South Yorkshire Orienteers

South Yorkshire Orienteers celebrated World Orienteering Day with a lovely sunny evening event on Wednesday 15^th May. 176 people enjoyed the stunning views across Sheffield from Bole Hills and The Rivelin valley. There were 6 different courses, all expertly planned by the Lightfoot family, catering to the wide range of participants on the night including toddlers, brownies, schools children, super vets, students, runners and experienced club members. After the event, many club members adjourned to the local pub to enjoy a special World Orienteering Day Menu!

Mar Orienteering Club

"It was a busy World Orienteering Week in Maroc Land in northeast Scotland, with five different activities on offer on various days, organised and run by a range of different groups.

First off, the club held one of their Forest Sprint events at Deeside Activity Park and Dess woods to celebrate World Orienteering Day itself, on a gloriously sunny Wednesday evening. There was a good turn out of 41 runners and the kind weather encouraged everyone to linger and socialise.
On Thursday it was the turn of the 18 pupils in class P4-7 at Braemar school to try orienteering in their playground, with courses which had been planned and set up by class teacher Mrs Wood. Braemar school enjoyed participating in orienteering as part of the 2016-18 Cairngorm Leader COPE project and it is fantastic to see a legacy of the development work continuing in this way.

Later in the day, 13 enthusiastic members of the Aboyne cluster after-school club tackled some special WOW themed courses in Castle Woods. The biggest challenge of the session proved to be trying to solve the puzzle of the WOW link!

On Friday, orienteering was one of the activities on offer at Mearns Academy as part of their festival of sport. The Academy recently commissioned an orienteering map of their grounds and this was one of the first opportunities to try it out. With instruction from club member Andy Oliver, six S3 girls enjoyed the new experience and challenge.

Finally, on Tuesday it was the turn of Upper Deeside schools to get together for a festival in the woods adjacent to Crathie school. The festival was organised by the local Active Schools Co-ordinators with course planning and support from Maroc members. 31 pupils from four small schools- Tarland, Logie Coldstone, Strathdon and Crathie - all had a great time finding their way around the most scenic extended playground in the UK. There were some really impressive scores recorded, again demonstrating legacy from development work undertaken through the COPE project.

All in all a successful World Orienteering Week which offered a taster of the sport to a wide range of different people."

Potteries Orienteering Club

Potteries Orienteering Club held 3 activities in Central Forest Park to mark World Orienteering Week.

We held 3 activities over three days based on our permanent orienteering course.  This is our latest permanent orienteering course and was designed with easier controls only.

DAY 1: Wednesday 15 May. 
We ran a SCORE course which was intended to cater for the Urban Activities regulars.  10 extra controls were added using the bright numbered stickers on lamp posts, as per the Urban Activities.

• 10 members took part on this course.
• Peter Munn and 3 of his outdoor group members tackled the basic course.
• 9  Girl Guides  + 4 adults went on specific courses designed by Marian.
• Mark Clews and Jonathan Whilock visited all 26 in about 33 mins.... Lil Bales  - all in about 43 min. Everyone else returned in the allotted 45 mins.

The next 2 days catered for groups and non-orienteers.

DAY 2:  Thursday 16 May.
It was clear from the lack of bookings that no one was expected on this day. However, I still felt I needed to be prepared, but no one came. I  hold the record for the planner of an event with the lowest attendance ...2 at Forest Park about 20 years ago. Can I claim to have beaten this with an Activity?

DAY 3:  Friday 17 May. 
A contrast. 42 Brownies or Guides + 12 adults turned up to tackle Marian's special courses.   

Day 3, along with the Guide groups on Day 1, used the permanent orienteering course posts in a series of short loops in order to spread out the participants.

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Army Orienteering Association

As part of WOD 2019, the Army Orienteering Association (AOA) hosted the Army Inter Unit Team Championships at Longmoor, Hampshire, over the period 15-16 May 19. The Championships were organised by the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC) and the Army Air Corps (AAC).

Day 1 was based on four Spanish Score courses (Long, Medium and 2 x Short variants). There were 5 categories: Open, Masters, Women’s, Under 25 and Guests. Dependent on the category entered, teams comprised of four or three competitors. Team times from 1 rolled forward to Day 2.

Day 2 used the Team Harris format with a long variant for teams of four and a short variant for teams of three. Times from Day 2 were added to times from Day 1 to determine overall category winners.

In total, 182 participants took part over the 2-day event.

We even introduced a new discipline....moo-rienteering!

How did you, your club or school take part in World Orienteering Day & Week?

Email:  jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk and be included in the next snapshot to celebrate our sport globally!