News

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.

WAOC have been delighted that so many novices have enjoyed our Park-O events over the last few years. After running nearly 40 Park-O events, this season we will be taking a break from Park-O and instead we will focus on helping novices with informal family-focussed coaching sessions at our colour-coded events which generally take place in larger parks or forests.

So if you are missing Park-O already and wondering what to do at the weekend, we’d be delighted to see you at our first event of the season at Ampthill Park, near Bedford on Sunday 24^th September 2023.

Experienced orienteers will be available at the Start box to explain basic techniques, and can even take you around a very short example course to demonstrate orienteering in action. Full details of how to get to the park are given here, in our ‘events’ section.

We have decided to add the CompassSport Cup final event, to be held at New Beechenhurst in the Forest of Dean on 12th November, to the list of WAGAL events for this year. This is of course not an event organised by WAOC, but it is an event where we want to reward those who take part, because regardless of individual ability the turnout can have a big impact on our placing in the results.

This will increase the total number of WAGAL events in 2023 to 6. Each individual's best 4 scores to count.

Many thanks to all 15 WAOC Juniors and their parents who travelled to Sandall Beat Wood, Doncaster on Sunday 9 July to take part in the National Final of the 2023 Yvette Baker Competition (and many thanks to all those who brought and shared some delicious cakes!).

The event started with an opening ceremony; a very impressive parade of all the Juniors taking part, each team carrying their own club flag!

In the Trophy competition, the WAOC Junior team came 5th overall with notable individual performances from Erik and Elysia. It was a tie for the team run-in competition at 15s for Hebe, Alistair and Andre. Well done to you all, a good team performance.

The provisional results for the event are linked to from this page. The Yvette Baker results can be found in detail here.

A good club attendance at the Springtime in Shropshire event, held over the Bank Holiday weekend of 27-29 May 2023, resulted in some notable achievements on all 3 days. In particular, Day 2 held at Brampton Bryden was also the 2023 Midland Champs. Congratulations to the WAOC class winners in the championships:

W10 Elysia Cowe

W12 Alys Powell

M16 Chun Yan Alistair Fu

W16 Hebe Darwin

W40 Helen Bickle

W50 Camilla Darwin

On Day 1, an urban event in Telford, WAOC had two class winners: Emma Jarret (WV) and Betsan Powell on Yellow.

At the Champs on Day 2, in addition to the class winners listed above, we have Alex Darwin 3rd overall in M14A, Mike Bickle 1st in M75S, Emma Jarrett 2nd in W45L, and Noreen Ives and Hazel Bickle claiming 1st and 2nd respectively in W70S.

And on Day 3, at Corndon (where the photos were taken) notable WAOC performances include:

Elysia Cowe -1st on W10, with clubmates Esther Eaton and Hana Powell placed 2nd and 5th respectively. Alys Powell - 2nd on W12, Kate Jarrett - 2nd on W14, and Alistair Fu 3rd in M16.

Some good results from WAOC competitors at this year's JK, held in the Southern Lake District (with the Sprint day on the Lancaster University campus), including:

Elysia Cowe, pictured, who won the W10 class in the sprint race and came 1st in W10A on both days of the individual competition.

Erik Biernacki-Jablonski, Winner in the M12 class in the sprint race and 6th overall in M12A over the two individual days.

Alex Darwin, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively on the two individual days in M14B.

Alex Wetherill, 5th overall in M20E.

Martin Andersson, 3rd overall in M35S and class winner on Day 2.

Jenny Carlsson, 5th overakll in W35L.

Graham Louth, 6th overall in M60S including 2nd place on Day 1.

Noreen Ives, Winner overall on W70S having bagged 2nd place on both days.

Mike Bickle, 3rd overall in M75S.

WAOC also fielded 6 relay teams on the Monday.

Some good results were achieved by WAOC juniors at this year's British Championships held at Cold Ash near Newbury on the weekend of 25th March.

Elysia Cowe came first in W10A, whilst Hanna Powell gained second place in the W10B class. Erik Biernacki-Jablonski was third in his category, M12A. Well done to all!

All individual day photos courtesy of Addy Fu.

The second day of the British Champs Weekend is the relays. WAOC fielded six teams, of which two secured a podium position - Elysia, Alys, and Erik were placed 3rd on the MW12A course whilst Emma, Joanna, and Camilla were also 3rd in the W40 class.

Podium shots courtesy of Addy Fu. Other relay photos courtesy of Brian Cowe/Addy Fu.

We were very pleased to be able to arrange an "in person" event for this year's AGM and prizegiving, held at the Countryside Centre at Hinchingbrooke Country Park on Saturday 18th March 2023.

For the Juniors, the rewards were not limited to medals or trophies.

Many congratulations to the WAOC Juniors for wining the East Anglian heat for the 2023 Yvette Baker Trophy competition for Junior Orienteers ( beating NOR ). We had a team of 11 Juniors that travelled to Hockering, Norfolk on Sunday 5 March - many thanks to all the parents who undertook the long drive and made sure the Juniors had a good day !

The team met up on Zoom the night before, so everyone was able to have a good look at a previous map of the area. On the day, all the Juniors performed really well including our one pair, running the Yellow course, who were both taking part in the competition for the first time.

The 2023 National Final takes place on Sunday 9 July and will be organised by SYO at Sandall Beat Wood near Doncaster. Please would all parents put this date in their diaries. In 2022 WAOC Juniors achieved 4th place in the National Final, so everybody will be very keen to see whether the Junior Team is able to improve on this position in 2023!

WAOC won the Icenian Trophy, which CUOC award to the best club team performance at their biennial Icenian competition. This year, the Icenian event was an urban race in chasing sprint format, which made for a fun event with a chance to socialise between the morning Prologue race and the afternoon Final.

At today's event at Croxton, WAOC competed against HH to qualify for the 2023 Compass Sport Cup final. It was a close competition, but we managed to out-score them by 16 points meaning that WAOC will be in the final. See you in the Forest of Dean on 12th November!

Congratulations to the WAOC members who won their class in this year's EA Champs, held at Tangham, Rendlesham Forest on 5th February. And in particular to Jenny Carlsson who won the Womens Open class as well as her own age class.

The full list of WAOC class winners is:

Elysia Cowe (W10), Kate Jarrett (W14), Alex Darwin (M14), Hebe Darwin (W16), Jenny Carlsson (WOpen/W35), Helen Bickle (W40), Emma Jarrett (W45), Camilla Darwin (W50), Dil Wetherill (M55), Sue Hartley (W65), Mike Capper (M65), Noreen Ives (W70), Mike Bickle (M75).

Here are some more pictures from the Maulden event on 15th January 2023, marking the 50th anniversary since the club's first event.

The standings after the first event of the year can be seen on the WAGAL Scoreboard.

The Feb 12th fixture at Hockham, which was to have been the CompassSport Cup qualifier for WAOC and so was included as a WAGAL event, has been cancelled. The qualifier is now combined with our Icenian weekend at Croxton Heath on 19th February.

WAGAL points will be awarded from the following remaining events in 2023:

• Croxton Heath - 19th February (CSC Qualifier and Icenian Weekend)
• Peterborough Urban - 2nd April
• Ampthill Park - 24th September (EA Schools Champs)
• Newmarket Urban - 8th October

Best 3 scores for each individual from of a maximum of 5 scores to count. Su

Congratulations to all WAOC members who won in their category at the 2022 East Anglian Championships:

Elysia Cowe (W10), Alex Darwin (M12), Chun Yan Alistair Fu (M14), Dil Wetherill (M55), Jenny Carlsson (W35), Helen Bickle (W40), Camilla Darwin (W50), Sue Hartley (W65), and Hazel Bickle (W70).

The overall highest scorer this year is Sue Hartley, who also wins her category.

A complete record of scores can be found on the WAGAL scoreboard, but the WAGAL 2022 category winners are.....

.... as follows:

Congratulations to all winners - you will receive a WAGAL award in due course!

WAOC fielded a strong team at the Compass Sport final near Falkirk on 16th October. The team finished 8th out of 15 teams with some outstanding individual performances.

Congratulations to Alex Wetherill who represented Great Britain in the 2022 Junior European Cup, which was held in Blankenburg, Germany, 1^st – 3^rd October, 2022. For full details, click here.

Some notable achievements from WAOC competitors in this year's Lakes 5 Days, held during August.

In the overall results combining all 5 days, Hana Powell won W10B, and consequently has a tree planted in her honour on the island of Mull, Noreen Ives was 2nd in W65S, Mike Bickle was 2nd in M70S, Hazel Bickle was 2nd in W70S, and Helen Bickle was 3rd in W40S.

Alex Darwin and Andre Fu (both M12A), and Alys Powell and Elysia Cowe (both W10A) were also well placed in their respective classes.

Full results can be found on the Lakes 5 Days website.