Dartboard #1 - December 2022

Dartboard is back! It seems like forever since we last had a club newsletter, however, I have been thinking over the last few months how I could consistently write a substantial newsletter for DFOK members and still fit in other activities like School work. Sheralee and Phil did a great job before and I hope to continue this. I would like the purpose of Dartboard to be a place where members can share stories and read news from the wider orienteering world. If you have a story you would like to share, please email me and I’ll include it in future editions of Dartboard. I hope that continuing to publicise the club through social media will attract new members.

My reflection of 2022

Every December, I begin to reflect on the year. What’s gone well? What’s not gone so well? This year, I look back and have experienced a year like no other. Looking back to the British long in March, I came 5th despite it being my first ever long distance championships. The JK in Wales was one of my all time favourites and

it was the first time I took part in the middle race. They were both extremely interesting areas and enjoyed them thoroughly.

I remember, clearly, the evening when I received the email informing me that I have been selected for Lagganlia. I am so glad that I went and benefitted massively from the experience. At the time of writing, I am also attending selection races to represent England for Interland 2023, so I will see where that takes me. These successes are not sudden achievements. They are a result of dedication from everyone involved in my orienteering life. It would not be possible without my parents driving me to events, without DFOK and SEOA’s kind contributions, allowing me to attend Lagganlia. And in particular to David Lefevre, who firstly, got me into orienteering, but has coached me all the way from the white course back in 2014 to now where I am competing on Blue courses. These are just a few instances where I am extremely grateful for people giving me the opportunity to compete at some of the UK’s most prestigious orienteering events.

As you reflect on the year, I wish everyone at Dartford Orienteers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Luke Bennett (Editor)

Luke at Lagganlia 2022

Message from the Chair

Dear members,

Welcome to the new edition of Dartboard from our new editor Luke Bennett! Luke is the rising star of Dartford Orienteers and as you could see in summer from Luke's article of his Lagganlia orienteering camp, Luke is great as a narrator for orienteering. Please do congratulate him when you meet him and do participate in the making of Dartboard by sending content to Luke at editor@dfok.co.uk

I hope that everyone is fit as we are entering the intense part of the muddy orienteering season. Please note the two most important events of the year are the SE League event organised by DFOK at Chelwood on Sunday 22 January (this will also be the SE Long Championships) and the CompassSport Cup team event at Gravetye Estate on Sunday 12 March. Coming local events are Mabley Green Find Your Way Activity on Saturday 26 November and Shoreham Woods Kent Orienteering League (KOL) on Saturday 3 December.

The club is also encouraging members to be first aiders and to learn planning and mapping by subsidising the required trainings. If you would like to become a first aider, please contact myself at chairman@dfok.co.uk or Andrew at mapping@dfok.co.uk to get a link for a 5 hours course online free of charge (i.e., paid by the club). Please note that the course can be completed in as many parts as you wish. If you are interested in mapping, please look at the top two emapping courses at www.britishorienteering.org.uk/elearningcourses.

British Orienteering Introduction to updating Forest Mapping eLearning course. Introduction to updating Forest Mapping has been designed to be a supportive and informative initial step towards becoming a competent Mapper. www.britishorienteering.org.uk; the club will reimburse you the £10 cost once you receive your certificate. Finally, if you are interested in planning orienteering events, please note that there will be an evening activity soon to learn how to use purplepen which is the software to draw orienteering races.

I hope to meet you all soon in the forest, but if I don't, please receive my best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Antoine (Club Chair)

Entries now OPEN!

The Scottish 6 days is a competition I have never attended before but I hope to go this year. I trained in some of the areas at Lagganlia (Roseisle and Culbin) and they are phenomenal. They provide great orienteering terrain and will test even the best orienteers, but in return, you are provided with beautiful scenery and great orienteering experience in terrains that are alien to the South East. Whatever your experience level, I recommend that you look into going to the Scottish 6 days this summer!

Antoine in action!

Luke training in Culbin

Photo: Wendy Carlyle

Club Championships 2022

By David Dawson

DFOK Champs THAT Leg No. 3 on Green

I started badly following indistinct paths. I know the area, but familiarity is not always a benefit. I kept looking for No. 1 too soon. No 2 was the other side of a steep slope where I saw Phil C struggling. I decided to go out tt an easy attack point, but I overshot it. So not doing very well so far.

However No 3 looked simple enough: Follow the main path to the junction, up to the bend then off half right. Saw Phil C ahead of me again so I must be on the right line. Went to a stump no control. Realised gone much too far and this was to the NW in the undergrowth. Head back and there it was. Not too bad after that. I had to think at the last control as we were thrown back into the open.

Lessons to be learnt: 1. Use the map, not memory / knowledge. 2. Do not follow others. 3. Bends are indistinct. 4. Do not fret after an error. 5. Never switch off.

Yellow Ruby Gisby (W10)

Orange Solomon Underwood Malone (M14)

Short Green Keith Parkes (M70)

Blue David Lobley (M55)

Brown Andrew Pitcher (M50)

Vet Male (Green) David Dawson (M60)

Vet Female (Green) Allison Page (W50)

Junior Male (Blue) Luke Bennett (M14)

Junior Female (Lt Green) Maddie Pitcher (W16)

GPS David Dawson

David’s route for THAT leg!

Geoff and David after finishing at Shorne Country Park

Meet the members

David Lobley

When and why/how did you start orienteering?

I first started orienteering over 40 year ago as a Year 10 PE option at school! From what I can remember it basically consisted of running round the edges of farmers’ fields with a 1:25000 OS map none of the wonderful schools’ maps that we have nowadays!

My first proper event was at Hadleigh Country Park where despite taking hours, I was well and truly hooked and soon signed up to local club Havoc and attended all the events I could.

I joined DFOK around 1992 after marriage to Julie brought me to live in Dartford and have remained a member ever since, despite relocating to Sevenoaks in the heart of Saxons land!

Where’s your favourite area to go orienteering?

Difficult one! I always enjoy Scotland and the Lake District pretty much anywhere there is the sort of amazing place where you can just drop 2 points on the map and get a fantastic leg.

I don’t think we have many great areas in the Southeast area, but I’d probably pick the New Forest as a favourite for its wonderful runnable deciduous woodland (I know it’s not technically in SEOA but it’s a SE area to me! And out of the forest and onto the roads, my 2 favourite urban races are London and especially Brighton for its totally madcap festive atmosphere and mass start arrangement.

Do you have a funny/ embarrassing orienteering memory?

Not strictly orienteering, but definitely orienteering related Many years ago, the South East clubs used to organise a day long relay race along the North Downs Way, starting at some ungodly hour in the morning at Dover and finishing early evening in Guildford.

For some reason Havoc always scratched together some sort of team to get annihilated by the bigger clubs and one year (long before the days of mobile phones, let alone GPS) I had a leg somewhere in deepest, darkest Kent, got absolutely and hopelessly lost and ended up in the local library in a dishevelled state asking for directions back to the North Downs Way!

Who is your biggest rival?

Not sure about biggest, but there’s probably about 4 or 5 of us in DFOK at around about the same standard. So leaving aside the likes of Joel, Antoine and now Maxime who are in a different league, in Ranking List order there’s Mark C, Andrew E, Neil, Andy P, myself and (on the roads if perhaps not the forests!) Keith B, all of whom are pretty close and can beat each other on a good day.

I can’t help thinking though, that one or two others will soon be joining and rapidly going past that group!

What advice would you give to a newcomer?

Always stay in contact with your map, and always take special care at the control. Before you arrive make sure you know:

1 its code;

2 its description;

3 , perhaps most importantly, roughly what way you are leaving (eg straight on, turn right, turn back on myself). That way you don’t give away the control to people following you, but most importantly you reduce the risk of huge 180 degree errors caused by setting off in wrong direction

What’s your biggest achievement/ proudest moment?

I’m not sure I have ever been good enough to have one in the past, although getting round the M21E Black Course at a Scottish World Cup event was pretty good, even if it did take me about 3 hours!

Let’s hope my proudest moment will come in spring next year helping DFOK to qualify for the final of the CompassSport Cup for the first time!

Photo: Wendy Carlyle

David at the British Long Distance Championships in May 2019.

Next Issue: Dani Angelova! As requested by David Lobley.

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SE League Monthly Round up

By Keith Parkes

It was a tough, physical event at Long Valley South, with plenty of climb, making it slow going in places, so most had longer times, making the points lower.

Luke, Neil and Antoine did well to get over 60 points.

The total points scored of 547 with 17 runners, is lower than Esher (712) when we had 18 runners. But I estimate Saxon’s results yesterday to be only 343, with 13 runners, so we are still in front of them!

Antoine maintains his lead, and Luke is now heading up the Juniors.

Luke Bennett Blue 64.95 +1

Neil Speers Blue 64.23

Antoine Pesenti Black 61.71

David Lobley Blue 56.95

A point worth mentioning for future SEL events is that we had no juniors running in the Orange and Yellow courses this time round, although Isla ran at Esher. If we could encourage the younger and newer members to come along to these events and not think it is only for the more experienced senior members, it would certainly help with our points and give them valuable experience as well.

Andrew Pitcher Blue 55.55

Andrew Evans Blue 43.76

Maddie Pitcher Sh Blue 39.87

Geoff Goodwin Green 31.51

David Dawson Sh Blue 30.20

Sarah Blundell Green 23.72

Philip Craven Sh Blue 21.24

Julie Lobley Green 18.88

Keith Parkes Green 17.58

Naomi Drewitt Sh Blue 13.85

Keith Bennett Sh Brown 1.00

John Rae Smith Blue 1.00

Vadim Pesenti Lt Green 1.00 TOTAL: 548

Philip Craven witing to start at the SE League event at Esher in October

AGM 2022 Report

By David Dawson

We hold the AGM in October each year. This is required by our constitution. It has some essential business:

Sign off the accounts for the previous year (to end of July).

Agree membership fees for the next year.

Elect club officials.

The AGM is also used for:

A review of last year, with officer reports.

Award of trophies for last year.

A social event (all are welcome to attend it is not used to press gang members onto the committee).

This year we met at The Malt Shovel again (for the 4th time). Dartford is a good location as it is accessible from many directions. It is of course the club name, but that is a quirk of history and not our spiritual home. Last year we went to a different Dartford venue and it was not a great success (partly my fault as I had not spoken to the Boss there). The Boss at the Malt Shovel is good at arranging what we want, but is very hard to get hold of and to pin down on what is to be provided.

After the AGM I have to send a package of information to British Orienteering in order for the club to be affiliated. This includes:

· Payment of a club fee.

· Confirmation of membership fees.

· A list of officers.

· Our constitution.

· The AGM minutes.

This all had to be provided by 23 October. I confirmed the fees, but his year was chased for the minutes just 11 days after the meeting.

I believe the 16 who attended enjoyed the evening and the buffet provided. The committee was thanked for their work running DFOK.

David collecting his trophy from the Club Championships

Baker Cup: Tina Bennett

Eade Trophy: Luke Bennett

Luke Collecting the Eade Trophy

Photo: Keith Bennett

Photo: Keith Bennett

By Andrew Pitcher

For those of you who have never heard of this event, it is a 2 day navigational event held every year in wilderness and/or mountainous areas somewhere around the country on the weekend that the clocks go back in October. You have to be self sufficient and carry all your own equipment (tent, sleeping bag, food for 36 hours and a lot of safety equipment). This year’s event is the first one to be held since the advent of the Covid pandemic, with the 2020 event original scheduled to be held in the Arrochar Alps near Loch Lomond, being switched late that year to Langdale after permissions were withdrawn due to Covid concerns and then the new venue suffering a similar fate in 2021. Consequently this year’s event was met with a lot of pent up anticipation. Now for a bit of my personal back story with this event. For me it is so much more than just another orienteering event, my first one was in 1982 on Dartmoor, and was my first really long distance drive having just passed my driving test. I did it with a school friend with equipment that weighed 50% more than we carry now and a borrowed tent so big that other competitors thought we must be part of the organising team. We really struggled on the first day (doing the B course, the shortest option then) arriving at the overnight camp late and in the dark, but still competitive despite spending the last hour using a woefully feeble 4.5v torch (half the size of brick!) to find our way to the overnight camp. My running partner, shattered, didn’t want to start the next day, even though we still had to walk virtually the same distance as the day 2 course back to finish. No ‘stragglers’ transport picking up retirees and taking them to the finish on this tough event. He was still not over this experience a year later so with no partner I missed out competing in 1983, but the 1984 and 1985 events saw me run successfully with one of my old school teachers. There was a big problem with our pairing though as our running abilities were very different, so in 1986 I teamed up with fellow DFOK member Neil Speers, training together for 3 months before the event so that we were both at the same running standard for the event. We still continue to train together throughout the year, which explains why over the years our results are always very close to one another, and our Score course route choices often match each other, even though we have worked the routes out independently.

After just missing out on winning a prize in the 1986 event, we trained even harder in 1987 to win the C1 class in Snowdonia. We moved up to the B class the following year and at one point was running in second place for a while having just overtaken the team of Yvette Hague and her brother, shortly before she became Orienteering World Champion. A poor tussocky route choice in the mist thereafter unfortunately dropped us down the field and we missed out on a prize that year.

Over the year’s we have honed our kit down to save the weight we have to carry as more weight = less speed and stamina. I think we were the first team to do away with our drinking mugs, replacing them with Pot Noodles, not for the nutritional value of the noodles, but for the packaging cup to drink from. We certainly were the first team to pack Paper paint overalls to add an extra warmth layer for those OMMs that are particularly cold. The ‘hazmat’ look certainly got a lot of approving comments (and probably as many giggles) from other teams who recognised our efforts to keep warm for minimal additional weight.

As well as the classic line courses, during the 90’s the organisers introduced the Score course format which worked on a timed basis rather than a set distance for the line courses. This really appealed to us as it meant we could major on our navigational ability and guarantee that we would be at the overnight camp well before it got dark. We choose to run the medium score course as it means we are out running for 6 hours on the first day and 5 hours on the second.

The weather is always an important factor to the OMM, and this was deliberate when the first event was conceived because it can be so variable at the end of October. Over the years we have run it in snowstorms or basked in

Andrew and Neil at the finish of the OMM

sunshine, but this year it going to be the more common than not, driving rain showers. When we arrived at the event start it had just started to lightly shower, not bad enough to warrant putting our cagoules on and for the first hour and half it was ok and we made good progress. However it then got much more serious, with the cloud cover came down the peaks reducing visibility down to 50m at points and with stinging driving horizonal rain. Whilst miserable to run in, we relish such conditions because our skill set means we are less affected by it than our competitors. Whilst the conditions reduce our running speed it does not affect our (or should I say Neil’s) navigational ability. This year we nailed every control first time, whilst other younger and probably better looking teams wasted time frantically looking for them in the mist.

The OMM also took place on this area in 2017 with the start, finish and campsite in the same locations, but with different courses. Weather conditions then were the same as this year, making everything extra slippery. Our progress in 2017 was also going really well on the first day, when with less than one hour to go we were sweeping round a rocky slope towards our last control and finish when Neil slipped and in putting his arm out to break his fall managed to dislocate his shoulder. Fortunately being a tough old goat he staggered on managing to negotiate a boulder field before we arrived at the finish 50 minutes late. An ambulance was called and they whisked him off to Barrow in Furness hospital to be repaired and pampered by the nursing staff. Not surprisingly he wasn’t interested in returning to camp to compete in Day 2. However, as a result of this incident Neil was far more cautious when we rounded the same slope on the run in to the finish and campsite this time around. We finished with a leisurely 6 mins to spare.

Our camping regime is pretty routine after so many events. When I stop running I get cold very quickly and with all the wet weather we had had on the run, this year was no different. So as soon we pitch up, I change into my dry clothes and go to sleep, whilst Neil rustles up the pot noodles and socialises with other competitors.

Our result this year for the first day was outstanding by our recent standards and my creaking knees, with us being 16th overall and 5th in the veterans handicap. We went to bed looking forward to Day 2.

Nights are usually very cold, meaning that we wear every dry bit of clothing we possess including balaclava and gloves, however this year it was so mild overnight we didn’t bother with these, nor tightening up our sleeping bags mummy hoods nice.

We were one of the early starts the next morning, and with the weather overcast and dry we got off to a steady start, but after the first climb I found myself leading the way, which is not my usual position meaning that I had to get my map out to do some navigating. Neil was struggling big time on the climbs and we had to scale back our proposed route for the day. Whilst Neil was struggling on the hills this time, because of my weak knees my nemesis are steep descents and our chopped up route had a really big one back into the Langdale valley and the finish. We had plenty of time in hand which was just as well because it took me 40 minutes (and a lot of moaning and groaning) for a distance that should have taken us about 10. As we approached the finish line it started to rain and by the time we had our official photo taken it really started to come down hard. It continued to be miserable whilst we consumed our post race wraps, tea and chocolate bars in the finish marquee.

Once it had nearly stopped raining we wasted no time changing in the car park as the mud was starting to cut up bad and the organising team were already having to push cars out. Fortunately I have good tread on my tyres and we got out of the car park field without any assistance. If you ever decide to do the OMM and have the option, make sure you choose take your 4x4.

If you do feel tempted, next year’s event is to be held in Snowdonia. Not sure we will be able to emulate our 1987 performance there, but perhaps if we start our training earlier and I can WD40 my knees, we might be able to give it a shot.

Andrew and Neil’s tent at the OMM

If You have any suggestions for games or any fun content, feel free to email me on editor@dfok.co.uk

A Polish Adventure

By keith Bennett

Those of you that know me will know that I much prefer Urban Orienteering to “proper” orienteering. Ever since I got the bug for running round streets trying to find controls in various cities and towns around England, I have always wanted to test my skills in the international arena. Having dabbled with a couple of ASOM events in Belgium I was keen to travel a little more. Step forward Luke who decided that he was in with a chance of winning the Euro City Race Tour for M16 and informed me that there was one race left in the series. We happened to be on holiday in Spain at the time (mid August) and so he caught me in traveller mode! A few hours later, entries were complete, fights and accommodation were booked and we were off to Gdansk in Poland for the middle weekend in September. Now I like to pride myself on knowing my European history, and knew that Gdansk was mostly famous for the Solidarity movement in the early 1980’s and large industrial shipyards. I was a little concerned about the sights of a former Communist Eastern European heartland, but decided at the very least it would be a decent boys’ weekend away!

Move forward a month and as we were sat at Stansted Airport waiting for a Ryanair flight that had been delayed for 2 hours following a full day at work, I was beginning to regret the trip. This was enhanced further when we didn’t arrive at our hotel in Gdansk city centre until 2am!

The Gdansk City Race was actually a whole weekend of orienteering spread over 3 days a sprint on Friday afternoon, a middle distance race on Saturday morning and the City Race Tour event on Sunday morning. We were entered for the Saturday and Sunday races and having had less than 6 hours sleep on Friday night we took an Uber to a residential area of Gdansk surrounded by imposing tower blocks for the Saturday morning race. The event centre was carefully laid out with a series of marquees and tents circled around the run in for the finish in an open area which was clearly the park for the local estates. The one confusing thing was the start times rather than the actual time, you were given the time in minutes after the actual start time. The race itself was a mix of intricate areas of housing estate and tower blocks with a finish up a hill to the biggest orienteering flag I have ever seen. We then spent the rest of Saturday exploring Gdansk’s medieval streets and historical architecture.

Area

Gdansk Old Town

1:5000 Contours 2.5m

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, Gdansk is a beautiful city built on the banks of the Motlawa River. Our hotel was right on the river and so was a fantastic base, as well as having a rooftop bar to relax in the evening and prepare for the next day with a beer and an amazing view.

Sunday’s event centre was a convenient 5 minute walk from our hotel. I was looking froward to running around the cobbled streets and visiting many of the ancient sites. I wasn’t disappointed with the route and even took in a modern shopping centre as well which had some tricky controls on several levels. Overall, it was an enjoyable run and I was reasonably happy with my time at least I got round and didn’t mis punch like somebody else who will remain nameless!

A trip around the War Museum before returning to the airport for our flight home topped off our weekend. I would highly recommend Gdansk for a city break and I will look to go back again without the orienteering equipment! A big thanks for organising and running the weekend must go to Harpagan Orienteering Club who definitely know how to look after international visitors. Next year’s race will be on the first weekend of September in the neighbouring seaside resort of Sopot I’ll see you there!

An Interesting

on the Men’s Veteran course

Photo: Michal Sadowski

Photos of the year!

From the next issue, I will be running a picture competition, take pictures from events and send them to me at editor@dfok.co.uk . In every issue, the best picture will be crowned “Photo of the month!” and then will go into the “Picture of the year” competition at the end of 2023! Will yours win next?

Where are all the Juniors?

This is a section just for juniors! We will pin down a junior monthly and if any junior has a story they would like to share then please email me on editor@dfok.co.uk

Jake Bennett– M12

What is your favourite orienteering terrain?

Forest because it requires more navigation skills.

What is your most common mistake?

Overshooting or undershooting a control.

What is a funny/embarrassing story from an event?

I was running to control 11 at the Yvette Baker Final when I put my dibber in the control and it snapped in half! I thought I would have to retire from the race until I realised that all the electronic parts were still Intact! For the next 6 controls, I had to put the little tip into the control which was very tricky! Despite this, I still came 22nd out of 53!

How do you prepare for a big race?

I think of good memories from previous events.

What would your advice be for a newcomer?

Navigation first, then running.

Which junior would you like to see interviewed next?

Ruby Gisby

Jake’s run in at the Yvette Baker Finals in July 2021 at Westonbirt Arboretum.

By Maddy Pitcher

I have been in the South East Junior Squad for 3 years but unfortunately because of Covid, we were not able to go to training camps. Luckily, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Wales for the weekend and train with my friends!

I arrived on Friday evening and my friends gave me a tour of the scout camp we were staying in. The tour ended in the kitchen where we had tea and ate lots of Jammy Dodgers.

The first day of training took place at Merthyr Mawr, which had a beautiful view of the coast. The terrain was nothing you could find here in the South East, and it was the perfect place to train. The only man made features were a couple of paths and a fence so route choice was reliant on contour features meaning this was a great chance to practice contour skills. There was limited vegetation with the majority of the area sand dunes and when running up them, it felt like you didn’t move anywhere no matter how fast you ran!

In the afternoon we trained on a different part of the area, which meant a long trek up a sandy hill. The best way to get up was to use other people’s footprints as footholds because it was so steep! When we arrived, we did a few more activities before doing a competitive clock relay. We were paired up and I was with Luke (go DFOK!). Sadly, we didn’t win but it was a fantastic opportunity to use the skills we had learnt earlier in the day in a competitive manner.

When we returned to camp, we were told there was limited hot water, so working out how to make sure everyone got a hot shower took a while to figure out! Afterwards we tried to map the scout camp to be used later for a night O course. This was a brilliant activity as it explored a skill that isn’t as commonly practiced in orienteering Cartography. My friends and I went round together to discuss our mapping ideas, however, it’s a lot easier said than done! When my map was completed, I sent a photo to my dad, as he does quite a bit of mapping. I got the response of “looks good” so was rather proud of the achievement!

Predictably, the Welsh weather meant it rained all evening and the coaches were hoping that we no longer wanted to do the night course so they did not have to go out in the rain to put out the controls. However, we did not let the rain stop the opportunity of some extra

exercise! After the course, the girls were tired and wanted to get an early night before the Pwll Du race the next day, however it was quite the opposite for the boys, as they spent the next hour singing and dancing to the orienteering song!

The final day of the weekend started with hoovering the scout camp and clearing up any mess (majority of it made by the boys). After cleaning, we made our ways to Pwll Du to take part in a Welsh league event. The walk to the start was uphill the whole way. This was nothing compared to the course. When I picked up my control descriptions it was all on contour features, either a re entrant or hilltop. Pwll Du was used as this year’s long distance JK, which gave a slight advantage as we were familiar with the terrain which was marshy and very uneven ground, but was a great place to put the contour skills we practiced in Merthyr Mawr into action.

Unfortunately, the weekend had to end and it was a long 4 hour journey home. I would love to experience a training camp like this again, as it was an incredible chance to train and practice skills that are difficult to do so in the South East.

THAT Sandy hill at Merthyr Mawr, South Wales.

Find Your Way success

By Kay Hawke

The Find Your Way Project began in November 2021 after funding was successfully applied for from Sport England to increase the participation of children, young people, families and hard to reach communities in positive virtual orienteering activities within green spaces local to them. The funding bid was on the back of successful work Pendle Forest Orienteers had achieved doing just this over 2020 in introducing many Maprun activities with their local School and Active Partnerships, with participation data from their activities used to help justify the bid to Sport England.

As an organisation, British Orienteering is at the beginning of a new 5 year Strategy aimed at securing the future of the sport. Two of the strategic aims of this are ‘Changing the Perception’ of the sport to the wider population and ‘Creating Engaging Experiences’. We believe that technology and sport ‘on demand’ is becoming an increasing important part of peoples increasingly busy lives and a more attractive option for activity to the younger generation than traditional timetabled sports. The Find Your Way Project aims to capitalise on the appeal of the virtual orienteering courses being instantly available, require no permanent infrastructure and their

ability to be placed within specific targeted areas. It is a great opportunity to showcase the sport as an exciting, technology led opportunity for people of all ages to access.

Funding for the Project continues until August 2024,by that time we are hoping for a legacy of development and participation in both our member clubs, members and communities we have previously found difficult to reach. We wish for virtual orienteering to be in the forefront of the public’s mind when they are wondering which activity to take part in, and for those taking part to be confident and excited by taking part in virtual orienteering activities. We wish to remove the stigma associated with the word ‘orienteering’, that it is something unachievable, ‘not for them’, or happens in locations away from the public eye,

Great turnout from our Find Your Way events

and raise awareness that orienteering is an achievable exciting adventure sport, and everybody has a place within it, regardless of ages, fitness levels or experience.

For clubs, we wish to raise the club’s profile within their communities, offer funded training to develop club members in skills such as event safety, social media and marketing, mapping, and building relationships with influential local bodies such as Sport/ Active Partnerships, schools, local councils and health providers. We wish for clubs to have more areas mapped, more courses available, more volunteers on hand so that when the Project ends, the clubs have a lasting legacy which will benefit them in the long term. Current club members are actively encouraged to become involved and participate in the Find Your Way Project and its activities such as the courses set or the Come and Try It events clubs are holding. We do not wish for the Project to be British Orienteering templated, rather clubs are encouraged to develop their own offering with the full support of myself as Project Lead. My role varies between the clubs that are involved. Some clubs prefer a more hands on approach in terms of relationship building with community partners, which I lead on, and some clubs such as DFOK are impeccably led in this department by Andrew Evans, who has proven to be immeasurably enthusiastic and an immense help within the Project.

Andrew talking at a DFOK Find your way event

I provide where requested marketing materials for clubs, social media templates, suggested activities and manage the day to day running of having multiple clubs across multiple areas of England trying to make a difference to their community. In 2023 the clubs involved with the Project will rise to 15 across 11 different areas geographically stretching the whole of England so I have no doubt I am in for a busy and exciting time!

We hope that members see British Orienteering’s commitment to the Find Your Way Project as just the beginning of systemic change for the better. We are committed to the future of the sport, not only for our current clubs and members, but also for those we have yet to attract. We wish to have thriving clubs; membership growth and a shift change in how our sport is seen in the public eye and look forward to a bright future for what is ultimately (and probably a biased view) the best (and undervalued) sport in the World.

Map extract: Cobham Great woods.

Scale 1:10000 Contours 5m.

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