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2008 Club Champions
Will Hensman and Janine Inman flew around Barr Wood to record clear victories in the Senior Mens and Womens club champs on November 22nd. It was a crisp morning, so running fast certainly helped you to keep warm! Steve Barratt planned some excellent courses to test everyone's concentration; few had entirely clean runs.
Steve Nicholson also posted a clear win in the Veteran Mens' race, but the Veteran Ladies' competition was a much closer affair; Rona Molloy and Cathy Tilbrook had to share the victory after recording exactly the same time! Frances Brown won the Senior Girls; Junior Girls and Junior Boys champs were Morvern Dean and Daniel Stansfield respectively. Congratulations to all! And thanks to Steve for such enjoyable and challenging courses.
Results here.
Compass Sport - Winners
In a very close final, FVO came out winners at the Compass Sport Trophy final at Sutton Park to retain our title. Some great runs by FVO members across all the courses were just enough for FVO to beat SARUM into second place by just 10 points.
Particular mention to Abi Longhurst, Steve Barrett, Gareth Bryan-Jones and Stuart Thomson for their excellent runs to be the winners of their courses, and there were also fine top three places for Marcus Pinker, Craig Thomson and Jamie Stevenson (Stuart and Jamie completing an FVO 1-2 whitewash on the U18 course).
Other scoring runners for FVO were Jason Inman, Jon Cross, Gary Longhurst, Ted Finch, Janine Inman and Frances Brown - but that is only part of the story, it is very much a competition for the whole team and everyone present plays their part in affecting the scores of the other clubs - so many thanks and congratulations to everyone who ran for us for their contribution to our success!
Congratulations
First of all to Jamie Stevenson and Abi Longhurst for representing GBR at the European Youth Championships in Switzerland at the weekend. Abi 27th and Jamie 38th in the long distance, and a great run from Jamie in the sprint - 7th place!! What a great experience for them both - not to mention all that flashy new Great Britain kit they have come home with!
Also congratulations to FVO juniors running for West Area in the Scottish Inter-Area Champs at Inshriach this weekend - Daniel Stansfield, Frances Brown and Morven Dean. Great stuff from Daniel in particular who won the JM2 class (and then ran non-comp on JM3 and did the fastest time on that too!).
A number of other people also ran very well in the tricky contours of Inshriach in the local event on Saturday and the SOL on Sunday. As well as Daniel Stansfield, other FVO winners at the SOL were Beccy Osborn in W35L, Maureen Brown in W60S, and Ross McLennan on M21S. Nice to see Maureen and Ross both recovering from injury just in time for next weekend!
Meanwhile, who says the sun don't shine - if you had been on the streets of London this weekend, you would have been shown something to make you change your mind. It was the London City Race, complete with fiendish navigation on the multiple levels of the Barbican complex, all in 25 degree heat and cloudless skies all weekend. Craig Thomson took third place and a prize in the junior (U18) race, well done to him.
Night Orienteering
The evenings are drawing in, .. clock change approaches, and after we return from our club training weekend - look out for Night Orienteering. Mpas up shortly but the first event will at Touch. Promises to be a good night.
Preliminary details
- 29 October Touch Estate (open hill)
- 12 November Sauchie Crags
- 26 November Mine Woods
- 10 December Abbey Craig
- 7 January Stirling Old Town
- 21 January Polmaise Wood
- 4 February Barr Wood
- 18 February Dumyat East
- 4 March Touch Estate (wood)
- 18 March South Achray
Loch Vaa Weekend
A good weekend for the club at Loch Vaa, with the club first team winning the eleven person relay. Last minute rejigging of the teams after the juniors who took part in summer training at Loch Vaa were declared uncompetitive (sorry Jack) meant that the team was
- Leg 1 - Will Hensman (Tartan)
- Leg 2 - Jamie Stevenson (Orange), Jason Inman (Light Green), Roger Goddard (Green)
- Leg 3 - Brad Connor (Orange), Steve Barrett (Light Green), Steve Nicholson (Green)
- Leg 4 - Hazel Dean (Orange), Fraser Purves (Light Green), Ewan McCarthy (Green)
- Leg 5 - Martin Dean (Tartan)
Well done
Sunday saw a clutch of results at the SOL at Loch Vaa with first places being scored by
- Gareth Bryan-Jones M60L
- Martin Dean - M50L
- Steve Barrett - M45L
- Jamie Stevenson - JM5L
- Steve Nicholson - M40L
- Fraser Purves - M35L
with Martin, Steve and Jamie all coming in the first three places on course 12.
Wed Evening WEE Event
These will start again on 20th August, with a revised location of Dumyat for the first event on Wed 20th August.
British Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs
The weekend of 28 and 29 June saw the culmination of months of hard work and dedication for Janine Inman come to fruition. As organiser, mapper, planner and controller, Janine (with help from Jason Inman) did a fantastic job of providing some tough and arduous courses on some of the best British biking terrain at Dalbeattie and Mabie Forests in the South West of Scotland. The sport is in its early days of popularity but all the big names were there - these guys and gals sure know how its done on a bike and navigated their way round, as Janine put it, their "big yellow course" in some really fast times. Andy Conn and Jimmy Taylor were winners both days in their respective mens classes and Emily Benham and Angela Brand-Barker in the womens classes.
Mixed fortunes were had for some as they had to repair punctures or nurse some pretty nasty looking cuts and grazes sustained on gravel tracks. Three hardy FVO bikers completed the two days of competition and Steve Nicholson produced some excellent results on the Long (3rd M40) and Middle (2nd M40) distance races. Roger Goddard fared well on the Long in 6th place at Dalbeattie and was 8th in the Middle distance race in the M21 class. Lack of recent technical riding practice proved a real disadvantage for Ali McQuillen but was placed 4th and 5th places in the W21 class.
Geoffrey, Lindsey and Rik Hensman (CLARO) provided on the day help over the weekend and Dave McQuillen (Solway Orienteers) was SI guru. All thanks to them for making the event another FVO success.
Scottish Champs
A great win in the open relays on Sunday for the FVO Female Flyers - Hazel, Kirsty and Janine; while the mens' team of Ross, Jason and Ewan came in third. Good results too for the FlyingVets (Simon, Steve and Martin) who were second on their handicap event; while the FVO Fantasists (Cathy, Rona and Ali) came in third position in the women's open.
Saturday was a good day for the Nicholson clan - Steve won the M40L while Emily came in first on W10B. Good results too for Beccy - first on W35L, and Richard Francis - first on M16B.
SOL2 at Touch a great success
FVO put on a second superb event at the weekend; with many brilliant comments coming back to the club about the events, the courses, the planning and the organisation by email and on Nopesport. Also, a few wee wins. Congrats to all our class winners. M40L - Steve Nicholson
- M45L - Steve Barrett
- M50L - Martin Dean
- JW5L - Tori Longhurst (who denied rumours she drove round!)
- W35L - Beccy Osborn
- W40L - Cathy Tillbrook
- W60S - Maureen Brown
- W65S - Lucille Macleod
- White - Grace Molloy
FVO's Double Champion
FVO's Jamie Stevenson - already British Champion for his age class - became the Scottish nder 16 Fell Running Champion on at Ben Lomond on Saturday. Despite the poor forecast, the 2008 Ben Lomond race ran in perfect conditions, sunny but not too hot. Jamie then rushed back to take part in our sprints at Stirling (where we were not quite so lucky with the weather).
The first girl in the U19 category was Catriona Buchanan. Well done to both of you.
Scottish Sprint Championships
An exciting afternoon, with a fantastic finish as the seeded runners came in towards the end of the afternoon, with a "photo finish" failing to split FVO's Ross McLennan and Douglas Tullie from EUOC who both finished in just 18.31; the Womens Open champion, also representing EUOC, was Becky Carlyle.
Good results all round for FVO. Congratulations to all who excelled themselves at the Scottish Sprint Champs on Saturday:
- M18- Stuart Thomson - Gold! Jack Barrett - Bronze
- M40+ Martin Dean - Silver
- W18- Abi Longhurst Silver
- W Open - Janine Inman - Bronze
- M Open - Rosco - GOLD!!!!!
British Championships at Culbin
Huge congratulations to the FVO runners crowned as new British Champions after the superb races this weekend in a successful return to Culbin forest. Leading the charge for FVO were Jamie Stevenson in M16A, Martin Dean in M50L, Gareth Bryan-Jones in M65L and Victoria 'should have run elite' Longhurst in W20L - fantastic to see them all on top of the podium!
The successful championships relied on the huge contribution played by individual day planner Steve Nicholson, to day organisers organisers Fraser Purves and Mark Grant, to Brian Bullen as relay controller and to all the other FVO people who played roles in the event organisation.
There were other great individual performances as well, with podium places for Jack Barrett (3rd M16A), Jason Inman (2nd M35L) and Becy Osborn (3rd W35L). Well done too to all the elite runners from FVO - top finishers were Ewan McCarthy 6th on M21E and Janine Inman 13th on W21E.
Sunday's relays saw a number of good team performances. Closest to a win and our only top three finishers were the Women's Short team of Abi Longhurst, Victoria Longhurst and Beccy Osborn. Second place and only a minute down. Well done to all three of them. Honourable mentions also to the M18 and M40 teams (both fourth), the W40 team (fifth) and the M14 team (sixth). Particular mention to this latter team as it actually contained two W14s and only one M14 - a great effort from Frances Brown, Craig Thomson and Morven Dean. Finally here, many thanks to Jon Cross for planning and replanning the relay teams as various people entered and dropped out of competition.
British Middle Distance Champion
Congratulations to Jon Cross. On the 5th April at Hopwas Woods, Tamworth - Jon won the M40 class in the British Elite Middle Distance Championships. Full results at here
JK Results
Congratulations to lots of FVO people for some excellent performances over the weekend......
At the JK individual (snowstorms at every day!), Abi Longhurst and Jamie Stevenson both made the podium with great 3rd places on W16A and M16A, - both days were selection races for the summer tours so this puts them both in a strong position for a nice foreign trip later in the year! Well done also to Amy Barrettt for 2nd place on W18S. Jamie was also 2nd in the sprint race on the Friday, so a very successful weekend for him.
Also in the individual there were also top 10 results from Craig Thomson (7th M14A), Jason Inman (6th M35L), Jon Cross (10th M40L) and Gary Longhurst (4th M45S) - Gary winning the second day by 2 minutes.
There was FVO success also in the relay, where a fantastic run from Jason Inman brought the Mens 120+ team (Jon X, Steve Barrett, Jason) from 5th to 2nd on the final leg. It was all very close as the teams in positions 6th to 11th all set off on the final leg within a minute of Jason, but a great no-mistakes run and a crucial finishing sprint (all those winter intervals!) secured the podium place.
Meanwhile at the 'alternative JK' over Easter weekend - the Spanish Championships in Murcia - there was an FVO triumph as Beccy Osborn took victory in D35A. Congratulations to her on winning both days by small margins to take the overall title and the prize of a speciality of the region - not some wine but instead some rice!
Well done to everyone on some great results - four weeks now to "the best race of 2008", the British Championships at Culbin Forest in Morayshire, planned by our own Steve Nicholson. Keep up the training and let's see lots more individual and relay podiums there!
Compass Sport Cup
A good result for FVO, again coming first in the CST qualifier with a total of 1274 points; coming well ahead of Clyde in second place on 1170 points. FVO scoring results below:
| Brown | Men | Blue | Women | |||
| Will | 3rd | 98 | Hazel | 1st | 100 | |
| Roger | 4th | 97 | Janine | 3rd | 96 | |
| Fraser | 5th | 96 | ||||
| Blue | Men | Green | Women | |||
| Martin | 1st | 100 | Abi | 1st | 100 | |
| Steve | 2nd | 99 | Tori | 4th | 94 | |
| Green | Men | Green | Vets | |||
| Dave | 2nd | 98 | Maureen | 2nd | 98 | |
| Light | Green | |||||
| Jack | 1st | 100 | ||||
| Jamie | 2nd | 99 |
FVO AGM
At the AGM on Friday 25th January, the following members were elected onto the club committee
| President | Gary Longhurst |
| Vice President | Brad Connor |
| Secretary | David Nicol |
| Treasurer | Roger Goddard |
| Committee | Hazel Dean |
| Committee | Kyle Heron |
| Committee | Steve Barrett |
Draft minutes of the meeting are available here. The following (non-committee) post holders were noted
| Team Captain | Jon Cross |
| Wednesday Evening Co-ordinator | Beccy Osborn |
| Newsletter | Editor of the month |
| Membership Secretary | Susan Hensman |
| Web | David Nicol |
| Permissions | Hazel Dean |
| Head Coach | Jason Inman |
| Electronic Equipment | Brad Connor |
| Equipment Store | Maureen Brown |
| Child Protection Officer | Hazel Dean |
