Veteran Home Internationals

VHI - 12-13 November 2006   Mynydd Llangatwg and Mynydd Llangynidr, South Wales 

Day 1 Relay   Overall Results       Splits by Course        Points     

         Informal Event:     Results      Splits

Day 2 Individual   Results by Class     Results by Course      Splits by Class    Splits by Course   Winsplits   

                          Points & Final Scores

WELSH VETERANS TEAM 2006

12-13 November in North East (NATO)

Results from the VHI are on the NATO website.

There are also some photos from the relays. 

WELSH VETERANS TEAM 2005 

2-3 October 2004  -  hosted by Three Rock Orienteering Club at Carlingford, Ireland 

Full Results   Nopesport comment

28-29 September 2003  -  hosted by FVO at Dumyat, Stirling NS/809968

This was held on the weekend of 27/28 September in Scotland with the Relay Event on the Saturday at Devilla Forest, Kincardine and the Individuals on Sunday at Dumyatt.
Team Manager Anne Wilson's second e-mail was full of optimism. "For the first time since I have been doing this, everybody who was invited to run for Wales has said 'yes', so this year we have a very strong team, probably the best we've ever fielded". The only small cloud on the horizon was that new BOF guidelines ruled out the selection of Malcolm and Liz Campbell, now no longer resident in Wales.

Then the accidents started. I pulled a hamstring at the White Rose, Frank Ince had forgotten a previous arrangement, Bob Teed was hospitalised with kidney stones, Julie Fletcher was injured and my replacement, Trevor Griffiths, broke a bone in his foot the week before the event. The Team Manager's lot is not a happy one.

Eventually a complete team was press-ganged and from all over the country car loads and planes were speeding their old, but young at heart, cargos of intrepid Welsh Orienteers northwards, including four first-time VHI runners: Anne Darlington, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Malcolm Reynolds and Bridget Stein. Self sacrifices abounded, David May for example, completed a full days teaching in London and still managed to arrive in Stirling before 10p.m. Jill Manning heroically (heroinely?!) ran twice with a very nasty sounding cough.

So the Welsh Team consisted of: James Clemence, Mark Saunders, Nick Dallimore, Vladimir Kuznetsov, David Brodie, Richard Wilson, David May, Brian Hughes, Trefor Williams, Malcolm Reynolds, Alice Bedwell, Margaret Reynolds, Bridget Stein, Anne Darlington, Helena Burrows, Jill Manning, Margaret Oliver, Hilary Davies, Judith Powell, Jennifer Crooks

All four teams, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, were booked into Stirling Youth Hostel. What a difference from my first YHA experience 40 years ago, when the toilets were earth closets outside, getting there by car was outlawed, daily duties were compulsory and accommodation was in two large single-sex dormitories. Now we were met with an attractive lobby offering internet access and a hot drinks machine. The large well equipped kitchen had a huge fridge, non-stop supply of hot water and abutted a more than functional dining room. The interior of the old building had been gutted and replaced by gleaming aluminium stairways leading to the dorms. These too were a revelation, small rooms with 5 or 6 bunks but each had its own toilet, shower and washbasin and everyone gained admission with an individual card key. 

Anne had cunningly arranged it so that her car (in which I was a passenger) arrived just before the English with their complex requirements. This gave us plenty of time to have a look around Stirling in the daylight. This proved to be a very interesting old town with castle in a spectacular location high on a steep cliff with uninterrupted views of the plain below, on part of which the Battle of Bannockburn was fought. From here there were excellent views to the Trossachs, Ben Ledi and Ben Venue, Ben More, etc. In the other direction was Dumyatt, the hillside which would host the Individual event. Houses in the narrow streets and alleyways were liberally decked with signs explaining their history and importance. The town had a cunning one way system, with no signs directing motorists to the M9 (only a mile away), an effective way of discouraging tourists from leaving, but a bit annoying when you are trying to find your way to an O event! Still being the tourist season there was no lack of choice for a meal that night. We chose a good Italian restaurant, which we shared with some of the English contingent. Arthur Boyt (who apparently has a limitless appetite) came over and was disappointed that everyone had left bare plates!

For those not in the know, the VHI is an annual event between England, Wales Scotland and Ireland. Interestingly the Irish team is picked from orienteers in both Eire and Northern Ireland. It comprises the age groups 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60, with two men and two women being selected in each category. There is a Relay and an Individual event. England nearly always win by a huge margin but are occasionally pushed closely by the Scots. Realistically Wales aims to challenge the Scots strongly and to beat the Irish. To add a little spice, there is a separate trophy, "The Stonewall" competed for between the two smallest nations, Ireland and Wales.

The relays were held in Devilla Forest, down the Forth from Stirling, near Kincardine Bridge. The Wilsons brought the POW tent, which made a good base, particularly during the 40 minutes of rain in Devilla. It was good to see Malcolm and Liz Campbell cheering us on and catching up with the news in the Welsh tent. 

The relay rules are complex. Each nation enters 5 teams of 4 (so everyone gets a run). Each team must include two men and two women, the combined ages (counting 45s as 40 and 55s as 50) must not exceed 190 and one runner must run 'long', one 'medium' and two 'short' and these legs may be taken in any order. Hence there is considerable scope for tactics in the team selection.

The terrain was technical undulating forest with subtle contour features and physical with tussocks, heather and brashings underfoot. As someone in the Welsh team said "You can make the map fit just about anywhere." Good relay runs included those by David May, Judith Powell, Alice Bedwell and Mark Saunders. A couple of squad members got into trouble within sight of the nations's tents. The PA system reported "Here comes a Welsh athlete running strongly. It is Brian Hughes, but he seems to be coming into the finish from the wrong direction". In fact Brian was relocating off the start kite! We were pleased when a Celtic fringe team (Scotland) finished first, but the English packed well taking the next four places. Two of our teams did respectably, finishing 7th and 8th respectively and in sight of each other on the run-in. Teams were made up of:

7th - J.Clemence, D.May, J.Powell, M.Reynolds
8th - R.Wilson, D.Brodie, J.Manning, 
A. Bedwell

When the points were counted we were well ahead of the Irish, but perhaps not as close to the Scots as we had hoped. Would Wales do better in the Individuals?

In traditional style that evening all teams met for an informal formal dinner with 3 courses at the Sword Hotel in Stirling. Speeches were pleasingly short and to the point, allowing people to retire to the bar, participate in the Ceilidh (barn dancing) or retreat to the hostel for an early night. Anne's quote of the weekend came from Clem (resident at the bar), "I'm a city boy - I don't do barn dancing".

The next day dawned misty and when we arrived at assembly/car parking in the grounds of Stirling University, the cloud was clipping the top of the Wallace monument, causing some concern to spectacle wearers in the squad. Fortunately this affected only the very earliest starters and by about 10:30 the mist had been burned away.

The terrain at Dumyatt was open moorland, some marshes and tussocks, small crags, but mainly fairly fast-runnable and only of medium technical difficulty. All courses finished through a section of extremely steep wooded hillside littered with crags, broken fences, walls and small paths. As is often the case with inkjet or laser printed maps those with less than perfect eyesight found it difficult to read the paths when they passed next to or through dark-green, or adjacent to crags.

David May excelled (despite the fact that his wife had packed the wrong shoes for him) on M55 and was our only winner. Congratulations also to Alice Bedwell and Judith Powell who were second (of eight) on W40 and W60 respectively. Other 'top-half' performances were recorded by Margaret Oliver (third W55), David Brodie (fourth M50) and Brian Hughes (fourth M55).

Wales were pleased to challenge the Scots more effectively on the second day and we widened the gap over the Irish to retain the "Stonewall trophy".

Results

*** FULL RESULTS ***

There was a tremendous rapport amongst the Welsh Team and everyone enjoyed at least one of their runs. Again I was impressed by those who hardly orienteer during the year, yet respond to the call to ensure that Wales has a complete team. Anne Wilson organised us without fussing and kept cool even when team members lost or forgot their start times (which Anne had carefully written out for each individual). Only in the car on the return journey did I see her steely side; between 7 and 7:15 speaking was banned in the Wilson vehicle, Anne was not going to miss The Archers! At the Team Managers' meeting with Alex Ross of BOF, Anne managed to get the eligibility rules changed so next year Malcolm and Liz Campbell will be available to strengthen the squad. Perhaps we will match the Scots then?

Finally I am sure my thanks to Anne for all the hard work and worry that goes into giving the team such an enjoyable and memorable experience will be shared by all the Welsh team.

Brian Hughes (HOC)

WELSH VETERANS TEAM 2003 

28-29 September 2002

Individual : Mynydd Llangatwg, Crickhowell, South Wales (SWOC)

Relay       : Merthyr Mawr, Bridgend, South Wales (SBOC)

VHI 2002 REPORT 

Anne Wilson, Team Manager 

The VHI this year was held in South Wales on 28th/29th September, in conjunction with the SWOC National Event on Mynydd Llangatwg and the SBOC Gallopen on Merthyr Mawr. Jill Manning had arranged accommodation for each of the 4 teams in bunkhouses around Brecon and Libanus, and on the Saturday evening we all met up for a meal and prizegiving in Brecon, along with some of the hardworking officials from the National Event. The VHI competitors had early starts on Mynydd Llangatwg, ahead of the main competition, and were kind enough to trample down the bracken around some of the controls for the rest of us. Star performance for Wales came from David Brodie of DVO, who seems to have only just discovered his eligibility to run for Wales, (he would also have been eligible to run for Scotland or England, so it's lucky that we snapped him up first!) David won both the M50 VHI class and the National Event. Jill Manning and Judith Powell tuned in their usual consistent performances, despite being heavily involved in the event organisation, finishing 1st in W50 and 2nd in W60 respectively, and Fran Hoare (W40) and David May (M55) also had good runs, both coming 3rd in the VHI competition, though David spent the rest of the day hobbling round on 2 sticks and had to miss the relays. Helena Burrows was unfortunately disqualified after one of her punches didn't register, and would otherwise have finished in 3rd place in W50, and Richard Wilson was also unlucky to miss out on 2nd place in M45 by a matter of seconds. 

In the RELAYS, each country has 5 teams, with the best 3 counting. There are 4 legs, 1 long, 1 medium and 2 short, run in varying orders for each team. Merthyr Mawr presented some tricky courses, and there was a wide spread of times on all the courses. Highlight of the day for Wales was seeing Clem come in first on the first leg, having run the longest course (and beaten Carol McNeill who was running the Short course) and for a while Wales was top of the leader board. Unfortunately this didn't last, but our leading three teams did well to finish only 2 points behind Scotland.  

8-9 September 2001

Put on by MDOC on behalf of England using the Macclesfield Forest National Event for the Individual competition and a special race at Buxton Country Park (Grin Low) for the Relay. The teams stayed at Gradbach Mill Youth Hostel for the weekend and were well pleased with the hospitality provided.
Ireland were unable to send a team  as there remained the possibility of cancellation right up to the last minute, which would have forfeited their transport costs.

Macclesfield Forest is plagued with brambles and other vegetation. The VHI runners ran before the rest of the National Event competitors, and began the making of the tracks which were a great help to later runners. At least it was fair that they all suffered the same conditions.

On the basis of 6 points for 1st place, 5 points for 2nd etc. the total points are:

England 90    Scotland 72    Wales 48

Relay Race Results:

England 24    Scotland 13    Wales 8

Overall Result