CompassSport Cup first round draw   8th December 2009, Martin
The draw for the 2010 CompassSport Cup (inter-club competition) has been announced.  SYO is drawn against AIRE, CLOK, EBOR and NATO.

The match will take place on 24th January 2010, at Silton in the North East. CLOK website

SYO Juniors third at Yvette Baker Trophy final   6th December 2009, Peter, Jackie
Congratulations to SYO's juniors!  In their first appearance in the Final of the Yvette Baker Trophy, they managed 3rd place, and were only 2 points (equivalent to just a handful of seconds) away from second place.

Final team scores were: 1st OD 892, 2nd DEE 874, 3rd SYO 872, 4th SO 862, 5th WAOC 836, 6th WCH 835, 7th SOC 789, 8th NOC 729.

Individual scores

Having been very excited to qualify for the final of the Yvette Baker Trophy for the first time, the reality of a day trip to Crawley began to sink in (at least for the parents involved).  As we met at Meadowall in driving rain at 6.45am (not a good time for teenagers!) to catch the coach, there were a few of us who wondered what we were doing.  But, although the assembly field and run in were the sort of deeply squelchy, sticky mud that I only seem to enounter in the south,  the sun shone in Crawley.  Our team of juniors included Rachael, competing on the Orange on her first ever solo orienteering course, Tom, on the Light Green, who had only done a very few courses, Jack with an injured hand heavily bandaged and wrapped up in a plastic bag to protect it from the weather, Ronan, who was extremely excited all day and didn's sleep a wink on the coach,  as well as some past and present British and JK champions.

Everyone got safely round their courses with no mispunches which was a massive achievement.  With early starts, SYO took an early lead but gradually slipped to 3rd. All our runners were in so we could do nothing but bite our nails and hope.  As the prizegiving proceeded (there were prizes of sweets for each team that took part) we realised that we were at least fourth and then there was the announcement - 4th place South......Downs.  SYO gave SO a massive cheer at that point and then our team proudly received the shield for 3rd place and a large box of chocolates.  Thanks to the SYO Committee for supporting the cost of the coach - parents were extremely glad not to have to drive and it really did help generate a good team atmosphere. 

ShUOC City Chase 2009 - Sheffield city 25th November 2009, Martin
A great new map of Sheffield city centre was used for the ShUOC (Sheffield University) City Chase event on Saturday.  The event consisted of a prologue round followed by a chase, which made for exciting head-to-head racing in an often complex urban environment.  Though the weather was wet and windy, this actually helped to reduce the number of people out shopping on Saturday, so crowds of shoppers weren't a problem for runners.  Unfortunately a couple of controls around West One had to be removed during the prologue event, but race times were adjusted after the affected legs were removed.

The event also (temporarily) lost a control when a member of the public reported a suspicious object, and thinking it may be a bomb the fire brigade turned up to remove it! Despite these problems the event was a great success.

In the Mens Open SYO's Lead Coach Graham Gristwood won, ahead of Oli Johnson in second.  SYO also took 2nd and 3rd places in the Womens Open with Grace Crane and Jenny Johnson respectively.  Alex Kilcoyne took 2nd place in the Womens Junior race.  Simon Bradbury, who had over a minutes lead after the Mens Junior prologue race, unfortunately mis-punched in the chase.  Martin Ward won the Mens Vet race, and Colin Lynch just grabbed 2nd place in a sprint finish.  Bill Hanley narrowly missed winning Mens Super Vet (in another sprint finish).

The race was also the final event in the Nopesport Urban League.  Alex Kilcoyne took 4th place in the Womens Junior League, and last years Mens Super Vet winner Peter Gorvett also finished 4th this year.  Martin Ward won the Mens Vet league, but only by 1 point, to retain the brick trophy for the Urban League.

SYO crowned club of the year 19th November 2009

South Yorkshire Orienteers won the category "Club of the Year" at last night's South Yorkshire Sports Awards held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The award recognises not just the perfomance achievements of the club but also the club's hard work behind the scenes to develop their sport and get more people involved.

Congratulations to SYO! Particular praise must go to the committee for guiding the club to such recognition, to Melinda for writing our bid, to all the event officials who have put on events for the club, to all volunteers who have helped in any capacity, to all coaches who have helped to create a club that people want to join, and to all those people who have competed for SYO over the last year. This really is a whole club effort.

SYO members help England to a VHI win 18th November 2009, Martin
The Veterans Home International was held last weekend, with the relays on Longshaw and the individual on Eyam Moor.  Four SYO members were part of the victorious England team that won both the relay and the individual competitions.  Scotland were placed second, Wales third and Ireland fourth.  SYO also had runners competing for the Scottish and Welsh teams.

SYO Juniors qualify for Yvette Baker Trophy final for first time 12th November 2009, Peter
The qualifying round was held at Sandal Beat on 1st November.  Although DEE won the round, SYO were second and qualified because DEE were in the top five at the final last year.  Congratulations to the team, especially those relatively new to orienteering. 
Best wishes for the final on December 6th, at Tilgate Park and Forest near Crawley.

SYO Coaching Team appointed 1st November 2009, Chris
After many applications and a lengthy interview process, SYO are pleased to announce that the new coaching team is now in place:

Lead Coach - Graham Gristwood
Assistant Lead Coach - John Rocke
Community Coach - Jill Gorvett and Colin Best

There will be a webpage devoted to coaching up and running soon!

If you want to get involved with coaching, receiving coaching, or want to ask any questions, please email Graham at oneandonlygg (insert "at" sign) gmail.com.

Area embargoes 27th October 2009, Peter
Events and training with a map or otherwise seeking to gain a competitive advantage is currently not allowed for those that wish to compete in the following events:

Northern championships 31 Jan 2010 Avoid Big Moor, Baslow, Curbar and Frogatt Edges.
CompassSport Cup Final, 17th Oct 2010  Avoid area covered by previous Burbage Moor maps
Regional Event Ecclesall Woods 21st Nov 2010  A one-year embargo starts on 21/11/09 for those that wish to run and remain competitive.
British Championships 7th May 2011 Wharncliffe and Greno Woods

SYO wins Compass Sport Cup Final again 26th October 2009, Martin
At Fineshade Wood in Northamptonshire last weekend SYO successfully defended its Compass Sport Cup title.

(picture by Jenny Johnson)

World Masters Sprint Final 11th October 2009, Adam, Jill
SYO’s Nick Barrable (M35) took the Gold at the WMOC Sprint Final around the Olympic Park in Sydney. Success too for the Edwards Family, now living in New Zealand, with Gold for Bill (M40) and Silver for Susan (W35).

Although Peter Gorvett qualified fastest in M60 he didn’t get into the medals in the final, finishing 5th. The competition now moves to the Blue Mountains where the Long Qualification races start on Wednesday, culminating in the Long Final on Saturday 17th October. Track their progress here.

Puglia 2009 - Italian 5-days 9th October 2009, Martin
Today was the fifth and final day of the Italian 5-days in Puglia, southern Italy. Just Lesley and I made the trip from SYO, but there was a good group from AIRE, and a handful of other Brits amongst the field of around 250 (at least half of whom were Swiss, so there was a reasonable standard of competition).

Day 1 was actually at night, around an old city (Vico del Gargano), and was almost as challenging as the maize maze race had been.  Then days 2 and 3 were in the Forest of Umbra, an ancient beech forest high up in the mountains. Day 4 was back at the coast, on some sand dune terrain (and the thickest thickest I've ever tried orienteering amongst - people were getting ripped to shreds). Finally day 5 was another street race, in Pesichi, an old coastal town.

Despite not winning any of the individual races, I managed to win H40 overall by just over a minute after the 5 days. There are some maps online: Day 1 and Day 2.

More Junior Success 28th September 2009, Adam, Paul
An enthusiastic team of seven SYO juniors won the Joan George trophy and finished 4th out of 33 overall at the Peter Palmer Relay's yesterday. This was the first time SYO had won the Joan George trophy in its 10 year history. The Joan George trophy is awarded to the best team that has a combined age of 90 years or less (SYO had 90 years exactly).

Adam Bradbury started at 5:30 in the morning running the first night leg and came back in 16th to hand over to Simon Bradbury also running at night. He had a brilliant run and pulled the team up to 8th position. Cari Littler was next running the light green leg and handed over to Michael Adams. In an exciting run in, Michael overtook Jake Field (EBOR) who had a two minute lead when they set off. Running the yellow leg together were Katherine Hall and Louise Adams. Louise was first back out of the two and handed over to last leg runner Aidan Smith with the team in 4th place. Aidan had an excellent run and was just seconds off securing 3rd place for the team. Photo © Rob Lines.

Junior Inter Regional Championships 2009 16th September 2009, Adam, Claudia
SYO juniors representing Yorkshire & Humberside in Northern Ireland on 12-13th September were Adam and Simon Bradbury, Aidan Smith, Cari Littler, Katherine Hall and Michael and Louise Adams.

The indicidual event on Saturday was held at Slievenagore in the Mourne Mountains. The relay race on Sunday took place in the Lagan Valley Regional Park, Belfast. The scenery and weather on both days could not have been better. Based on both day's results, Scotland were the overall winners, with YHOA in third place.

YHOA also won the Men's Relay and came third in the Women's Relay. Well done to Aidan Smith and Cari Littler for their relay team results. Well done also to Aidan for running up to M16 on the individual day and coming in second. Full results can be seen here.

White Rose 2009 2nd September 2009, Adam
Well done to all the SYO runners who competed at the 2009 White Rose Weekend in North Yorkshire. There were 7 orienteering events in just 3 days.

Congratulations to the winners of the regional events; Jenny Johnson 1st on W21, Jeff Colbert 1st on M21S, Oli Johnson 1st and Tim Tett 2nd on M21, Simon Bradbury 2nd on M16, Janet Adams 2nd on W45, Alex Hall 3rd on M12, Katherine Hall 3rd on W14, Alex Kilcoyne 3rd on W18 and Moira Chapman 3rd on W21S.

Also well done to the winners of the other events that were on at the White Rose. In the new Hill Race, Oli Johnson came 1st in the mens and Alex Kilcoyne and Jenny Johnson came 1st and 2nd respectively in the womens.

In the Sprint which was also new this year, juniors Simon Bradbury and Alex Kilcoyne did brilliantly to finish 4th in the mens and womens respectively.

SYO also did well in the Night Score Event with Katherine Hall 1st and Cari Littler 3rd in Young Junior Women, Adam Bradbury 2nd and Simon Bradbury 3rd in Junior Men, Oli Johnson 1st in Senior Men and Guy Seaman 2nd in Senior Veteran Men.

At the Mountain Bike Orienteering Score event Charlie Adams was 1st on the Veteran Mens course and Simon Bradbury was also 1st on the Youth course on his first ever MTBO event.

In the Team Score Relays Tim Tett, Jenny Johnson and Adam Bradbury were 1st by 26 seconds on the Mixed (1 woman) course. Katherine Hall, Cari Littler and Alex Kilcoyne were 1st on the 48- All women course.

Full results here. More pictures here.

 Senior and Home Internationals selections 30th July 2009, Martin
Congratulations to the SYO members selected to represent England in the forthcoming Senior and Veteran Home Internationals.  The SHI takes place in Northern Ireland, and Oli Johnson, Matt Crane and Neil Northrop have all been selected in M21, plus Jenny Johnson is selected in W21.  The VHI is in England, on Eyam and Longshaw, and the selections include Nick Barrable (M35), Martin Ward (M40), Charlie Adams (M45), and Peter Gorvett (M60).

The Welsh and Scottish teams have not been published yet, but could also include some SYO members.

Congratulations to SYO members selected for World Championships 6th July 2009, Martin
Matt Crane, Oli Johnson and Jo Stevenson have all been selected to represent Great Britain at the forthcoming World Championships. Selection races took place over the weekend, and the full team has now been announced on the British Orienteering website.

The World Championships take place in Hungary from August 16th to 23rd.

SYO success in Harvester Relays and UK Relay League series 22nd June 2009, Martin
The Harvester overnight relays took place in South Wales on Merthyr Common on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  In the Mens Open (A Class) race SYO and FVO pulled out a lead from the rest of the field, and were neck and neck with each other for most of the night and morning.  Eventually FVO just won, but only by about 30 seconds after an 8 hour race.  This 2nd place score slightly improved the Mens team overall score in the UK Relay League, victory in which was already confirmed after the top Scottish teams chose not to compete at the Harvester.

In the Womens Open (B Class) race some great performances by the SYO ladies kept their team in touch with the overall B Course leaders, and some way ahead of the 2nd womens team, Oxford University.  However a strong last leg by OUOC brought them back in touch, but they were just unable to catch SYO's Clare Baker on last leg.  A great win for the SYO womens team, who also won the overall UK Relay League trophy!

SYO's other team, competing in the Open B course with several runners relatively new to night orienteering, finished successfully but were some way down the field.  Overall, it was an excellent club performance.  

Sheffield Rat Race 1-2 August 2009
The Rat Race is all about taking adventure sports out of the wilderness and putting them onto the streets of the World's coolest cities, the Rat Race is a totally unique adventure challenge in which team’s race in a multi-sport test of endurance, skills and guts on a course that is only revealed hours before the event begins. Choose from Saturday’s “Mean Streets;” a fast, furious hunt for checkpoint challenges scattered all over the city centre and open to anyone with a pair of trainers and a sense of humour. Or go for Sunday’s “Nine2Five” adventure, offering a full day’s worth of biking, abseiling, kayaking, climbing, navigation and mystery challenges city-wide. If you are up for the ultimate urban adventure, then sign up for both installments of action and ratify yourself by completing the legendary Rat Race Weekender. The Rat Race is designed to be extreme fun for all levels, from newcomers to elite adventure racers. You can find out a lot more about the Rat Race here: Sheffield Rat Race

The event has the full support and permission of Sheffield City Council.
The Sheffield Rat Race will also be televised and Channel 4 has commissioned a 3 part Rat Race TV series that includes the Sheffield, Edinburgh and Belfast Rat Races. Hallam FM and The Star are on board as event partners to help promote the event locally.

Any SYO members that are interested in taking part can get a 10% discount off the online entry price by using the promotional code RAT202 (prices start from just £35 per person).

Twin Peaks 10th June 2009, Paul
Some good performances at Twin Peaks May 30th/31st on a very hot weekend. Best result was Aidan Smith running up, 1st on M16, pushing recent SINS JM5M winner Simon Bradbury into 2nd. A win also for Kim Baxter on W21S with Jaimie Buckley 2nd. Other notable results; Peter Gorvett 2nd running M50 (only 12 seconds behind the winner!), Louise Adams W12 and Adam Bradbury M18 in 3rd places.