THE PUNCH

Editor’s Notes

If you’d like to get entered for the CompassSport Trophy at High Lodge on 10th March then please contact John Webb before next Saturday, Feb 23rd.  I’ve included a couple of new articles from the Points East website, re: report from the BOF Council Meeting last month and orienteering travels to the World Masters Championships in Lithuania.

The Club Championship results can be found from this link. The next couple of months fixtures are posted here, but follow the links from this page to full details at the other websites.

Ian

Chairman’s Chat

So our Badge event in Rendlesham Forest finally happened ! A great relief I am sure for both Bert our planner and John who masterminded the organisation.

The event turned out to be a great success judging from the remarks and feedback received. Undertaking these responsibilities at a Badge event is not however something that many club members would consider - to have to cover the tasks twice , as a result of the cancellation of the original fixture due to foot and mouth precautions, was not anticipated when they first volunteered. Thanks guys for sticking to the cause over an extended 18 month period - a bit like giving birth to an elephant.

Thanks too to many of you for responding to John's request for helpers. On the day we manned all the tasks without appearing to be under pressure and many of us also managed a run. Many hands make light work,

A number of our club members achieved their Gold standard at the Rendlesham event. Congratulations are therefore due to :-

Charlotte Gee W10A
Nicola Barker W12A
Peter Symes Thompson M12A
Mark Broughton M40S
Simon Peck M45
Martin Hore M50S
Goff Hill M55L
Yvonne McLean W60L
Bill McLean M65L

It seems sometime now since the Club championships which were staged at the RAFO colour coded event at Lynford Stag last November. The event was also the East Anglian Championships and even scored for the 2001 EAGAL competition.

John Webb not only scooped the SUFFOC Club championship - he also picked up the M65 East Anglian Trophy. Martin Hore earned the accolade of M50 East Anglian champion for 2001. Well done to the pair of you.

The EAGAL competition only yielded one SUFFOC class champion in 2001 - M65. Yes, it's that man again - well done John

We can now look forward to the spring event programme. I hope as many members as possible make the journey to High Lodge for the regional round of the Compass Sport Trophy on 10th March. John has offered to act as Team captain. The event is run in age classes - do however liase with John before you register to ensure that you run the most appropriate course on the day. It is important that we cover each of the classes if we are to we maximise the overall SUFFOC team score.

Just after Easter, on 7th April , we will be holding our final colour coded event of the season at Shrublands, just south of Needham Market. Andrew Elliot will be organising with Paul Lowe planning. I hope you will find time not only to support the event but also to help on the day. May I also recommend control collecting after you have had a successful run. The controls are easier to find second time around !

Although nothing is firm at present, as we need to confirm both a date and a venue, we are hoping to hold a club picnic event this summer. The orienteering on offer will take the form of a one hour score event - the food and drink after your run is your own affair. We will just try to provide a pleasant setting and fine weather.

Which brings me logically on to the plans for the 2002/3 season...

Sadly nobody responded to my plea in the last Punch for volunteers to either organise or run the SI team at any event next season. We therefore discussed the various options for the club continuing at our last committee meeting. It is fair to say there is no common understanding as to how best to move forward.

There are however sufficient members within the active membership who want to put on a programme in future seasons and who are willing to produce map surveys so that a full set of events can be staged. Thank you to Simon and Mac - they will probably turn their attention towards Tunstall Forest with a view of providing a brand new map for the 2003/4 season. John and Andrew have offered to revise the survey of the Ickworth map. Sutton Common also needs to be revised sometime .

We are therefore going to take a gambol that some of you will respond to the organisational challenge. Don't be surprised if you get a call from John - he has kindly offered to phone around.

We will reserve dates within the EAOA fixtures calendar for Bridge Wood in September, the northern part of Rendlesham in November, Knettishall Heath in January 2003 and Ickworth in March 2003. That's 4 events next season ~ all we now need is volunteers to organise the events and run the SI teams.

Some of you may have noticed our web site has changed now that the webmaster baton has passed from David Freer to Paul Lowe. Dave put a lot of work into developing this site and Paul has now added his own style to the look and feel of the system. Thanks to you both for your commitment and for engineering a smooth cutover.

If you haven't accessed the site yet do give it a try. It's a good way to keep up to date with future fixtures, club news and event results. 

Finally ...

I hope to see you out there in the forest sometime. There are plenty of events on offer within the East Anglian region this spring . Why not meet up with other club members and share the travelling costs?

Clive

Transport to Events

The cost of getting to events is a significant part of the overall cost of orienteering. Also it is not much fun travelling any distance on your own.

In years gone by, we had an informal scheme for pooling transport. Essentially everyone who was interested turned up at a pre-arranged location and by a pre-arranged time, and then piled into the minimum number of cars, leaving the remaining cars where they were.

Are people interested in trying this again?

If so, turn up at 17 Church Lane at 9.30 a.m. on 24th Feb (WAOC - Bush Heath), 3rd March (HAVOC - Thorndon Park) and 10th March (CompassSport Trophy, - High Lodge).

Note this does not imply any commitment by the Webb’s to join in everytime. It is simply a convenient place where you can leave cars. If anyone can suggest a better place, please do. Clearly it is not always much use for the inhabitants of Bury, but they should feel free to set up their own rendezvous.

CompassSport Trophy

Each year, apart from last year when Foot and Mouth got in the way, we take part in an inter-club orienteering competition known as the CompassSport Trophy. Our success has been mixed, some years we have gone out in the first round but one glorious year we reached the Grand Final in the Lake District.

This year the first round will take place at High Lodge on 10th March, and we need as many club members as possible to take part, because sheer weight of numbers is an aid to success. Also we need to have several competitors in each of the various classes to succeed. Even if you are not the world’s best orienteer you may well score us vital points, even if you have to run out of class. One year two of our more mature ladies scored vital points by competing in the open class!

The classes are:-

A   Open
B   M or W 20- or 35 +
C   M or W 18- or 45+
D   Womens’ Open
E   M60+ or W45+
F   M16- or W18-
G   M or W 14-

The complication is that we need to pre-enter as many people as possible as the event will use pre-marked maps, and if we don’t pre-enter there may not be any left when we roll up on the day.

So, please will you let me know as soon as possible if you will take part, by e-mail if that is how you received this, or by phone if you are reading it in The Punch. Also, please let me know if you have your own dibber, and what its number is, in case it is not in my records.

To encourage members to take part the club will subsidise any member who pre-enters and runs in the CompassSport class that the club requires – probably the normal one for your age group, unless we are desperate and need you to “run up”. Initially the club will pay your full entry fee of £6 for Seniors and £2 for Juniors, and we will collect £4 for Seniors and £1 for Juniors from you afterwards. If you enter on the day it will cost you more:- £7 for Seniors and £2.50 for Juniors.

When I know who is taking part, I will let you know what class I would like you to run, if some classes are oversubscribed and others undersubscribed.

In addition to the CompassSport courses there will be White and Yellow Courses for Juniors who feel thay cannot manage Course G. The organisers would prefer it if you would pre-enter for these classes as well, rather than entering on the day.

If you have any queries, please give me a call.

John Webb 01473 742778 or John@sproughton.flyer.co.uk 

Notes from BOF Council Meeting - 19th January 2002

Sports Council Grants to BOF for the 3 World Class Programmes for senior, intermediate and junior athletes are being cut by about 50% for 2002. The lottery is raising less money and our senior orienteers failed to win any medals at the 2001 World Championships.

A new Chief Executive is being sought, to replace Don Locke, the BOF Secretary General, when he retires at the end of March. Funding has been obtained for this post, and for a new part-time post of Coaching Programme Manager.

The Scottish Orienteering Association is to take devolved responsibility for its events, coaches and squads, plus a number of other issues, under an agreement with BOF.

The National Orienteering Week, 8th –16th June, is gaining momentum, with the appointment of advisers to help clubs make preparations.

The Clubs/Members Conference in Bangor on 20th October last year has generated a number of proposals for the BOF AGM, including one to allow non-BOF members to enter Badge and National events on payment of an agreed surcharge to the organising club.

BOF Membership Fees are set to rise by 50%, if approved at the AGM, in an attempt to recover some of the losses suffered during the foot and mouth crisis.

The BOF Event Levy is also to be discussed at the AGM, 2 alternative proposals being put forward, one based on a flat-rate charge per competitor, whatever the event, and a second, also flat-rate, but with a higher charge for Badge and National Events.

The BOF Rules Update 2002, which will be completed shortly, will include a recommendation to clubs that competitors should be allowed to copy down all courses from master maps at colour-coded events before they start.

The Harvester Trophy event is being moved from May to the end of August.

Dick Towler (NOR)

WMOC 2001 Lithuania

Colin and I made a late decision to form part of the East Anglian contingent competing in the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Lithuania at the beginning of July. On arrival, we had our first navigational problem of the week - find our hotel! Our next navigational challenge was to find a bar. Lithuanian society has a very definite beer drinking culture. In general we found the Lithuanian people extremely friendly and very keen to help.

Later we set off to explore Vilnius. Vilnius has a distinctly central European feel to it with some beautiful buildings although in need of a coat of paint in some cases. The countryside was mostly grassland with the agriculture very extensive (as opposed to intensive) -hay making with horse and cart, raking into stooks, rarely more than 2 or 3 cows and then often.

On competition days an efficient fleet of buses ferried competitors from accommodation to event. The first day was the model event. The model was around Nida itself-a number of controls hung in the forest and a master map for you to plan your own course. The EA Famous 5 agreed to spend an hour in the forest before heading for the beach. The forest was lovely in the open but a bit East Anglian around the settlements of Nida itself.

Next day was the start of serious competition. It had rained overnight and was overcast making good running conditions. The forest was wonderful-open and runnable. I was pleased with my run but it was still about two thirds of the way down the field. It was such a fast area. The top 10 W65's were doing sub-10 minute k's! It was a long track run in the heat but at least the forest on either side was pretty to look at. There were ample water stations.

It was a great holiday. The orienteering was really enjoyable and it was so good to be out running again after all the months without orienteering. Lithuania stretches from central Europe to Scandinavia and has the characters of both - truly a memorable destination that would not have been on the West's itinerary without orienteering taking us there.

Lyn West (SOS)

Forth Coming Events

Find out the full details and more at the EAOC website 

Event Organisers

It has become clear from talking to several club members recently that many members are unaware of vital facts concerning Event Organisers.

The first is that unless someone new volunteers to organise very soon, there will be no more SUFFOC events after Shrubland. The second is that the Organiser’s tasks are much less onerous than most people realise. The Organiser does NOT have to plan the courses and set out the controls; that is the Planner’s job. The Organiser’s responsibility is to look after competitors until they cross the start line, and after they finish.

This involves recruiting helpers (the hardest bit of the job), selecting team leaders and allocating people to the various tasks, and ensuring that everyone has the necessary equipment to do their jobs. Organising needs organising abilities rather than orienteering skills.

Having organised, planned and controlled events up to Badge Standard, I personally regard organising a colour coded event as the easiest and least time demanding of the various tasks. It is also the one where it is possible to delegate and to have a competitive run on the day. Unfortunately it is the least appreciated job; everyone thanks and congratulates the planner, but no-one thanks the organiser!

The advent of electronic punching has simplified the overall organiser’s task as the electronic side can now be hived off to someone else as a lump. There are also the benefits of not having to have a skilled finish team on duty for hours, possibly in rough weather, nor to sort through hundreds of soggy control cards checking punch imprints. Also the working out and typing of results no longer has to be done manually as the electronic system takes care of that.

The principal tasks that are left which need covering are:- sign posting to the event, supervising car parking if necessary, map sales, dibber hire and registration, setting up the start and supervision there if it is an EAGAL, erecting the finish banner and providing orange squash and water, providing helpers to collect controls and tidying up afterwards.

Recruiting helpers takes about two full evenings. Allocating people to jobs etc. can be done in odd bits of evenings. The day before the event you, or a deputy, has to collect together the equipment from its various hiding places in Bramford and Sproughton, ready to go to the event. The day itself involves an early start (but not as early as the planner or controller’s), to get the stuff to the event and dole it out. Then when everything is going smoothly, hand over to your deputy and go for a run!

Success needs lots of helpers and a good deputy.

So, if you want to continue orienteering, volunteer to Clive or me NOW. Ideally you should be a BOF member, but if you are not that is not insurmountable. If you feel unsure as to what has to be done, don’t worry, there are guidance notes and check lists to help, and experienced organisers at the end of a phone.

Reliable Second in Command Needed

A reliable second in command is needed to help supervise the electronic punching system at Shrubland. Applicants should be reasonably proficient with computers, and it would be useful if they had experience of networking PCs.

Knowledge of the SportIdent system is not vital, as hands on experience will be provided prior to the event.  Applicants should apply to Clive Cole, Paul Lowe or John Webb, preferably as soon as possible, giving details of their computer experience.

If you do nothing it is simple – no SUFFOC orienteering!

John Webb 01473 742778 or john@sproughton.flyer.co.uk