News

SO Juniors win YBT Heat at Gravetye

Congratulations to our junior team who won today's Yvette Baker Trophy (YBT) heat at Gravetye Manor. Despite the rain and mud there was great team spirit, lots of fun and amazing map reading and running!

We had strong competition from the TVOC team, the final results were: SO 895 points, TVOC 893 points. We had five people score maximum points and lots of excellent runs from our whole squad.

JK and British relay entries

I am now taking expressions of interest for the two big relay championships taking place this Spring. The JK Relay on Stanton Moor, near Matlock, on April 1st and British Relay Championships on April 14th near Whitby.

To express an interest in running in one or both of these please complete this StrawPoll or e-mail the club captain. Since the entry fees for these events are quite steep the club has agreed to subsidise 50% of the cost of each relay.

Spring Club Nights 2024

Spring club nights returned on Tuesday January 2nd. Many thanks to Euan Marsh for once again taking the lead on these. Courses have been risk assessed according to this document.

We will meet as a group at 6:30pm each Tuesday although we hope to make many of the activities available online to attempt at your leisure. Courses will be saved in the Club Night folder on MapRun (UK/Sussex/Club Nights).

Please sign up using the Strawpoll and indicate (when appropriate) whether you would like a map provided (cost £1) or are happy to print off your own.

Brighton City Race 2023 official event video

The Brighton City Race will be back in 2025 as a level B national event. Check out all the excitement in this year’s official event video which is now online. It was shot in 4K, so if you change the settings in YouTube it’s even easier to see who’s who. There are photos here. We had a couple of items of lost property: A grey Decathlon hoodie (size L); and a Decathlon control description holder. Looking forward to the next BCR already. Happy Christmas, Rob.

SO have four new Southern Night Champions

Competing at the Oldhouse Warren SOG earlier in the day proved to be good practice for the Southern Night Championships hosted by the British Army in terrain consisting of army barracks, firing ranges and bracken-infested woodland. Congratulations to James Yule (M20), Neil Crickmore (M60), Ruth Rhodes (W80) and Roger Maher (M80) who were all victorious and came away with a range of trophies.

Autumn Club Nights 2023

Autumn club nights return on Tuesday September 26th. Many thanks to Euan Marsh for once again taking the lead on these.

We will meet as a group at 6:30pm each Tuesday although we hope to make many of the activities available online to attempt at your leisure. Courses will be saved in the Club Night folder on MapRun (UK/Sussex).

Please sign up using the Strawpoll and indicate (when appropriate) whether you would like a map provided (cost £1) or are happy to print off your own.

SO have five new Southern Champions

This year's Southern Championship took place at the November Classic in the New Forest on 5th Nov. This is a popular event for Southdowners and is always well attended.

Emma Chapman W12, Ben Chapman M14, Will Heap M50, Julia Jarvis W55 and Alan Velecky M55 all tackled the long courses over fast but pretty wet terrain and beat off stiff competition to become Southern Champions. They were each awarded a trophy, as well as a coveted Southern Championships Beanie Hat:

In addition the following members made the podium and got a beanie hat.

2nd M21E Nick Jarvis (he was 2nd by 1 second), 3rd W10A Harriet Nichols, 3rd W12A Emily Waters, 3rd M18E Tommy Heap, 3rd W80 Ruth Rhodes

We encourage participants to carry a mobile phone

A learning point from October's coaching conference was how many orienteers were not aware that carrying a mobile phone for use in emergencies is permitted (and has been since at least 2016!).

As a club we definitely encourage participants to carry a phone and also suggest that you might like to do the following:

• Set up the ICE number and emergency details if your phone allows this.
• Add the club mobile number 07526-792817 (on at every event and located with the SI team at download)

Competitors are not permitted to use mobile phones to assist with navigation. They are permitted to be used to call for assistance in the event of an emergency.

​Peter Palmer Junior Team Relays 2023

One of the premier junior relay events of 2023 took place at Stowe Park, Buckinghamshire, in the early hours of Sunday 10 September. SO had a full team (hooray!) with a mix of very experienced and novice relay runners.

The SO team arrived in small groups at the event base in the early evening of the day before. Part of the tradition of the event is that all teams prepare for the early morning start by taking over a large hall and sleeping on the floor. Some of the other club teams participated in a football tournament, though our SO team (quite sensibly) preferred to minimise the chance of injury and save their energies for the running during the main event.

SO Juniors win Bronze at the British Mixed Sprint Relays

SO fielded eleven teams at the British Mixed Sprint Relays on 17th Sept 23 at Brunel University. We had some very good results including one of our junior teams on the podium.

Emma, Kai and Emily raced around the University at top speed and placed 3rd in the 12- competition. Brilliant result against some very competitive teams.

Other notable performances were the Super Vet 55+ teams of Peter, Sue and Neil who came 4th and Steve, Jane and Ian who came 6th.

See provisional results here. Further SO photos can be found by reading on...

Can you help the club with Publicity?

Call-out for someone, or a couple of people to help our team publicise our SO events and come up with some new ideas on reaching out to people.

Have you got a small amount of time on a regular basis to look forward at our event plan and push messages out about events as well as publicise the sport generally? The club is also interested in the idea of publicising a series of MapRun courses to encourage participation, so this could be an alternative strand. You will be working with a friendly bunch of people who already post items. Familiarity with Instagram, Facebook and possibly Strava a bonus for the publicity help. Familiarity with MapRun a bonus if you're just able to help with that part.

Contact Anna if you think you may have some spare time to help. Any small amount of time you can give would really be appreciated! (Credit: Vectorjuice)

British Sprint Relay Champs

This year the National Sprint Relay Champs are being held relatively close to home and in conjunction with the annual London City Race over the weekend of 16th/17th September. The club captain will put together teams based on who is available and their individual preferences. If you are interested in competing for SO in this competition please add your name to this StrawPoll.

SO Juniors compete at YBT Final

Southdowns Orienteers Junior Squad travelled to Yorkshire to compete in the Yvette Baker Trophy Final on 9th July 23.

This is the annual Junior Inter Club competition where the best clubs from each region across England and Wales compete. Our Junior Squad earnt their place for the South East back in March.

Summer Trail Runs 2023

Evening trail runs are taking place again. These are social training events where you can run on your own or as a group. We meet at 6:30pm each week although you can run at any other time. A StrawPoll has been set up to allow you to sign up - particularly if you can't print your own map. It is intended that all runs will also be MapRun enabled. Runs will be added a few days beforehand each week - see below for list.

Devil's Dyke Trail Race 2023Race Report

On paper, the Midsummer Devil’s Dyke Trail Run is only 300m of climb over an 8km distance. However, the relentless hard running and the pressure of competing head-to-head can make the event feel like the club’s toughest challenge of the year.

LittleDave reports on his experience from last Wednesday’s race, and you can check out the course here.

"Did you memorise the whole route?"

An orienteering trail run in my 'back garden' with a pre-published map where the Organiser stated you would not need a compass... The potential for disaster was massive but fortunately, I know the Dyke pretty well, been adventuring there for years now.