Agenda for Southdowns Orienteers Annual General Meeting 2019 1300hrs Saturday 1st June 2019

The Agenda for the Southdowns Orienteers Annual General Meeting 1300hrs Saturday 1st June 2019 at Warden Park Academy, Broad Street, Cuckfield, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH17 5DP, has been finalised and can be found here.

Medals at the British Champs in South Yorkshire

Roger Maher M80 does the double and becomes British Champion and JK Champion. Roger is going as strong as ever and combined fast running with careful navigation across the Yorkshire Dales to bring home another victory.

Other notable successes over the weekend were Tommy Heap M14 who gained a bronze medal in the long distance and our two relay teams; Men's Short team (Sam Leitch, Stan Heap, Will Heap) and Junior Ad Hoc team (Tommy Heap, Ben Chapman, Ffion Jones) who gained silver medals.

Congratulations to Lucy and Matt

On Sunday 28th April life-long Southdowns member Lucy Jepson, daughter of Chris Jepson married Matt Carrington at Colgate Church.

Lucy has been Orienteering since birth and introduced Matt to Orienteering when they met. She has been teaching Matt some techniques but we think he may have a way to go to catch Lucy! Congratulations Lucy and Matt. We look forward to seeing you in a forest soon!

What not to do in a major relay

Find yourself at the front! It's a well known saying that you can't win a major relay on the first lap but you can certainly lose it. The first major international relay of the season took place in Sweden over the weekend of 27/28 April with many GB squad runners competing for their Scandinavian clubs. Jonny Crickmore was running first lap for OK Ravinen's first team and twice took a route to the left when just about every other team went straight. Fortunately they proved good choices and he actually gained a few seconds over the main pack on one of them.

Team Availability Spring 2019

Entries for the last of the Spring team events (the SE relays) are needed by Friday May 4th

Details are given below and to facilitate the entry process I have set up a doodle poll at https://doodle.com/poll/42dic2... to allow you to enter your availability. If you have never done a relay before this is the one to start with - a very informal and relaxed event.

Remember also the SO social event being hosted by Ed Forman after the relays (see previous news item)

Participant Satisfaction Survey

Southdowns Orienteers are pleased to announce that over the coming months we will be working with British Orienteering on an event participant satisfaction initiative to develop our understanding of the participant experience at club events.

Summer Trail Runs start April 30th

It's that time of the year when there is enough daylight to enjoy runs around the Sussex countryside on a Tuesday evening without the need for headtorches. This popular series will start with a run from Ditchling Common and will hopefully take in some beautiful bluebell woods. Details of all trail runs will appear in the events section - though sometimes just a few days beforehand. We are always looking for suggestions for new routes (see link below).