2-3 December Sheffield (SYO)

Results (xls)

October 1-2 2005 Northern Ireland

Congratulations to the following who were selected as members of this year's Wales Senior Team for the Senior Home International being held in Northern Ireland. 

The individual race is being held on Magilligan Strand: a sand dune area as used for the British Championships in 2002. The format of the race is slightly different this year: the course will be four loops coming back to a common control; four competitors, one from each country, will start at the same time but going out a different loop. The relay is at Woodburn. 

This year the format is the same as last year with 3 M/W20s and 6 Seniors but no separate M/W35. 

The Trossachs and Barr Wood, Stirling 3rd/4th April 2004

Results

Dolgellau, 18/19th October 2003

The venue for the Individual race was Tan y Gader (the western part of Tir Stent plus a western extension), the Relays were on Gwanas.

Cerys Manning (W18) was the star of the show - winning W20 by over 7 minutes against some very good (and older) opposition, then running in the winning women's relay team along with Helen Palmer and Heather Burrows. The women also won the relay competition overall with the second team coming in 4th - thanks mainly to Liz Campbell coming in first on the first leg but ably aided and abetted by Emma and me.

The M20s also did well - Rhys Findlay-Robinson coming 3rd on M20 and Rhodri Buffett (M16) surviving his longest and toughest course ever and coming in with a respectable time.

It was a great weekend - thanks to Mid Wales and Eryri for two good technical and (very) physical days orienteering, great weather and luxury accommodation!

Alice Bedwell (BOK)  Welsh Team Manager

Welsh Team:

M20 Rhodri Buffett      Rhys Findlay-Robinson   Peter Hodges
M21 Richard Barrett    Tim Higginbottom         Rhys Manning    Rob Palmer     Ifor Powell
W20 Tessa Harrison     Cerys Manning             Emma Seward
W21 Sarah Bayliss        Alice Bedwell             Heather Burrows  Liz Campbell  Ruth Hambleton   Helen Palmer

Special congratulations are given to Cerys Manning who as a first year W18 competed in the W20 Age class and won by 8 minutes 29 seconds.

Overall Results

Full Results and Report  

UNDER THE CHAIR Confessions of an SHI Planner

This year's Senior Home International near Dolgellau gave me a long-awaited opportunity to get a small return on all the work that I'd invested in the JK98 day 2 long courses, cancelled because of overnight snow. The closed SHI individual event meant that only elite courses were needed - the ideal opportunity to use the high western area, now re-christened "Tan y Gader".

The terrain had changed little in five years, except that the National Trust had been rebuilding ruined walls. Fortunately they had left a crucial 400m stretch as yet unrepaired; I wouldn't have enjoyed the 300m of ascent carrying ladder stiles up from the nearest vehicle access.

In contrast, orienteering has changed hugely. Electronic punching had been in its infancy when Anne and I planned on Tir Stent for JK98 - probably the last JK to use conventional punching. Now e-punching is the norm for any but small events, and certainly de rigeur for such prestigious fixtures as the SHI. Would my computing skills be up to the job?

In March I was carefully steered by Judith Powell through my first SportIdent event - a POW local, with one SI course of 10 controls. A piece of cake!

Come October, memories of that event were getting a little hazy, but by the Monday pre-SHI, I had accumulated all the kit (or so I thought) and sat down to program the control units.

You don't need to know what a USB-Serial converter is, but it's important, and it seemed to be somewhere else. Several panic phone calls later, one was on its way from Peter Seward by Special Delivery, and it arrived on Wednesday, the day before the controls were to be put out. Once more I sat down at the computer with my sheaf of instructions, and programmed the SI units so that they would "wake up" early enough on Saturday morning to allow controller Mark Saunders and myself to check they were all working, before the first elite runners started.

Next day, assistant planner Dave Ormerod and I spent a delightful few hours in autumn sunshine, putting out the controls and enjoying a superb panorama of Snowdonia mountains. And on Friday, Mark had an equally pleasant time checking that they were all in their correct positions.

On Friday night, we met Judith to do the final computer preparations for the Big Day, and almost as an afterthought, I asked her to check one of the SI units I'd programmed as a spare. Its clock had stopped. I gulped. She tried another. Stopped. And another. I felt sick. I'd programmed them, then switched them all off! And in 12 hours, Britain's best would be walking up to the start…

To my amazement and relief, neither Anne, nor Dave, nor Mark, nor club member Robert Griffiths, turned a hair when told of the situation (Should I be worried about this? Do I have a reputation for leaving a trail of havoc wherever I go?) and all volunteered to assemble below Cader at first light for "Operation SHI Rescue". I'm indebted to all of them, and to Judith, for saving the event.

By 10am, all the units had been reprogrammed and/or swapped, the sun was shining, and the stage was set (again). By 3pm, the scores were known, the trophy presented, and huge sighs of relief were being breathed (quietly) all round the assembly field.

There is a moral to this tale, but as morals are very personal, I'll leave you to write your own!

Richard Wilson (POW)

The 2002 Senior Home International was held in conjunction with the Caddihoe Chase on  Penhale Sands, Cornwall.
The Individual race was held on Saturday September 14th and the Relays on the Sunday 15th, both races on the same area.

The format was the same as before with 3 M/W20s and 6 Seniors but no separate M/W35. Also the relay now separates men and women but mixes seniors and 20s.

The Individual day was bright and sunny, but to some extent this was the undoing of several of the Welsh team because the heat and the length of the courses left them shattered. The Relay was held early in the morning when it was quite cool. The laps were completed in much shorter times than anticipated (and planned for) with the consequence that one or two runners were caught out and the incoming runners had to wait to hand over the baton!

M20

1        England           75:10

6        Rhys Manning          103:00

7        Jeff Colbert          121:40

8        Pete Hodges          132:21

M21

1        England           72:20

9        Andy Middleditch          83:45

11     Richard Barrett          84:35

12     Robert Palmer          90:06

13     James Clemence          90:16

14     Ifor Powell          91:13

15     Chris Poole          99:15

W20

1        Scotland           75:42

5        Tessa Harrison          89:21

6        Cerys Manning          93:12

W21

1        England           71:40

11     Ruth Hambleton          96.52

13     Sarah Bayliss          106.26

14     Margaret Reynolds          146.27

Men's Relay

1        England          81:43

6        Wales (W1)          97:05

Andrew Middleditch, Richard Barrett, Rhys Manning

7        Wales (W2)           112:12

Rob Palmer, James Clemence, Jeff Colbert

Women's Relay

1        England           90:15

np     Wales (W3)   Ruth Hambleton, Sarah Bayliss, Tessa Harrison

 

DRUGS - ARE YOU LEGAL?

If anybody is wondering whether the medication they are taking is or is not a permitted substance in the context of drug abuse in sport, they can contact the WOA Hon. Secretary to find out. She holds a copy of the "Competitors' and Officials' Guide to Drugs and Sport" (June 1998), published by the UK Sports Council Ethics and Anti-Doping Directorate.

This comprehensive guide outlines permitted medications in sport (according to the International Olympic Committee List of Prohibited Substances and Methods). The permitted medications are listed in two ways - 

1. an alphabetical list of permitted brand names and constituents,  

2. brand name listed by therapeutic class. 

This will assist athletes to identify a specific product for a particular type of illness that is permitted. This guide also includes information about doping in sport, the banned substances and methods, as well as information about the UK's anti-doping programme.