SELOC Successes
Unsurprisingly, Wednesday’s night street event at Standish organised by Albert Sunter proved by far the biggest draw for SELOC members. Part of the SROC Street League, it was a tough event that yielded good points for Steve Wilson who took top spot in the 75 minute category, with Mark Seddon 3rd, Josie Greenhalgh (running with Darren Baker of DEE) 4th and Paul Turner 5th. A little further back were Catherine Oakes in 11th and Tony Varley 15th, both running with non-orienteering friends. In the 60 minute category it was Ed Mellor and Anne Speakman who took the SELOC honours in 3rd place, and good to see Rhian Driver back at one of these events, running with Matt and taking 13th place while Elsie was safely tucked up in bed. Not far behind in 21st were Amy Turner and Chris Hinchey with Steve Round bringing up the rear in 25th.
With just over half the league completed now and most of the leading competitors having 5 scores, the table is starting to take shape. Josie (and Darren) is SELOC’s leading competitor in 3rd place overall on raw scores, with Paul Turner 5th and Mark Sammon 7th. But once the age handicapper has done his work, Ed and Anne zoom above them to take 3rd spot; Paul moves up to 4th while Josie and Darren slip to 5th place. With 4 events still to go, still plenty of time for all that to change.
Albert got his Street O fix on Tuesday night at DEE’s event near Chester, where he was SELOC’s only competitor and placed 7th in their 75 minute category. At the weekend there wasn’t much on locally but John Nuttall and Steve Round both headed to the very pleasant Beaudesert area, on Cannock Chase, for an extremely popular West Midlands League event staged by Walton Chasers. Both ran the Green course with John coming off best despite a 4 minute blip on the first control to finish 63rd, while Steve suffered a mega-blip and was 20 places further back.
Upcoming Events
MDOC’s Street League gets going again with an event on Tuesday 15th in Sale. Street League fanatics could also head to Horsforth on Wednesday 16th for an AIRE Street League event. Terrain-focused night-owls might prefer an LOC event at Thwaite Head, near Ulverston, that same night as warm-up for LOC’s NW Night League event on Saturday 19th. This is at Dale Park, Grizedale – as used for the final day of last year’s Lakes 5 Day event when, with the notable exception of Stephen Richards, it proved difficult enough for many in daylight. Others might prefer MDOC’s park event that morning at Bruntwood Park, Cheadle, or head across to SYO’s event at Hugset, near Barnsley the following day (Sunday 20th).
The week after has a double dose for Street League fans. This time it is DEE staging the nearest event in Widnes on Tuesday 22nd, then it is SROC’s turn on Wednesday 23rd at Torrisholme, near Morecambe. A bit far, but an easier journey than it used to be with the new bypass road and if you need those league points……
Not much else on locally the following weekend (26/27th) so get your orienteering fix in early with some of the above or head up to Edinburgh for their usually excellent Big Weekend – a night urban race on Friday, a full scale urban event on Saturday to get the UK Urban League started, then the steep climbs of Arthur’s Seat on Sunday by way of a change. Or for even greater variety, there’s the Dark Mountains night mountain marathon in the Eastern Lakes if you’re very quick with an entry.