Results are in from yesterday's British Middle Distance Championships!

Access provisional results via this link or for a full breakdown, visit the AIRE website.

Well done to all winners and to everyone who took part this weekend! 

Mapping is the one of the most rewarding and enjoyable roles. Not only does it improve your navigation skills, but it can also provide you with a different and new type of orienteering challenge.  

The British Orienteering E-Learning Mapping Courses, Introduction to updating Forest Mapping and Introduction to Sprint and Urban Mapping , developed with the expertise of David Olivant (Nottinghamshire Orienteering Club) and the educational robustness  of Pauline Olivant (Nottinghamshire Orienteering Club) .

Both courses are based around learners having access to either of the two most widely used mapping programs, Open Orienteering Mapper and OCAD.

We strongly advise that you seek an experienced mapper as a mentor to support you through your journey towards being a competent mapper.

Both courses are based on updating an existing map and rather than creating a new map from a previously unmapped area.

Course objectives

• To provide an introduction and basic understanding of the processes involved in how to update and amend an existing Orienteering map.

The course content is designed to only address the course objective rather than attempting to cover the full scope of Mapping. As we recognise that Mapping is a skill that takes much time and practice to hone.

The course should only take around 45- 60 mins to complete and for the whole of May is only £6.00

To access the course and find out more information about our other E-Learning courses, please visit the E-Learning homepage.

Interested in learning about our other E-Learning courses on offer? Visit the E-Learning homepage and access information on all the other resources we provide.

AIRE and CLARO look forward to seeing you all at the British Middle Championships this coming weekend. 

You have entered in greater numbers than we anticipated, but we have adapted to cater for you all as best we can.  Both Danefield and Kilnsey Moor is a lovely places in the Spring sunshine and we really hope the weather is kind so that you can enjoy it at its best.  The technical woodland of Danefield is in sharp contrast to the fast open areas of Kilnsey.  You should enjoy some great orienteering on both days.  Str8 compasses is sponsoring a lot of prizes for the Northern Championships and the British Middles so run well and good luck.

Start times and final details are published, maps are printed and lots of equipment is ready to move.  No controls are out yet, but we have been busy at Kilnsey as you may be able to see from a picture.  There are a variety of crossing points on Kilnsey Moor – many of you will only encounter this one.  There are no stiles to cross at Danefield you’ll be relieved to know.

We will be able to accommodate you all in the parking areas for both events, but as always, it would help if you car shared as much as possible.  The Danefield field has remained in good condition throughout the winter, but as some rain has been forecast over the coming days we will have some tracking available.  Kilnsey has the delight of hard standing in the quarry.  We can’t promise that you will keep your feet dry, but at least cars should not get stuck in the mud as might have happened at some recent events.  We’re hoping that’s true for Danefield.  Definitely true for Kilnsey!

Anyone wanting to carry a club tent to Danefield, could reduce the distance to carry the tent by 800m by using the drop off point suggested in the event details.  It would need to be a rapid drop-off as there are often no parking bays available. They are all quite uneven, and the road is very narrow.  To get back to the parking field it is best to not attempt a 5 point turn but to drive in an anti-clockwise route with LH turns for 2.5k to get back to the parking field.  This should take no morfme than 5 minutes.

Have a great weekend.

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Full details on the British Middle Championships are available via this link. Visit the CLARO website for more details regarding the Northern Championships. Good luck to everyone taking part!

Permanent Orienteering Courses are one of the first steps on the way to re-starting our sport of orienteering in a socially distanced way. 

Jennie Taylor Communications Officer caught up with Stephen Borrill member of West Anglian Orienteering Club and Volunteer Permanent Orienteering Course Coordinator at his club to find out what is involved in his role and why he enjoys Permanent Orienteering Courses so much. 

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Jennie:  How long have you been Permanent Orienteering Course Coordinator for your club and what does your volunteer role entail?

Stephen Borrill:   "I’ve been the Permanent Orienteering Course Coordinator for West Anglian Orienteering Club (WAOC) for a couple of years now. This volunteer role entails liaising with the landowners for permissions and maintenance, people who may want to sell maps (for example in cafés) and British Orienteering to ensure the list of on the British Orienteering Permanent Orienteering Course database are up to date."

JT:  How did you first discover Permanent Orienteering Courses?

Stephen:  "I rediscovered orienteering in my early 30s having done it at school and found out that WAOC was my local club. I re-started orienteering tentatively, but then soon started doing some of the club's summer mid-week events, one of which used the Permanent Orienteering Courses markers at Ferry Meadows, near Peterborough. Before then, the last Permanent Orienteering Course I did was part of a school trip to Normanby Park, Scunthorpe in the mid 80s."

JT:  What enticed you initially?

Stephen: "I work away a reasonable amount, so I need to find something to do in the evenings and to avoid just sitting in the pub!  Permanent Orienteering Courses fit the bill perfectly. Many are score courses, so you can set your own rules. Set a time limit if you need to be back to the hotel in time for food. Pick the shortest route to do it as quickly as possible. Get the controls in numerical order if you want to challenge yourself with longer legs."

JT:  How do you select which Permanent Orienteering Courses  to do?

Stephen: "Mainly just proximity to where I’m working! On the other hand because I’m doing them in the evening, how easy it is to get the map is very important to me. In general I won’t be able to get to a Visitor Centre during its opening hours. Of 582 Permanent Orienteering Courses uploaded on the British Orienteering site, 289 have downloadable maps. I’m in charge of Permanent Orienteering Courses for West Anglian Orienteering Club and since the lockdown, I’ve managed to get all our landowners to agree to free map downloads. I also apply my general orienteering rule of thumb: "Don’t do an event that takes longer to drive to than it does to run it."
 

JT:  What do you like about doing Permanent Orienteering Courses - exploring? Discovering new places?  Or is it the challenge?

Stephen:  "Permanent Orienteering Courses are a great way to explore new places. Like regular orienteering, you get to see places that you wouldn’t if you were just going for a walk around a country park. When you go for a walk and just wander without a map, you always feel like you’ve missed the best bits. Because you have something to actually look for when doing a Permanent Orienteering Course, it’s more rewarding/distracting, so good for doing with a family. For me, discovering new non-East Anglian countryside is fun and the terrain is often more challenging."

JT:  How many Permanent Orienteering Courses have you done to date?

Stephen: "So far I’ve done 37 from the South Coast up to Humberside, from Gloucestershire across to Kent. In terms of the places where I tend to work away, I’ve done most of the nearby ones. While there are Permanent Orienteering Courses all over the country, some areas, and clubs, have many more than others. In Cambridgeshire we are in one of the most sparse areas along with neighbouring Norfolk and Lincolnshire. By comparison, near Bracknell I once did 5 courses in one evening. To be fair, all 5 only totalled 10.7km and took less than 2 hours including driving between each."

JT:  Do you tick them off in a notebook?  Make notes about individual Permanent Orienteering Courses you have completed?

Stephen: "I keep them on a Google map and, of course, I keep the actual maps themselves with the letters I found on the posts and any notes about missing posts, etc. I try to send feedback to the club who’s responsible if posts are missing or vandalised. So far I can remember all the Permanent Orienteering Courses I’ve done, maybe I’ll make notes when my memory starts to fail or if I do too many."