Catch up on old news 2007
Congrats
- To Abi for a fine performance in winning the open womens Glasgow Parks race (OK - Steve won his class too); and
- to Jamie (pictured right) for completing his first O event - OK so he was sound asleep at the time!
Club Champs
Thanks to both Gareth for the new map of Sauchie, and for planning and organising, and to Jan to warming us all up on a miserable day with a choice of hot soups.
Congratulations then to our new club champions:
| Junior Girls | Frances Brown |
| Junior Boys | no entries |
| Girls | Catriona Buchanan |
| Boys | Jamie Nicol |
| Women | Beccy Osborn |
| Men | Steve Nicholson |
| Vet Women | Cathy Flint |
| Vet Men | Steve Barrett |
Christmas Dinner
Join us for Christmas Dinner at the Sheriffmuir Inn on Wed 19th December at 19.30. Names to David Nicol ASAP. (£19.95 a head). Their is menu onlineonline
Stirling Sports Awards
Wed 14th Nov
Congratulations to Jason Inman who was named coach of the year at the Stirling Sports Awards.
FVO win Compass Sport Trophy
Congratulations to Jon Cross for pulling together a winning FVO team to travel down to Blidworth, Nottingham and win the Compass Sport Trophy. This year FVO managed to beat SARUM into second place, reversing the result from Greenham Common last year, and regaining the trophy we had previously held two years ago. To win the trophy FVO had to have a minimum of thirteen scoring runners. Notable scores came from
- Marcus Pinker - 1st Brown
- Duncan Francis - 2nd Blue Men
- Steve Barrett - 3rd Blue Men
- Gareth BJ - 1st Green Men
- Jamie Stevenson - 1st Light Green
- Janine Hensman - 1st Blue Women
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Well done to all the team who travelled south to Nottingham
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Congratulations
To Jack Barrett for winning M14 at the Junior Home Internationals in Ireland over the last weekend in September
Training
Thanks to Jason - our training during the week is getting a bit more dynamic, so look for the details under events
SOL 6 at Dumyat 30th September
Results on our Results Page.
WinSplits also available.
RouteGadget now available too.
Training Weekend
Will be at the end of October - based at the same excellent hostel we stayed at in Ballater last year. Names to David Nicol ASAP
Congratulation
To Jack Barrett and Abi Longhurst who have both been selected to join the GB Start Squad - ie for athletes aged 14-17. Competition was hard this year as the numbers have been reduced to only 5 athletes per age group.
Jamie Stevenson Trophy
Congratulations to FVO juniors. This is the second time in three years that the FVO juniors have won. Victory was enjoyable as they beat MAROC into second place, who had beaten FVO only on a countback last year.
Club results were
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Full results here
Points were scored for FVO by
- Jack Barrett - 1st Light Green (Boys)
- Victoria Longhurst - 2nd Green (Girls)
- Abi Longhurst - 3rd Green (Girls)
- Jamie Nicol - 2nd Light Green (Boyes)
- Frances Brown - 4th Orange (Girls)
- Jack Cartwright - 2nd Yellow (Boys)
Harvester Success
An intrepid FVO team made the journey to Penhale Sands near Newquay this weekend to run in the Harvester Trophy (overnight relay for teams of seven).
For those of you who have not been there before, Penhale is a large area of detailed grassy sandy dunes, highly technical orienteering by day let alone by night!
Duncan Francis got the team off to a great start, coming back 2nd on the first leg (which starts at midnight). As the night wore on, the sea mist closed in and made the navigation even more tricky, meaning significant mistakes for all teams.
The race settled down into a battle between FVO and South Yorkshire, with Nottingham trying to close the gap. FVO had the lead for a while through the night and dawn stages, but as the weather cleared were gradually pegged back by the other two teams, until the last leg runners went out with only 45 seconds covering all three teams and FVO in third.
And that was how it stayed, with ex-FVO member Nick Barrable bringing South Yorkshire home in first, ahead of Nottingham in second with the FVO team in third (over an hour ahead of fourth!).
Third place is certainly the best position I can remember FVO ever achieving in the Harvester, so many congratulations to everyone involved - full team Duncan Francis, Jon Marsden, Steve Nicholson, Jon Cross, Fraser Purves, Hugh Buchanan and Will Hensman
Callendar Park SOSOL
A good day was had by all. Thanks to Maureen for Planning, Louise for organising, David Kershaw for controlling, and everyone who helped out on the day! Tori's soup, rolls and cakes were the icing on the, er, cake.
Results now available here, splits here. Total geek-fest extended splits are here (in PDF, to make them readable). The results are also on Winsplits and Splitsbrowser. Routegadget is now up and running. And finally you might want to read the Planners comments. Here are the string results.
FVO banner - again
From feedback, further work by Steve, and discussions in pub - we now have two contenders: FVO 1 and FVO 2. Give us your feedback from this second survey [If you gave a response at the AGM - I'll add it in].
Devil's Burdens relays - 2007
A gorgeous day on the hills. (More photos pls). FVO were well represented at the Devil's burden relays on Saturday 27th. Two FVO teams (and Jon also organised a JOK team as well), with plenty of other FVO members (Jamie and Jon Stevenson, Ted Finch, Cathie Tillbook, Sandy Grant, Brad Connor) out in other colours.
AGM
At the AGM on Friday 26th January, the following members were elected onto the club committee
| President | Gary Longhurst |
| Vice President | Brad Connor |
| Secretary | David Nicol |
| Treasurer | Penny Hicks |
| Committee | Hazel Dean |
| Committee | Kyle Heron |
| Committee | Steve Barrett |
Compass Sport Trophy
We start our campaign to win back the Compass Sport Trophy at the Scottish qualifying round at Benarty Hill on the 18th March. Remember - to run for FVO you need to be a BOF member - so if you haven't returned your membership form, please get it back NOW
I attach details of the draw. We need to be First or Second to qualify. See current BOF rules
AGM
The AGM will be held on Friday 26th January at 7.30pm, upstairs at the Westerton Arms. Minutes and Agenda in links down on left.
Feather banner competition
The top two entries were Entry One - 6 votes & Entry Two - 4 votes. But we are trying to take the best of these together with the comments. Graded colours - but as in One (Blue at FlagPole). Name on flag - similar to Two. Probably also SOA logo as One, and also the web address. More variants for comments soon.
[Oh - and we gave Will half a prize as the promoter of entry Two],
Keep them coming
Score Successes
After much faffing around - its now congratulations to Beccy for winning the Score event, and commisserations to Hazel for having first place taken from her grasp.
- 1st Beccy - 312 points
- 2nd Lisa - 280 points
After all the recalculation, FVO came in second place in the the large club competition to ESOC. Congrats also to Steve (N) won M35, Rona W35 class, Abi W14 and Jack M16.
Provost Awards
Congratulations to Sue Harvey for being given a Provost's Award for services to orienteering at a ceremony held in the Great Hall of the Castle on Friday October 27.
Club Champs
Thanks to Martin for organising, and to Paul Frost and Ecko for loan of equipment.
Congratulations then to our new club champions:
| Junior Girls | Frances Brown |
| Junior Boys | Craig Thomson |
| Girls | Abi Longhurst |
| Boys | Jamie Stevenson |
| Women | Rona Molloy |
| Men | Marcus Pinker |
| Vet Women | Louise Longhurst |
| Vet Men | Gary Longhurst |
At the dinner dance, Jamie Stevenson was awarded the prize for the most improved Junior Performance of the Year. Results for all the courses are available here - and routegadget is up and running. Link on the left.
Christmas competition
Design a feather banner for FVO. Prize will be two meals at our Christmas meal out at Clive Ramsay's at Brucefields. There's a pdf template here or download it as a graphics file to import into some paint program here.
Second Place in Compass Sport Trophy
FVO holders of the Compass Sport Trophy for the last two years were just pipped into second place in the GB final of the club competition at Greenham Common on Sunday. We ended up with 1239 points (from a maximum of 1300) in second place to SARUM with 1265.
Obviously it was a disappointment not to retain the trophy but this is still a very good result - certainly no shame in losing to SARUM as they pushed us close last year and this time the event was less than 50 miles from them, enabling them to field as many as 50 runners yesterday - in the end it was their strength in depth, particularly in the junior classes, that made all the difference. Old SARUM had the sgnificant advantage of being just 50 miles from home, and able to field a large contingent of juniors
Some twenty club members travelled from Scotland and were joined by a contingent of M1 members (and a few from the A34 and even further afield!). There was not a cruise missile in sight, the terrain was flat, fast, and not very technical. Outlinees of the old runway were still strongly visible in paths and in the open nature of the terrain.
Martin Dean, Nick Barrable, Janine Inman and Dave Coustick all managed the maximum 100 points in their classes. A complicated scoring system meant that there were two or three scoring runners in each of the nine classes covering all the age ranges. A further nine FVO orienteers managed to score over 90 points. Full results here
Junior Home Internationals
England win the individuals, and the overall trophy. Scotland win the relays. Wales take the Judith Wigham trophy. Click here for details
A fantastic orienteering weekend
The weekend saw some fantastic orienteering on two quality areas with a high turn out of club members.
11 Person Relay
In a close race, FVO were narrowly beaten by EUOC in the 11 person relay, but won the handicap race convincingly. In the spirit of the competition FVO's first team contained three juniors (Abi, Jack and Stuart) as well as three M45s. Coming into the tartan anchor leg, FVO were still a minute ahead of the Edinburgh students - but unsurprisingly despite a fine run, Fraser was unable to hold of Oleg Chepelin - and brought FVO in in second place.
With an almost neutral handicap - we were convincing winners in the handicap class, retaining the trophy we won last year in Fife - and well ahead of Clyde and SHUOC
Loch Vaa
A large turn out of club members saw fine racing on excellent terrain. Amy Barrett took first place on JW5S, Jamie Stevenson was 2nd by only 14s in JM4. Mark Holliday was first in M50S, while Martin came in second on M45L
Jamie Stevenson Trophy
FVO's juniors were narrowly squeezed into second place in the Jamie Stevenson trophy on Sunday afternoon at Kinnoul Hill at Perth by MAROC. Both FVO (last years winners of this Scottish inter-club competition for juniors) and MAROC scored 592 points out of a maximum of 600. But on a countback of results, MAROC came out just ahead as winners. FVO are still pleased at a run in this competition which has seen them come second, first and second over the last three years.
Points were scored for FVO by
- Jack Barrett - 1st Light Green (Boys)
- Abi Longhurst - 2nd Light Green (Girls)
- Victoria Longhurst - 2nd Green (Girls)
- Craig Thomson - 2nd Green (Boys)
- Jamie Nicol - 3rd Light Green (Girls)
- Frances Brown - 4th Yellow (Girls)
- Jack Cartwright - 4th Yellow (Boys)
Presenting the prizes, Bill Stevenson said that the success of Jamie Stevenson at this years World Championships showed how Scottish juniors could develop and compete with the best in the world
Lakes 5 Days
Martin did the biz in M45 long. A strong performance over the five days (four firsts, and a second) saw him overall in first place ahead of Donald Petrie (Clyde)
Good results too for Abi Longhurst (second in W14A), and for Hazel Dean and Nick Barrable - both third in the premier classes - W21L and M21L respectively.
Jamie Stevenson Trophy 2006
The event of the year for all FVO Juniors
This years event takes place on 3rd September 2006 at Kinnoull Hill, Perth. We need to get our best team out to defend the title we won last year at Pitmeddan Forest, I’m sure MAROC and the other Scottish clubs will be going all out to knock us off the top spot.
All juniors who are club members are eligible to run. Courses are Yellow, Orange, Light Green and Green, with pairs eligible to run the Yellow and Orange courses – so there is something for everyone no matter how experienced you are.
Steve and Jen Barrett are co-ordinating the team this year, so names to them asap please. Tel: 01786 841931 or email:
BJs at the LAMM
Good results for both Ali Bryan-Jones and Kirsty Bryan-Jones at this year's LAMM at Assynt over the weekend of 17th/18th June. Ali was (half) of the team that 4th on the A course, while Kirsty was (half) of the first Women's team on the same course
Read all about it at LAMM
SOL 5
On the day after the night before (the Harvester), FVO managed to clock up two first place performances at SOL5 down at Teviothead. Well done to both Nick Barrable, 1st in M21L and to Martin Dean, 1st in M45L.
Lucille Macleod also took second place in W65S. Full SOL and Harverster results are online here.
Janine wins MTBO middle distance champs
Congratulations to Janine, on being the womens middle distance champion in the first MTBO championships held at Yaely Heath on the 4th June. Following her success she hsa been chosen for the GB team for the MTBO world championships in Finland in July. Full results of the event at Emit.
Photo- Compass Sport
Scottish successes
A strong contingent from FVO headed north to Banchory to take part in the Scottish Champs over the weekend of the 27th/28th May.
The best individual results were achieved by:
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In the relays on Sunday - we took 4th place overall in both the mens and womens open classes
The teams were:
- Mens: Martin Dean, Marcus Pinker, Jason Inman
- Womens: Hazel Dean, Janine Hensman, Lisa Brown
Some more photos coming soon to the photos page
WEE league
Individual results and league finally on-line. Click via Events to get to the results.
Ganavan - Marcus's comments
As predicted, we didn’t lose a single competitor due to the rather severe nature of the topography around Oban; however I did receive more than one comment on the subject… With the area being divided by fences and it being in lambing season, the useable area was somewhat restricted. We wanted to keep the finish as near as possible to the assembly area and also wanted to vary the terrain as much as possible, hence the transit from rough to fast mountain and up into the woods. Taking this into consideration, the courses virtually planned themselves. I was a bit disappointed how few people took the left route on the long leg, as I believed it to be slightly quicker (and easier as the climb was broken into two, rather than that rather nasty assault you had facing you in the woods if you went to the right). Route Gadget displays wonderfully the variety of routes taken, especially on the leg back over the hill, with some people choosing options that defy any logic! Many thanks to both the controller (Graeme Ackland) and organizer (David Nicol) - who made my job very easy – and of course to all of you traveled so far and made it worth all the effort. Marcus Pinker.
Route Gadget
Finally got it working for the FCC Middle Distance Final last Saturday at Route Gadget
FCC Middle Distance Event
- The sun shone - at least until all the competitors were home,
- Ewan Purves was in charge of litter control,
- No-one mentioned the climb,
- and a good time was had by all
Final Results can be found here, and
splits can be found at WinSplits Online, and
splitsbowser can be found at Splits browser
Thanks from the organiser to Graeme, Marcus and all our helpers on the day.
Marcus - Irish Champion
FVO's Marcus Pinker turned in strong performances on both Saturday and Sunday at the Irish Orienteering Championships held in Carlingford Mountain. On an open morrland area with very complex rock detail, Marcus put in a very strong performance on Sunday to win the long distance event of 13.4km in just over 100 minutes - 4 minutes clear of Neil Dobbs in second place. On the Saturday in the middle distance event, Marcus was just shaded into second place by just 8 seconds - but had the honour of being the first irishman home. Full results here
Short Distance Races
Final Info and Start lists for the FCC and Public Middle Distance Races to be held at Ganavan near Oban next week now available online under "Events". Note the new start location.
JK Results
A number of good results for club runners over the two days of individual competition at the Easter Weekend down at Ilkley and Keldy
- Lucile MacLeod - 1st in W65S
- Jason Inman - 2nd in M35L
- Abigail Longhurst - 2nd in W14A
- Susan Hensman - 2nd in W21V
- Dave Coustick - 3rd in M60L
In addition, a number of members took 4th place in their respective classes: Jonathan Oxley (M35S), Amy Barrett (W16B) and Jennifer Barrett (W45S)
My apologies to anyone I have missed - you go blind searching the results.
British Orienteering Champs
Congratulations to FVO's new British Champion - Brian Bullen 1st in M55L from a large field of over 100 runners in his class!
Also well done to Amy Barrett, 1st in W16B and Abi Longhurst who was second in W14A
In the relays - good results were achieved by
- FVO Fast Finishers - 2nd in M14
- FVO Fat Boys - 3rd in M40
(Who makes up these names Jon?
Full results of the British Champs here
Compass Sport Trophy
Congratulation to everyone who helped a depleted FVO team take second place at the Compass Sport Trophy and qualify for the final on 15th October
Keep that date free to see whether FVO can qualify for a hat trick of victories
With many of the club away either taking part in, or running the Scotjoss Training weekend, many thanks to Jamie Nicol, Peter Holliday, Janine Hensman and Doug Wood who all signed up in the last few days before the event, and scored vital points (Jamie only on the morning of the event itself!) - many thanks
lFVO scored 1235 points to ESOC's 1248, with
- Jamie Nicol
- Doug Wood
- Steve Barrett
- Janine Hensman
- Elizabeth Sinclair
all taking maximum points, with additional scores being made by Fraser Purves, Trevor Hoey, Mark Thomson, Gary Longhurst, Beccy Osborn, Ted Finch, Peter Holliday and Simon Brown
Again - thanks to all who participated, and keep 15th October free in your diaries
Full results at here
Mapmaking
Club members Sue Harvey and Marcus Pinker star in this short video about mapmaking.... Grab it as either higher quality DivX or as a lower quality Window Media File
AGM 2006
A warm welcome to Kyle who has joined the committee (and drastically reducing its average age!). Draft minutes available in the links column
WEE Series 2006
Our Wednesday Evening Events series for 2006 has now been published. This year we will have a new area at Bantaskine. More details of the series here
Nick Barrable - British Night Champion
Our congratulations to Nick Barrable, who added the British Night Champion title to his British Sprint title. The darkness proved little hindrance as he covered 10.5km over the mixed heathland and woodland - at Hawley and Hornley Commons near Sandhurst - in 63 minutes to win by the smallest of margins - two seconds.
Three other FVO runners: Mark Thomson was 2nd on M40S; whilst Jon Cross was 5th on M35L and Stuart Thomson also 5th on M16.
Nice to know we are famous
But would you trust these guys navigation since they seem to think we are a "nearby-ish club"? [Yes the link does come back to our web site!] See New Mexico Orienteers.
Devil's Burdens relays
The FVO team (Gareth, Steve, Jason, Fraser, Marus and Will) came in 22nd in the Devils Burden relays on Sat 28th. But here is a picture of another FVOer in strange colours. Other appearances were made by Sandy Grant, Beccy and Jon
Six Day Discussion document
You may have read in Score about the possibility of organising help for the Six Day in a different way (ie clubs take on a task and run with it all week - see Score or here). This will affect everyone in the club. Our response as a Club so far is that we are against the idea for the following reasons
- The benefits are oversold
- There will be some people involved every day - on a holiday you probably only want to help the one day
- When you get different people involved on different days - you will loose the consistency they are driving for
- As a club we have managed to have helpers take part in the event
If anyone takes a substantively different view - please feed back to me by phone or by email.
David Nicol
Newsletter
January/February newsletter now online here
AGM 2006
The AGM will be held on Friday 3rd February 2006 in the upstairs room at the Westerton Arms, Bridge of Allan at 7.30pm. Formally, nominations for any of the committee posts should be sent to myself, as secretary.
But, anyone wishing to help in the running of the club either on the main committee - or through a co-opted or delegated post - is more than welcome to step forward. Please note that these additional posts are not set in stone. Over the last couple of years - we have recut the jobs of membership secretary, web master and newsletter editor to suite.
Any questions please feel free to speak to either myself or Gary...
Links to the paperwork on the left
David Nicol
