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Logs 2008 / 07 /06 / 05 / 04 / 03 / 02 / 01 | BOF Ranking List | Jeff Green (Captain) |
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Captain's Blog – June/July Stragglers'
Relay Win for CHIG! After
a gap of 9 years, CHIG have finally reclaimed the Stragglers' Relay title on
6th July at High Woods,
Full CHIG
Results: Club
Championships The
main event for CHIG in June was the Club Championships. Congratulations to
all this year's trophy winners: Open : Women's Open : Alice
Campbell Veteran Men : Veteran Women : Intermediate Girls : Caitlin Campbell Junior Boys : Dylan
Campbell Handicap : Novice : Emma
Blowers I hope
everyone enjoyed the slightly different format to previous years. It
certainly made planning easier having a more compact area and not having to
worry so much about the emergence of summer vegetation. With hindsight, the
small Out of Bounds area should have been taped (from both directions) and I
hope the minority(!) who took the longer route don't feel they were
significantly disadvantaged. If you
enjoyed the "sprint" format, there are a couple more sprint races
coming up in the South East. First the inaugral SE Sprint Champs (see below)
and, later in the year (11th Oct), a bit closer to home, SLOW are organising
a round of the NopeSport Urban
League in the City of CHIG v
HAVOC, Rounds 2 and 3 We
continued our winning form with an away win at Thorndon North on 8th June. LAMM My
excuse for not helping to beat HAVOC at Thorndon was being in Glenfinnan,
about 15 miles west of On
Saturday morning the Elite and A teams had a "surprise" train
journey one stop west along the Mallaig line, to Lochailort (there's often
some form of mystery transport). The first day was a killer - the planner's
route being 37k with nearly 2400m of climb. The weather and the views were
fantastic which made navigation fairly straightforward, once we'd decided on
our route. The longest leg (and most difficult route choice) took 3 hours! In
total we took over 10 hours - our longest MM day to date - finishing in 7th
place, but over 2.5 hours behind the leaders. Needless to say we were pretty
exhausted by the time we reached the mid-camp – a microlight landing
strip next to a remote cottage. At least it was fairly flat and dry. We were
still cooking when most other teams had gone to bed – our cooker maybe
light, but it's certainly not quick (and we like to think eating a lot helps
recovery overnight)! The
weather had deteriorated overnight but we set off as early as possible to
give ourselves the best chance of catching our flights home! We had little
chance of catching 6th place who were more than an hour quicker on day 1, but
there were 2 teams only a few minutes behind us, so we couldn't take it easy.
Although shorter than Saturday, we still took 7 hours to complete the course
as the weather gradually returned to warm sunshine. With flights to catch we
had little time to relax in the sun, so we wolfed down our Wilf's lunch,
packed up our stuff and headed back to the car. Just as we passed the
prize-giving, to our surprise we heard our names being read out. We dumped
our packs, had our photos taken and took a prize for 6th place. It seemed too
good to be true, but in our exhausted and mildly stressed state we couldn't
offer a coherent reason why it was to early to be sure. As it turned out, it was too good to be true – the
6th place team overnight had started much later than we had and beat us
comfortably into 7th overall. A slight disappointment, but as a gesture of
goodwill we got to keep our prizes! Full
reports, results and links to routegadget here.
SE
Sprint/Relay Champs Weekend – 30-31st Aug Southdowns
are organising a SE Championships weekend based at World
Masters OC,
Captain's Blog – May In
contrast to April, May seems to have been a quiet month for high profile
events – or was it just that I was on holiday for much of it and didn't
notice? If I've missed any notable performances or exciting news, please feel
free to let me know! Surrey
Hill Races, 26th May Either
age or fatherhood (or probably both!) are taking their toll on my fitness.
After winning the A course in 2006, my return this year was less than
triumphal. The Hill Races are more fell races than orienteering courses, with
the same routes being used every year and compeitors positively encouraged to
recce the course in advance (in part to avoid the organisers having to wait
for lost runners to return!). However, in common with orienteering, there are
controls (with orienteering flags), route choices to be made and even the
occasional bit of terrain running! The A course is roughly 30k and takes in
the summits of Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill crossing the
orienteering areas of Winterfold and Leith Hill. The B course is 16k and the
C course 10k. See SLOW's
routegadet site for the actual routes. For
some reason the races regularly seem to attract the worst weather in May,
2006 had hailstorms, 2007 was wet and pretty close to freezing and this year
was just plain wet and windy. I set off at a pace marginally quicker than 2
years previously, but it soon became clear that this would be unsustainable.
Towards the end my vision had started to blur and I could sense and then hear
the guy behind gaining on me. I managed to hold him off to the finish line
with a last desparate dash down the final hill and through the woods to come
in 4th and first M40, by 1 second! My time, even though conditions underfoot
were similar to 2006, was about 8 mins down. Still it was good training for
the LAMM on 7/8th June – more of which next month. CHIG v
HAVOC 2008 As
Josh has already said, we had an excellent turn-out at the first (home)
match. We achieved a convincing win with 94 points to HAVOC's 25.5. Don't forget the next (away) match which
is on Sunday 8th June at Stragglers'
Relay – 6th July The
annual Stragglers' Relay is coming soon with its unique and interesting
format. Historically (in the 80s and 90s) CHIG were regular winners, and in
recent years we've come close, with one of our 4 teams coming 2nd last year.
Please put the date in your diaries and let's see if we can overturn WAOC's
recent run of success. Notable
Performances BOKTrot, Brierley, 11th May Pete
Cheetham 2nd M50S BADO Butter Wood Regional, 1st June Dylan
Campbell 2nd JM2 Captain's Blog – April British
Individual Championships April
was a busy month for British Championships with the Sprint and Middle on the
5th/6th and Long and Relay competitions on the 19th/20th. Robin and Ruby
Campbell flew the CHIG flag at all four! Congratulations
to Robin Campbell – British M70 Middle Distance Champion! There are
no age class categories at the Sprint Championships as far as I can tell. After
all the fuss about the Culbin map, concensus seems to be that the map was
excellent - accurate and, despite the complex contour detail, perfectly
legible. I found the training event invaluable and learnt an important lesson
– running on a rough bearing and hoping to relocate somewhere was not a
viable technique in this terrain! I was hoping for a top 10 position in my
first championships as an M40, but it's a tougher class than M35 and a 5 min
error on one control cost me several places (but probably not 7!) I think
Robin deserves another special mention here - making a 180 degree error which cost him
around 15 mins ending up with a rare double digit position. Meanwhile,
British
Relay Championships – 2nd again! In the
Relays, our Men's Premier team had to pull out due to injury. And for the
third year running, John, Carol and Tom were pipped at the post to finish 2nd
in the M/W60 class, this time by a mere 95 seconds. Congratulations and
commiserations! All
CHIG results are included below: British Middle Championships, Hopwas,
5th Apr Robin
Campbell 1st M70 Individual Long Champs, Culbin East,
19th Apr
British Relay Champs, Culbin East, 20th
Apr John
Pearce, Carol Pearce, SLOW
Blodslitet On
27th April, SLOW held their first (I think) Blodslitet race at Winterfold. A “Blodslitet” is a mass start long-distance race designed
to challenge an individual’s endurance and mental agility. The first
few controls were common to all, but then loops (rather than relay-style
gaffling) are used to split the field. Everyone visits the same controls and
has the same legs, but not necessarily in the same order. Have a look at the
courses and routes on Routegadget and it might become a bit clearer!
Mass start races always add a bit more pressure and despite leading for a
time, I made a few navigational and route choice errors (e.g. 13-14!) and
ended up 3rd. There was even a prize-giving ceremony with plenty of wine,
beer and chocolates being distributed. The Long course may have been more
exciting with a few more competitors (only 23 started) but the Medium course
had double that number and looked the more interesting race with 2 M18s tying
for first place and the top 4 finishing within just over a minute of each
other. Notable
Performances SROC Hampsfell Regional, 13th Apr Carol
Pearce 2nd W60L SO Houghton Regional, 13th Apr Pete
Cheetham 3rd M50S
Captain's Blog 2008 – March CHIG
Members in Compass Sport The Congratulations
to JK
Relays Results Despite
the snow and an ill captain stepping in for JK
Trophy (Kostya, Josh, Jeff, Harold) 26th/31 Notable
Performances March
was a busy month with a National Event and of course the JK over Easter. I
have to say I was a bit disappointed by Big Wood – it didn't seem
interesting enough for a National Event, but that's not to say I didn't make
any mistakes! Given
its importance and the larger than average entries at the JK, I decided that
a top 10 result is worthy of note. It's entirely a coincidence that I
happened to come 10th in the Sprint Race! I found replaying the Routegadget
animations particularly entertaining for the sprint event – some people
(mentioning no names) seemed to be navigating using the pinball technique! As
a family we didn't have a great time at the JK. The snow and cold weather
took its toll on my loyal supporters and I was stuck down by a mystery
illness on Sunday which I blame for my 6 minute error on number 9. (That and
the fact that the control flag was at the bottom of a pit hidden in bracken,
next to some straggly bits of gorse mapped as scattered trees!) By Tuesday, I
was convinced I had glandular fever, but a subsequent blood test has denied
me that excuse. SAX Mill Bank & Whiteley Regional,
2nd Mar
Big Wood National Event, 9th Mar Jeff
Green 4th M40L JK Jeff
Green 10th M40 JK Classic 22-23rd Mar Carol
Pearce 3rd W60L Captain's Blog 2008 – February Two
Southern Champions for CHIG! Congratulations
to Ruby Campbell and Jeff Green on winning their respective age classes in
the Southern Championships at Woolbeding on 3rd Feb. It's a shame the
previous year's winners could only have their trophies on their mantlepieces
for under 3 months. Fortunately Ruby and I get a full year! JK
Relay Teams CHIG
have an excellent turn out of 5 teams entered in the JK Relays – 3 more
than last year. Is this a record?! JK Trophy:
Notable
Performances Southern Championships 3rd Feb Jeff
Green 1st M40L Chiltern Challenge 10th Feb Ian
Andrews 3rd M50S
LOK Holmbury
Regional, 24th Feb
Captain's Blog 2008 – January More
New Members Since
I last wrote, JK and
British Champs Relay Teams If
you'd like to run in a CHIG team at either of the JK or the British –
please let me know by Sun 17th Feb for JK. Entries for British are not as
urgent, but entry fees rise for the British Individual Champs on 24th Feb. Junior
Benefits The
number of active junior members has surged dramatically since this time last
year which is excellent news and has already benefitted the club – see
Compass Sport Trophy results below! Here are a few ways in which CHIG
supports our junior orienteers: Compass Sport Trophy
– A VERY Close 2nd! It was always going to
be a tough challenge for us and in the end SOS held us off to go through to
the final, but only just! Totals Brw Bl W Bl M Gr W Gr M Gr V Lt G Orng ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. SOS 1273 99 198 290 198 0 98 196 194 (1) (2) (3) (2) (0) (1) (2) (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. CHIG 1262 295 0 189 92 198 196 98 194 (3) (0) (2) (1) (2) (2) (1) (2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. SUFFOC 1180 272 182 278 94 0 174 90 90 (3) (2) (3) (1) (0) (2) (1) (1) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. LOG 1077 266 180 271 174 0 0 186 0 (3) (2) (3) (2) (0) (0) (2) (0) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It
was very encouraging to see some excellent junior results in the Trophy
competition this year after drawing blanks in the Light Green and Run Faster… A reminder that Circuit Training sessions
take place during term time on Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8pm at SE League
Results – 2006/7 Southdowns
continue their domination of the SE League with their 10th win in a row. CHIG
came 9th (one place higher than last year), though as the more runners that
compete (or help) the higher a club's score, it's no surprise that the larger
clubs tend to do better. The Mitre was the first event of the 2007/8 season
and CHIG came an impressive 3rd – mainly due to the number of
non-running helpers, but SO still won the match! SLOW's Devil's Punchbowl
event was the second round where we reverted to type and came 9th, dropping
to 4th place after 2 matches. No prizes for guessing who won the match, beating
SLOW on their home turf. SE Galoppen
Results 2007 (Controversial Opinion of the Month) In the Interland
Selection Congratulations
to Notable
Perfomances Compass Sport Trophy, Robin
Campbell running in the Green Men class who scored us 100 points despite
being ill! Concorde Chase, Burghfield
Common, 27th January Carolyn Andrews
2nd JW4 Maldon Mud Race, 30th December,
2007 Congratulations
to Captain’s
Blog 2008 (December 2007) Happy New Year to all CHIG
members (and anyone else who happens to be reading)! Compass Sport Trophy
and New Members We've had a
fantastic response this year and will be fielding a crack team of 30 runners
- a 50% increase on last year. Half of this
increase comes from the New Map Remapping of
our recently rediscovered area to the west of Broxbourne seems to be
progressing well. I'd just about
recovered from the marathon two weeks before to join the map testing team on
a cold Saturday morning. After the run,
it was back to the Cheetham's for mince pies, mulled wine and a fiendishly
difficult treasure hunt challenge on a specially prepared map incorporating
part of Mardley Heath. In the end, the Green family out-witted the
Jenner/West/Cheetham team (by actually completing the course!) and took home
some more wine! Many thanks to the Cheethams for hosting, putting on the
competition and supplying the prizes. Notable
Perfomances DVO Londshaw National, 9th Dec Robin Campbell 3rd
M70L Trent Park Score Event, Boxing Day Christmas
Congratulations to Jeff Green 2nd
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Updated 04.01.08 |
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