News

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!

SE Individual League Winners

The final 2018 league results have been published and reveal that nine Southdowners won their respective age classes. Congratulations to Tommy, Liam, Will, Alan, Joe, Robin, Mike, Scarlet, Jill and Ruth. Certificates will be awarded at the DFOK Chelwood event on Jan 13th.

Newcomers welcome

Looking for a new challenge? Southdowns Orienteers welcomes people of all ages to turn up and give it a go. You can walk or run, take part as a group or on your own.

Check out our newcomers pages, contact page, come along to an event or attend one of our monthly coaching sessions.

SO win trophies at all ages

SO triumphed at the recent South East Families and Veterans competition on Ashdown Forest. Peter Chapman won the men's veteran trophy M40+, Anna Chapman won the ladies veteran W40+ trophy and Linda Hulley won the ladies super veteran trophy W60+. The Chapman family also went on to win the family competition with the help of Ben and Emma (M10 and W10).

Jack Kosky takes on Europe

Many British orienteers participate in the City Race EuroTour which saw its final event take place over the weekend of Dec 8th/9th in Funchal, Madeira. Winning the men's elite race was our very own Jack Kosky. Not far behind Jack was CompassSport editor Nick Barrable who ended up 2nd overall in the tour. The two of them race again in Brighton on the 22nd and will be joined by Jack Leitch who has been putting in some good performances recently in the Scottish cross country scene.