have more wit than galloping round the forest in pyjamas and spiked shoes, " happy days".

All kidding aside I thoroughly enjoyed my run/walk and all credit to the planners/organisers and controller, because the brambles were not an issue and like MacArthur said "I will be back" and I hope I will be fitter and do the course better, see you in the forest!

Night event Florence Court.

Florence Court was the third event in the night series, Raymond was the planner and he had decided to make the event a score format as well as a night event, this was a good idea, seeing that the NI Score was coming up as well as the NI Night champs and all started out well on what was a nice evening in a wonderful area of Florence Court.
The west end had been the original venue but it was changed because the west end has seen a lot of felling lately and was not really suitable for a night event, anyhow the East end was to be used and this would include a meander into the gardens below the house.
There was one course and a time limit of 45 minutes over 12 controls, not that I would get to all of the controls, but I decided I would do my best and set off undaunted up the track and I found my first control quite easy, I headed for the Lady Well for the next control which would put me on line for the next few controls, anyway I ran around the garden for a while, it was very tricky in the dark and getting the control and then getting another above the garden area I took stock of the time I had 10 minutes to get back to the finish and not being very fast I decided to miss out the number 12 control ( it was worth 50 points ) but it could have wasted time, and this proved to be the case for others, i arrived back at the finish with 5 minutes to spare and waited for the rest to turn up, most of them turned up in time and had done rather well, but the number 12 control had been tricky. I don't know if anybody actually found it, but two of our valiant crew were missing, it was then we had a telephone call from our missing members from the village of Florence Court ( Florence Court is not on the map) they were asking for someone to come and collect them, it came to light that they had failed miserably at the number 12 control and eventually come out onto the road and finished up in the Village. This I imagine sets a record for a new competition of Urban Night orienteering with the lights on, needless to say they received a lot of very complimentary remarks when they landed back at the finish, the event was very enjoyable and volunteer's collected the controls, No 12 was collected by Teresa (it took quite a while).