June News

Donegal 3-Day report

CNOC's Deirdre Ryan reports ...

On the June Bank Holiday weekend the Irish 3 Day event was held near the beautiful Lough Eske in the Bluestack Mountains of Co. Donegal. There were mixed feelings over returning to the challenging area as last year’s Irish Champs; for some it was a weekend of fantastic victories while for others the most vivid memories of that weekend were the pouring rain, the dense fog, the waist-deep marshes and the long haul to the start.
Just over a year later however everything was different. Saturday dawned warm and sunny, with not a breath of wind turning the wind turbines visible from the start. The event centre was at the local Community Centre, with a steep 1km walk to the start at Benson's Hill. Starts were not until 4 in the evening, meaning all the orienteers were relaxed and ready to race. All of the eight courses were very technical and of middle distance, but due to the blistering heat were surprisingly tough. The terrain was a fabulous open mountain with undulating hills, very intricate contour detail, many horrible marshes but very few tracks. Rock features were very useful for navigation. 

Sunday morning came too soon, and once again too hot to be running in. There was a longer 2 km trek to the start, with longer courses and more climb. Day 2 started at Croaghmeenare, circling around some beautiful lakes and gruelling hills. Once again, courses were technically difficult only today they had physically challenging thrown into the mix too. 

Nerves were running high on Monday morning as people tried to mentally prepare for the stressful Chasing Start at 10am. The winners of each course set out first, with the remaining competitors starting later according to the total time they trail. The first person over the finish line on each course was the overall winner of the weekend. At the start at Benson's Hill on Monday morning adrenaline was pumping and I for one was super nervous, starting first on my course. Courses were the longest yet, but luckily the sun stayed hidden all day and temperatures remained in the high teens. The area was the driest of any of the days, with many of the marshes having dried up a bit throughout the weekend, so terrain was more runnable today than the previous days. Out on the course, orienteers had to concentrate on their own race and remain completely unfazed by the many other hectic competitors out on the mountain, be they on their own course or not. 

Minutes after the prize giving as everyone was making their way towards the cars, the heavens opened for the first time all weekend- lucky!
Overall the 3 day event was thoroughly enjoyed and well organised (thanks to WEGO!), with great orienteering opportunities on great new terrain. Hopefully CNOC will return next year to retain all of our titles! (Adapted slightly from the CNOC web site.)

The editor continues ... The closest and most exciting finish of the weekend was the sprint for the line by CNOC clubmates Sennen O'Boyle and Pat Farrelly in M50, with the timing unable to separate them. Pat went out about 4 minutes clear of Sennen who caught him on the final controls See photo above). David Healy (GEN) won the M21 class and Maeve O'Grady (DFO) the W21.

What always surprises me is that such a small bunch of people as Western Eagles, probably numbering less than 10, can put on a high-quality three day event like this at a location so far from their base. The courses were planned with a remarkable economy of controls, using SportIdent's ability to allow planning with criss-crossing legs. Planning easy courses for young juniors is difficult in an area like this and, if there was a deficiency, it was in achieving this. A minor quibble might also be the visibility of some controls on the senior courses - they could be seen from a long distance, but you still had to get across the terrain.

On the plus side, the area had dried out a lot from IOC last year, and the cuckoos were still in fine voice, so all in all it was a very successful weekend. In common with the Shamrock O-Ringen, the numbers of Irish competitors was relatively low but there was a fair smattering of runners from further afield: Germany, Scandinavia, Hungary and the UK at least.

Results are here, Routegadget is here. Photos are here. The results are presented as three distinct days which makes it a bit difficult to get the overall picture, but the Routegadget routes will capture some of the excitement of the competition and bafflement of the runners!

Next year there will be a Shamrock O-Ringen on the Sheep's Head Peninsula in Co. Cork on the June Bank Holiday weekend (4th-5th-6th June 2011)  mark it in your diary now. Details from Cork Orienteers.

Watch Jukola Live!

Watch the Jukola Relay in Finland live this Saturday here. More than 15,000 runners will take part in the Venla (women's) and Jukola relays this Saturday. At home the focus will be on the Northern ireland Championships at Tollymore in the Mourne Mountains on Saturday. Details here.

Irish Team travel to Scandinavia

Six members of the Irish elite squad are heading for Finland this week as the first leg of the 2010 Nordic tour kicks off. This is part of the team's preparation for the World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, in August - the selection races will be in Norway in July.
The Nordic tour consists of three World Cup events held in Finland, Sweden and Norway throughout June.
The Irish team of Niamh and Seamus O'Boyle, Gerard Butler, Darren Burke, David Healy and Nicolas Simonin start the competition this Thursday 17th June.
You can follow the team's performances on the Nordic Tour website here.
We also hope to have regular updates from the team members on the Irish blog here.

June Preview

Donegal Three-Day

The area around Lough Eske in Co. Donegal is the venue for three exciting days of orienteering on the June Bank Holiday weekend. Mapped for the 2009 Irish Championships, the open mountain terrain resembles West Cork, with its marshes, crags and contours. The weather at the Irish Championships, particularly at the Relays, didn't showcase the areas as it might have, but hopefully this time Western Eagles OC's efforts will be seen in better conditions.

Details of the events are here.

Tollymore Orienteering Festival

The Northern Irish Championships are being held on Saturday 19^th June at Tollymore Forest near Newcastle in Co. Down. Following on from last year's very successful, inaugural ‘Tollymore Festival of Orienteering’, LVO will be hosting a full programme of events on the weekend. Everyone is welcome to join in the weekend's activities.

The programme looks pretty much like this at present, with the facility in place to camp on either or both Friday and Saturday nights.

Saturday.

NI Championships – a full range of courses on offer.  

String course – always a popular event for the young and the not so young. At the recent Slievenagore event, the competitive spirit of the elites could not be contained and multiple runs ensured the course time falling, quickly at first and then with some reluctance.

TempO  - Exercise the brain, even if your legs are tired – pit your wits against the fiendish Mr Gartside in a timed Trail O problem.

Evening barbecue and social event. 

Prizegiving for LVO club champs and for NI Champs

Night orienteering. (10pm start)

Sunday.

Adult training session run by Helen Baxter

Junior Fun Day session run by Izabella Stefko - details here.

TempO – another puzzle to solve.

Entries are open here. Cheapest entries until 14th June. You can book your barbecue and camping along with the race entry, please make sure that you include for all in your party even if all are not entering the race. We don’t want to run out of food.

Everyone is welcome for what should be an excellent weekend of orienteering.

Gordon Stephens, LVO

Incidentally, if you're on for a spot of shopping, Decathlon, the giant sports supermarket chain, are opening in Belfast on June 17th, at the Holywood Exchange retail park, near the city airport and Ikea ... and LVO are running a Micro-O there on Saturday 26th June.

Belfast Parks

Another LVO venture in May is the Belfast Parks O-Week, a series of free races in Belfast's parks starting on Saturday 30th May in Ormeau Park after the Belfast Cliffhanger (see below).

The following events are on Monday 31st (Belmont), Tuesday June 1st (Woodvale Park), Wednesday 2nd (Barnetts Park), Thursday 3rd (Orangefied & Greenville), Friday 4th (Falls Park) and Saturday 5th (Musgrave Park).

The inaugural Belfast ‘Cliffhanger’ sprint race will take place in Ormeau Park in Belfast on Sunday 30th May from 1.00 to 3.00 pm. If you enjoyed the maze racing at Kilbroney Park on May 8th, you will find this even more fun! The event will consist of 2 prologue races with combined times used to determine A and B finals. If enough enter then there may be scope for semi-finals as well. Each course will pass twice through a specially constructed maze as well as through the more complex area of the park. Course lengths will be about 1.5 km, so everyone should get about 4.5 km if they stay for all 3 races. Start times will be deliberately close together and courses will be ‘gaffled’ to remove the temptation to follow other runners.
The event is the opener of the Belfast Parks Orienteering Week which is aimed at families and newcomers. Once the Cliffhanger is finished the maze will be available for all to try their luck and there will be simple courses in the park, so bring non-orienteering family and friends to watch you race and then to have a go themselves.

Summer Evening races

The Curragh-Naas OC (CNOC) Tuesday evening races continue with the Curragh (May 25th), Hill Wood, Monasterevin (June 1st), Curragh East (June 15th) and Hollywood, Co. Wicklow (June 22nd). In Munster, CorkO's Inter Firm league continues on Tuesdays with Currabinny (May 25), Moanbaun Wood, Watergrasshill (note change of venue from Fota) (June 1), Warrenscourt (June 8), Ballyannon (June 15), Tracton (June 22), Lackendarragh (June 29), Corrin Hill (July 6), James's Fort (July 13), Glenbower (July 20) and Ballincollig Regional Park West (July 27). Bishopstown's equivalent Business Houses league finishes up on May 27th at Corrin Hill. Full details in the Fixtures section of the IOA website. Evening mountain races are running at the moment too: Wednesday evenings - details here.

Jukola

The Jukola 7-person overnight relay takes place in southern Finland on 19th/20th June. Several Irish teams, or at least teams with Irish runners. have taken part in recent years but TIO isn't aware of any this year. If any of you are going to Jukola, (a) good luck and (b) please write about the event for us afterwards! More than 1500 teams have already entered for the relay and more than 1000 for the women's Venla 4-person relay  earlier in the day. Details of the events are here.

You should be able to follow it live on the internet - Jukola start time is probably about 11 pm local time (9 pm in Ireland).

Exam time

Best wishes to all our orienteering students doing Junior Cert, GCSE's, Leaving Cert, A-levels and college exams. Concentrate on the study for now, get the academic stuff out of the way then get stuck in to the orienteering again!

Leinster Champs Routegadget Fixed

The results and routegadget (route plotting program) for the Leinster Championships at Carlingford were hit by some computer problems, but these now seem to be fixed. You can out in your route from a GPS or using a mouse here. The organisers, 3ROC, apologise any inconvenience!

30th Anniversary Hill Race

On 22nd May the Irish Mountain Running Association (formerly "Hill Running") staged a race on Three Rock Mountain outside Dublin to mark the 30th anniversary of the first organise hill race to Fairy Castle back in 1980. Several orienteers (Peter Kernan, Tara Horan, Catherine Lyons, Joe & Caitlín Bent) ran in both the 1980 race and the 2010 "Fairy Chase". Photos, results and reports are here. Almost 120 runners took part.

Setanta Rogaine entries open

Setanta Orienteers have opened online entries for their 13th Rogaine, a two-person score event in Wicklow, on the weekend of June 26-27. The event will have two categories, a 6-hour and a 24-hour. Details of the exact location are a closely guarded secret until just before the event, but you can get information and enter here. The event has been running since 1998 and offers a mountain-marathon type experience without having to carry all your kit for two days.

Rogaining started in Australia in the 1940's - the word reportedly is composed of the names of the three inventors, Rod Phillips, Gail Davis (née Phillips) and Neil Phillips. (It has also been defined as a "rugged outdoor group activity involving navigation and endurance", the initial letters of which also spell "rogaine"). [This activity should not be confused with the hair restorer "Rogaine", also sold as "Regaine"].

New Wicklow Maps by EastWest Mapping 
Two new maps - Wicklow Mountains West and Lugnaquilla & Glendalough are now both available from EastWest Mapping - details here.

The new maps are in the same general style as their Dublin & North Wicklow Mountains Map published in 2009 and printed at 1:30,000 scale on 120 gsm Pretex paper which is water and tear resistant. Retail price is same at €9.95 per sheet. They have a value deal for people who wish to purchase a set of the three maps at €29.00. The maps should be available in Eason's, National Map Centre, Great Outdoors and shops in Wicklow in due course.

Barry Dalby writes "Fieldwork on foot and by bike was undertaken in 2009 (great autumn!!) and 2010 interrupted somewhat by snow & ice etc. I think we've done a pretty good job at capturing the forest, road, track and path detail as well other physical features. Contouring is still at 20 metres - not ideal, adequate in Wicklow for general hillwalking and biking. Hopefully we can improve with more contour detail in the future. As with any map, doubtless we have missed some features and/or new forest tracks have been constructed etc. As always, I appreciate any feedback on detail that appears to be missing or incorrect so that we can chase it up on the ground. Where there is a significant issue, I'll publish free .pdf updates on our website.

One aspect that I have invested a lot of time & effort into is a thorough review of the placenames of the hills and the location of 'heritage' features etc. This has been a substantial task in itself and of course, open to improvement. I have written some of my thoughts on this aspect which you can find here. In general I have deliberately chosen diversity as far as forms of names are concerned to reflect the richness of this aspect of our heritage. I have also placed an emphasis on the names known and used by the good people who live in the Wicklow hills rather than in some cases, those recorded on OSI material.

I trust you enjoy using these maps as much as we have enjoyed making them and I thank you for your support. I also hope that they'll go a little way towards a more complete record of these hills and valleys so close to many of our hearts.

Finally, I might mention that Wicklow Mountains East sheet will be published early next year. I will be also looking in more detail at releasing digital versions in due course as time allows. Thanks."

Barry Dalby
Eastwest Mapping,
Clonegal,
Enniscorthy,
Co.Wexford.
Ireland.
ph: 00353 (0)53 9377835
fax: 00353 (0)53 9377835

Quote of the month

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic", Theodore Roosevelt; Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Brother & Sister Take Leinster Champs

In a remarkable double, CNOC brother and sister Shea and Niamh O'Boyle took both the men's and ladies titles at last weekend's Leinster Championships at Carlingford. On probably the most challenging/daunting/intimidating orienteering area in Leinster, Niamh had a comfortable 12 minutes to spare over second place Rosalind Hussey (Fermanagh/DUO) with CNOC clubmate Ruth Lynam third.
Due to a glitch in the results system the full results are not to hand at present, but watch this space for an update.

A number of runners had travelled the day before to Slievenagore in the Mournes to run the NI Series race there, followed by Igor Stefko's micro-O in Kilbroney, across the Lough from Carlingford. No doubt this was a good preparation for the rigours of Slieve Foye, where there are few linear features, lots of contours, crags and marshes, but very runnable underfoot - picture West Cork at an angle of 45 degrees. Trina Cleary, who always relishes the opportunity of planning here, kept most of the courses in the north-eastern part of the area, with long legs across the hillside interspersed with shorter legs up and down, posing a range of navigational problems which caused many a rueful shake of the head at the finish line. "If only, if only!".
Conditions were perfect for running on the day, though a bit on the chilly side for the officials standing around, in marked contrast to the first event on the area, the May 1993 Irish Championships, when the upper parts of the mountain were covered in thigh-deep snow.
The long walk from the Foy Centre in carlingford to the start/finish area was a good warm-up/down and the centre provided changing, parking, toilets and food. It is probably true to say that the citizens of Carlingford weren't even aware of the dramas unfolding on the steep slopes overlooking the medieval village, but the orienteers certainly went home knowing that they had had a good day out.
Results are available here, routegadget here, photographs here. (There is a problem with the results and routegadget at the moment - JMcC 15th May 2010)
Incidentally, I have been trying to remember if a brother and sister ever won the Leinster Championships before: possibly Justin and Carey May back in the early '80's? Maybe someone will help me out here and let me know!

Ambassador for Sport

Did you know that Dublin is the European Capitol of Sport for 2010? Sports organisations were invited to nominate people as ambassadors of sport for the year and our own Ruth Lynam was nominated as an Ambassador for Sport for Orienteering.. Since being made City of Sport, Dublin City Council have reportedly tried to close down three swimming pools in the city because of lack of funds, though they have received a stay of execution until after the summer.
Ruth is pictured above with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Emer Costello, and boxer Bernard Dunne. The honour does not, however, entitle Ruth to park on double yellow lines, graze her cattle on St. Stephen's Green or enjoy the freedom of Guinesses brewery.

Northern Ireland Championships Entries Open

A great weekend is planned by LVO at Tollymore near Newcastle, Co. Down, for 19th/20th June, centred around the Northern Ireland Championships. This event has traditionally been in September but is being brought forward this year.
In addition to the Championships on the Saturday, there will be a barbecue followed by a night event on the Saturday night and training and fun events on the Sunday, all at Tollymore and based on the idea of people coming and camping for the weekend. Details of the event and online entry are here. Cheapest entries before 14th June.
The 19th is the night of the Jukola overnight relay in Finland, so maybe there will be a Jukola atmosphere in Tollymore!

Junior International Selections

The Irish Junior Squad is coming on in leaps and bounds - gone are the days when we started reading the results at the bottom to see where the Irish came (this applies to the Seniors too, by the way!). This summer the teams are heading to the Junior World Championships in Denmark; the European Youth Championships in Spain, and the squad are going on a tour to the World Championships in trondheim, Norway, in August.

The Irish team selected for EYOC 2010 in Soria, Spain is:

M18: Cillin Corbett, Colm Moran, Josh O'S-Hourihan

W16: Niamh Corbett, Cliona McCullough

M16: Jack Millar, Laurence Quinn, Alex Simonin, Mark Stephens

The EYOC website is here.

 

The Irish team at JWOC 2010 in Denmark will be: Niall Ewen, Sean Knight, Conor Short.

The JWOC website is here. Irish interest in JWOC isn't confined to the competitors, however: Ronan and Julie Cleary are the IOF Event Advisors.

Donegal 3-Day Entries Still Open

Entry for the 3-Day competition around Lough Eske near Donegal town on the June Bank Holiday (June 5-6-7) weekend is still open.  The maps were used for the 2009 Irish Championships and the terrain is complex open mountsin with fine views and interesting courses. In April of last year I heard my first cuckoo there, an event often associated with the Irish Championships, but so far I haven't heard one this year at all - maybe the late spring and the lack of trees at IOC combined to thwart the cuckoo-watchers?

Entry is open until May 21st. Online entry here. Details of the event from Western Eagles OC here.

And an Invitation ...

This site is open to you to write articles and comments on Irish orienteering, so don't be afraid to contribute. Send material to theirishorienteer@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Leinster Champs - Pure Speed, No Technique

(This very personal report was adapted slightly (for a family audience) from Colm Hill's blog:.)

After last Wednesday's attempted to beast it off at the start and drop the entire field at the Prince William's Seat hill race I decided to adopt a different tactic for the Leinster Orienteering Championships being held on the epic mountain of Carlingford. The mountain and I have a short and painful history - Autumn Series Race, DNF, Irish Middle Champs; 3nd, Irish Long Champs; 2nd, Irish Relay; 2nd, Spring Cup Race; Injury.

So with this I returned hoping to adjust many a wrong and many a mistake that have hampered my orienteering success on the mountain. It was an ideal place to try to defend my Leinster Senior Orienteering title.

Starting 12 mins after Seamus (O'Boyle, the eventual winner - Ed) , my tactic was simple: take the first control handy, then get stuck in and start eating the gap, second by second. After spiking the first control  (2nd fastest, 0:19 down on Ger Butler) I decided to open the gas.

I climbed hard and then this happened.... not sure what happened

After giving Shea a good head start, I got into a flow and began to orienteer really well. Spiked 3 and 4 and continued up the hill to 5. Excuted the leg perfectly but I didn't read my control descptions and with the control buried close to the cliff, I didn't see it and dropped another minute running around in circles.

After this blip, I upped the ante and began to orienteer, kinda. Suffered up the hill to 7 and attacked number 8 aggressively. Needless to say, as I descended, I got pulled by the contours and managed to hit number 9 after a little running around - doh!

Following 8, I began to orienteer better, I was running well and keeping my head clear. I battled away and as I punched number 14 I was one second down on Shea and 2:15 down on the current leader, Ger. Then I pulled out a series of orienteering skills that are the blessing of every other orienteer in the country and the reason why I don't run sub 5min/k's on every map.

I'm not even sure how to describe the mistake. I was clear in the head, I was running strong, I knew I had the race in the bag and perhaps thats why it all went to hell... These were the easy controls to clock up the extra distance and bring us home.

16 was a matter of running to below the big cliffs below the 12th control. These cliffs were BIG. Impossible to miss..... So I took of from number 15 and was picking up the pace when I see a control a little up the slope, for some reason I decided to check the code on it, it reads 154 (number 17 was 54). My thought process was this..

"What the ....

How am I here already!

I wasn't running that fast... O well

Right climb the slope, look out for the steep ground and the reentrant....

Hmmmm....

hmmmm....

...

where the hell is this ... re entrant....

That was number 17...right.... right....

of course it was 154....

where the hell is this piece of xxxx.....

ok. Stop. Relax.

Ok, thats that, thats that.... so wheres the ... piece of ......

(Hugh walks past)

Where the hell is he going...

o....

Oh! XXXX!!!

O MY SWEET XXXX.

How!!! WHY!!!! NOOOOO!!

RUN

FASTER. EVERY second counts...

XXXX XXXX XXXX...."

As I hit 16, I turned and descended. Reading my map (first mistake). I was panicking. I was freaking out completely after dropping 5mins. I dropped down the contours. I couldn't see the control. I panicked more.... I attempted to keep calm but I was failing.... Hugh walks past again. I felt like crying.... FAIL.

After this, I just ran the rest of the controls. I ran them hard but my heart wasn't in it. It kinda showed by walking up the hill to the last control.

It wasn't a good day at the office.

I reckon it was a mixture of being off colour for most of the week and the added grief of my thesis and other project work due....

I'll make up for it this weekend in Glenmalure. +25km +1300m climb

Ya win some, ya lose some. I already had it so I didn't want it half as much as I did last year.

After the post-mortem - I'll be all guns blazing next year. You don't appreciate something until you no longer have it.

The six inches in front of your face

You have to want it.

(Colm Hill)


 

Irish Championships Report & May Preview

Lagan Valley Orienteers and North West Orienteering Club combined to give us three days of varied and exciting orienteering on April 23rd to 25th,
In Friday evening's Sprint race at the Coleraine university campus, Nick Simonin (Bishopstown OC) took the men's title, while LVO's Susan Lambe took the ladies' race, benefitting from a mispunch from leader Niamh O'Boyle. In Saturday's individual race on the sand dunes of Magilligan,  Niamh regained her Irish title and Bishopstown's Nick Simonin took his first Men's title. Nick cleaned up by taking the Mactíre Trophy award for competition performance in Sweden at the IOA AGM on Saturday evening.
CNOC took both the Premier and the Women's relay title on Sunday, on the faster area behind the dunes at Magilligan.

The sprint, a dry-run for next year's JK sprint at Stranmillis in Belfast, was a disorienting experience. The start was in a gym, with runners emerging, blinking, into the daylight in a small courtyard, with first controls within seconds of the start. The nearest thing I can compare it to is the sensation of going to the cinema in daylight and emerging in the dark through a different door. Runners were everywhere, like a leprechaun hunt, peering into corners looking down stairs, searching for the elusive markers. SportIdent timing allows planners to make courses criss-cross and zig-zag in a small area, and planner Igor Stefko took full advantage of this, using only a small part of the campus. Different levels, flights of steps and underpasses all added to the complexity of the challenge. The most talked-about leg, shared by many courses, involved a run through a large passage under one of the buildings (see leg 6-7 on the map). Routegadget and sprint results are here.

Saturday saw the emphasis shift to the complex open dunes of Magilligan, previously used for a British Championships, Home Internationals and NI Championships. Steven Linton's courses used the dunes near the sea and the flatter areas inland. Areas of scrubby vegetation and fences simplified the navigation but at the end of the day, it was all down to reading the contours. Running conditions were ideal - cool and breezy but warming up in the dunes. Results and routegadget are here.

On Saturday evening at Limvady, the IOA AGM took place, followed by a quiz which raised €750 for the Irish Junior Squad.

Overnight rain had largely cleared for Sunday morning when we returned to Magilligan. This time we were on the Drummans, flat farmland with some more contoured areas, where very fast times would be recorded. The navigation was much less complex than the day before, but the increased speed still meant the mistakes were possible. In the Premier class, Cork O had a lead of 24 seconds from CNOC after leg one, which they had stretched to 54 seconds after leg two, but CNOC's Colm Hill, with a shorter gaffle than Cork's Bill Edwards, slipped in with a lead of 86 seconds to take the title. 3ROC took third spot, almost three minutes further adrift. CNOC also had a successful outing in the Women's race, with Niamh O'Boyle, Orla Jennings and Ruth Lynam in the clear from Queen's University all the way round: but isn't it great to see QUBOC back in action again?
The volcanic ash from Iceland had dissipated so most travel plans were unaffected. It did, however, feature in the Juniors' quiz, with extra marks for anyone who could spell Eyjafjallajökull. (There is an interesting parallel with a previous Irish Championships in Northern Ireland - on Saturday, April 26th 1986 a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded - the day of the Individual Championships at Slieve Croob).

If you are wondering how the Irish Championships were in Ulster, a week before the usual date, and with a sprint race rather than a middle, here's the story: there is a rota between the four provinces to run IOC and normally Leinster would have run the 2010 event and Ulster the 2011, but the JK is coming to Northern Ireland in 2011 and it wouldn't be possible to run both IOC and JK, so there was a swap and IOC2011 will be in Leinster. The reason the Irish Championships were a week before their normal date on the May Bank Holiday weekend is to avoid a clash with the British Championships. And finally, there was an agreement between IOA and NIOA that IOC organisers would run the two core events (individual and relay) with a third event which could be middle distance or sprint. Last year we had middle distance in Donegal (with a sprint championships at Ross Castle, Killarney, on the eve of the Shamock O-Ringen) and this year we had a sprint. The missing event is on offer to organisers of regional championships or other similar events to make a bid to run it - so far I'm not aware of any takers for the 2010 Middle Distance race.

Leinster Championships at Carlingford

3ROC are running the Leinster Championships as a stand-alone event in Carlingford, Co. Louth on Sunday 9th May. Entries have closed but there may be some maps and start times available still - contact leinster2010@gmail.com to enquire. There is entry on the day to yellow, orange and light green colour courses, but allow for a 30-40 minute walk from parking/assembly in Carlingford village to the start/finish area. Details, start lists etc will be on the LOC web page here.
Don't forget the NI Series race at Slievenagore on Saturday 8th and the Micro-O event at Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor that evening tio raise money for the Irish team travelling to the World Championships in Norway. Details here.

JK2011

As mentioned above, the 2011 Jan Kjellstrom International Festival of Orienteering (you can see why it's just called the "JK"!) is coming to Northern Ireland. Plans arae already well advanced and the event web site is open here. Visit the site and keep in touch!

Irish Orienteering Association AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the IOA took place in Limavady on Saturday 24th April. An uncontroversial event, it saw only one change in the Executive Committee, with Sarah Ní Ruairc (Fingal) taking over the Treasurership from Mary O'Connell (3ROC). Brendan O'Brien, Chairman, gave a wide-ranging overview of the state of the Association, highlighting the developments in Elite and Junior competition, technology, mapping, and schools orienteering. These areas were expanded on by the officers of the executive and the full reports will be on the IOA web site.

Annual Awards

The annual awards at the IOA AGM were announced: the Mactíre Trophy was given to Nick Simonin; the Silva Trophy to Pat Healy and the Silva Award to Marcus Geoghegan. Full detils and nominationa can be seen here.

May highlights

After the Irish Championships the main competition season is winding down, but May still promises the Leinster Championships at Carlingford on the 9th and two interesting events on Saturday 8th (see above).. At a more local level, the Cork Summer League (Sundays, next event Curragh Wood on the 9th), the Cork Inter-Firm league (Tuesday evenings starting at Farran on the 11th), the Tara Sprint Series (Sunday 16th at Tara and 23rd at Ardgillan) and the CNOC Summer Series (Tuesday evenings: starting at Donadea on the 18th) are all starting.
May 21st is the closing date for the Donegal 3-Day on the June Bank Holiday weekend at Lough Eske (scene of IOC 2009). Details here. Enter online here.
And there are the evening hill races, including a 30th Anniversary race on Three Rock Mountain, believed to be the first organised hill/fell/mountain race on Saturday May 22nd. Details here. The organisers hope to see lots of orienteers there, since we have always featured in the mountain races.


That's all for now!

April Activity

JK report

The Easter weekend saw some outstanding performances from Irish runners at the Jan Kjellstrom Orienteering Festival in Devon. Despite heavy rain on the run-up to the event, three of the days were largely unaffected by the conditions.
The format, as in recent years, was Sprint (at Bicton College near Exeter), two-day Individual (at Cookworthy forest and Braunton Burrows dunes) and Relay (again at Braunton Burrows).
Jonathan Quinn (GEN) took first place in M14A in the sprint race, a mixture of parlkand, formal gardens, woodland and college buildings, finishing almost one minute clear of the field, posting a time of 12.56 for the 2.3 km course. Ruairí Short (CNOC) also took first in the Mens Open class with his brother Conor in 3rd place.Other top ten sprint results were Clodagh Moran (3ROC), 3rd W10, James Logue (ex NWOC) 3rd M40, Frank Martindale (3ROC) 6th M75, James Millar (LVO) 7th M12, Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC) 8th W21 Elite, Niamh Corbett (CorkO) 9th W16, Ciaran Kearns (FIN) 9th M10 and Jack Millar (LVO) and Kevin O'Boyle (CNOC), 10th M16 and M20 Elite.
The map scale of 1:4000 with 2.5 m contours must have caught out lots of competitors, as things came up so quickly, though a warm-up map on the way to the start did help with the scale.
A very sad note was struck that afternoon when Berkshire Orienteers Dave Stubbs, husband of the sprint event controller Katy, collapsed and died while out on his course. May he reast in peace.

Day 2 saw us travel to a very muddy and undistinguished forest at Cookworthy, where knee-deep slop and marshes were common. Drains, earthbanks and vegetation changes provided control sites with few brown (contour) or black (rock) features. Though the rain had stopped, the assembly field was awash and the forest was dark and gloomy. All credit to the organisers who did their best in difficult conditions, but surely there are better areas than this in the south west of England? My particular sympathy goes to the unfortunate bus drivers who have to clean up after transporting the runners from the race back to the car parks.
Things improved on Easter Sunday, though, with a bright and breezy day at Braunton Burrows, a large sand dune area near Barnstaple, an unusual combination of UNESCO heritage site and military training area for off-road vehicles. Unusually, the area was mapped with 5 m contours (sand dune areas are often at 2.5 m) so that small features were not shown. Competitors to one of the three starts followed the "American Road" down the east side of the map, used as part of the training for the D-Day landings in 1944.
The track network was complex and confusing but the vegetation and contours were clear.
After the two days, Irish competitors had taken seven firsts and a number of podium and top-ten places: First place went to Cork O's James Griffin (M18S), James Logue (NWOC M40L), Liam O'Brien (CorkO M55S), Julie Cleary (3ROC W45S), Ruth Lynam (CNOC W55L), Helen Baxter (LVO W55S) and former secretary of Irish Orienteers Anne May (W60S).
Other notable results were 2nd for Jack Millar (LVO M16A), Eadaoin McCavana (GEN W12B), Róisín Long (AJAX W14B); 3rd place for Ivan Millar (LVO M21S) and a recovering Marcus Pinker (CorkO M35L), 4th for Ciaran Kearns (FIN M10A), Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC W21E), and Aonghus O'Cléirigh (AJAX) - a scant 3 seconds ahead of 5th place Brian Corbett (CorkO) in M50L. Peter James (ex NWOC and another former Irish Champion) finished 5th in M40L..
6th place went to Frank Martindale (3ROC M75), Clodagh Moran (3ROC W10A), 7th to Ruairi Long (AJAX M12B), Darragh Lane (CorkO M16B), Kevin O'Boyle (CNOC M20E) and Laoise Ryan (CNOC W10B). In 8th place was Leslie Loughlin (CorkO M18S) with 10th going to Sean Knight (LVO M18E), Padraig O'Donovan (CorkO M14B) and James Millar (LVO M12A).
The Men's Elite class was won by Matthew Speake (Interlopers) with CompassSport editor Nick Barrable (an M35) 5th. The best Irish runner was Nick Simonin (Bishopstown) in 7th place. Sarah Rollins (BAOC) won the Women's Elite with Niamh O'Boyle 4th - a fantastic run from Niamh.
Monday's Relays returned to Braunton Burrows where the courses were fast and less tricky than the day before. The longer courses looped around to return close to the start area for a spectator control with a bit more than 1 km to go to the finish, adding some extra excitement. In the W120+ class Ruth Lynam (CNOC) and Interlopers Lorna Eades were neck and neck at this point but the Scottish girl drew away to win by 20 seconds, relegating the CNOC ladies (Niamh O'Boyle, her mother Bernie, and Ruth) to second place. Also finishing second were the 3ROC team of Colm Moran, Cliona and Eoin McCullough in the biggest class of the race - the Mixed Ad Hoc, with almost 100 teams. The JK Trophy, now back to a 3-man team from the 4-man it has been for some years, was won by Sheffield University's Ralph Street, Dave Schorah and Graham Gristwood, and the Women's race by South Yorkshire Orienteers in an exciting finish, with 20 seconds to spare over Interlopers.
After the JK there were two other unusual events: on Wednesday a race at Wheal Florence near Plymouth on a small open area previously used for tin mining. The area was only about 900 metres long by 300 metres wide and was mapped at 1:2500 scale with 1.25m contours. It was intricate, with lots of depressions and re-entrants, but not as difficult as I had expected. The long course of 4.2 km /150 m/ 29 controls was won by world champion Graham Gristwood in less than 24 minutes while CorkO's Corbetts - Brian, Cillin and Niamh - did the Irish proud with times in the low 30's.
The second unusual event was at the Eden Project in Cornwall but someone else will have to write about that as the entries filled up before I managed to get mine in.
Full JK results are available at the SIEntries web site here.  - routes, courses and splits too.
The organisers of JK2011 in Northern Ireland distributed a very attractive flyer for next year's event at the end of April 2011: Sprint-O in Stranmillis College, Belfast; individual races at Tyrella (sand dunes near Dundrum, Co. Down) and Slieve Croob (1986 Irish Championships area) near Ballynahinch in Co. Down, and Relays at Tyrella again. Next year you'll be able to go to the JK without flying or taking a ferry - take the opporyunity to do it, and offer to help as well: you'll be welcome!

Irish Championships

Remember that cheap entries close for IOC2010 on 12th April and entries close on 19th April. Enter now on-line via www.orienteering.ie/ioc.
The competitions are a sprint race in Coleraine, with individual and relays at Magilligan sand dunes on the east of Lough Foyle, close by. This promises to be three days of excellent orienteering, so go ahead and enter. How many sports do you know where you can just go and enter the National Championships without all kinds of strings attached, qualification rounds and red tape? It's the Irish Championships: a no brainer: how could you missit? enter now! I have run in every Irish Champs since 1976 at Stranahely in the Glen of Imaal - (except the ones I've been involved in as an official) - it's what you do!

Mullaghmeen or Inch?

Another definite "don't miss" this month is Setanta's annual bluebell-fest at Mullaghmeen, Co. Westmeath on April 18th (unless you're in Munster, in which case go to the dunes at Inch, Co. Kerry!). This is a unique area - the largest planted deciduous forest in Ireland and the highest point in Co. Westmeath. The forest is beautiful at this time of year and well worth the journey. It's located near Oldcastle, Co. Meath close to Lough Sheelin and will be signposted from Castlepollard. Details on the Setanta website here. You can also visit the cairns at Loughcrew on the way home.

Leinster Championships

Another entry reminder: the latest date for cheap entries for the Leinster Championships at Carlingford on 9th May is coming up: enter by Sunday 18th April. Final entries close on April 26th. Details from 3ROC here. Look at previous courses on Routegadget here.

Irish Trail-O Championships

The eagle-eyed reader of the IOA fixture list will have noted that the Irish Orienteering Champs takes place over two weekends this year.  The early staging, on 17th April (Saturday next), is of the TrailO variety at Castleward, Strangford, Co. Down.  If you follow the links from it you will be taken incorrectly to the web site for the FootO champs which take place the following weekend in the Coleraine area.  See here for details.  The event is being held on the Saturday to allow the FootO community to run at Mullaghmeen the following day.  You could do worse, however, than return to Co Down for the Sunday TrailO which, despite being the NI Champs, is open to all and pit yourself against the British squad who are using the weekend for selection purposes. - Alan Gartside.
[Trail orienteering, if you haven't tried it, is the most intense brain and map workout you can give yourself: decision making (some of it against the clock) and pitting your wits against the devious Mr Gartside will give you a strangely satisfying yet frustrating experience, an indescribable love/hate day out rather like one of those shower gels that get you clean but leaves you all cold and tingling afterwards. I don't know quite what the extra ingredient is in trail-O, but try it if you can - you'll like it!]

Springtime

Leinster Championships entries open

The 2010 Leinster Championships at Carlingford, Co. Louth, on Sunday May 9th, promise some outstanding orienteering. Carlingford Mountain, one of the best orienteering areas in Leinster, has been used for Irish and Leinster Championships before and its challange is undiminished.
Cheap entries are available until April 18th with entries closing on April 26th.
Entries and details via www.3ROC.org or here.Online entries are via the SportIdent entries site and SportIdent electronic timing will be used. The competieion centre will be the Slieve Foy Centre in Carlingford village, with parking, showers, cafe etc.
Have a look at the original Carlingford map above. (If you remember the Irish Champs in May 1993, there was thigh-deep snow on the top of the mountain for the event!)

Irish Senior Team Manager Ivan Millar is running a senior squad training weekend around Carlinford Lough on the weekend of the Leinster Champs, taking in the LVO NI Series race at Slievenagore and a Micro-O event at Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, on Saturday 8th May. Details here.

Jan Kjellstrom Trophy Update

A large contingent of Irish orienteers are travelling to the JK at Easter in Devon. The format of the event is a sprint event at Bicton Agricultural College, Exeter, on Good Friday, an Individual race at Cookworthy Forest on Saturday, and Individual and Relays at Braunton Burrows sand dunes near Barnstaple on Sunday and Monday.
For those staying the week, there are two inteersting races after the JK: one on Wednesday at Wheal Floenece, and old tin mining area near Plymouth, and one at the Eden Project on Thursday. (The latest news is that the Eden Project race has reached its entry limit).
The Wheal Florence area is at 1:2500 scale with 1.25 m contours and looks unbelieveably detailed. A previous event there was won in 12.5 minute kilometers! Details of these are on ther JK web site here.

Meanwhile, things are moving on quickly for JK2011 in Northern Ireland. The organising committee has been meeting regularly over the past months and have done a lot of the groundwork on mapping, promotion and planning: it looks good, with terrain ranging from university campus sprint to complex open sand dunes via fast open mountainside. Keep Easter 2010 (last weekend of April 2011) free for a trip North to do the JK without the hassle and expense of ferries and flights. If you've always promised yourself a trip to a major event, this will be your chance! More details later. The Irish Championships will be the following weekend in the Dublin/Wicklow area, with some events in between, so you could make a week of it - the Irish 10-Day?

Irish Championships

Remember that the Irish Championships in Co. Derry are open for entries. The events are on April 23-24-25, with a sprint at NUU Coleraine (run by LVO) and individual and relays at Magilligan sand dunes (run by NWOC). Details here.
Alan Gartside adds: 

TempO is to the TrailO discipline what Sprint racing is to FootO and, appropriately enough, there is to be a TempO competition alongside the IOC Sprint race at the University campus, Coleraine on Friday 23rd April.  The area to be used has been reviewed by the Sprint organising team and is deemed to provide neither similarity with or views into the Sprint terrain.  Registration will be open between 17:00 and 18:30.  There will be a model station and instruction in the format of TempO so why not come along and sample this version of TrailO, adopted by IOF only last year? A complication for the Sprint event is the plans to run a mountain bike event there the week before has led to the following warning for any Squad member considering going for selection for the World Champs sprint event: Following recent discussion regarding the staging of a Mountainbike orienteering event at the University of Ulster campus at Coleraine (venue for the upcoming Irish sprint champs and WOC selection race) – I would like to advise all Irish senior squad members wishing to be considered for WOC selection not to compete at this event as the WOC selectors would consider involvement to be a breach of embargo conditions. In the interest of fairness all seniors who intend to compete at the Irish champs sprint are advised to consider their involvement in this MTBO event. However, It must be stated that the organisers of this MTBO event have taken all steps possible to avoid the sprint area in planning their course.(Ivan Millar).

Schools Championships time

The Munster and Leinster Schools' Championships were on the 24th and 25th March at Carrigolligan, Co. Dublin and Colligan, Co. Waterford. See results here.
The Irish Schools Championships, run by Cork O under the auspices of IOA, are at Glengarra, Co. Tipperary on 15th April (not to be confused with the All Ireland Schools Orienteering Championships run by the Irish Schools Orienteering Association on 24th and 28th March at Gúgán Barra ...)

Intervarsity Orienteering

The Intervarsity Orienteering Championships were incorporated into the CNOC Spring Cup event on a new map of Emo Court, Co. Laois on March 28th. Bright sunshine and fast, flat forest with elegant grounds in front of the imposing Emo Court house provided the  setting. Christian Foley-Fisher (UCD) took the Men's A title (full results not to hand).
An unfortunate clash of dates saw some of the intending competitors at the World Ranking Event in the Trossachs in Scotland the same weekend.
The World Student Championships are in Sweden in July.
Orienteers featured prominently in the Colleges' Mountain Running Championships on March 20th too: the race, at Camaderry in Co. Wicklow, was won by Ger Butler, with Diarmaid Collins 2nd and Colm Hill 3rd; the women's race was won by Niamh O'Boyle with Ciara Largey 2nd and Roz Hussey 3rd. Well done! See results and race reports here.

Look out for ...

Springtime in Westmeath: Mullaghmeen, a wonderful deciduous forest between Oldcastle and Castlepollard, is the venue for the next Leinster Spring Cup event, two weeks after Easter, on April 18th, run by Setanta Orienteers. At this time of year the beech trees are just coming into leaf, the bluebells are pushing up, and it's a rare chance to run in a real live forest. Definitely worth the trip. Details here closer to the event.
The Northern Ireland Championships moves from its traditional September slot to Saturday 19th Juine at Tollymore, near Newcastle, Co. Down, with a night event to follow and more orienteering the next day. More details later.
The Irish and Northern Ireland Trail Orienteering Championships at Castleward and Delamont, Co. Down on 17th/18th April. Details here.

How the Best Train

Finally have a look at this - details of the Swedish World Championships team's training camp in France last week ... here.

Write On: If you have been to any interesting events or have any suggestions or points to raise, why not write about it for The Irish Orienteer?

March News

March Highlights

Watch out in March for the first NIOA Series event of 2010 at Drum Manor, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, on Saturday 6th, the Leinster Spring League event on Dublin's Bull Island (Sunday 7th), the Leinster Secondary Schools Championships at Carrickgolligan, Kilternan, Co. Dublin on the 24th and the Munster Schools Championships at Colligan, Dungarvan, on the 25th, and another Leinster Spring event on a new map of Emo Court, Co. Laois, on the 28th.. The Spring Cup in Denmark is on 27-29th - details here. Full IOA and NIOA fixtures are on the IOA website.

[Question: Where is the area shown on the map? Click to enlarge]

Entries open for Irish Championships

Entries have opened for this year's Irish Orienteering Championships on April 23-25. The events will be in Co. Derry, starting with a sprint race at the Coleraine campus of the NUU on Friday 23rd, followed by the Individual and Relay on an extended map of the intricate open sand dunes of Magilligan. LVO and NWOC are the hosts.
The IOC sprint race will be used for selection for the World Championships sprint and the other IOC races will also be part of the selection process for the Junior World Champs and European Youth Champs.
The cheapest entries are up to 12th April. Visit the web site here.

Irish Tour Portugal

A large group of irish orienteers travelled to the Portugal O-Meet  on February 13-16th at Figueira da Foz, on the coast about 170 km north of Lisbon. the event is traditionally held the weekend before Ash Wednesday, with another competition further north the following weekend.
A group of 11 juniors also took part in the event, run on fast forested sand dunes. The competition featured two long distance and two middle distance races and there was a night sprint event in a small fishing village on the first day as a bit of variety. This was a lot of fun, with tiny lanes barely wide enough to get through, and a run-in along the beach. The main competition provided very fast and technical orienteering and was a great way to spend a few days of a mid-term break. Best of the Irish were Mary Healy (2nd W55), Ruth Lynam (4th W45) and Niamh Corbett (4th W15). The Irish Junior Tour party were ranked 10th out of almost 350 clubs, so they did well.
Results were better in the night sprint event: 1st place to Mary Healy (W55), 2nd to Niamh Corbett (W15), Declan McGrellis (M35) and Ruth Lynam (W45), 3rd to Niamh O'Boyle (W Elite). Full results are here.
Portugal has become a popular destination for orienteering training. with lots of maps, technical runnable forests and (normally) good weather. The event was obviously popular with Scandinavians fleeing the winter, though this year's weather was more like Siberia than Portugal. Veteran globetrotter Peo Bengtsson from Sweden was 1st M70.
The Junior Tour was billed mainly as a training trip rather than a competition, and some useful lessons were learned, not just by the juniors: make sure you have your SI card and compass when you go to the start; check your control codes carefully; it doesn't matter how fast you run if you haven't got all the controls; take that extra quarter second at the control to check that the SI unit beeped.
Next year's event is the first weekend in March but won't coincide with mid-term, so hard luck, Juniors - only the parents can go! (Well, maybe some Transition Year people ...)

Trail-O

Trail-O impresario Alan Gartside would like to hear from anyone wishing to be considered for selection to the Irish teams competing at the World and European Championships in TrailO this summer.  The European Champs are in Sweden from 3rd-7th August and the World Champs are in Norway from 8th-13th August (alongside the FootO World Champs).  A country can enter up to 6 competitors in the Open class in EuTOC and up to 3 in the Open class in WTOC (it can enter similar numbers in the Paralympic classes but he is  unaware of any Irish qualifiers).  The web sites for both competitions can be reached via the IOF web site here.

Alan would be grateful for early responses as the first entry date for the European Champs is fast approaching.

Trail Orienteering, in case you haven't tried it, is a very demanding navigation exercise, requiring you to choose which of several controls in the circle is the correct one. It doesn't require fitness, but good eyesight, excellent map-reading skills and a devious mind are all useful.

Alan can be contacted at atgartside@yahoo.co.uk

To sharpen yoour Trail-O skills, you can try  the Irish Trail-O Championships at Castleward, Co. Down on 17th April and the Northern Ireland Trail-O Championships at nearby Delamont Country Park on April 18th. Details from Alan or from the organisers, Lagan Valley Orienteers.

JK Entries Closing

Individual entries for the Jan Kjellstrom O-Festival in Devon at Easter close on March 12th and Relay entries on March 19th. Details here.

World Masters Entry Limit

Anyone thinking of going to the World Masters O-Championships in Switzerland in early August needs to watch the entry numbers: the event is to be capped at 4500 runners and there were 3300 registered last November. The latest date for registration is 15th May and for payment, 19th June. Details here.

Trooperstown Downhill

GEN ran their second downhill competition at Trooperstown, Co. Wicklow, on 21st February. After a mass-start at the summit of Trooperstown Hill, Andrew Butterfield's course brought the runners south east towards Clarabeg before doubling back with a long leg to control 4, a small snow-covered boulder which caught out the unwary, then continued down into Trooperstown Wood to the finish. While each control was actually at a lower level than the one before, the optimum route involved some climb, and the sub-optimal routes taken by many of the runners involved considerable climb! The course was gaffled (i.e. forked) to prevent following. GEN's Paul Nolan was the fastest on the day, (30.59 for the 4.7 km course) with 3ROC's Ger Butler second and CNOC's Conor Short third. Full results are here.

Junior Training Weekend

The Spring training weekend for the Junior Squad will be on 20/21 March. The usual format will apply - time trials in the Furry Glen at the Phoenix Park in Dublin on Saturday morning, followed by technical training in the afternoon; overnight at Knockree Hostel in Glencree and taking in a race on Sunday. The Sunday competition will be at Trooperstown, Laragh. Details on the Irish Junior O-Squad website here.

Senior squad weekend

A squad weekend is being organised for the weekend of May 8/9 to include the Leinster Champs on the Sunday and an LVO event at Slieve Gullion on the Saturday plus a micro event on Saturday evening.
The weekend will be based around Carlingford and is open to all squad members. IOA are extending the invitation to all older juniors who want to get a feel for the senior squad. More details to follow.
Also, something to think about is organising a squad get-together at this years Irish champs to catch up on all the squad business.

IOA Elite Funding
Good news on the money front - Despite all the recent gloomy economic news the Elite funding grant from the IOA has remained the same as previous years at €15k.
Although it may sound like a lot, it has to go a long way. New O-kit, major competitions and training account for most.
The IOA are investing a lot in the Elite squad and we should provide as much of a return as possible by striving for that wee bit extra - training hard, orienteering hard! and then writing about it afterwards.
All team members should be writing up event reports so that the IOA and Irish orienteers in general get to know what they are getting from us for their money - Ivan Millar.

Dublin Treasure Hunt

Orienteers in Dublin might like to try a kind of street-O on Saturday March 13th. The St Patrick's Day Festival treasure hunt starts at City Hall between 10 and 1.00. It involves visiting a number of locations and getting a card stamped at each. Take your time or run it, but you must take at least 2 hours. Time yourself accurately and cross the line at 2.00.01 to be in with a chance of winning! Details here.

[The map at the top of the page is an O-map of the Victoria Crater on Mars - from World of O].