News
Archive of News and Information stored under the News category.
Orienteering Holiday Season
SO take a break from mainstream events over August and are back with the Autumn series in September. We do still carry on with our Tuesday evening runs which are popular and can be seen on the events page. During the Summer many club members travel further afield to take part in multi-day events such as:
Swiss Orienteering Week - Gstaad
Junior Squad takes 2nd Place at National Finals
The Southdowns Junior Squad travelled to Sandringham today to compete in the Yvette Baker Trophy Final. It was a great result for our 28 competitors who picked up the trophy for second place. Results and photos are now in. More photos here.
Ralph Phillips appointed as new Club Chair
Great news - Ralph Phillips has agreed to stand as Club Chair and was voted in at the committee meeting on Friday. Ralph can generally be found in the SI tent at events or can be contacted by email. Club committee meetings take place every month, so if you've got something that needs discussing, please contact Ralph.
New club secretary and social secretary appointed at AGM
Welcome to our new club secretary, Liam Marsh and social secretary, Jane Lambert. They were appointed at the AGM on 1st June and will join the large team who help to keep our club active and vibrant. Please contact them via the contact page if you have any good ideas.
Annual Prize Giving
This year the senior performance shields went to Ali High and Roger Maher for their performance in major competitions over the last 12 months. The girls performance certificates and vouchers were awarded to Scarlet Heap in 1st, Ffion Jones in 2nd and Heather High in 3rd. The boys performance certificates and vouchers went to Tommy Heap in 1st, Stan Heap in 2nd and Ben Chapman in 3rd.
#tweeters wanted to help publicise our club
Are you a regular tweeter who comes along to many of our events? We need your help to raise our profile. We have a small team of people who do a great job of publicising events through the website and social media, but we think we could do better and need some extra help with our twitter feed. Please contact Anna Chapman if you can help us.
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.
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).
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.
Lost Property
A couple of items of lost property have found their way to the club captain.
1) A d2b thermal hat found after the Southwick Hill event
2) A size 12 SO fleece left after the CSC event in the Ashdown Forest
I'll bring them to Rivers wood, or contact me via contacts page
Spot the Gruffalo in the deep dark wood at Parham!
It's the Gruffalo's 20th birthday on Saturday and he's going to be celebrating in the deep dark woods at Parham. Horsham District Council's Year of Culture Gruffalo will be trying out some Orienteering this weekend. See if you can snap a photo of him lurking around the woods on the yellow course and upload your sighting to www.globalgruffalo.co.uk!
SO progress to CompassSport Final
With the final so close to home this year both us and SLOW were clearly aiming for a win at the qualifying heat held in the Ashdown Forest today. Fortunately our large team, breadth of strength and good performances on the day saw us through. Some more analysis will follow later but for now: Oct 20th - SAVE THE DATE
SO Juniors win YBT SE Heat
Thirty of our junior members took part in the south east heat of the Yvette Baker Trophy competition. They competed on yellow, orange, light green and green courses. They won by 8 points over closest rivals Guildford Orienteers.
England Selections
Congratulations to Scarlet Heap W16,Tommy Heap M14 and Jonny Crickmore M21 on their recent selection to represent England at the Interland competition being held in France in March. A huge well done!