Welcome to the 11th Edition of NNews – a (roughly!) quarterly newsletter from Northern Navigators.
The newsletter contains details of upcoming events and contributions from our members. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this edition.
This newsletter was put together by Thomas Puschmann and Matthew Foskett.
Please let us know (northernnavigators@gmail.com) if you have any comments or wish to contribute to any future editions.
Upcoming Events
Note: Some details are provisional, always look at the website of the organising club for final details.
Sat 20th Dec 2025–Autumn Series No 4; Summerhill Country Park, Hartlepool (CLOK, Local)
Sun 21st Dec 2025–Plessey Christmas special; Plessey Woods Country Park, Bedlington (NATO,Local)
Fri 26th Dec 2025–Boxing Day Charity Score; Houghall Woods, Durham (NN,Local)
Sun 4th Jan 2026–New Year’s Relays; Flatts Lane Country Park, Eston (CLOK, Local)
Sun 11th Jan 2026–Bolam Local; Bolam Lake, Newcastle upon Tyne (NATO, Local)
Sun 25th Jan 2026–Long Distance Regional Event; Wilton Woods, Eston (CLOK, Regional)
Edinburgh Big Weekend
Fri 23rd Jan 2026–Edinburgh Big Weekend – Fight with the Night; Edinburgh (EUOC, Regional)
Sat 24th Jan 2026–Edinburgh Big Weekend – City Race (SOUL 1); Edinburgh (EUOC, Regional)
Sun 25th Jan 2026–Edinburgh Big Weekend – Classic; Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh (EUOC, Regional)
Sun 25th Jan 2026–Long Distance Regional Event; Wilton Woods, Eston (CLOK Regional)
Sun 22nd Feb 2026–CompassSport Cup Heat; Beacon Hill, Penrith (BL, National)
Sat 14th Mar 2026–Killingworth Urban; Killingworth (NATO, Regional)
Sat 14th Mar 2026–BL Miltonrigg Wood; Miltonrigg Wood, Brampton (BL, Local)
Sat 28th March 2026–Elemore Country Park, Hetton le Hole (NN, Local)
Sat 18th Apr 2026–Spring Local Series 2; Newburn Country Park, Newburn (NATO, Local)
Sun 26th April 2026–Low Burnhall, Durham [TBC] (NN, Local)
Sat 20th June 2026–Herrington Country Park, Herrington[TBC] (NN, Local)
Sat 3rd October 2026–October Odyssey Day 1 (NN, National)
Sun 4th October 2026–October Odyssey Day 2 (NN, National)
Sun 1st November 2026–Roker, Sunderland [TBC] (NN, Local)
We also have a weekly club night on Wednesdays at 6.30pm in the vicinity of Durham City. Contact northernnavigators@gmail.com for further details.
Boxing Day Score 2026
Our annual Boxing Day Charity event is back – all levels of experience welcome!
It’s on the University Estates again this year, with a mass start at 11am. This year we are raising money for the Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue.
Find all the details on the website.
Membership Renewals
It’s the time of year to renew your NN and British Orienteering membership for 2026.
NN membership fees are £10 per senior, £5 per young adult, £18 per family (at least 2 people at the same address) with juniors remaining free. Your fees help us to provide:
- Free entry to CompassSport Trophy heat (and final?)
- Subsidised relay entry fees at JK or BOC
- Subsidised O tops
- Free maps for club night which continues to run successfully each week
- Help us to continue our programme of events throughout the year
- Lots of social events and food!
Membership can be renewed on the British Orienteering website.
British Orienteering fees are £17 per Senior, £11 per Young Adult, £5 per junior and £39 per family, see details here.
AGM
Thanks to everyone who came to the AGM, the committee for 2026 is as follows:-
Officers:
Chair – Boris Spence
Secretary – Debby Warren
Treasurer – Kath Marshall-Ivens
Fixtures – Debby Warren
Membership Secretary – Allen Banister
Mapping Officer -Julian Warren
Junior Rep – Jacob Li
Welfare Officer – Wenhai Li
Publicity and Social Media – Matthew Foskett, Dave Peel and Thomas Puschmann
Results – Allen Banister
Activities Secretary – Julian Warren
Website – Allen Banister
Other members without portfolio: Kate Hampshire, Aileen Congreve, Cath Lawlor, Dougie Nisbet.
Wednesday Clubnights
Our weekly club training continues to be well attended and a popular way to focus on technique or fitness. The venue changes each week, usually within a 5-mile radius of Durham, and is operated via a WhatsApp group. If you would like to join, contact Debby, and you will be added to the group. Alternatively, the details are put on the website each week (usually by Monday).
NN Events in 2026
For 2026 we have a series of local events to put in your diaries – see the fixture in this newsletter, on the website or on British Orienteering. Some venues are still to be confirmed, but we are aiming to plan courses that will build on existing skills and be suitable for beginners. We are always on the lookout for new recruits to our sport so if you know anyone who might be interested… You will see that we are hosting the October Odyssey weekend this year which is one of the more important events on the North East calendar – please keep the dates free and consider volunteering to help.
If you are interested in getting some planning/organising/controlling experience, signing up for one of the local events would be an ideal place to start. I know taking on a role like this is a bit daunting if you’re new, but we really appreciate the help and it means it’s not such a heavy burden for a small number of individuals. Simply speak to one of the committee or drop an email to northernnavigators@gmail.com. Thanks in advance.
Club Christmas Meal
As usual our Club Christmas meal will be in January! Keep an eye out for a poll soon from Dave to confirm date and location. It is currently anticipated to be middle of January at Nadon Thai in Durham City, however he is always open to listening to suggestions!
Highlight Events of Early 2026
Dave Peel
Some highlight larger events over the next few months…
Edinburgh Big Weekend, Fri-Sun 23-25 Jan
Always an excellent weekend starting with a Friday night event; this year based at Braid Hills and on a newly redrawn map, so the vegetation etc should hopefully be accurate. The Saturday event is an urban event in the central part of Edinburgh, so expect lots of vennels, steps and maybe multilevel areas. The Saturday night is the excellent ceilidh which always has a great welcoming atmosphere and includes a raffle that NN members have historically done well at! The Sunday will see us once again exploring Arthur’s Seat so expect lots of climb, areas of confusing gorse and hopefully great views. Normally there is an NN catch up and food after at a cafe. https://euoc.co.uk/bigweekend/
Brimham Rocks, Sun 8th Feb
A great area for orienteering, with lots of complex rock features to crawl around looking for the cunningly placed controls, be sure to check your control descriptions as to which crag, cave etc. to look in. It’s probably another good bring and share food opportunity. https://www.claro-orienteering.org.uk/wp/brimham-rocks-middle-distance-regional-event-sunday-8th-february-2026/
CompassSport Cup Heat, Sun 22nd Feb
The team event where we always have a great picnic and also do a bit of orienteering, its at Lazenby Banks this year on the North Yorkshire Moors, so it’s probably a decent area; that being said the controller needs careful watching! https://www.clok.org.uk/events2026/260222_Lazenby.htm
Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering 2026 (the JK) Perthshire, 3rd-6th April
A great multi day event which features a sprint on the Friday in Perth, followed by forest events on the Sat and Sun and a team relay on the Monday. The event uses high quality areas and the maps are usually to a very good standard. NN are usually well represented and we even had people on the podium at last year’s JK in Sheffield. https://www.thejk.org.uk/index.php?pg=491
Vampire O – Low Burnhall Woods
Oliver Puschmann
For this year’s vampire-o, my mother and I started off as non vampires. We ran about 200 meters and hid behind a bush with our headtorches lights switched off. After waiting for about 2 minutes we saw the ghostly silhouettes of the runners who started off as vampires hoping to find people.
After they left we ran around lots of the controls in the north east of the map, once we had completed this we tried to head south but sadly someone (a vampire) had hidden themself well and gained our grand total of four points.
When we were vampires (which was a very long time) we went to the east of the map hoping to find all the points in the field, (sadly they were all hiding in the forest laughing at us) now we headed north and found a runner sitting at the control just waiting for us to pass by (knowing that we aren’t allowed to enter the control or wait at a control for someone to leave.)
Once we had left there we sat on a bench for about one minute hoping to look unsuspicious for the next runner to pass us so we could leap out and tag them, nobody did :(. I was getting cold so we decided to move on. This time we headed west up a bank and finally got really close to someone. We tug someone but by that time they were hurling themselves down a bank at a maddening speed. After we had given up on trying to get them they shouted up at us ‘do you want the map’ we said no because we could get someone faster than him by staying at the top due to the fact that it was very close to the end.
We hid behind a branch about 50 meters before the finish hoping that someone would come barrelling past us and we leap out and catch them in the end we nearly caught two people but both of them had close shaves getting past us. Just before the 45 minutes was up we caught someone with the winning map which had 18 control points in.
I really enjoyed the vampire o this year but it would be better if:
- The control density was higher and all the controls were in the north of the map.
- You only need to get within 1m of someone to consider them tug
- You can’t stay inside a control circle for more time than it takes to punch it.
- Vampires don’t have a red light, you just trust nobody to prevent teaming.
- Vampires are set off one minute after everyone else not two.
- A different place for the vampire o would make it more interesting.
60 seconds with…..Clare Baker!!!!
Clare Baker answering questions from the Warrens
What’s your role in the club?
Keen club member and occasional volunteer
How long have you been orienteering?
30 Years!
How did you get into the sport?
My parents wanted to try something new – they were into climbing and my dad liked fell running – and orienteering sounded like a new challenge. My sister and I were so keen we made the whole family keep on going.
What’s your warm-up routine?
Running to the start, as I’m normally cutting it fine.
What’s your best result?
Various places in races in foreign countries, many quite a while ago and I can’t actually remember! Generally I’ve had my best results in sprint races and there’s a few standout club relay runs over the years which I’m proud of.
What do you eat before your run?
Breakfast, lunch, cake, whatever’s going really
Thumb compass or base-plate?
Thumb compass, but I use it like a base plate
Do you take compass bearings?
Yes but I’m still practising
What’s your favourite orienteering area?
I’ve been lucky enough to orienteer in some amazing forests in Australia, Scandinavia, Portugal amongst others and I really couldn’t tell you my favourite, there’s too many to choose from.
Lycra or baggy?
Lycra
Moorland or forest?
Forest
Urban or cross country?
Cross country unless it’s a proper short sprint race!
Do you pace count?
Yes
What’s your worst mistake?
The classic 180° errors (thankfully mainly when I was younger).
Are you a results nerd?
Not at the moment but I used to be.
What do you think of Routegadget?
It’s great and I should probably use it.
JIRCs 2025
Thomas Puschmann
At the end of September, the JIRCs took place in the Lake District. The JIRCs are the Junior Regional Championships, and each of the 12 regions can take up 24 juniors aged 12 to 18.
On Saturday morning, Ollie, Jacob and I drove to a layby where we met the other 5 North East Juniors who were going. We headed straight to the first day’s event: the individual race on Torver Back Common. I had a very late start, so I just talked to the friends I had made on Lagganlia and ate lunch, ready for my run. I started at about 2, and the area was highly technical and challenging, with lots of contour detail, boulders and crags. The course led us through some steep woodland, out onto a large open area where it was much easier to navigate and back into the same woodland for the finish. Throughout the run, a large train of M14s built up, until there were about 10 of us running together. This made it much harder to make a mistake, but also meant you didn’t really think about your route and just followed the people ahead. Overall, I came 8th, which I was extremely pleased with.
After the orienteering, we all went to Ulverston school, where we were staying that night. We dried off, had showers and played football in the rain before a delicious dinner of lasagne and garlic bread. Then there was a ceilidh organised by the Scottish junior squad. At some point, it was lights out, and everyone pretended to go to sleep.
The next morning, after a quick breakfast, we packed up all of our stuff and drove to Haverigg Sand Dunes for the relays. Sadly, because there are so few orienteers in the North East, I had to form an Ad Hoc team with two people from Wales. At about 9, the girls’ relays started with the W16s, the W14s and then finally the W18s. It was the same format for the boys, except we started about 10 minutes later, so the area didn’t get too full. My first leg runner was an M16 from Wales, and once he eventually came back, I started. It was a very challenging area, as dunes often are, but unlike somewhere like South Gare, the dunes were really tall and distinct, so navigation was more straightforward. Although I was only the second leg runner, most teams had already finished, so I had to run extremely carefully, or it would be hard to relocate. I wasn’t running too badly, but I did make some big mistakes that gave me a time of about 30 mins, while first place was just over 20.
Overall, I really enjoyed the weekend, as it was some really fun orienteering, and it was good to meet up with orienteering friends from Lagganlia. Also, NEJS improved from last year, moving from 9th to 8th.
Run GMC – a different kind of mountain marathon
Julian Warren
This is an event organised by a small team from Grampian Orienteers, hence the name, which is always held in the Cairngorm area of Scotland. More of a mountain challenge than a mountain marathon. I have competed on four occasions over the past 8 years 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2025. The event started in 2010.
There are a few features which make it different to the more famous MM’s. Firstly, it is much smaller and is limited to 120 competitors. There is an overnight campsite but you don’t need to carry your tent etc. with you, it is transferred by trailer to the venue, this means you only have to carry a small rucksack with waterproofs, hat, gloves, headtorch and food with you for a day in the hills. The other unique selling point is that it is a mountain/forest hybrid. You start in the forest on a 1:10000 map and then move to a 1:40000 scale map on the open hillside on the first day then the reverse on the second day. The forest uses a traditional O map and symbols whilst the mountain is based on an OS style map (see images).
Navigation in the forest is straightforward with leg lengths of 500m or so and a good path network. Hill running was more challenging with legs of several km, few paths/tracks and deep heather.
The weather was unseasonably warm for northern Scotland with temperatures forecast to hit 19 degrees with little wind. There was some rain in the morning contrary to the forecast but this cleared to give sunny spells.
We started well with no problems in the forest, all very familiar from day 5 at the Scottish 6 Days. The first control on the hills was straightforward with a steep climb up a track it was after this that we realized the enormity of what lay ahead. The heather was almost waist deep in places and we resolved to keep to paths/tracks as much as possible. This strategy worked well for 8 to 9 but we misjudged the time saving using the track from 10 to 11 by dropping down to the valley and then having a very steep climb up a very good track to avoid more heather bashing. We finished in good time (not last, 10 out of 16) with plenty of daylight to setup camp and enjoy the autumn sunshine.
The overnight camping was on the banks of the river Dye which not only provided a water source but also a bathing spot for the very hardy because it was mighty nippy.
Day 2 looked daunting with more deep heather but the planner was kind to us and there were more viable track/path options which we willing took, one of which was a repeat of the steep track climb 10 to 11. A case of déjà vu.
Reviewing our routes for both days on Route Gadget we were not that different from other competitors except for the long track route on day 1 which did lose us time. Overall we finished 8th (some teams didn’t finish both days) which was acceptable. Would I do it again? Only if I knew that the heather was going to be short!
Tim Watkins Trophy and Lake District Weekend 21st – 23rd November 2025
A Lake District weekend of running, hiking and orienteering by Andrew Stimson
I began the weekend on a dark Friday evening with a cautious drive (there had been recent snow and ice) over the moors from Stanhope to Brough where I left my car and got in with Dave, Matthew and Wenhai who had driven from Durham in Dave’s car. We carried on to Coniston where we had arranged to stay with Matthew’s Grandparents for the weekend arriving around 9 in the evening.
I was up again before 7 the next day to have breakfast and get lunch and running / walking gear ready for the day. Although I felt like more of a lie in after a busy week and late arrival we needed to leave around 8 to get to the parkrun over at Muncaster Castle around 40 minutes drive away. When we arrived it was quite uncomfortable getting out of the car into the wind and rain but wasn’t so bad once we got round into the briefing area which was more sheltered. The run was 3 laps in the shape of a wonky lollipop with an uphill out and downhill back followed by a run around the castle (according to my Garmin it had 69m of ascent by comparison it says my local parkrun at Hamsterley forest has 92m). It wasn’t my quickest parkrun recently at 24:08 (I felt I could have got under 23 minutes if more on form) but I got into it after a couple of laps and managed a quick finish.
Wenhai, Dave, Matthew and I after running Muncaster Castle parkrun.
After the parkrun we stopped in the café for tea and cake and had a look at maps and guidebooks as we had decided to do a walk before heading back to Coniston. Although Black Combe hill sounded interesting, we decided against it due to the low cloud and instead opted for a circuit of hills around Devoke Water instead. We also had a look at the vultures before leaving Muncaster (critically endangered hooded vultures – necrosyrtes monachus).
When we arrived at the parking location at the start of a short track to Devoke Water the weather wasn’t too bad but very shortly after setting out along the track we were met with heavy rain made worse by strong winds. We had a look at the boathouse, but it provided no shelter as it was locked and only looked to be accessible by wading in through the boat exit (probably a really pleasant boating location in the summer but not on a cold and wet November day).
The boathouse at Devoke water looking gloomy in the rain
We then turned back along the track thinking to head straight back to the car however part way along the weather improved and we decided to try the first hill on our planned circuit (Rough Crag). Having got up here we decided we wanted a view back to Muncaster Castle so went up Water Crag as well. White Pike was the next hill in the circle but the cloud didn’t look like it would budge from it so we went back around the lake, past the boathouse a second time and back to the car.
Looking back to Devoke water from Water Crag once the weather had improved.
We arrived back at Matthew’s Grandparents’ house by mid-afternoon and relaxed for a while before enjoying homemade hotpot followed by Cartmel sticky toffee pudding for tea. The house has a view of the lake which was nice even in grim November weather. In the evening I played a bit of piano and we all played the 80th birthday card game.
Sunday was orienteering day. We got a bit more of a lie in as we didn’t need to leave until around 9:30. We turned down a tempting offer to head back for lunch after as we wanted to drive home in the light and made sandwiches instead. The Tim Watkins Trophy (run by SROC) is a mass start, long distance race inspired by the famous Norwegian Blodslitet and was renamed the Tim Watkins Trophy in memory of Tim who died in a car accident in March 2005. Tim was instrumental in introducing this demanding race to the UK and had already organised the first two races. It is usually held every 18 months in March or November. In the Mass start courses A-D are available with a range of courses from A-D plus a blue, green and short green. My age class course would have been A but I decided I wasn’t that keen on 17K or a 1:15,000 map so ran down and did the 12km C course instead (and lost out on UK Elite league points for which I would have had to have done course A – oh well!). The exit from the car was into the now familiar cold wind and rain. The car radio had been playing the Rihanna um-ber-ella(ella ella) pop song which seemed appropriate although of no practical use when running!
Mass start for courses C+D – Photo from Flickr with permission from Alex Finch
(I am in the centre in bright yellow)
My course had 28 controls and even though long still was very much traditional O requiring frequent fine navigation (by contrast on a mountain marathon you would likely have fewer controls and on some legs might be able to identify a distant feature to aim for and then run for several minutes without needing to look at the map). The courses had gaffles meaning each course had a number of versions for series of gaffled controls. The chances are whoever you are behind in the lead up to the gaffle will have a different version – so blindly following at this point is unwise.
Route gadget map extract (my route in green) with gaffled C4-9 and other legs discussed.
My course was gaffled from numbers 4-9 (see map extract) – this means some people will have gone an alternative order (4-8-6-7-5-9). I think I generally navigated relatively cleanly although a couple of exceptions were control 10 (where aiming for the bolder on the SE side of the control circle might have been a better strategy) and control 25 to 26 where I didn’t look ahead at the leg and ended up running into gorse and needed to backtrack several times (I dropped 2 places on this leg). I possibly should have gone to the east of the second gorse area as well to stay closer to the direct line although this would have involved around 10m more climb. I finished 9th out of 31 on course C in a time of 120:11and 18:25 behind the winner. One downside of the 1:10,000 map was needing a bulky A3 compared to the A4 for the 1:15,000. Matthew did the A course and when I looked at his map after I thought it didn’t look as hard to follow as I remember for that scale (but who knows how I would have got on had I given it a go!). Overall a cheerful weekend of adventures and exercise in spite of poor weather.
White Rose 2025
Debby Warren
A bunch of NNers went to the White Rose in Dalby Forest this year. This, if you don’t know, is a series of orienteering events/activities held over the August bank holiday weekend. It is renowned for its holiday vibe; taking place as it does at the end of the holiday season, it is the last chance to get some relaxed orienteering in before you get back on the hamster wheel. The format is fairly traditional: Friday – a night event, Saturday – a middle/long, Sunday – a middle/long, Monday – a sprint. An event campsite is provided so that competitors can walk to the events (although you don’t have to camp), and over the course of the weekend, various other activities are provided to entertain the happy campers. Here’s a run-down of what happened when NN landed at the White Rose……..
Friday
Arrived around 5 to grab a good pitch for NN. Priorities were 1. Not too far from the toilets 2. Flat. Pretty basic facilities, no showers!! Washing comprised of a bucket of water outside the tent and you brushed your teeth by the hedge but you soon got used to it. Drove to the night event for a 9 pm mass start. We took the wrong turning; not a good start, given it was only about 1km away – a lot of shouting accompanied our 1km drive (lol). The night event was fun. Barney overcame his fears (the last White Rose night event he attended resulted in him breaking his femur and being stretchered out by Mountain Rescue), and we all got back safely without incident—some results worth mentioning: Thomas 4th on MJ and Barney 4th on MO.
Saturday
The rest of the NN crew arrived, so now we totaled 13 happy campers.
The NN pitch
Walked to the Middle Distance event. It was a lovely day. The area was a good mix of physical and technical legs. Best result of the day: Thomas 4th on Light Green, Ollie 4th on Orange. We spent a chilled afternoon trying to do the traditional and notoriously tricky Whiterose quiz.
Sunday
Another good day weather-wise. The classic distance was split between a flat forested section and open fast farmland. Best results were: Clare 3rd on Short Blue and Ollie 3rd on Orange. In the afternoon Jacob, Ollie, Thomas, Fin and Evs competed in the hill race adjacent to the campsite. This involves trying to be the fastest to run down a hill, up the other side, back down and up to the start again. It was a great spectacle culminating in the two fastest competing in a head to head race. Kudos to little Evs who was determined to win the prize for the most attempts if not the fastest.
Jacob and Thomas at the hill race
Later we attended the prize-giving at the marquis. Various prizes were on offer: quiz winners, hill race, maze and overall winners amongst others. EBOR are famous for their ubiquitous mugs (I’m sure we’ve all got one in the back of the cupboard somewhere) and this year was no exception. NN had two podiums: well done to Clare who came 2nd on W45L and Aileen also 2nd on W45S. That evening the organisers put on a BBQ outside the marqees which was an opportunity to socialize with others on the campsite.
Clare on the podium
Aileen on the podium
Monday
We had a short drive to the parking for the sprint event, Jacob only just making it on his bike because Wenhai’s car had broken down (one of 3 to need RAC breakdown rescue on the campsite that day, bizarrely). The usual format for a sprint – fast, furious and fun. Loads of paths through the forest and controls everywhere meant you had to keep your head. Notable results today: Ollie 4th on MYJ, Clare 1st on WV, Barney 4th on MO. Then back to the campsite to pack up all the gear. Thanks to EBOR’s hard work, the weekend was a great success, and there was a real holiday atmosphere (the good weather helped!), whetting my appetite for next year.
GPS and Mapping
Allen Banister
As many of you know, I am an advocate of using GPS. For competitions, I encourage people to upload GPS tracks to Routegadget, there are guides to help you if you haven’t done this before or just ask me on a Wednesday night.
We use Maprun regularly on a Club Night, but I also use it when controlling events. It’s an aid for both control location accuracy, but also checking the map itself.
That leads me to using GPS for mapping. To help with mapping, I have been exporting a .kmz file from Open Orienteering Mapper and then setting up Maprun checksites so I can follow my position on the map. When visiting an area, I have paper copies of the map for recording features, but also drop pins in Maprun Checksites and make notes on what the pin is highlighting. This works well in mainly open areas, but the GPS location accuracy under tree cover can be variable.
Recently while updating the vegetation in Houghall Woods (tree cover and steep slopes both work against a good GPS location) I borrowed a Samsung tablet and did a GPS comparison:
- My Garmin Fenix 5 plus watch – in the top of my rucksack rather than on my wrist.
- My iPhone 13 mini – to be fair this was in my trouser pocket, so probably not ideal.
- A Samsung A7 lite (thanks Julian) – in hand with my clipboard.
Note: by default, the Garmin uses just GPS. There is an option to use GPS+Galileo or GPS+Glonass. To be fair, I haven’t run a comparison of the three different options. In theory, as Galileo is European, it “should” be best for the UK. On this one comparison, my vote would be for the Samsung tablet, justified by the snippets below.
Colour code – Blue is Garmin (using GPS and Galileo), Purple is iPhone, Red is Samsung.
In Little high Wood – I was walking the (newly drawn) path, the Garmin was a long way out:
In Houghall, the Garmin shows me incorrectly going down the slope a long way:
While descending a slope slowly, the Samsung was the most stable; as you can see below, the iPhone’s location was fluctuating a lot. I dropped onto the lower path, and the Samsung shows this well; the iPhone has shown me crossing the fence into the field:
In a fairly open area, the Samsung track followed the path best:
So whilst none of these are perfect, I will be using a Samsung tablet on future mapping expeditions. For those interested, to improve accuracy to theoretically within a 1m radius or less would require an external GNSS device linked to the tablet. Have a look here, https://www.ardusimple.com/product/simplertk2blite-bt-case-kit/. I am waiting for feedback from another orienteer who is borrowing one of these to have a go.
There is an added advantage of the tablet: Open Orienteering Mapper is available as an Android App (unfortunately not on iOS). So instead of dropping pins in Maprun on my phone, I was able to draw directly onto a copy of the map. As well as recording the drawing changes, the Samsung also stored a track of the trip in gpx format. Early days, but I found it very useful on this first trial.
Steel City Cup
Matthew Foskett
Indoor events are a bit of a rarity and so when one nearby appears on the calendar it always creates a bit of interest. This year it was an indoor event at Sheffield Student Union as part of the Steel City Weekend. 8 NN and a former NN duly signed up and sorted accommodation. Unfortunately, this was flu season and two had to drop out in the lead up to the event. This left Elizabeth, Paul, Dave, Barney, Debby, Julian and myself to make our way to Sheffield by train and car on the Friday night.
It was an early-ish start on the Saturday morning (to allow us to be out of the Student Union before the students appeared!) for the first event – the Indoor-O. We navigated the trams to get into Sheffield City Centre and found a spot in the Assembly area. There was a bit of a scramble for our bib numbers. Elizabeth obviously looked in the know as a random stranger asked her questions about the organisation!
The start was fast and furious with a spacing of ~20 seconds between starters (two gaffle options to try to split people up). I was towards the end of the NN grouping who all started in pretty close proximity. With the fast paced start I hadn’t had time to fully work out my position on the blank map so there was some initial slowness to work out where I actually was… After that I was pretty happy from to 1 and 2.
The course included lots of barriers and one way only sections. This caused me confusion for control 3 – I could not work out how to get away from control 2 in an allowable manner! As you can see from the map extract you cannot get out if you go back up stair “C” nor down stair “D” and the other indoor ways out are blocked. Dave was also hovering by control 2 in a state of confusion. Eventually I spotted the doorway connection “E”. In the rush to get away I then proceeded up stairs “D” – I hadn’t realised you couldn’t continue up to Level 4 when coming from Level 2 – I was back at Control 2 (as was Dave). We both needed to do an additional loop to get back around and finally go up stair “G” and then the Level 3 to 4 part of “D”. In total this leg took me 8 minutes 40 seconds (for context the winning time was 22:49 overall!). After this I started to settle into the course. There was pressure from Dave close on my heels, but I pulled away on the way to control 7.
The barriers and one way sections still posed a challenge – a good example was 9 to 10 where I think I went down stairs “C”, outside and then back up “G”. I tended to favour doing the outside loop via the door at “E” (now I had found them!), but did also make use of stairs “F” for some of my loops between the floors. Every control required a good amount of thought with the exception of control 14 (leading to me double guessing if this was too simple!). By the gaffled section I was seeing Barney, Elizabeth and Paul doing similar legs. Control 17 confused me for a moment due to the stair direction arrows – I thought it was one way for a second. Barney had bigger trouble here though and went down stairs “H” only to realise there was a wall in the way.
I finished in 40:26. This put me second in the NN competitors to Elizabeth (38:47), with Barney and Paul close behind. We were all well off the winning time, but everyone enjoyed it. The blockages and constant route choice considerations meant this was definitely the hardest of the indoor events which I had done.
Next up was lunch back at the house (or a Christmas market for E&P) before taking the tram to Halfway (confusingly the end of the line) for the 2×2 relays. For this two people ran two legs each (alternating). Gaffling meant you covered all the controls over the two courses. This was being controlled by NN’s own Maya (also SHUOC). I was in team NN NN NN NN with Barney (sorry Barney) and had been asked to take first leg. This meant I was in the mass start – we were walked across the road to the start kite and set off on a count of 10. I paused to look at my map for a split second longer than I planned and spotted I could take a right turn rather than following the masses straight on. A few others also went this way. The course was busy and fast paced, with some areas to get you thinking. I was pretty happy with my first run, although I overthought the levels for control 17 – going up the ramp rather than the stairs. Paul got ahead of me at that point. I came through the changeover and tagged Barney for him to begin.
My second course was a bit slower – I found control 7 a challenge, loosing valuable seconds getting confused with the three level section. I ended up going around by the road! This had been covered by the details (3 level sections are not really mappable via the usual methods), but in the during the sprint I couldn’t really remember what it had said! I’d definitely slowed towards the end, but Barney picked up the metaphorical baton to bring home xth place (results not available at time of writing!). Elizabeth (despite taking a tumble requiring first aid) and Paul, Julian and Debby and Dave (minus partner) all put in good showings for NN.
We caught the tram back to base and prepared rice and guacamole to enjoy with a veggie chilli pre-prepared by Julian. The evening included much chatter and catching up, with Dave particularly enjoying the chocolate.
Sunday brought a ‘Classic’ style event on Ramsley Moor. This was out of Sheffield itself, but Paul and Elizabeth kindly offered Dave and myself a lift out to the event (thanks). The parking was right in the wind and we were all pretty frozen just checking out where Assembly was. Debby, Julian and Barney arrived – we hid in their car for a few minutes trying to decide what to wear…
It was a 1.8km walk / jog to the start – this was down in the valley and without the wind so much warmer. I’d gone with a jacket and gloves over my short sleeved top but removed the gloves before starting. I was on the black course and the first control was pretty simple. Control 2 gave more of a hint as to what was to come – navigationally straight forward, but over boggy, tussocky terrain. To Control 3 I had to cross more bog and then trust my compass bearing to find a re-entrant – it was pretty much spot on and I was lucky that a few people left the control site as I approached. That control was probably the one with the most navigational risk – after that it was more of a physical battle…
I encountered a very yappy dog at Control 5 and so in my haste to leave the area ended up too far south on the way to Control 6. Luckily, relocation was easy and I was soon back on my way. Progress was still hard work under foot and out of the wind it was far warmer so I paused to remove my jacket at Control 7. I’d rather enjoy my run, than be too competitive (which is good as I’m too slow anyway!), in contrast Barney came flying past to overtake me here as I dawdled sorting out my coat. He was concentrating hard on his race with no time for hello. Moving even faster than Barney was the deer that crossed my path.
I took a slightly different bearing to Barney. He later described his bearings as “wobbly” throughout. I would say my bearing was initially good past the wall on my right and the boulder pretty much on my path. After this I drifted way north as I encountered some of the biggest grass tussocks I’ve ever tried to cross. My pace, which had been very much walk-run anyway, dropped as I tried to trace my way across the swathes of grass. The problem was that the tussocks weren’t solid enough to run on top of, but walking along the water filled meandering ditches in between was very hard work and not at all direct. Eventually I reached the other side and corrected my bearing, heading south to number 8.
Number 8 was inside a tree within a bog. You then had to continue across this bog to number 9. Barney found a pond somewhere here, I avoided this, but it was still very wet. I tried to skirt the bog on my way to 10 but just found more bog. I was pleased that despite the slow movement, my navigation was fine. 11, 12, 13 was more runnable and had great views over the Peak District.
The turnover to 14 was disappointing – I needed to retrace my steps over the grasslands of doom… It felt a bit like “Going on a bearhunt”. Initially I went for a straight line route through it all – thinking there was not an easy way to go around. I changed my mind when a nice runnable path crossed my line. I took this path passed the water tank and onwards to my number 10. I then kept north on the grassland aiming at the post marking an underground pipe. This was far more runnable and a bearing from here brought me nicely to 14 – far nicer than my route to 8. I enjoyed a fast downhill from 15 only to have a final swamp to cross at the bottom. 16 to 20 was pretty simple. As I was finishing Dave was just leaving the finish but like Barney he remained silent, another serious orienteer. Supposedly he didn’t see me in his quest to catch Julian who had also just finished. Between them they must have used all the battery at download so the printer was not working – but was still able to accept downloads at least.
After lunch Julian kindly dropped Dave and I back in Sheffield so we didn’t have to wait in the wind for the bus (thank you). We enjoyed some culture with piano being played in the station, artwork and metalwork in the Millenium Gallery and singing in the Winter Gardens. Dave then had a very fancy chai latte which required him to use a sieve. After that we boarded the train and headed back to Durham.
It had been a lovely weekend with lovely company – 3 excellent races with a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. There’s more opportunities for orienteering trips away in the new year with Edinburgh Big Weekend, the JK and more after that – anyone is always welcome to join and if there is a weekend of events which takes your fancy it is worth asking on the training WhatsApp or via email etc if others would be keen to join.
Please send any contributions for the next newsletter to northernnavigators@gmail.com by Sunday 1st of February
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!