News
Archive of News and Information stored under the News category.
Southdowns has eight new South East Long Champions
Congratulations to all SO members who took part at the Blackheath and Farley Heath SE Long Distance Champs in the Surrey Hills on 2nd February 2025.
Eight of our club members became South East Long Distance Champions in their age categories. They were Mark Johnson M10, Ben Chapman M16, Nick Jarvis M21, Kenny Leitch M60, Roger Maher M85, Emma Chapman W14, Anna Chapman W50 and Jasmine Bennett W70. Six SO members won silver medals and four won bronze medals. Read on for more info about the courses and the medalists.
Emma, Julia & Will selected for the England Team
Congratulations to Emma Chapman, Julia Jarvis and Will Heap who have all been selected to run for England at the Interland Cup 2025 on 2 March in Steenwijk, Netherlands. The Interland Cup is England’s only international competition outside the British Isles. England competes annually in this six-cornered match against two Belgian teams (Flemish and French speaking), the Netherlands, the French Ligue des Hauts de France de Course d’Orientation (LHFCO) and Luxembourg . The competition is truly a team effort spanning age groups from M/W14 to M/W60+: 42 team members in all.
Start the New Year with a new membership
We've just updated the membership information on our website. In addition to Family, Adult and Junior membership, British Orienteering (BOF) have introduced a new Young Adult category for 21 to 25 year olds. See more here.
Senior: £29
Young Adult: £19
Junior: £10.50
Family: £65.50
Read more about the benefits of membership.
SO members win more medals at SE Middle Distance Champs 2024
Congratulations to everyone who took part at the SE Middle Championships which were held on 22 Dec 24 at Newlands Corner.
There was a festive feel to the event with lots of competitors wearing tinsel or festive outfits and the top three were awarded with medals. SO had another successful event with 12 medalists, including some first time medalists.
Check the list for the winners.
SO XMAS Score Winners 2024
Congratulations to the SO Xmas Score 2024 winners:
- Elizabeth Brown Memorial Trophy – Kenny Leitch
- W14 - Emily Waters
- W18 - Emma Chapman
- W Open - Samantha Martin
- W50 – Julia Jarvis
- W65 – Chris Jepson
- M14 – Christopher Warner
- M18 – Ben Chapman
- M Open – Ali Masson
- M50 – Joe Barrett
- M65 – David Young
Well done.
SO has 10 new South East Long Champions
Congratulations to all SO members who took part at the Black and White Hills National event, near Bagshot on 1st December.
Ten of our club members became South East Long Distance Champions in their age categories, three won silver medals and 3 won bronze medals. Read on for more info about the courses and the medalists.
Autumn Club Nights 2024
Autumn club nights return on Tuesday September 24th.
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.
Juniors compete in epic Peter Palmer Relay 2024
At the beginning of September eight of our juniors headed up to the Lake District to take part in the prestigious six leg Peter Palmer Relay.
They were treated to a beautiful sunset in a mountainous location, fish and chips, fast paced competition, atmospheric sunrise and early morning bacon buttys. Read on to find out how they got on.
Summer Trail Runs 2024
Spring club nights returned on Thursday April 11th. Courses have been risk assessed according to this document.
We will meet as a group at 6:30pm each Thursday although we hope to make the activities available online to attempt at your leisure. Courses will be saved in the Trail Runs folder on MapRun (UK/Sussex/Trail Runs).
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.
Knock-out Sprint fun eventLane End Common, Chailey
The Knock-out Sprint is an exciting orienteering format originally designed for TV. It’s popular at international level and is included in World Championship and World Cup events. This summer, the format comes to Sussex.
It will be a fun evening event where everyone runs 4 short 1km races in the style of a knock-out sprint competition. Athletes run in groups of 4 or 6 to see if they can return first and get promoted to the group above. In each round, one athlete will be promoted from the group and one will be relegated.
SO Junior Squad Compete at YBT Final 2024
On 7th July our junior squad travelled to Northaw Great Wood in Hertfordshire to compete in the final of the Yvette Baker Trophy. This is the premier Junior Inter-Club competition for English and Welsh orienteering clubs. We had a team of fourteen juniors ranging from age 9 to 18.
The team braved torrential rain to get around their courses. The team did really well with some knockout performances. Full results here and courses here. After the event everyone got the now customary ice cream.
Next year's event is on 6th July and is being organised by SO at Capite Wood, so save the date now.
Midsummer Trail RacesWaterhall and Devil's Dyke
The midsummer trail races are quite possibly our toughest events of the year. Not for the faint-hearted, the courses have easy navigation but feature a huge amount of climb. The Long courses are 8km and the Short courses closer to 4km. The events attract a loyal following of club members and runners. Signup for Waterhall on 12 June 2024 and Devil's Dyke on 19 June 2024. Always a good fun event and invariably on a warm and sunny evening.
Waterhall - New map and area Brighton
A brand new map of Waterhall, Brighton is being created for a SOG in 2025. It's an area new to orienteering and is available as a result of a re-wilding project by Brighton and Hove City Council. The trail race on Wednesday 12 June 2024 will use the first draft of the map and competitors will get an early view of the terrain. Sign-up for the trail race is at RaceSignUp and the event will use SportIdent punching.
British Sprint Relay Championships
At last year's championships our juniors came away with a bronze medal with other teams just missing out on the podium. This year's championships are being held at Birmingham University on June 22nd the day before the individual championships at Warwick University (actually in Coventry). The first entry date for the relays is Sunday 19th May so if you are interested in competing for the club please complete this StrawPoll asap.
As with all national relay championships the club will pay 50% of the entry fee. Note also that the standard entry fee for the individual champs also goes up after May 19th.
SO Successes at the British Championships
A select group of Southdowners headed up to North Yorkshire for the National Championships but came back with one British Champion (congratulations Roger) and four other podium places including a win in the Women's Short Open relay (Heather, Scarlet and Anna). Also on the podium Ruth Rhodes with a bronze in the individual, silver for the Men's Short Open relay team (Tommy, Stan and Pete) and an excellent Bronze for our juniors in their AdHoc Relay (Ben, Harriet and Emma).
Full results for the weekend can be found here