Successes
The success of the weekend must be our club secretary Caroline Barcham having a go at urban orienteering – and to enjoy it too! On a very pleasant autumn day on a well-planned course in the complex Castlefields area of Manchester, she was leading woman on the Newcomers course and 5th overall behind some experienced competitors, and might even have gone one better if she’d not been carrying her handbag (with race number attached) throughout!
This was all part of MDOC’s European City Tour Race. On other courses, Paul Turner had SELOC’s best result in 16th place on the MSV course though that may not be enough to improve his standing in the NW Urban League. Also good to see Mark Sammon out at an urban race again, finishing 27th in a competitive field on his MV course. Steve Round and John Nuttall were battling it out on MUV, with Steve unusually coming out ahead in 23rd place to John’s 28th after John went astray on a couple of controls. Just to put that in context, Steve and John took 53 minutes and 59 minutes while GB team member Chris Smithard did the same course non-competitively, as training, in 23 minutes.
Prior to all that, MDOC staged a warm-up event on Saturday as part of the Euro weekend with two sprint races on a modern housing development at Offerton, Stockport. In the MSV class, Paul Turner once more placed 16th overall after a couple of expensive errors in his second race while Kev Latham was 25th following a consistent couple of runs. Steve and John were both running MUV again, with John’s 22nd place taking the honours this time, one place but nearly 3 minutes clear of Steve in 23rd.
In a busy week for MDOC, their Street League event at Chorlton on Thursday night attracted a very healthy 107 entries with the benefit of some European competitors who’d arrived early for the weekend events and needed their fix. On raw, gross, scores, Matt Driver had an excellent run to take 6th place, with Paul Turner 13th, Albert Sunter and Jordan 46th. That changed once the handicapper had done his work, with Paul moving up to 5th, Matt staying 6th and Albert eased back into 49th.
Upcoming Events
This coming week sees the second event of SROC’s 2018/19 Street League in Lytham St. Anne’s on Wednesday, so nice and flat. Saturday morning has a number of low-key events just within range from SROC (Williamson Park, Lancaster again), DVO and POTOC (looks like a park/urban mix in Stone). Sunday 11 November has a Cumbrian Galoppen league event from LOC on the superb technical terrain of Holme Fell, near Coniston – well worth travelling to if you can make it. Alternatively there’s a regional event at Treeton, just off the M1 near Sheffield if you prefer woodland to the open fell.
The weekend of 17/18 November we have the British Schools Championships at Witton Park, Blackburn. Stephen Richards is planning this and could do with help on the Sunday, so please get in touch with Steve Round if you are able to provide some. All those school children take a bit of looking after!
Club League is now up and running – scores after 3 events were in last week’s news. 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.