SELOC Successes

Our entire reporting team is now back in action after a week away, with plenty to write about. Mark Seddon got the club’s Saturday Spring series got underway, planning and organising a very well-attended event at Lever Park on the afternoon of 2 February followed by a NW Night League event on the same site that evening. Results are on the website so won’t repeat at length but best daylight run came from Steve Wilson, winning the Light Green course. Then on a beautiful cold, clear night it was Joe Mercer quite literally carrying the torch into 2^nd place on the Blue course.

The following week saw a very full programme of events all within easy range. First up was Wednesday night’s SROC Street League event at Clayton-le-Woods, near Chorley, where we had so many SELOC members that it’s not feasible to mention them all. Matt Driver had another storming run to take 1^st place, over 200 points clear in the 75 minute class so that he is now topping the league on gross scores (even if the age adjusted handicapping cruelly drops him to 13^th place). Good runs too from Mark Seddon, Paul Turner and Steve Wilson (3/4/5^th on the night). In the 60 minute class our best result was from Josie Greenhalgh running with Darren Baker of DEE to finish 2^nd.

In the overall SROC league, other highlights in addition to Matt’s top spot include Josie and Darren in 4^th on gross scores, Steve Wilson 6^th, Paul Turner 7^th and Mark Seddon 8^th – that’s half of the top 10. On age-adjusted scored, Paul Turner has the best SELOC place in 4^th but an interesting contest is developing for the pairs title with Josie and Darren in 5^th spot then Ed and Anne just 6 points behind.

On to the weekend, we had the second of the Saturday series with a welcome return to Haigh Hall on a new map by Stephen Richards to reflect the building work that’s gone on plus – most noticeably – the clearance of all the rhododendrons so that it is now very open and runnable. Full results are already up on the website so not repeated here to save space, and well done the organising team.

After being out all day at Haigh on Saturday, Stephen then decided to put his dodgy knees through a bit more so headed off to MDOC’s NW Night League event at Brereton Heath. They rewarded him with 2^nd place on the Green course, ahead of our only other competitor, Kev Latham in 7^th.

MDOC followed this with a day event in the heart of our area at Philips Park, Prestwich, so saw another good turnout from SELOC members. Best result on the Brown course came from Matt Driver in 7^th, with Cath Wilson in 9^th. Steve Wilson ran the Blue course, finishing 11^th just ahead of Michael Hood in 12^th, with Kev Latham 22^nd. Steve Round produced our best result on Green in 28^thafter John Nuttall hit expensive problems at controls 2 and 5. But best placing of the day went to Anna Wilson, 1^st on the Yellow course though brother Daniel would have been in 2^nd if he’d not had a mispunch.

Upcoming Events

The usual mix of midweek events sees an MDOC Street League at High Lane, south of Stockport, on Tuesday night. Terrain aficionados might fancy a trip up to Graythwaite for a night event at Colonel’s Drive on Wednesday prior to Saturday’s Northern Night Champs staged by AIRE on Ilkley Moor. The following week has a double dose for Street Leaguers with DEE’s event at what could be the interesting venue of Port Sunlight moved to Tuesday 19^th, followed by a very convenient SROC event at Chorley the following night. That SROC event is also the next in our SELOC club league – see the SELOC website if you need more information on how the Club League will work this year. The following Sunday, 24 February, there’s an EPOC event at Royd’s Hall woodlands, near Barnsley.

Major events with entry deadlines coming up include the British Night Champs (23 February) on very technical terrain in Aberdeenshire on 18 February while last date for the Northern Champs (10 March at the excellent Wharncliffe Woods, Sheffield) is 17 February. Next entry deadline for Easter’s JK is 24 February while May’s British Champs in Yorkshire has a price rise on 10 March.