Saturday 28th June saw a dozen club members play their part in the last Dorset Coast Path Relay, along with about 40 other runners from WIM, SOC, BOK, Sarum and the South West Junior Squad. It was an excellent day, especially as we had time in between our contributions to have a leisurely late-morning drink and a snack at the wonderful Egg Cup Cafe, near the village of Swyre in West Dorset. The weather was perfect as well - not too hot, and with a gentle breeze blowing most of the time. Unfortunately, we failed to complete the run in under 8 hours, but everyone played their part magnificently and the day ended, as per tradition, at the Bankes Arms, Studland where Jon Brooke joined us for a pint - it was great to see him out of hospital, if only for a short while.

News: 23/04/2014: A number of members had a great weekend in South Wales at the weekend and, in spite of some awful weather on Sunday, and some very complex moorland terrain, put in some creditable results. The most notable of these was Richard Arman who won M85, with our old friend Andrew Beldowski coming third. These two also came 2nd and 1st respectively in the Sprint event at Swansea University on Friday. Gavin Clegg also came 5th/125 in M55.

Note must also be made of Yvette Paget who competed on 3 days on complex Orange courses, with very few linear features or footpaths.

Well done to all those who competed - photos will be on the website in due course.

JK Relays Monday 21 April – Gavin Clegg (below) waiting in the changeover pen for Ian Sayer to arrive and clearly he was going to be coming from a completely different direction to everyone else! Photo by Andrew Beldowski.

News: 15/04/2014: M55 John Cook (pictured right) did a fantastic time of 03:05:02 in the London Marathon on Sunday. His time placing him 23rd over 55 in the country! Well done John.

And while John was pounding the streets of London, some club members went to the BOK Trot in the Forest of Dean. The going was a bit rough, apparently, but that didn't stop Gavin coming 4th/70 on the Blue, and Jason 6th/30 on the Brown.

News: 05/03/2014: The Long Disance walkers association ran a marathon on Sunday 2nd March in which three Wessex club members and some SOC orienteers took part. The venue was our own lovely back garden of the New Forest. Click here for Jason's account of the event.

News: 11/02/2014

Another lovely day Sunday saw a few of us at TVOC’s Chiltern Challenge, near Nettlebed. Red Kite country and plenty of these magnificent birds around. It was a beautiful, runnable, Beech Forest area. Terrain of this type contains large areas of open forest with tall mature trees, which means sites used for controls are often earth features, pits, valleys, banks and lend a technical navigation challenge for competitors, as it should be for a regional (South Central) championship event. The outstanding result of the day was that of Jason Falconer who came first on the Blue course with a storming run. He was on a 'high' all the way home in the car!

News: 03/02/2014

A good turnout on Thursday 30th January at Marchwood for the 9th instalment of this winter’s Night League. Jason 6th, Gavin 10th, Ian 15th, Rob 16th, Julie 23rd and Kay 30th. For all the results and current league standings click on the Night League tab. No one from Wessex made it to the Quantock Galoppen possibly put off by the floods (photo shows Burrow Bridge on the Somerset Levels at high tide yesterday). Four hardy souls went to Blackheath and Farley: On the Blue Ian was 42nd out of 95. On the Green, Julie 17th and Joff 27th out of 70 and on the Short Green Kay 31st.

News: 28/01/2014

A somewhat soggy event at Star Posts near Bracknell on Sunday for the Southern Championships. Good courses and a runnable forest, lots of rhododendron bushes, some of which were not particularly well mapped which didn’t help. Podium places for Richard Arman 1st and Southern Champion in M85, 2nd for Gavin Clegg and Chris Brown in M55 and W70s and 3rd for Julie Astin in W60. If the rain doesn’t stop soon we will have to consider, Canoe O or Swim O! Photo show Bill Brown and Gavin Avey-Hebditch both looking rather damp.

Also *Stop Press* the date for this years Coast Path Relay is Saturday 28 June. Please ensure you are available for what is a great day out. Rumour has it Daniel Whapples will be co-ordinating the team this year. Six teams have already expressed an interest in competing: SW Junior Squad, Sarum, Axe Valley Runners, BOK, SOC and Wessex. Details can be found on the DCPR website.

News: 07/01/2014 - An excellent turnout at the Poole Town Urban. Somewhat breezy but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Thanks to all those that made the effort on what could have been a very nasty night and I hope your journeys home were safe. Thanks also to the fantastic band of Guys and Girls from Wessex OC who helped out on the night. Without these ‘volunteers’ our events wouldn’t take place.

No change at the very top of the order, but the ladies are making a move with Lyn Branford, Jane Morgan and Julie Astin all moving up. Jason Falconer and Andy Snell have moved up into the top 10. Tim Morgan had a fantastic run on the night to take the win, taking a unique route – was this the optimum route? Apologies for control 21 (61) which was on the edge of the circle. If you feel you lost time on this control and it has affected your points then let me know and I will make an adjustment.

Gavin. (Photos of the Twin Sails Bridge by courtesy Chris Branford, WIM.)

News: 17/12/2013 - Saturday 14th December saw the annual WSX/WIM/Sarum minibus trip to Brighton for the City Race. A chance for sightseeing or retail in the afternoon with the mass start race at 6.30pm. There were some great results amongst the minibus passengers:

1st Sue Hands (WIM) Womens Ultra Vets, Gavin Clegg Mens Super Vets, 2nd Chris Branford (WIM) Mens Ultra Vet, 3rd Charlotte Thornton (Sarum) Womens Ultra Vets, Julie Astin Womens Super Vets, Dale Paget Mens Vets, 4th Carolyn Dent (Sarum) Womens Vets, Ian Sayer Mens Super vets, 5th Becca Ellis (WIM) Womens Open, Kay Sayer Womens Ultra Vets.

Rempstone Roast Duathlon

With no local orienteering this weekend, Tina Stratford, Helen Dyke and Gavin Clegg took part in the Rempstone Roast duathlon. Based at Burnbake the assembly, start and transition were very familiar. The race consisted of a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and the 2 mile run again to finish, all off road. Tina came 56th overall in 1.25.20, being 10th lady and 4th FV40. Helen came 11th overall and first female, in 1.01.22, in the process breaking the female record. Gavin was 13th overall and 1st MV55 in 1.02.33, breaking the MV55 record.

National Rankings

As expected following the successful Dorset Delight at Agglestone & Newton Heath 17th November, big movements on the National Ranking list for some:

Tim Houlder up 124 places, Roy Morgan +224, Sarah Houlder +256, Peter Keene +347, Laura Wilcox +354, Fran Biggin +578 & Roger Crickmore +730. Best movement though was Frida Forshallen up 1212 places, overtaking Tim Houlder. She now has Rob Hick in her sights!

11

WSX Club Championship at the November Classic - November 3rd - New Copse & Perrywood

Another bright day saw many of us at the SOC November Classic in the New Forest (and what a contrast with last year's event!) Most missed the rain, I think. The most outstanding result was for Bill Brown who won the M75 class. Well done Bill. Gavin was 2nd in his (M55) and John Cook also had a cracking run, finishing only 2 minutes behind Gavin. Arthur Brooke also had a very good run, coming 4th in the M10 class.

As this was also our Club Championship event, there was a lot at stake! I was sure I had blown my chances of retaining the Ladies Championship, having made a real mess of one control - but was gobsmacked to hear later that evening that I HAD in fact won it again, my near rivals having also made an error or two. Kay Sayer came a close second, with Zoe Paget third.

Gavin also retained the Men's Championship, with John Cook coming a close 2nd and Bill Brown third. The full results will be going in the next newsletter. Well done everyone.

Julie Astin

Well, we had a great weekend at the JKs in spite of the cold. Our most notable results were:
Gavin Clegg 1st M55 Sprint
Gavin Clegg 9th M55L
Ian Sayer 18th M60L
Richard Arman 4th M80

Bill Brown actually came 4th on Day 3, but hadn't entered Day 2, so it didn't count overall.

Regarding the relays, our top men's team (Dale Paget, Gavin and Jon Brooke) came a creditable 14th, out of 57 teams.
Note must also be made of our Mini Relay Team - Agnes and Arthur Brooke and Yvette Paget - who ran well and came 13th. A top team of the future?!