Welcome to the 13th 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. 

October Odyssey

Don’t forget – the deadline for online entries to October Oddyssey is tonight – Sunday (27th September) 23:59! Don’t miss out! Find all the details and a link to enter at October Odyssey Weekend Day 1 – Saturday 3rd October and October Odyssey Weekend Day 2 -Sunday 4th October 2026

We are also still really needing more assistance on the day for these events – please contact Debby or northernnavigators@gmail.com if you can help.

Upcoming Events

Note: Some details are provisional; always look at the website of the organising club for final details.

3 Oct 2026-October Odyssey Day 1; Chopwell Woods, Gateshead (NN, National)
4 Oct 2026-October Odyssey Day 2; Edges Green, Haltwhistle (NN, National)
11 Oct 2026-Long Distance Regional; Standing Stone Rigg, Whitby (CLOK, Regional)
17 Oct 2026-Saturday Local Series 1; Stocksfield, Prudhoe (NATO, Local)
Sun 18 Oct-Compass Sport Trophy Final! Pippingford Park (MVOC, Major)
24 Oct 2026-BL Walltown Country Park; Walltown Country Park, Haltwhistle (BL, Local)
29 Oct 2026-Wilton Golf Course Dusk Local Event; Wilton Golf Course, Wilton (CLOK, Local)

1 Nov 2026-TBC; Roker, Sunderland (NN, Local)
1 Nov 2026-BL Eycott Hill Cumbrian Galoppen; Eycott Hill, Penrith (BL, Regional)
14 Nov 2026-Saturday Local Series 2; Blyth Valley, East Cramlington (NATO, Local)
14 Nov 2026-YHOA Night League Event; Dale Town Moor, Boltby (CLOK, Regional)
15 Nov 2026-North East Score Champs; Dale Town Moor, Boltby (CLOK, Regional)
15 Nov 2026-BL Brampton Urban; Brampton (BL, Regional)
21 Nov 2026-BL Gelt Wood; Gelt Wood, Brampton (BL, Local)
21 Nov 2026-Bradford Grammar School Indoor Race (AIRE, Local)
22 Nov 2026-Washington Urban; Washington (NATO, Regional)

4-6 Dec 2026-Steel City Cup Weekend (Shuoc)
5 Dec 2026-Saturday Local Series 3; Ashington Woods (NATO, Local)
13 Dec 2026-Middle Distance; Cod Beck/Scarth Moor (CLOK, Regional)
20 Dec 2026-Festive Frolics; Plessey Woods, Bedlington (NATO, Local)
26 Dec 2026-Boxing Day Charity Score; 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.

Volunteers

As we approach October Odyssey and the AGM it is a good time to thank everyone who has helped support NN in 2026!

It’d be great to have some new and returning faces leading on events in 2027 – if you are interested in getting some planning/organising/controlling experience, then volunteering to lead on some of the local events or even just a club night would be an ideal place to start. We 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. Support with publicity and any other aspect of the club would also be brilliant. Simply speak to one of the committee or drop an email to northernnavigators@gmail.com. Thanks in advance.

Wednesday Club Nights

Our weekly club training at 6.30pm on a Wednesday 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).

Summer Street-O

Matthew Foskett

Thanks to everyone who’s joined us for our 2026 Summer Street-O series – hope that you’ve all enjoyed it! Apologies some of the events have been relatively short notice.

A special thanks to our planners: Dave, Debby, Barney and Cath. Also particular thanks to Julian and Allen for their help behind the scenes with maps and timing.

Congratulations to Oliver on winning the series! Up from 3rd place last year. Myself and Allen followed in the top 3 with Dave and Debby rounding out the top 5. The lack of a fifth event meant attendance was key, but an honourable mention should go to Chris (298) and Thomas (295) points from 3 events. For full series results take a look here.

Please do drop me a line with any suggestions/volunteers for next year – plan is for ~5no. events from late April or May to early September. 

Lazenby Bank West & Eston Moor

Cath Lawlor

Apologies to Cath – this was meant to be included in the previous edition but was accidentally missed!

The steep hillside, full of brambles, dead bracken, hidden boulders, pits and steep paths stretched ahead. The paths were rutted, muddy, and full of water. Normally, to give myself an easy ride, I stick to paths when I can, but the main paths were so bad they weren’t always the easiest option here.  Under these conditions planning the best route was complicated.

And that was just the journey from base camp to the start line – what would the actual competitive part of the day be like?

Armed with NN compasses, dibbers and whistles we took on the gruelling journey to the start. Daniel, set off first, quietly confident after his strong performance at his first-ever solo mission at Brimham Rocks a few weeks earlier. I followed 10 minutes later, with Rosie bringing up the rear in completely inadequate trainers but a can-do attitude you have to admire.

The start was unusual, with the 4 boxes well-spread out and hidden around sharp bends in the path. I appreciated the less hectic start and I set off on my own a minute later than the person in front. She headed off up the path while I stopped to look at the map early and headed left, off the path and through the dead bracken up the hill – straight to my first control and a small triumph. The second control came fairly easily as well but the third was a different story. I followed the contour of the hill until I came across an earth mound with a path beyond, just inside the tree boundary – all the features I was looking for – and decided I must be roughly in the right place. I spent the next 20 minutes fruitlessly searching high and low for the control until I finally re-assessed, moved on, and found it 20 or 30 m further on and up the hill. After that I was up and out of the woods both literally and metaphorically and the rest of the course was more plain-sailing with the main challenge being keeping going after a lot of wasted energy on control 3.

Interesting highlights of the remainder of the course included what looked like a bear-pit covered with branches and natural debris, some wrecked cars in the small lake, and in some quiet moments, the sighting of deer and hares.

In my second year of orienteering I take my triumphs where I can – a good start, getting back on track after a mistake and managing to finish. My aims for future competitions – avoiding expensive mistakes, less chatting and less telling my competitors where we are!

60 seconds with…

Barney Warren answers questions from the Warrens(!)

What’s your role in the club? I’m just a member but have previously been on the committee as Youth Rep.

How long have you been orienteering? Basically all my life, I started out with my parents back doing string courses, then progressed onto running around Oranges and Light Greens getting horribly lost and crying.

How did you get into the sport? I got into it because of my parents but I would say I was never totally invested when I was younger and then I broke my leg in 2016 and rarely orienteered for 6 years. I only got obsessional in 2022 when I had weekends free and I started taking training more seriously and found enjoyment running around in the wild.

What’s your warm-up routine? Really quite bad, I learned a lot of dynamic stretches and all that sort of stuff when I was in the NEJS but I don’t ever do any of them. More often than not I just jog around until I have to start.

What’s your best result? It would have to be winning the M21E Northern Championships in 2025.

What do you eat before your run? I’ll have toast for breakfast then some sort of biscuit just before. If it’s a long distance I might eat more for breakfast like granola and I always take an energy gel with me.

Thumb compass or base-plate? Thumb can’t be dealing with the faff of having a compass bouncing around on my neck, plus with a thumb its always on your map (if you hold it in your compass hand).

Do you take compass bearings? Yes but not as much as I should.

What’s your favourite orienteering area? I love the forested sand dune areas on the Moray Firth in Scotland, like Roseisle, Culbin or Lossie, they are technically challenging, fast and always fun.

Lycra or baggy? Baggy

Moorland or forest? I used to love forest but I think I’ve swung to moorland now, but that might just be cause I often do better on moorland! I also dislike rough forest as I often find I’m concentrating more on where I put my feet than where I’m going.

Urban or cross country? Cross country there’s nothing better than being out in the middle of nowhere running round like a headless chicken.

What’s your worst mistake? I’ve made quite a few over the years. The one that stands out for me was at High Dam in the Lakes when I’d just moved up to Light Green and I got completely and utterly lost and had no idea where I was. I seem to recall asking for help but I must have been in such a flap that I just got lost again and in the end I was out past course closing time and a search party came out to rescue me!

Are you a results nerd? It depends what mood I’m in, generally at big events I will do a bit of a deep dive. I find geeking prior to a race much more useful, studying the map and your previous errors can genuinely help.

What do you think of Routegadget? I think it’s really useful in a geeky way, linking to what I wrote above you can use it to study your mistakes and hopefully learn from them. Also you can see what routes your rivals took which is particularly useful over longer legs where there is a lot of route choice.

Junior Summer Camps

Well done to Jacob, Ollie and Thomas who all attended junior orienteering training camps over the Summer. These are a great opportunity for Juniors to learn orienteering skills and meet new friends.

Ollie and Jacob have both written about the Silva-O Camp trip to Czechia below:

Ollie Puschmann

On Saturday the 17th of July 2026 I left my home at 3.00am to make my way to the Silva O Camp in Vidnava a small town in the north east of the Czech Republic.

The Way There
I got driven along with a friend to a house in Ponteland where we would get our lift the rest of the way to Edinburgh airport. After a series of long car journeys we were finally at Edinburgh Airport (Terminal 1) We met our coaches and the rest of the North East Junior Squad there for the next stage of our journey. We all managed to get through security and then we had to start boarding the plane. The flight was pretty ryanairish with a super hard touchdown on the runway in Prague. When we had gone through passport control we were kindly met by a member of the o camp staff who led us to the hostel where we were supposed to sleep. Basically none of us slept that night due to the Israelis upstairs having a party basically all night. The next morning at 9 am we were sitting in a very loud coach filled with singing and shouting. THIS made it a very looooooonnnnnnnng bus journey to Vidnava.

Day 1
When we arrived it was raining so we made a dash from the coach to our cabin. Which was cabin 26. We ate our lunch and then we went out to do our first training event which was lots of short courses to get used to the forest. Once we had finished we went back, got changed and then had our dinner. After dinner we then had a disco so that everybody would know each other.

Day 2
On day two we woke up at 6.30am so that we could be in the breakfast queue for 7am. After breakfast we sat around for about an hour getting changed in to o kit to then do memory-o which consisted of doing a 3.5 km course using bits of maps which only show one leg. So you had to remember that one leg because otherwise you would get lost and have to make your way back to the last control. After we had done this training session we headed back to camp for our well deserved lunch. Once lunch was over we went straight out to the forest to do “there and back” which consisted of doing four courses in basically the same area to increase speed. For the first course I did it in 10 mins, for the second I did it in 6 mins and for the 3rd I did it in 3 mins, but for the last I did it in 10 minutes because I got confuddled . After training we went to swim in a lake which was a quarry filled with water. It all worked really well and nobody almost drowned. We went back to camp and had dinner. After dinner we did the Tio Mila where we were split into 16 groups and then did a map memory relay

Day 3
On day three yet again we woke up at 6.30am to get to the breakfast queue for 7am. After breakfast we started the day with the knockout sprint. We could choose one out of four maps that we could run. I chose the shortest course with harder controls rather than the longest course with the easy controls. After the knockout sprint (which went well) we did the uphill challenge where they made us run up a muddy 400m path with 150m of elevation gain and then we did a course back down the hill. In the evening we did the “superpuncher” where we had to punch all of the controls as fast as possible.

Day 4
We woke up at 6.30 (again), had our breakfast and then left to do a middle distance event. I came 34th but I found it a very easy run. In the afternoon we did the relay with our tio mila teams, then it was dinner time. After dinner we did the national parade. The NEJS did a cèilidh. I didn’t join in because they needed an even number of people and somebody wasn’t feeling great so I decided not to do the national parade.

Day 5
We woke up at 6.30am to have our breakfast and then we set out to do mini sprints in the forest. After we had done the mini sprints we went to a different zone and did swiss cheese where we had a map and in between the controls it was all white out so we had to use bearings to get to the control and then relocate. After we had done this we went to the swimming pool and did a triathlon swimming, running and orienteering.

Day 6
On day 6 we woke up at 6.30am. We did o loops with 2 different starts and 4 controls in between. Afterwards we did the sprint – I took 16 minutes with the winning time of 11 minutes.

Day 7
We did the 3rd event of the camp. I came 366 but all of the navigation was easy. Afterwards we did the Olympics which involved doing 12 different sports: 3 legged race, javelin, football and lots more.

Day 8
We woke up at seven so we could get on the coach at 9am to drive to Prague Airport. The drive took 3 hours. Afterwards we went through passport control and then made our way to security where somebody forgot their litre of liquid in their bag. We got to the air quickly, but almost had a wing strike landing.

Jacob Li

Pre-Camp:
On Saturday the 18th of July, me and 7 other juniors and 3 coaches went to Edinburgh airport and flew to Prague. The flight was at 9:00 meaning I had to get there at 6 and get up at 4:00 which was delightful. The flight was 2 hours and there was a 1 hour time difference due to time zones so we landed at 12:00.

Afterwards we were met by a volunteer from the camp who gave us the Prague map and led us onto a bus, into a metro station and then a short walk to the accommodation. To many peoples’ surprise, the Prague Metros were Clean and modern and had Skoda written on them, some even said it was better than London. When we got to the apartment block, we collected our keys and we met with some friendly Israeli children who were very nice but also very lively as they kept singing English Football Chants. They also thought we were Spanish.

After sorting our stuff out, it was time for the boat trip followed by the photo-o so we got our stuff ready and walked with everyone else (the American, Israeli and Portuguese people) to the metro station. It was a short ride to a station where we got off and walked to the wharf. We then got on the boat where we were given poker chips which we could trade in for drinks but we gambled it with each other on Rock Paper Scissors. Then the captain of the boat came out and started speaking about Prague and all the landmarks but there was loads of feedback on the speakers so nobody could hear properly. The boat took us south on the river before turning back and going to wharf again.

We then left and then started the Photo-O which was an urban walk around where the landmarks are controls. We took photos as evidence for reaching the areas. When we started it started raining heavily so we decided to run rather than walk. We went to a total of 7 controls and the landmarks included the astronomical clock, the Charles bridge, Waldstein palace and many others I don’t know the name of. When we got back it started to heat up again so we dried out a bit before getting changed and playing a round of card games.

Afterwards it was dinnertime which was a short 5 minute walk away, the food was a portion of potato omelette and broccoli which was quite good but not the best. Then we walked back, played a few more rounds of cards, then went to bed. Unfortunately, the Turkish people came and decided to be throw a party at midnight so we didn’t get very much sleep.

Day 1
In the morning, we got up at 7:00 ready for breakfast which was a selection of sausages, breads, spreads and yoghurt. It was possibly the nicest breakfast on the entire trip. We were then taken onto a 4h coach drive with one stop in the middle. When we arrived, we got to our cabins and unpacked our stuff ready for the training of the afternoon which was trainers choice. We were put into training groups and our coaches decided we were to do 2 short loops of the area. It was a very nice area however it rained very heavily so we got very wet and the water went quite high so when we got back half of the patches of mud were flooded and there was a long queue for the warm showers.

Afterwards dinner was Creamy Garlic Chicken which tasted really good and then we had the opening announcements where everyone went to the stage to listen. After that they announced the start of the disco and then we went to bed.

Day 2
We got up for breakfast which was whatever we wanted from a selection of sliced bread, bread rolls, ham slices, cheese slices, chocolate cereal, cornflakes, jam, yoghurt and milk. We started our day off with Norwegian map memory which I found pretty fun, it was in a slightly different area with less green forests and I only got lost once when I discovered my route was out of bounds! Overall I enjoy Norwegian map memory but it’s quite challenging and it’s easy to get lost.

Afterwards, we had lunch which was pork chops with rice and gravy, very tasty. Then, we were told we were going to swim in the lake after our next training session but I didn’t think I was a strong enough swimmer but still brought my stuff. The training session was there and back which were 4 short courses around a hill where we had to follow a straight line, my fastest time was 4:11 which was very good compared to my British teammates.

We then took a short walk to the lake which was 50 metres deep, the Czech people dived in quickly followed by William Balfour and a Ukrainian boy, then the girls went in and Oliver said, “I’ll go in if you go in.” He proceeds to jump in causing all the peer pressure on me, I jump in, manage to swim halfway and then start to sink. Thankfully, Becca Simpson, (my British coach) saves me as a trained lifeguard. This story is talked about for the rest of camp and swimming in the lake is now banned.

Dinner was French baked potatoes which was better than lunch and the evening activity was tiomilla relays. We were lined up in our training groups and then they put us into 16 teams of 15, I was team 3. The team leaders were then given an envelope containing 1 dibber, 1 map and a pen. When the organizers said go, we had to send one person at a time to different controls and there were 30 in total, everyone had to do one control each. My team leader decided that all the younger children were doing one each and gave them each a control while the older ones would take the map and run with it to their allocated controls. Now I was given three controls to memorise, one on the edge of the car park, one behind the cabins and one in the river; I got very wet. The run was just a full, all out sprint for most people where they would run as fast as they can. In the end, we finished 4th but we still didn’t know if the teams ahead of us had been disqualified or not so we were given time to rest and sort ourselves out before the final results were read. They started with all the disqualified teams, 7 teams were disqualified in the end, almost half! Our team was not one of them however Will Rowan’s team was. When the top 3 results were read out, mine was 3rd, Oliver’s (team 2) was second and Will Balfour’s (team 1) was first. It was a weird coincidence because Oliver said he thought his team was disqualified but we’ll move on because I won a pair of socks!

Day 3
We got up at the same time and we were then told we were doing knockout sprints, except, they weren’t knockout. So basically we were put in groups of 4 and into four different lanes where we were giving 4 different gaffled courses, I picked the one with the least distance. Rookie mistake. I was doing okay until I had the worst leg ever when I had to ‘run’ (walk) down a steep cliff with many many identical boulders where I checked every one until I found it. Absolute disgrace. I came back 3rd. Sort of knocked out but no one ran another. It was worth it when the coaches gave out free kofola (Czech version of coke with more caffeine and more bitter). Very Refreshing.

Lunch was lamb chops with rice and gravy (very nice) and the Silva O’camp World Cup was announced to be in our tio milla teams. I was playing today because I was in team 3. My leader went around camp asking who was good at football and so I volunteered to go in goal. We were to watch the first match (1 vs 2) in the round of 16 where it went to a penalty shootout because it ended 0-0 and then team 1 won 3-2 on penalties when someone missed. Then it was my match, team 3 vs 4. We took possession and controlled the midfield for most of the game and comfortably won the game 2-0. I touched the ball once on a goal kick. But that didn’t matter because we had our next match in the quarter finals which was our ticket to the semis. Our team once again controlled with very high pressure however it left huge gaps behind the line of defence. We scored the first after a mistake from William Balfour in goal passing to our striker when a defender didn’t receive the pass but then I had to go one on one to their striker twice due to long passes, saving both. Unfortunately, the third time wasn’t the charm for me when the striker finally chipped it over my head. The final few minutes were weak from us, the defence dropped back massively and we were missing easy opportunities so it went to a penalty shootout. The leaders did Rock Paper Scissors and we won so we took first. Our first penalty taker was a Czech M14 who shot it on target but Will Balfour saved it behind the line so it counted. I then saved a penalty going bottom left. Then both of the next penalty takers scored. So it was up to our leader who took the last penalty and he converted. So we won our ticket to the Semi-Finals. The draw would happen on day 7 where the matches would follow. Tomorrow team 4-8 were playing and then so on.

We then had our 5th training session which was the hill race. The first leg was a 400m run up a hill which was the only one that counted towards the end result. The rest was a course running down the hill. I ran the short legs well but I messed up a long leg. I still came 15th in the first leg competition with a time of 3:46. The dinner was tuna, sweetcorn and lettuce pasta and the training group coaches came round with cake! I then ate a bit of cake and had an allergy and became sick for the night. I missed super-puncher which was a fun activity where you manually punched a group of controls but you had to do it in the correct order but no one knows what the order is until you see the top of the controls. But unfortunately I missed it and one of the doctors said I should go to hospital but the nurse just told me to rest.

Day 4
I was very tired in the morning after the second near death experience so I unfortunately missed the first event, I still went to the start to watch but one of my countries coaches showed me the map I would’ve gotten and it looked very fun, there were lots of contour and boulder features so it was shame I had an allergy.

Lunch was Fried cauliflower and potatoes, still very good. Today was also the day The Oland shop was coming. I bought a pair of knee-Lengths, two pairs of socks and a mesh Bohemia orienteering t-shirt.

The afternoon activity was a relay in our tio milla teams where there was a mass start and the first leg was age 10/12, the first person from your team back on the leg before you sets your entire team off. I was second leg, however on the way back I didn’t see a control on the map so I mis-punched. This was annoying because I would’ve had a good time but all was fine because I didn’t send the next leg off so my team was not disqualified.

The dinner was carbonara, very good, and afterwards was the flag parade where each country would perform an act representing their country. We decided we would start off with a Scottish ceilidh dance with me and Will Roman (Will Balfour and Ollie were injured) standing to the side with union jacks and kicking while the girls did some gymnastics/cheerleading lift. All went well on the stage.

There were 13 countries and here is summary of the more interesting acts: US, Line Dancing to Country Roads; Hungary, a group of people saying normal words but in Hungarian where the words are over complicated; Ukraine, A person singing out of tune while the rest danced awkwardly; Slovakia, running around a stage with orienteering props and people running around while a song plays; Brazil, 3 small children doing amazing dancing (everybody joined in); Latvia, a traditional dance to a song ending in flower hats being thrown into the crowd; Spain, a dance to song celebrating them winning the World Cup

Day 5
I got up at normal time for breakfast again, the first training session was two different training sessions. Swiss-O and Micro-O. My group did Micro-O first. It was a very short course with an extremely detailed map. I ran it cleanly and quickly however the others made lots of mistakes so I did quite well. The Swiss-O however was a different story. Swiss-O is when the map looks like Swiss Cheese where the map is only shown around the control and everywhere else was blanked out and you have to do bearings to each control. I walked half of it because I have trust issues with my compass yet I still beat Will Balfour.

Lunch that day was chicken risotto, delicious, and I still didn’t die. The afternoon activity was triathlon but i still had PTSD from the lake so I’d didn’t swim but I had to run when the last swimmer set off. Oliver was the last swimmer and took his sweet time to get his shoes on so my team coach just told me to go. I gained a lot on the running but still messed up when the orienteering was map memory and so I missed a control because I was not prepared. I still beat Oliver (Karma).

Dinner was 4 cheese pasta, it tasted like carbonara without the guanciale which meant it was very good. The evening session was the night’O which I did really well. The 10/12s Girls left, then the boys then the 14s girls then my category. I had a good start and brilliant nav with a pinpoint bearing on a longer leg and finished 12th. This gave me confidence for the sprint tomorrow.

Day 6
I got up at normal time and started the day with O-loops, each about 1.5km long. I did 6/8 which was a lot and felt a little fatigued by the end. The pace felt good when I ran them so I got a confidence boost for the sprint.

Lunch was Beef chili stew which was more like bean stew which was not helping my morale at all. The walk to the arena was long but it was in an area with a 200m track which was good for warmups. When I left, the winning time was 12:38, the coaches said it was an interesting course for route choice. I ran with a good pace and overtook two people ahead of me. I came back with a time of 12:53 but unfortunately the new winning time was 10:55.

Dinner however was Mexican style bean stew, the worst meal of all time, I was still hungry after but I refused to have seconds. We discovered afterwards that we could steal doors and windows but then our coaches threatened us with a 1 year tour ban so we were forced to stop. We then had a campfire where we toasted short fat polish sausages with a stick and marshmallows.

Day 7
We got up a bit late today so we waited in a a long queue for breakfast. We found out our middle distance start times and we traveled up as a country, I had a late start due to missing the first event and Will Rowan did too so we stacked stones towers (We reached a record of 14 stones high!). My course was quite good, I had a bit of trouble running at the start but I gained some energy from seeing one of my Israeli friends. and zoomed through the rest of my course. There were many interesting crag features and random shacks. I came 23rd but it was still fun. Lunch was Fish and Chips but the fish were stuffed with creamy broccoli sauce. We then played uno with the Americans afterwards where there was a swarm of flying ants and I got to use my deet bug spray on them.

Afternoon was the Olympics, we had long jump, javelin, three legged race, goalie slalom, basketball and all sorts of random sports. Then, there was the football semi-finals. Our semi-final match against team 12 was quite disappointing, our team were constantly defending and hardly had any opportunities, I had to make some important saves to block crosses and all sorts of things. The other team were also playing dirty with 3 yellow cards throughout the match. In the end it was 0-0, just in time for a penalty shootout. They scored the first and we scored our first but not the second, they scored their second. The final penalty taker stepped up. He shot it straight at the goalkeeper and it was over for us. We failed to win. Afterwards I didn’t bother watch the final or the coaches vs the runners but all I know is that the guy with a Coros from Israel won and I was very proud of him. I went to queue early for lasagne; it was very good. Afterwards we had our final presentation where found out we came third for the Olympics! I got another pair of socks but donated it to my Israeli friend because he had not got one and they were too small.

Day 8
Well today was the last day, we got up for breakfast one last time and then got our stuff on the bus. We then sat down on the bus but there were hardly any spaces left so we squeezed in with the Americans. We said our goodbyes to all the people who weren’t going to Prague and we left. At the Airport we had one last talk to the Americans and a photo with the Israelis before finally parting ways. It was a very good experience and I would definitely go again.

Navigation and Racing Challenges

The British Orienteering Navigation and Racing challenges enable you to track your progress through the colour-coded courses and their corresponding technical difficulty (TD). We want to celebrate those who have achieved these since March 2026 – well done all!

Navigation Challenge – 5*
Jacob Li 18/05/2026
Wenhai Li 16/08/2026
Cath Lawlor 04/09/2026

Racing Challenge: Bronze Award – 4*
Jacob Li 04/09/2026
Racing Challenge: Bronze Award – 5*
Jacob Li 16/08/2026

Racing Challenge: Silver Award – 4*
Jacob Li 04/09/2026

Racing Challenge: Gold Award – 5*
Oliver Puschmann 18/05/2026
Jacob Li 04/09/2026

Members are eligible for a Navigation Challenge certificate after successfully completing 3 colour-coded courses at the same Technical Difficulty (TD) standard. The certificates are ‘star’ based e.g. 1 star for TD 1 up to 5 Star for TD 5.

Members are eligible for a Racing Challenge certificate after successfully completing 3 colour-coded courses (of the same TD) within the following times: 
– Gold Award. Participants time < Course Length (km) x 12.5mins
– Silver Award. Participants time < Course Length (km) x 15mins
– Bronze Award. Participants time < Course Length (km) x 20mins

These certificates are also ‘star’ based, e.g. 1 star for TD 1 up to 5 stars for TD 5 as above.

Also – welcome to our recent new club members: Teresa and Christine Zhang, Yufei Zhou and Emily Dale!

An NN Poem

Dave Peel (potentially with some AI assistance!)

Through heathered hills and forests deep,
Where hidden paths and secrets sleep,
With map in hand and compass true,
The Northern Navigators push on through.

Across the moor, beneath grey skies,
Past rocky streams and distant rise,
A bearing set, a route begun,
They chase the checkpoints one by one.

Through mud and rain, through wind and sun,
Every course becomes a run.
A missed control, a laugh, a cheer—
Then back on track, the goal draws near.

No road can tell them where to go,
No signpost marks the trail below.
They read the land, they trust their chart,
And find their way by skill and heart.

From woodland shade to open fell,
Each orange flag has tales to tell.
Together, scattered, side by side,
They navigate with northern pride.

So raise the map and set the pace,
Let adventure lead the chase.
For wherever compass, courage and friends combine,
The Northern Navigators will cross the finish line!

Please send any contributions for the next newsletter to northernnavigators@gmail.com