WOC 99 is only just over 2 months away and BOF are very keen to get the maximum publicity out of the event so as to encourage people of all abilities to participate and enjoy orienteering. BOF have appointed Andrew Kelly as the 'BOF English Development Officer'. His first Factsheet 'Getting Orienteering into the Media' highlights the best ways of getting orienteering publicised saying 'Good quality media coverage is an essential part of raising the profile and awareness of orienteering.'

Lyn West (SOS) has agreed to co-ordinate the publicity within the region and has already been successful in getting orienteering news into some local papers. If you have any newsworthy items please contact her on [phone number removed from web edition].

More information about the English Orienteering Development (EOD) News/Factsheets can be obtained from their website http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/andrewk/eod.htm or contact us for a copy.

Neil & Pauline Humphries Email: NeilHumphries@compuserve.com

This is my first Chairman's Chat since I took over from Dave Wotton as WAOC Chairman at the AGM. As you will realise, we have moved on to a new chairman because Dave has done his 3 year stint. We are all very appreciative of Dave's energetic chairmanship. In addition to contributing extensively to Jabberwaoc, sending regular e-mail reminders to club members, and introducing WAGAL, the WAoc GALlopen (used this year for the first time to determine our Club champions), Dave has been largely responsible for developing our excellent and comprehensive Web site, and, together with Neil and Fred Northrop, for keeping it up to date with fixtures and results. As more and more people gain access to the World Wide Web, electronic news and publicity become increasingly important, and we are grateful for Dave's lead in this as in many other areas.

Having said this, it is worth saying that we are well aware that the majority of our members are not on the Web and that Jabberwaoc is as important as ever as a means of communication. If we have something utterly urgent to communicate, we will telephone round as we did with the changed date for our event at Ampthill - many thanks to Tim Mulcahy for orchestrating that.

Since this year's AGM we have old faces in new places on the committee together with three new faces. First to the new faces: Bruce Marshall has picked up the job of Events Convenor from Tim Mulcahy, Ian Jones has taken over from Roger and Sue Orpin as club captain and Peter Ryall has replaced me as Colour Coded co-ordinator. The old face in new places is Dave Wotton's; Dave has replaced Lindsey Freeman as Publicity officer and Ian Lawson as Fixtures Secretary. I know that most of these ‘newcomers' are planning to put bits in Jabberwaoc, so I will just say thank you very much to those who are leaving the committee after sterling service, and many thanks to those who have stepped in to take their places.

Just a reminder that Bruce Marshall, as Events Convenor, is responsible for finding planners and organisers (and controllers) for all our events. All of these are in place for 1999 now, but why not call him before he calls you and make him an offer for the year 2000? In this regard, I should like to thank on your behalf all our controllers, organisers and above all planners for the enormous amount of their time that they continue to put in on our behalf. On a number of occasions in the past year, all three have stepped in at the very last minute to help us to fulfil our timetable of events.

Over the years I have gained quite a lot of experience in organising, but last year I planned my first full Colour Coded event, and that made me realise firstly the amount of time and effort that my controller put in to make sure that the everything was correct, and secondly just how much time the planner has to put in, particularly if she is not very experienced. It is a great deal of work, and I am delighted that our really experienced planners still put on events for our delight while new planners continue to come forward: novice or experienced, we could not manage without you and I thank you all very much.

After a number of particularly wet or windy forays into North and West Norfolk this winter, it was a great relief to have such marvellous weather for the Double Dumpling weekend. May we always run in sunlit forests, even if the Sandringham brambles seem to get worse by the year. Congratulations to all the WAOC East Anglian champions, with a particular mention to the Gardners, Simon, Helen and Peter, who ended up as M12, W14 and M14 champions and to Ian Wadeson, M18 Champion and winner of the Joan George Award for the best Junior performance. Helen Gardner then went on to win both days of the W14 JK and was the fastest on her leg of the Women's Open Short Relay: well done, Helen - that was quite a JK.

Ursula Oxburgh

Here are a few highlights from the year so far:

CompassSport Cup - Brandon Park - 10 Jan 1999

A tough tie in the new format CompassSport Cup. We did well to beat LOK and get close to HH, but we shouldn't let NOR get the better of us. As they say in friendly competition, ‘We'll thrash you next time!' A little in depth analysis shows that we were strong in the two junior classes (=2^nd in both) and M21 (1^st), but weaker in the other classes where we were missing a few key runners.

(Next years competition is on 19 March provisionally at Wakerley (LEI)).

Midland Championships - Budby, Sherwood Forest - 14 Feb 1999

The East Anglian Orienteering Association now merges with the East and West Midland Associations to compete for an all Midland title. This results in a high quality competition against a large proportion of Britain's orienteers. EAOA also still have their own championships. Two Midland champions came from WAOC. Congratulations to:

Leonie Brown (W18 champion) and Maurice Capper (M75 champion)

A second place went to Helen Gardner (W14) and third places to Peter Gardner (M14), Neil Humphries (M35) and Janis Ryall (W45).

East Anglian Championships - Sandringham - 28 March 1999

Still a testing orienteering area worthy of some good competition. The presentations were dominated by WAOC and NOR. The Gardner clan made life especially easy for the master of ceremonies.

	Champion	2nd	3rd
M10	Philip Humphries
M12	Simon Gardner	Martin Humphries
M14	Peter Gardner
M18	Ian Wadeson Also won the best Junior Performance	Neil Northrop
M21		Graham Watson	Ian Renfrew
M35		Neil Humphries
M55		Chris Morley	Tony Bishop
M60	Chris Thorne
M75		Maurice Capper
W14	Helen Gardner
W18	Leonie Brown	Blanka Sengerova
W20	Penny Bickle
W21			Julia Carpenter
W40			Nicola Gardner
W45	Janis Ryall		Noreen Ives
W50		Ruth Saxl
W55	Satu Peregrine
W60		Mary Palmer
W65	Ursula Oxburgh		Anne Duncumb

JK Individual

Those making the top half in the A or Long classes or anyone brave enough to do an Elite run get a mention below. Congratulations go to everyone especially Helen Gardner who won both days to be a convincing overall winner by over 4 minutes.

M12	Simon Gardner	15th		W14	Helen Gardner	Champion
M14	Peter Gardner	8th		W18	Leonie Brown	19th
M18	Ian Wadeson	26th		W45	Lindsey Freeman	9th
M21E	Graham Watson	55th			Noreen Ives	22nd
M35	Dave Wotton	33rd			Maureen Weldon	25th
M45	Richard Beard	10th			Janis Ryall	37th
	Chris Brown	74th
M50	Mike Bickle	79th
M55	Tony Bishop	31st
	Chris Morley	49th
M65	Colin Curtis	17th

JK Relays - Hawley & Hornley - 5 April 1999

We entered 9 teams (28 runners), an excellent turnout. We had no disqualifications. As ever, many people ran out of class: we had and espcially young Men's Short team that did well to finish in the top half against senior opposition. The Women's Short and the under 12's also did very well; both teams were within a few minutes of the top 3 prizes. The Women's 120+ and the Men's 165+ were also in the top half in their respective events. Individual leg positions are shown in superscript.

JK Trophy			38th	204:31
Dave Wotton39			74:41	Mark Wadeson35	41:01	Neil Humphries31	38:25	Graham Watson19	50:24
Men's Short			32nd	119:44
Steven Lawson37			41:47	Peter Gardner43	34:58	Ian Wadeson27	42:59
Women's Short			7th	102:49
Julia Carpenter12			39:57	Helen Gardner1	21:48	Leonie Brown11	41:04
Men's 120+			51st	140:27
Peter Woods64			57:04	Tony Wadeson39	34:08	Mike Gardner38	48:15
			79th	219:35
Richard Gibbens79			93:46	Tony Palmer78	52:44	Bruce Marshall78	73:05
Women's 120+			18th	141:19
Noreen Ives20			54:08	Sue Woods25	39:19	Lindsey Freeman7	42:04
Men's 165+			22nd	127:10
David Peregrine27			49:19	Colin Curtis34	35:47	Chris Morley8	42:04
Mini Relay M/W12-			5th	41:50	2nd in M/W12- Mixed
Martin Humphries9			14:26	Clare Woods11	16:06	Simon Gardner2	11:18
Mixed ad-hoc			72nd	130:12
Nicola Gardner61			41:30	Mary Palmer51	37:05	Hally Hardie83	51:37

Ian Jones

For new orienteers and as a reminder to the more experienced I thought it would be a good time to explain how to obtain a 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 to me and I'll send you your badge (free of charge). If you have any queries please telephone me.

I will be listing colour coded awards in future Jabberwaoc editions.

Peter Ryall

This is a list of all the organisers and planners for all the WAOC events this year. It now also includes the provisional events for 2000. If you would like to volunteer for any of these events then contact the Events Convenor, Bruce Marshall.

The Organiser always requires help to run an event, so if you have an hour to spare on the day why not make the Organisers day with a phone call to volunteer your services.

23 May
Chicksands Wood	Organiser:	Tony Wadeson
Ltd Colour Coded	Planner:	Bruce Marshall
	Controller:	Mike Capper
12 September
Therfield Heath	Organiser:	David Jones
Try-O	Planner:	Steve Williams
3 October
Rowney Warren	Organisers:	Keith Douglas & Mary Palmer
Colour Coded	Planner:	Ursula Oxburgh
14 November
Mildenhall Woods	Organiser:	Cath Pennington
Colour Coded	Planner:	Mike Capper
12 December
Maulden Woods	Organisers:	Peter & Jane Howsam
Colour Coded	Planners:	Dave Wotton & Julia Carpenter
26 December
?	Organiser(s):
Fun	Planner(s):

If you would like to learn how to produce maps using OCAD then book yourself on this beginners course run by Eric Peckett from BOF.

For further details contact Steve Williams

1998 events proved that this event is increasing in popularity and I'm hoping that, like previous years, the organisers will volunteer. This is a list of dates/venues that are still available so that anyone willing to have a go can pick and choose what suits them.

These are all very light hearted and low key, anyone unsure about their abilities to either plan or organise will find them ideal to cut their teeth on! The more experienced folk seem to enjoy doing them simply as a change from the usual event. If someone is unsure about doing one on their own then I will willingly give them a hand. Please call and put your bids in.

Lindsey Freeman email: Halandlin@aol.com

Thank you to all those who turned up to the training event at Maulden at the end of February. I know several of you had good fun with the Radio-O course (see Lyndsey's article in the last Jabberwaoc). I hope to put on another Radio-O event in the future.

I was hoping to put on a training event covering relocation and route choice in Epping but I'm finding it hard to contact the right people for land permission. It probably will not happen now until after the training weekend.

CHIG is putting on a Short Race series in Epping NW so if you are interested why not go to some of those. They are on Saturday mornings in June. Contact me if you are going and may be we can have a route choice discussion in a pub afterwards.

Relocation:

This is about finding out exactly where you are when you are lost. "Lost" can mean several things from "you haven't the faintest idea where you are on the map or even if you are off the map", to "you have a reasonable idea of the region you are in but are not sure of your precise location". If you have no idea where you are then relocation is very tricky. Hopefully you have some idea of where you are. If you can remember when you last knew exactly where you were and have some idea of what you have seen since then, by studying the features around you and matching them to what you see on the map in the area you think you are in you should be able to work out where you are. Good visualisation ability helps a lot here. If there are no distinct features in sight, you will have to decide which is the best direction to travel in such that you will hit an obvious feature shown on the map. In an area where there are several paths this may not be too difficult providing you can distinguish between them. The difference in technical difficulties 5 and 5* is purely on how easy it would be to relocate.

Route Choice:

Once you get to red and orange standard courses you should bet getting some route choices. Route choices may be deciding between going round a path or straight through wood, going over a hill straight or a longer way round on the flat, or even a choice of whether to go to the right or left of a bush. The best choice for you may not be the best for someone else. It all depends on your level of fitness and navigational ability. Different routes may provide different attack points, one more reliable than another. So you will need to weigh up length, climb, runnability and ease of navigation of each route. It can be of great benefit to compare routes with other people after an event. Often someone will have taken a route that you never spotted while in the forest. If you can compare split times too then you can get a good idea which is the better route. If you find yourself looking at the map for some time trying to decide between two routes, you'll probably find that the routes are not that different and you should just get on and implement one choice. The time spent weighing up the differences will probably outweigh any benefit gained. One tip though, once you've decided on a route choice, it is best to stick to it unless you have a very good reason to change your mind.

And now the latest on the training program. The next definite training event is the training weekend. I am in the process of putting together a Training web page to link to the WAOC home page this will have the latest information on it. In fact, by the time you read this it may be there.

Training Weekend

Provisional Program

Friday pm:	Arrive at the centre.
Saturday am:	Breakfast at the centre then drive to Pembrey (technical forested sand dune area). Mixture of exercises to suit all abilities.
Saturday pm:	Return to outdoor centre for showers and feedback. Then eat out in a pub/restaurant
Sunday am:	Breakfast at the centre then drive to the Vale of Neath (steeply contoured area). Mixture of exercises
Sunday pm:	Drive back home

Please send a deposit of £15.00 per person to me (cheques payable to WAOC) by 8 June 99.

I have had commitment from several people but there are several places left. However, this has now been opened up to Happy Herts and SMOC so places will go quickly.

Julia Carpenter julia@cpd.ntc.nokia.com

WAOC committe news

Publicity

If any subscriber to CompassSport has finished with their copies they are advised to donate them to their local library thus advertising the sport.

Capitalising on WOC99

A number of Try-O events are being proposed araound the Bedford and Cambridge areas after the WOC99 during August and September. Details in the next JabberWaoc.

WAOC Web Site

Ways of improving the WAOC web site are being investigated. Any comments from surfers?

EAOA committee news

EAOA AGM

Will be held at Brandon on 13 June 99 at 13:15. This is an important meeting as there is a proposal to change the constitution to have clubs as members of EAOA instead of BOF members. All BOF members will receive further details with Points East and are urged to attend.

Junior Inter Club Competition

The Regional Heat will be held at the Rowney Warren Colour Coded event on 3 Oct 99.

Electronic Punching

The threat of vandalism to the E-punches is a major concern for EA clubs. The region is to investigate obtaining dummy boxes to monitor the situation or hiring some before reconsidering purchasing them for the region.

The event eventually went ahead after a couple of changes of date (sorry if it caused anybody any inconvenience). This probably affected the turnout with only 72 starts compared with 118 last year.

An interesting idea from the planners was to provide a longer course by following the Green course with second master maps which were the Orange course. Unfortunately only one person tried (understood?) this combination, maybe with better marketing this may have had more takers.

In Norwegian courses competitors do not have a map, instead each control has a small portion of the map showing where the next control is located and the competitor has to memorise the route and location.

Planning does not have to be a solo task, the whole Gardner family were able contribute to the planning and thus were able to spread the load. If you would like to have a go at planning but feel that you would like to spread the load with somebody else then contact the Events Convenor (Bruce Marshall) as there might be other members with the same desire.

One of the ideas of this league was to show improvement throughout the year. Looking at the 2 events so far large improvements were made by Ian Scott (115), Peter Ryall (103), Martin Humphries (83) and Julia Carpenter (71). Well done and keep it going.

These are the totals so far after 2 events. If there are any errors please contact me.

Thetford Ampthill Total 1 H Gardner W14 1078 1 1078 2156 2 I Jones M21 1034 1066 2100 3 M Bickle M50 1044 1049 2093 4 P Gardner M14 1024 1 1024 2048 5 S Williams M35 1001 1042 2043 6 P Bickle W20 994 1034 2028 7 Steven Lawson M18 993 1021 2014 8 Tweedledum M40 1003 994 1997 9 J Carpenter W21 962 1033 1995 10 N Gardner W40 997 1 997 1994 11 R Crook M21 1016 976 1992 12 Tweedledee M35 1027 951 1978 13 J Saxl M50 1005 972 1977 14 S Gash W14 985 988 1973 15 S Woods W40 987 973 1960 16 D Wotton M35 1041 903 1944 17 P Ryall M50 920 1023 1943 18 M Gardner M40 952 1 952 1904 19 Hazel Bickle W45 947 955 1902 20 L Gash W40 932 966 1898 21 S Gardner M10 949 1 949 1898 22 Helen Bickle W16 926 925 1851 23 S Matthews W21 849 989 1838 24 M Humphries M12 872 955 1827 25 I Lawson M40 881 852 1733 26 C Woods W10 894 823 1717 27 I Scott M21 773 888 1661 28 P Humphries M10 800 758 1558 29 M Mann M50 1075 1075 30 S Hardy M45 1070 1070 31 M Weldon W45 1064 1064 32 L Freeman W45 1061 1061 33 C Morley M55 1060 1060 34 A Bishop M55 1060 1060 35 U Oxburgh W65 1058 1058 36 C Curtis M60 1049 1049 37 Mike Capper M40 1046 1046 38 A Jones W45 1039 1039 39 N Northrop M18 1036 1036 40 I Wadeson M18 1034 1034 41 S Thomas M45 1034 1034 42 Maurice Capper M75 1032 1032

Thetford Ampthill Total 43 M Bright W60 1031 1031 44 R Harrison M50 1024 1024 45 A Duncumb W65 1023 1023 46 B Sengerova W16 1022 1022 47 J Ryall W45 1015 1015 48 A Palmer M60 1008 1008 49 R Horton M50 1007 1007 50 D Green M45 1006 1006 51 T Wilson M45 1003 1003 52 M Marshall W45 1002 1002 53 J Beadle M50 999 999 54 N Ives W45 992 992 55 R Saxl W50 986 986 56 M Scutt M45 982 982 57 L Andrews M65 981 981 58 I Smith M40 976 976 59 B Marshall M45 973 973 60 G Louth M35 970 970 61 P Woods M40 959 959 62 C Pennington W45 957 957 63 T Wilkinson M45 953 953 64 David Staines M18 942 942 65 K Douglas M35 922 922 66 M Senger M45 905 905 67 P Firman M45 895 895 68 G Cole M50 893 893 69 M Misson M21 892 892 70 C Scutt W45 868 868 71 E.Stephenson M12 850 850 72 S Wood M14 840 840 73 R Milne M35 839 839 74 C Page M45 833 833 75 C Bell M45 830 830 76 L Firman W18 779 779 77 Daniel Staines M14 769 769 78 P Matheson W21 767 767 79 J Nolan W16 767 767 80 P Sanger M10 737 737 81 J Garner M21 724 724 82 M Cockram M35 675 675 83 A Harries M45 657 657 84 S Gregson M10 564 564 85 S Staines W40 527 527

1 Planners at Ampthill

Basic Rules

• Ranking events are all WAOC Badge events and Colour Coded (including Ltd). Cati/Try-O, Summer Gallopen and Night events are not included.
• The best 4 scores from the 6 WAOC events to count towards the overall total.
• For Colour Coded only courses Yellow to Brown to count.
• Competitors must compete as individuals.
• Only the first run at each event will be used.
• The planner(s) will be awarded a score equal to the highest at other WAOC events during that year.