Junior Jabberwaoc February 2003

Something from the editor (Blanka Sengerová)…

Welcome back after a Christmas break and Happy New Year to you all…

Just to look back over the few events since I last wrote this introduction, I'll just mention Helen Gardner's 2nd place in the W18A class at the OK Nuts Trophy Badge event. (Not doing too badly, both Helen and Peter had a fairly good placing within the results of the Junior Trophy competition at the event - coming 22nd and 23rd out of some 70 junior competitors respectively).

For some WAOC juniors, it is now back to the selection race season for summer coaching tours and the Start programme. Meanwhile others are still keeping up with moving through various levels of orienteering, within or outside the junior squad. Which brings me to the colour coded badges - many of you may have achieved the right standard and may be eligible for a colour coded badge. See the article on colour coded badges on how you might get one.

On the topic of junior leagues and events, you will have probably heard about a SMILE event league that is to take place in the summer, co-ordinated by Ursula Oxburgh and organised by you lot and your families. See elsewhere in this issue for more details of this league.

Happy running in sunlit forests…

Colour coded badges

There don't seem to have been many of you claiming your colour coded awards recently, so I thought that it would be a good time for a reminder on what you have to do to claim your colour coded badge.

You can claim a colour coded badge when you have achieved par-time or better on three events of the same colour standard. The par time for each course is usually displayed in the printed results. The par time is either the time taken by 50% of the finishers, or is the winners time + 50%, if that would include more competitors. So, for example, if half the competitors completed in less than 50 minutes, then the par time would be 50 minutes, but if the winner on that course took 40 minutes then the par time would be 60 minutes (40 minutes + 50%) because that would include more competitors. However, the event controller may adjust the par times if they see fit. There is a special case for the White course: the par time is set to be the time of the slowest competitor, so everyone who completes the White course qualifies for White standard.

Pairs can claim colour coded badges jointly up to and including Orange but after that they have to compete individually to qualify.

To claim your badge forward details of your qualifying events to Cath Pennington (14 Narrow Lane, Histon, Cambridge, CB4 9HD) and she will send you your badge (free of charge!).

WAOC juniors at the Thetford Thrash

Just as a last minutes addition to this issue of Junior Jabberwaoc: it was great to see so many of you out running at the Thetford Thrash Double Badge events that has just happened (25th/26th January).

Well done to Edward Louth on winning M14A on day one; on day two there had been some tight competition between Edward and Jamie Taylor on that course, and it was Jamie who took the first position in the end on day two. Both Thomas Louth (M10A) and Alice Campbell (W10A) won their courses on both days - well done. Other notable results were Simon Gardner's very close second place in M16A on day two, missing first place only by 11 seconds. Well done to Sophie Louth for coming first on day 2 (W12A), and it was great to see some of the youngest WAOC juniors out braving the badge courses - Caitlin Campbell on W10B and Thomas Hemingway on M10B.

Just a couple of photos in restrospective

Once more the British Schools and British Schools Score Champs…

The photos weren't quite ready in time to accompany Katrina's article about these events in the December issue of Junior Jabber. So I'm including them here: the photo of the Taylors is from the British Schools Score O Champs near Bolton. The WAOC juniors (Gardners and Taylors) are at the British Individual O Champs in the Forest of Dean.

SMILE THIS SUMMER

MESSAGE FOR ALL WAOC JUNIORS AND THEIR PARENTS

Look out for the WAOC SMILE events this summer.  These are SuMmer Introductory Low key Events and they will be held on either Saturday or Sunday mornings starting the week before Easter and finishing on 20 July.  See the list at the end of this article.

SMILE events will offer White, Yellow and Orange courses, and each one will be planned and organised by a different WAOC family.  There will also be a timed score event to keep the parents busy.

MASTER MAPS AND PIN PUNCHES

We shall be using a master map system with pin punching, partly to keep costs down but also to make the planning and organisation simpler.

COST

The cost of a morning's orienteering will be just £1 and for this you can do as many courses as you can fit in to the time available, so it is a really good chance to run your usual course really fast and then have a non-competitive go at the next harder one.

SMILE AWARDS

We shall be awarding a White, Yellow or Orange SMILE each time you achieve a SMILE STANDARD on your course.  We are hoping to present these SMILEs on the day, plus certificates for all finishers

Three SMILEs of one colour will give you a SMILE COLOUR AWARD and SMILE COLOUR AWARDS mean prizes.

SMILE LEAGUE

In addition to the SMILE AWARDS, we shall be running a SMILE LEAGUE, with your 5 best competitive scores on one course counting towards your final score.  SMILE LEAGUE winners will get trophies and again there will be LOTS of prizes.

SMILE SCORE LEAGUE

With prizes too!

SMILE LEAGUE CUP

To be run at the Stevenage event, still on White, Yellow and Orange courses.  Details later, when we have worked them out.

PRIZES, PRESENTATIONS AND PARTY

These will all happen at the last SMILE event, at Fairlands Valley, Stevenage on 20 July, so write this date in your diary now and BE THERE

SMILE EVENTS LIST

Puzzle

Orienteering word-search

First cross out all the words on the list and then you can read the remaining letter along the lines to give the solution sentence. The words can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal and can be backwards or forwards.

T	W	E	N	R	E	T	S	E	W
L	N	F	E	A	T	U	R	E	P
E	R	E	L	O	C	A	T	E	P
G	O	L	D	L	D	L	O	R	T
N	N	E	D	I	R	E	I	T	H
A	Y	A	A	O	T	U	H	F	W
R	C	A	S	V	I	R	E	A	F
O	O	S	S	A	P	M	O	C	I
U	N	G	T	O	T	C	Q	P	R
G	T	S	E	W	H	T	U	O	S
H	O	P	E	N	O	I	A	I	T
T	U	R	P	U	I	G	R	N	A
Y	R	D	R	K	C	A	R	T	R
H	R	A	I	L	N	A	Y	T	T

Solution to the puzzle from December 2002