News
It was wonderful to see over 50 taking part in the summer training and Summer MapRun League this year. Thank you to each and everyone of you that took part.
Special thanks go to all the people that made the League possible: planners Iain S, Stephen B, Caroline L, Bruce M, Ian S, Helen B, Jenny H and Jason D; Bob H for registering the events; Stephen B for uploading all the courses to MapRun and finalising the results; Harriet M for collecting the money and Dil W for determining the scoring system.
Now the results …
On the Night League
Anytime League
(d) = dropped score (not counted towards the total as only best 4 scores from 8 events count)
Mispunches and non-competitives runs get a score of 0, but are still displayed
Note, the events are all still available for you to do, they just won't count in the league. You will still get results though, so you can compare yourself to previous runners. Links to each event are listed below and you can view the live results from there too:
WAOC members had a great (and fun!) weekend in Skelmersdale at the Sprint champs, held over the weekend of 21st and 22nd August, including Dil's birthday party in a field! Some encouraging results across the age classes:
The full results are at https://www.mdoc.org.uk/results-archive/2021/2021-08-22-British_Sprint_Champs/index.html
Individual WAOC results were:
- Alys Powell 3rd (bronze medal) in W10
- Sue Hartley 7th in W65
- Mike Capper 14th in M65
- Janet Cronk 1st in B final of W60
- Dil Wetherill 2nd in B final of M55
- Chun Ho Andre Fu 2nd in B final of M12
- Richard Powell 4th in B final of M45
- Johanna Powell 5th in B final of W45
- Betsan Powell 6th in B final of W14
- Chun Yan Alaister Fu 7th in B final of M14
- Ursula Oxburgh 2nd in her qualifier for W85
Relay results are at http://www.deeside-orienteering-club.org.uk/results/2021/210821SkelmersdaleBritishSprintRelays/
Relay Summary:
WAOC (B) in Young Junior (12-) were n/c due to an overage runner, but would have been 5th
WAOC (A) and WAOC (C) both mp, as did a lot of other teams, but had great fun anyway.
The Summer 2021 MapRun League events have now all taken place. Do not worry if you could not make the previous evenings as you can still be competitive in the Anytime MapRun League - just run at least 5 courses before 6.00 p.m. on Wednesday 1st September 2021. Even if you miss out on the deadline for your result to be counted in the Anytime league, all of our MapRun events are available for you to run whenever you wish.
The Prize Giving for the Wednesday evening and Anytime MapRun Leagues will be on Wednesday 8th September 2021 at Midsummer Common.
Event pages are here:
Congratulations to Alex Wetherill who won his M18A race on Day 1 of the Scottish 6 days. Congratulations too to Dil Wetherill who was 1st in M55S, and Elysia Cowe who was 1st in W10B, and Alys Powell who was 2nd in her W10A class.
The Scottish 6 Days this year has been split into two 3-day events to limit numbers attending at any one day. Runners from WAOC will run on days 1, 2, and 5 along with around 50% of the total entries, whilst the remainder will run on days 3, 4 and 6.
The event at Ardchattan today was very low-key compared with previous 6-days. As we ran into the finish there was no roar from the stadium crowd (because there was no stadium or crowd, not that we did not deserve a roar), nor live commentary on the PA system: no club tents are allowed and the finish was just a couple of SI boxes on canes without even a Finish banner. However we are here for the Scottish terrain rather than the razzamatazz, and this was no disappointment with clear blue skies above the open moorland on which the courses were set.
Tomorrow however, we will have to run in woodland...
Many congratulations to all those in the WAOC Junior Team who ran in the Yvette Baker Trophy Final at Westonbirt Arboretum on Sunday 4 July.
The Team came joint 6th with Happy Herts out of 12 teams competing from across the UK. The verdict of WAOC's captain, Janet Cronk, was: "A really fantastic performance with which I was really delighted". Total points this year were 822 (up from 774 in 2019) out of a maximum 900. The detailed results can be found on the BOK website here.
The BOK website also has links to photos of the event, and in addition you can see Steve Borrill's photos of WAOC participants here.
A sunny final Park-O for this school year was followed by our club’s annual prize-giving. Results are now up at /results.
Great to see everyone - see you again for our next Park-O in September!
Good going in the country park
Comparing notes after finishing
Great to have a bit of shade at download
Helen awarding the trophies
Our fabulous chair Helen Hague awarded WAOC’s trophies - initially earlier in the year at our zoom AGM but today so much nicer in person!
The Owl trophy went to Ursula Oxburgh for her achievement in the British Night Champs in Feb 2020
The Owl trophy went to Ursula Oxburgh for her achievement in the British Night Champs in Feb 2020 when she kept going for nearly 4 hours to win the W85 course, also gaining a gold medal and a trophy- an amazing achievement. Ursula has contributed to the club hugely over the years; planning, organising, coaching, numerous jobs within the club and many committee positions. She says that was her last night event but who knows what further gold medals may be achieved....
The Tortoise award for service to the club went to Stephen Borrill
The Tortoise award for service to the club went to Stephen Borrill who has done huge amounts for the club, updating our Permanent orienteering courses, ensuring WAOC events could continue despite all the restrictions by creating from scratch an online registration system to pre-register entrants and allocate spaced-apart time blocks. He has also greatly contributed to the success of Park-O by designing the Park-O passports to record each entrant’s courses and times, and designing the new WAOC bags (for completing four Park-Os and free to each member when running at a WAOC event - look out for Helen Hague!). He has also really helped the club learn how best to use MapRun, creating many new courses himself.
The Jabberwaoc trophy went to Helen Bickle
The Jabberwaoc trophy for contributions to the club magazine ‘Jabberwaoc’ went to Helen Bickle for her fantastic articles past, present and no doubt future. Her excellent and numerous training tips offer something for everybody.
Bruce Marshall won our planning competition (experienced category)
And last but by no means least, Richard Powell received his award for our planning competition (novice category).
We will be holding a short prizegiving ceremony during the Hinchingbrooke Park-O on 26th June.
This is a chance to present the various awards and trophies that would normally be given out at our AGM, when such meetings are in the flesh rather than via a teleconferencing app. The prizegiving will be held at 3:30 pm.
Everyone coming to Hinchingbrooke, is invited to attend the prizegiving and applaud the recipients.
Congratulations to WAOC Winners at the Midland Champs, held on 30th May at Stapely and Rorrington (Springtime In Shropshire):
Alys Powell (W10)
Hebe Darwin (W14)
Alex Wetherill (M21)
Emma Jarrett (W40)
Full results can be found here.
The Huntingdon Urban event was our first WAGAL event of 2021. The remaining events this year will be North Cambridge Urban in September, Bush Heath in October, and Mildenhall South in September.
You can see the scores after one event on the WAGAL scoreboard, where you can also browse results from previous years.
British Orienteering has issued its latest revision of guidelines on orienteering and coronavirus, confirming that events can go ahead provided they meet the "rule of six" and other coronavirus distancing regulations.
We are resuming our schedule of events in accordance with these guidelines, starting with a Park-O at Coldhams Common on 3rd April. Our events schedule has been brought up to date, assuming that social distancing restrictions are relaxed as set out by the government on 22nd February.
We have created a family-friendly Christmas event combining orienteering and a quiz for you to run at your leisure at Lammas Land in Cambridge.
This event is a virtual MapRun orienteering course which you can do at a time that suits you – perfect for social distancing and great fun! The course is around 1.4km long with 14 controls to find and doesn’t cross any roads.
You just need to:
- Visit here in advance to read more, download and print the map to take with you.Take a note of the start location on the same information page.
- Download the free app MapRunF to your smart mobile phone, open up the app and enter your details, including the Club ‘WAOC’.
- When you want to head out, make sure your phone has a good amount of charge.
- When you arrive at Lammas Land, open the app, click ‘Events near me’ and select Lammas Land Christmas 2020.
- When you’re ready to run, click ‘Go to start’ and then head towards the start location just behind the cafe/toilet block. When you get to the start location, your phone will buzz and the clock will start running, so off you go!
- As you reach each control, your phone will buzz to tell you you’ve got there. It will also do so at the finish and automatically upload your results.
If you fancy running further, our Coe Fen and Newnham MapRun event is very close by. Or read here about other local virtual and permanent orienteering courses.
We hope you love this different way to enjoy orienteering – Merry Christmas!
The WAGAL Scoreboard for 2020 has been updated with points awarded for performances in our event at Rowney Warren held on 8th March, and the CompassSport Cup Qualifier round, held at Aspley Heath on 15th March.
At the moment, future WAGAL events are subject to cancellation or rescheduling due to measures in place to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.
What's WAGAL? Find out here.
On a windy day on 8th March at Rowney Warren a team of 17 WAOC Juniors, headed up by Junior Captain Alex Wetherill, assembled to run in the qualifying heat of this year's competition against HH, OD, TVOC & NOR.
We were delighted to welcome a number of juniors who were running for WAOC for the first time and every team member helped in achieving a great result for the club and qualification for the National Final on 5th July 2020.
Many congratulations to all the competitors and thanks to all the parents who supported us.
Congratulations to the following, who each came top in their respective classes (full results here):
Kate Jarrett (W10), Alex Wetherill (M16), Tom Beskeen (M35), Emma Jarrett (W40), Stephen Borrill (M45), Dil Wetherill (M55), Sue Hartley (W60), Noreen Ives (W65), and Seonaid Dudley (W80).
All 6 qualifying events for 2019 have now taken place and the results have been used to compute the final version of scores for WAGAL, our club league.
You can see the results on the WAGAL scoreboard.
There are awards to the winners in each category: Male and Female Junior, Senior, Vet, SuperVet, and UltraVet. These will be awarded at our annual prizegiving and AGM next Spring. Congratulations to all winners!
The schedule of WAGAL events for 2020 will be revealed in the forthcoming issue of JabberWAOC.
WAOC turned up in force at Pippingford Park on Sunday 20th October, to compete in the Final of the CompassSport Trophy, with a team of 57 entered to run for the club.
The terrain at Pippingford is a mixture of open and wooded hillsides with streams and ponds in the valleys. Despite the weather being dry and sunny, conditions were damp underfoot - most of us got our feet wet just walking into the assembly field.
At one point in the day we were leading, but in the end we were narrowly beaten by HOC. Nevertheless to attain second place is an outstanding achievement by the club. The team were sustained by an array of home made cakes, but we made all these disappear, so it was fitting that we received a box of chocolates as a prize for our 2nd place.
Results can been found here
Congratulations to Ursula, who was the winner in her category at the 2019 British Sprint Championships, held on the Loughborough University campus on 14th September. Also to Sue Hartley who was 5th in the W60 'A' Final. Full results can be found here.
Very many congratulations to the WAOC Juniors, Alex, Oskar, Hebe and Tiago who travelled down to Ashdown Forest in East Sussex on Saturday 7 September to take part in the national 2019 Peter Palmer Relay Competition for Junior Orienteers.
Janet, our club captain, was there to see the Junior team compete and is very pleased to report that they won the DayBreak Relay competition. The Relay comprised 4 legs, with the first leg starting at 6:30am on Sunday morning. The whole team were delighted, not only to be able to run with Tiago (WAOC's 4th leg runner) down the run in to the finish (as the winning team) but also to bring the Daybreak Trophy back to Cambridge.
Congratulations to Andrew Stemp, who gained a podium place as 3rd overall in the M21S category. Other notable achievements include Dil ("I'm just on my way to a meeting") Wetherill, 4th in M55S, and Noreen Ives, who was placed 4th in W65S.
They were amongst a contingent of WAOC members who travelled up to the area of Crieff in Scotland for Strathearn 2019. Whilst some areas of the British Isles were suffering devastating rainstorms, or, in the case of our home territory, record breaking temperatures, we were lucky to have wonderful sunny weather throughout the 6 days of forest orienteering. There was a drop of rain during the Sprint competition on the so-called rest day, which refreshed the volunteer helpers at that event, including the Bickle family.
Well done to all WAOC juniors that came to the YBT national final at the weekend. It was lovely to see so many of you there at our first YBT final in a while and thanks to you and your parents for driving out to Sandringham.
Your attitude was a credit to you all and everybody made it round their course, scoring points for the club. We came 7th out of 10 which was very good when you consider the size of our squad (compared to the winners SYO who had over 50 runners!).
The social side of the event was also positive, I hope you enjoyed being cheered into the finish!