News

The WAGAL scoreboard has been updated with points from the final WAGAL event of 2024, Mildenhall North on 17th November, and also with points awarded in lieu to officials who organised, planned or controlled at WAGAL events during the year. That means that the standings are now finalised and the class winners can be announced. And they are:

• Junior Men: Erik Biernacki-Jablonski
• Junior Women: Alys Powell
• Senior Men: Mark Hopkin
• Senior Women: Helen Bickle
• Veteran Men: Chris Rampton
• Veteran Women: Emma Jarrett
• SuperVet Men: Dil Wetherill
• SuperVet Wormen: Sue Hartley

The overall highest scorer is once again Sue Hartley. Congratulations to her and to all the class winners.

The 2024 UK Urban League is now complete and winners have been decided. Amongst them were two from WAOC:

Alys ("Perfect 500") Powell in Womens Young Junior category, and Hebe Darwin, first in the Womens Open.

Congratulations to both, and well done too to the 4 runners up from WAOC:

Hana Powell (WYJ), Erik Biernacki-Jablonski (MJ), Kate Jarrett (WJ), and Camilla Darwin (WV).

More details on the 2024 UK League results can be found here.

The East Anglian Urban League incorporated 6 urban events across the region during 2024.

The results have now been published, revealing an impressive number of category winners from WAOC:

• Alys Powell (WYJ)
• Hebe Darwin (WO)
• Johanna Powell and Helen Bickle (WV) - tie for top spot
• Camilla Darwin (WSV)
• Sue Hartley (WUV)
• Erik Biernacki-Jablonski (MJ)
• Chris Rampton and Dil Wetherill (MSV) - tie for top spot
• Mike Bickle (MHV)

Congratulations to all. The full list of EAUL scores can be found on the EAOA website, here.

On 20th October 34 WAOC members travelled to Holcombe Moors in Lancashire to take part in the 2024 final of the Compass Sport competition. WAOC came 6th ranked team in the Cup (for larger clubs). Congratulations to everyone for getting round successfully, surviving both the weather and unexploded ordnance on the hill. Everyone contributed and it was gratifying to see scorers from W12 to W70, with some great performances. WAOC were only one of two teams whose 25 scorers came from all 12 possible scoring classes, which really speaks to the depth of participation and quality in the team.

Individual results can be found here.

Park-O returns for 2024-2025. The courses will change slightly compared to previously, but will still be held on Saturday afternoons and all are welcome - especially newcomers.

For more experienced orienteers, we will be offering an odds/even score at each event with a small prize awarded to the person who gains the most points over the four Park-O events

The events are:

• Lammas Land and Coe Fen - 26th Oct 2024
• Wandlebury Country Park - 11th Jan 2025
• Milton Country Park - 15th Feb 2025
• Coldhams Common - 5th April 2025

(This list was edited in January 2025 to reflect the rescehduling of the MIlton Park-O)

Congratulations to our team of seven WAOC Juniors who travelled to the northern Lake District last weekend to participate in the prestigious Peter Palmer Relays.

WAOC were placed 10th out of 14 teams, finishing as the best team from outside Scotland, Yorkshire or the Lakes.

The Relays were organised by West Cumberland Orienteering Club (WCOC) on a new map combining their areas near Kirkland (Cockermouth). WAOC participated in the full 6-leg Trophy competition. Having camped out in tents overnight in stunning shadow of Knock Murton, the first runners woke before 4.00am, with the relays setting off in complete darkness. The terrain was brutal, with lots of climb and tricky courses, but thankfully mild weather. There was huge enjoyment from the challenge for each member of the team. It was “the most fun orienteering, ever,” according to one WAOC Junior! A great innovation this year was the use of GPS vests so that all runners on each leg could be live tracked on screens in the arena, and by anxious parents, back at home (if awake!).

Full results available here http://www.wcoc.co.uk/pages/re...

Many thanks to WCOC for hosting a fantastic event, and thank you to those WAOC parents who travelled as team coaches and helpers.

The WAOC committee are sad to report that David Peregrine, former chairman of WAOC, EAOA and British Orienteering, has died after a short illness. David received an honorary WAOC membership at our 2023 AGM.

David was an active WAOC member, along with his wife Satu. He went on from the role of WAOC Chairman to become Chairman of EAOA and then of the British Orienteering Federation from 1997 – 2000 and on the Council for 20 years. David also mapped many areas for WAOC, coached Juniors to great effect and enjoyed Mountain Marathons.

His friend David Sedgley remembers:

I have to tell you the sad news that David died in Addenbrookes Hospital last Tuesday - 6th August. He had Lymphoma and had only been seriously unwell for a short time.

David was Chairman of WAOC & BOF at the time I first met him. It was a chance meeting when we had both lost our partners for what was then the KIMM (Karimore International Mountain Marathon) in 2002. We became firm friends and since then have done many mountain marathons together - including the French O'Bivouac in which we won our age class twice - due to David's excellent navigation. [Unlike MM's in Britain, French ones use proper orienteering maps - often using areas previously used for international O events.]

As David's wife was from Finland and mine is French they became firm friends too and always accompanied us on our trips to France.

Many congratulations to the 18 WAOC Juniors for their fantastic Third Place at the Yvette Baker Trophy Final on 7th July. There were many brilliant performances and ALL contributed in terrible weather. This is the best ever result the club has achieved since the Trophy was founded in 1999, and it is great to have some national silverware. Results at https://www.herts-orienteering...

Special mention must be made of Andre winning the entire Light Green course, and to Samuel C-D for winning the entire Yellow course. It was really heart-warming to see the great support for each other and WAOC at Assembly and out on the courses. It is wonderful how much fun Juniors can have orienteering in multiple thunderstorms!

Thank you to Hebe for her leadership as Junior Captain. Thank you to all the parents for their support, and particularly those who stepped in as coaches, recruited team members, and helped ferry Juniors to the remote start. And thanks to Adam and Elizabeth for bringing the extra gazebo!

More widely, a huge number of people have contributed to the recent successes of our Juniors. We can’t name them all here, but is worth collectively celebrating what has been achieved from the development efforts of lots of people in different ways over the past six or seven years.

Next year’s YBT Final is near Ashington, West Sussex, Sunday 6 July 2025. So please put in your diaries now. We will have to qualify in the spring first though!

Many WAOC members spent the Easter weekend at the JK festival of orienteering, which this year offered a sprint in the campus of Loughborough University, two days on Cannock Chase (Beaudesert) featuring mud and more mud, and a Relay event on Stanton Moor featuring runnable heather moorland and intricate abandoned mine workings.

Notable achievements include a silver medal for the junior relay team of Alex Darwin, Alys Powell and Erik Biernacki-Jablonski;

First place in M21S on Day 3 for Alex Moore;

Esther Eaton was Winner Overall (combination of Days 2 &3) in W10A; Alys Powell was 3rd place in W12A, and Noreen Ives was winner in W70S having come in first on both days;

At the sprints, Esther came 2nd in the Sprints in W10, Alys came 3rd on W12, Camilla Darwin was placed 3rd in W55, but Ursula took gold in her class (W90).

This year we held our AGM and prizegiving at Arbury Community Centre in North Cambridge, on the afternoon of Saturday 16th March. These followed a MapRun activity, taking advantage of the nearby excellent urban orienteering terrain.

The EA region hosted the Midland Championships this year (the first time for a long time) which meant that there was a splendid turnout from clubs across the centre of England (on a splendid day) to compete for the Midland Championship trophies. The event was combined with the East Anglian Championsips and quite a few WAOC runners took home some silverware.

Here is a list of the WAOC class winners in the Midland Champs:

Well done to all!

The event also incorporated the East Anglian Championships for 2024. And the WAOC winners are:

Congratulations to all the winners. A complete list of class winners in the EA Champs and the Midland Champs will appear on the EAOA website. Full results from the event can be found on the NOR website.

Finally, older orienteers might wonder where our WAOC juniors get all their energy from.

A clue might be found by seeing who was in charge of the EAJS cake stall at the Sandringham event...

The first two events of our WAGAL club league took place in February, and points from these have been calculated. The current scores can be viewed on the WAGAL scoreboard.

The two WAGAL scoring events which have already taken place were:

• Rowney Warren 4th February
• CompassSport Qualifier, Kings Forest, 18th February.

The remaining WAGAL scoring events for the year are:

• Bedford Urban 9th June
• Yaxley Urban 1st September
• Mildenhall Woods North 17th November

Further details on the WAGAL can be found here.

The category winners in the 2023 East Anglian League were awarded their medals at the recent CompassSport Cup and Trophy event in the Kings Forest. Recipients included an impressive line-up of WAOC orienteers.

Congratulations to the following class winners:

Elysia Cowe (W10), Erik Biernacki-Jablonski (M12)

Kate Jarrett (W14),

Helen Bickle (W40), Hanna Biernacki (W45)

Helen Hague (W50), Stephen Borrill (M50)

DIl Wetherill (M55), Peter Duthie (M60)

Sue Hartley (W65), Peter Woods (M65)

Noreen Ives (W70), John Harris (M75)

A full list of the EA league results can be found on the EAOA website.

The schedule of 2024 EA League events is displayed on the EAOA website here.

Please note that correspondence of age classes to colour coded courses to earn league points has been revised for this year, in line with changes in the Rules of Orienteering.

The class winners from the 2023 East Anglian Urban League were rewarded with medals, at a brief ceremony at the Kings Forest event on 18th February.
A pleasingly large number of WAOC club members were recipients.

Congratulations to all the WAOC class winners:

Full results of the 2023 league, along with details of the 2024 league, are available via the EAOA website, here.

The first EA urban league event will be the Thetford Urban on 30th April.

The scores for this year's WAOC league (WAGAL) have now been calculated and published on the WAGAL scoreboard. And the winners are...

WAGAL Winners 2023

Well done to all the category winners!

It it is good to see such a mix of age and male/female classes in the top placings. The overall highest scorer is, once again, Sue Hartley.

Many thanks to the 39 WAOC members (and that includes 10 Juniors) who ran for their club despite the parking issues and the incessant rain!

The 2023 Compass Sport Cup Final was held at New Beechenhurst in the Forest of Dean on Sunday 12 November 2023. The courses were challenging, as expected, but the controls on top of the steep sided slag heaps were particularly memorable! Hopefully everyone enjoyed the day despite all the mud.

We may not have won the Cup, but the WAOC flag flew centre stage at the prize giving. FUll results can be found here, on the BOK website.

Please put 18 February 2024 in your diaries which is the date of the our regional heat when the 2024 competition begins. The venue is the Kings Forest.

This year's UK Urban League is now completed and there are several WAOC members placed highly in this league:

MYJ 2nd Erik Biernacki-Jablonski
WYJ 2nd Alys Powell, 3rd Hana Powell
MJ 2nd Chun Yan Alistair Fu, 3rd Chun Ho Andre Fu, 5th Alex Darwin
WJ 2nd Hebe Darwin
MV 3rd Richard Powell
WV 1st Emma Jarrett, 4th Johanna Powell
WSV 2nd Sue Hartley

Well done to all!

WAOC entered 8 teams of three in the British Mixed Sprint Relays which took place at Brunel University campus on Sunday 17 September: 6 senior teams and 2 junior teams.

All who took part enjoyed the fast, furious and challenging sprint orienteering but the 12- WAOC junior team were particularly delighted with their silver medal ! Very many congratulations to them!

Congratulations to our WAOC Junior Relay Team who took part in the Peter Palmer Junior Relay competition at Stowe National Trust Park in the early hours of 10 September 2023.

For the past few years WAOC Juniors have taken part in the 4-leg Daybreak Trophy competition. But this year the Juniors took part in the full 6-leg relay competition with head torches definitely required by the first and second leg runners!

Despite a lack of sleep, after spending a hot night on the floor of a sports hall, all the team had good runs and finished 9th out of the 14 teams taking part. They did win a tin of chocolates by coming 3rd in the Joan George competition for relays teams with orienteering ages adding up to 90 or less.

Many thanks to all the parents who came to support.

As part of the club's 50th anniversary celebrations, honorary memberships have been awarded to

• Hally Hardie
• David Peregrine
• Ursula Oxburgh
• Anne Duncumb
• Peter Duncumb
• Peter Allen

Ursula, David and Peter Allen received their awards at our annual prizegiving and AGM, at Hinchingbrooke Country Park on 18th March.

Hallie, Anne and Peter Duncumb received their awards at an afternoon tea hosted by Hazel on 19th September where there was a lively discussion about the early history of the club.

This also gave an opportunity to take a photo of WAOC chairpeople, past and present.