Weekly Updates
SELOC SNIPPETS
SELOC Successes – 22 Oct 18
Contours seem to have been the main features at local events last Saturday morning. Kev Latham crossed plenty of them at MDOC’s Werneth Low event, near Hyde before finishing in 14th place on the Long Light Green course while Alan Heron had slightly fewer to deal with before completing his Light Green course in 25th. The Middleton family sampled theirs at Williamson Park in Lancaster. Jason and Janet both ran Light Green, finishing 8th and 15th respectively. Theo was on the Orange course and placed 11th, comfortably achieving the course standard.
Sunday had the opposite, as the only event within range was HALO’s Gainsborough urban race on the flatlands of Lincolnshire. Paul Turner was there as ever, finishing 4th in Men’s SuperVets class and probably opening a few more points gap on his chasers in the Yorkshire Urban League (HALO are a Yorkshire club, in case you’re wondering) to protect his 4th place in the League.
As mentioned previously, the fixture list was a bit thin because many clubs were at the finals of the CompassSport Cup. That was won by South Yorkshire Orienteers while the Trophy, for smaller clubs, was taken home by Edinburgh-based Interlopers. Of those who qualified at the Clowbridge event that we put on, SROC were 3rd in the Trophy whilst LOC 6th in the Cup.
Upcoming Events
Wednesday 24 October
Addicts will already know this is the start of the SROC Street League, which marks the official start of winter for many. First event is in Lancaster and is sure to be an interesting run with plenty of socialising afterwards in the pub.
27 & 28 October
Urban fans have a choice between a Yorkshire League event in York and an East Midlands League in Nottingham. Tough call for Paul Turner, who is doing well in both! Not much within easy range for forest orienteers but if anyone could make it to Moray in northern Scotland then the superb forested dunes of Roseisle Forest are on offer.
Monday 29 October
As recently notified, SELOC AGM is on 29th October at Edgworth, just to the north of Bolton so put it in your diary with a Street-O event put on by Matt Driver as a warm-up beforehand. The pies are on order!
Thursday 1 November sees the start of MDOC’s winter Street League season in Chorlton. That’s just before their big Euro City Tour weekend on 3 & 4 November in Stockport and central Manchester. Entries for that close 27 October, i.e. next Sunday night. A good number of SELOC entries already, but get your skates on to enter via Fabian4 if you don’t want to take a chance with entering on the day.
Club League is now up and running, though latest tables still to be published. Next event in this series of varied events is being put on by SELOC members as part of SROC Street League in Helmshore on Wednesday 21 November. Book the date and come give this format a go with an event on our doorsteps.
SELOC Successes – 15 Oct 18
A quiet weekend, for a change, with just a couple of local Saturday morning events to entertain us – though that may have been just as well given the weather.
PFO’s Towneley Park event attracted the most SELOC members with Steve Wilson (5th), Cath Wilson (7th) and Kev Latham (12th) all running what appears to have been a long but technically easy Blue course. Jo Treasure ran the Orange course and was having an excellent run, in the lead for the first 5 controls. But something went wrong at control 6 and she finished in 3rd place. Meanwhile, on Yellow, Anna Wilson also achieved an excellent 3rd place while Daniel, running with a friend, was in 5th place.
Alan Heron was our only representative at MDOC’s Park+Urban race in Macclesfield. He ran Light Green course and finished in 16th place. Paul Turner headed across to the Formby coast for a taste of the sand dunes he missed the previous weekend to run the Green course, where he was placed 17th.
SELOC Successes – 11th Oct 18
The success of the weekend in my eyes wasn’t any individual’s run but was achieved by the large number of SELOC members who turned out in force to put on our major event in Liverpool, in conjunction with our neighbours from DEE. Thanks to everyone who gave their time, effort and skills to make that happen, especially to Caroline as organiser. There were some problems on the day with gates we’d be promised would be open but weren’t, and with others that were open when we’d been assured they wouldn’t be! But that’s one of the hazards of urban races which doesn’t normally arise in forests – though having just read about problems at the European Youth Champs on the BOF website this weekend, maybe I should revise that view. As usual, SELOC coped with it as best we could, well done all and good to see a few old friends that we’ve missed over recent months.
Out in the beautiful forest and complex dunes of Formby on a gorgeous sunny Saturday we had 14 competitors – too many to list every one of them so I’ll just pick a few highlights. Best placings were Joe Mercer, 2nd on the Black course and top Brit, plus Kath Etherden also 2nd and leading woman on Very Short Green course. Cath Wilson was also top woman but this time on Blue course, 19th overall, with Robert Seddon not very far at all behind her in 24th place and taking a few experienced scalps in the process. Matt Driver just missed a top ten place on Black, and his splits suggest it took him a while to get into the map so might have climbed a bit further if the course had been longer than 11k.
Sunday’s race saw an even stronger turnout of our members fitting in a run alongside their long day of helping. Results won’t be finalised until the controversies mentioned above have been sorted, but provisional results suggested excellent placings for Matt Driver, Rachel Mercer, Cath Wilson (again), Robert Seddon (again), Lucy Seddon and Theo Middleton.
SELOC Successes – 1st Oct 18
Lots of activity in what initially looked like a quiet weekend, though the superb weather on Saturday no doubt helped. PFO’s event at Alkincoats Park in Colne benefited, with Jo Treasure gaining 8th place on the Light Green course and John Nuttall 11th on a Technical “window” course, i.e. one with most of the map blanked out apart from a small window around each control – good compass work required. Cath Wilson appears to have had a field day with 2nd on White and 6th on Yellow, but I’d imagine she was doing some coaching rather than pot hunting! Meanwhile, Alan Heron was securing 16th position on the Light Green at MDOC’s Park+Urban event in Macclesfield.
Sunday saw John Nuttall out again, over near Harrogate for CLARO’s regional event where he secured 35th place on the Green course – looks like a slow start hampered him but his rock climbing skills came into play on the steep slopes later in the course. Steve Round was 42nd on the same course after a slow late section demonstrated his affinity for flat terrain.
Elsewhere, our mountain marathoners were taking full advantage of the conditions at the ROC event in the northern Lakes. On the Long Score course, Mark Seddon had our best result as top Male SuperVeteran while Kev Latham, running with Sian Calow of DEE, was 3rd in Mixed SuperVets, only 5 points behind the winners. There’s also a Steve Wilson in 3rd place on the Short Score course, but hard to tell if it our man or not as the results don’t show clubs and there is another competitor of that name.
SELOC Successes – 24th Sept 18
A couple of big events put on by South Ribble OC occupied the weekend for those of our members out competing. Saturday saw the North West Sprint Championships at Lancaster University, with two races and results decided on aggregate time.
Good to see the Middleton family there, out again for the first time in a while. Theo took the opportunity to get back into practice prior to the British Schools Champs coming up in Blackburn in November, with a good 6th place in Young Junior Men class. Dad Jason ran the Veteran Men class, placing 21st, while Janet went a fraction higher at 18th in Veteran Women.
Shock of the day was Paul Turner finishing much further down the results than usual, at 21st in Men’s Super Veteran class. Looks as though a mistake early in the second race cost him very dearly, as it often will in sprint racing. Matt Driver avoided major problems to finish 10th in the Men’s Open class while Steve Round was 18th Men’s Ultra Veteran.
Sunday’s race was a full length urban one in Lancaster city centre, but only two SELOC members were able to get there on a beautiful sunny day. Paul Turner, having fitted in a major road relay race on the Saturday afternoon, avoided major errors this time finishing as 8th M60, 13th in the MSV class. Steve Round was 13th M65, 25th MUV.
SELOC Successes – 18th Sept 18
SELOC members were at events far and wide this weekend, with the Welsh Champs weekend on the superb technical forested sand dune terrain of Newborough, on Anglesey, attracting four of us. Pride of place must go to Robert Seddon running Light Green on both days to earn 9th place in Saturday’s middle distance race, then an excellent 5th in Sunday’s classic race. He was just 21/2 minutes behind the winner after being in the lead at the 3rd control, collecting a few fastest splits along the way.
Lucy Seddon ran the same course as Robert each day, moving up from 23rd on Saturday to 21st in a far bigger field on Sunday. Dad Mark had to run the Blue course on Saturday as the longest on offer, taking 17th place and a few scalps in a crowded field of 109, but was surprisingly lower given his distance strengths – 21st on Sunday’s longer (9.4km/375m climb) Brown course – when a few of his scalps turned the tables. Ed Mellor ran Blue course both days, zooming from 92nd= on Saturday to 56th on Sunday. There look to have been a few snags for the organisers on Sunday as a number of experienced orienteers all mis-punched at the same controls – perhaps one of our attendees can tell us more.
Nearer home, Alan Heron and Jo Treasure both made it to MDOC’s Park and Urban event at Sale Water Park on Saturday. Both ran the Light Green, coming in close together at 20th and 21st respectively. Furthest travelled were Matt Driver and Steve Round at the London City Race, held this year near the Tower of London and the South Bank. Matt comfortably fitted in a stag weekend, Friday night’s warm-up race at Rotherhithe and Saturday’s European League race, culminating in a superb 20th place in a high class international field of 80 running the Elite Men’s class. Steve managed a degree of symmetry on the Men’s Ultra Vets course, where 70th place put more than 20 runners below him in the results – first time that has happened in a while!
SELOC Successes – 11th September 2018
The season is picking up again after the summer break, so some good events within range on both days of the weekend. A bit surprising not to see more members at a high quality event on top technical terrain on Saturday, less than 45 minutes from most of us, but looks like a few were saving themselves for bigger efforts on Sunday.
The Seddon family were our only competitors at PFO’s national event at Hurstwood, though other members were helping out with the organisation since PFO found running this alongside the Senior Home International competition a bit of a stretch on manpower. Mark confined himself to the Blue course, finishing 4th, but Robert wasn’t far behind him at all in 8th place and beating a few experienced names in the process. Meanwhile Lucy ran Light Green where she was placed 11th.
Mark then demonstrated his stamina by running the Long class at the Lake District Mountain Trial with his running club, Horwich RMI, on Sunday, with 26.5km and 2150m of climb. He finished 42nd, though best run of the day was Matt Driver in 17th place on the same course for his Holcombe Harriers club. Kev Latham was SELOC’s only official representative, placing 53rd on the Short course which was still 16.3km/1250m climb. Josie Greenhalgh was there too for Lostock AC on the Medium course, finishing in 22nd place, but can’t spot any of our other fell runners.
Back with pure orienteering events, there are no results published as yet for the relay race that PFO put on as the second stage of the Home Internationals so can’t see if any SELOC members made it. If you were there, let us know what it was like! Paul Turner and Steve Round got to Hanley for POTOC’s UK Urban League race, with Paul placing 6th in Men’s Super-Veteran class and Steve 28th on Men’s Ultra Veterans. Official League tables haven’t yet been updated but it looks as though Paul will manage to hang on to his current 2nd place while his main rivals use up their “games in hand”.
Paul also ran at Wrekin O.C.’s urban in event in Whitchurch, Shropshire on Saturday, but again there are no results published at the time of writing.