Well done to all the SYO members who have been selected to run for England at the Interland Competition in the Netherlands.

M14 - Euan Tryner, Sam Crawshaw & Max Mobus (travelling reserve)
M18 - Ryan Elliot (travelling reserve)
M40 - Nick Barrable, Oli Johnson
M50 - Charlie Adams, Martin Ward (reserve)
W21 - Cat Taylor
W50 - Lucy Wiegand

The 2017 annual club champs were held in the glorious grounds of Whirlowbrook Hall on Saturday 2nd December. 57 adults and older juniors set off together on a 50 minute mass score event with the aim of collecting as many controls as possible in the time limit. This year there was a secret twist in that you could collect odd or even controls but could only switch once between them. Charlie Adams scored the most points on 220 with Dom Dakin close behind him on 210. First female was Jenny Johnson on 170 points.

However, once Peter Gorvett's fiendish handicapping system had been applied it was all change at the top with the overall victory going to Kris Groom. Max Mobus was first male junior, Isobel Reuber was 1st female junior, Louise Preston 1st senior woman, Peter Guillaume 1st vet man and Lynden Hartmann 1st vet woman.

Whilst the more experienced orienteers were enjoying the score course, the younger members had their own yellow course. Charlotte Chapman flew round the course in 11.36. Fastest male was James Bryant in 13.00.

Post race members adjurned to HSBC for a delicious Christmas Curry. Lunch was followed by the very brief AGM before it was time for the annual awards ceremony, which honoured our members' best achievements:

Best male performance at the CSC: Ian Cooper
Best female performance at the CSC: Isobel Reuber & Isabelle Hodgson
Best YBT performance: Henry MacDonald

Best Junior Relay Team: M14 Euan Tryner, Max Mobus, Sam Crawshaw
Best Senior Relay Team: M50 Tim Tett, Paul Bradbury, Martin Ward & Charlie Adams
Best Individual Junior Relay Performance: Jamie Lightfoot
Best individual Senior Relay Performance: Paul Bradbury
Best Male Junior Performances: Robbie Lightfoot
Best Female Junior Performances: Freya Tryner & Imogen Pieters
Best Overseas Performance: Cat Taylor
Best Senior Male Performances: Andy Preston
Best Senior Female Performances: Kim Baxter
Best Veteran Male Performances: Peter Gorvett
Best Veteran Female Performances: Lucy Wiegand
Most improved junior: James Bryant
Most improved senior: Julian Pieters

The final part of the day concentrated on thanking the club's volunteers for the hundreds of hours they dedicate to orienteering. All the major officials and coaches received a small prize and the club's mappers (Ian Cooper, Dom Dakin, Pete Tryner, Peter Gorvett and Charles Hird) were presented with a framed copy of their maps. Our main club coaches Colin Best, Jacky Dakin, Nick Lightfoot and Kim Baxter were thanked for their efforts and presented with a small award. Pete Tryner won 'official of the year' for organising the schools league events, planning the Park Hill urban and controlling Treeton and Lucy Wiegand was awarded the trophy for the 'outstanding contribution to orienteering for the excellent job she has done securing permissions for the past 7 years alongside organising, planning and controlling numerous events.

Thank you to Arun Sahni for planning an innovative and challenging score event that made fantastic use of Limb Valley, ably assisted by Clive Wilson and to Emily Pieters for organising so efficiently and finding such a great venue. 

On Sunday 19th December 50 children representing 10 Sheffield schools made the long journey to the Forest of Dean to compete in the British Schools Championships. Ranging in age from 8 to 16; they all performed exceptionally well bringing home 9 individual medals, 3 team trophies, 5 team medals, a whole school trophy and podium position.

The day started exceptionally early as we all clambered aboard the coach in the dark at 6.45am. There was a bit of a kerfuffle as we realised we had one more person for the coach than we had spaces for - many thanks to Toby for giving up his seat at the very last moment - but eventually we were on our way. The journey down was smooth and we arrived at 10.30am with plenty of time to apply face paint before the first start!

It was a lovely surprise to arrive in a well sheltered, sun drenched arena and certainly made the job of the team managers and parent supporters a pleasurable experience. 11.00 arrived and the first of the Sheffield competitors headed for the start.  Early results indicated that the times were very fast on the primary courses so it was an anxious wait with frequent watch checks for the arrival of our first finishers. The juniors were soon streaming in, mostly with huge smiles on their faces.

Within no time at all, all the Sheffield contingent were back and there was time to relax, play and eat packed lunches before the prize giving. Back of the envelope calculations from the individual results indicated the likelihood of a good medal haul so it was with good spirits that we decamped to the (ahead of schedule) prize giving!

The final results proved even better than expected with a vast array for podium positions. Well done to the individual medal winners: Ella (2nd Y5G), Beth & Sofia (3rd Y5G), Freya (1st Y6G), Imogen (1st Y7G), James (3rd Y6B), Jamie (2nd Y7B), Euan (1st Y8B), Max (1st Y9B) and Ryan (3rd Y12B). There were also a number of team podium positions:

1st Y5G - Hunters Bar - Ella, Sofia & Beth, Ellen & Megan
1st Y6G - Hunters Bar - Freya, Ruth and Lotte
2nd Y10G - High Storrs - Isobel, Alex & Hannah
2nd Y5B - Nether Green - Robbie, Sam & Oscar
3rd Y5B - Hunters Bar - Ben, Toby & Rhys
2nd Y6B - Hunters Bar - James, Mark & Oliver
3rd Y7B - High Storrs - Conrad, Jamie & Ben
1st Y8B - High Storrs - Euan, Dylan & Olmo

Hunters Bar took the overall primary school trophy and Birkdale were awarded a bronze medal in the small secondary category.

Many thanks to Jacky for dealing with the trails and tribulations of the overbooked coach, Nick for the coaching tips and all the parents that acted as team managers, supporters and chauffeurs. 

Next year the British Schools Schools Champs is on Sunday 18^th November at Haigh Hall, Wigan. On Saturday 17^th November the World Schools Selection Race will be held at Tockholes near Blackburn. This is for juniors born between 2001 and 2005. Those that are selected will travel to Estonia to compete in the World Schools Champs in Estonia in May 2019!

Forty eight members made the very long journey to Virtuous Lady in Devon for the final of this year’s Compass Sport Cup final and were rewarded with an excellent 3^rd place.

Due to the epic distance involved SYO subsidised the cost of the coach. Most of the team took advantage of this and signed up to “Jacky’s Coach Tours”. The initial plan was to get some training in on the way down on the Saturday at an event in the Quantocks but unfortunately the fast approaching Storm Brian led to its cancellation at the last minute. Every cloud has a silver lining though and this meant a departure time 3 hours later at a very reasonable 10am. Following a leisurely drive down we eventually arrived at the youth hostel in Okehampton in the late afternoon and despite the torrential rain and gale force winds a few hardy souls went for a run / walk on Dartmoor before it got dark.  A delicious 3 course meal (leek & stilton soup, roast beef and sticky toffee pudding) was served at 7pm and everyone agreed that it was far superior to any other youth hostel meal ever sampled. Some of the childfree amongst the team then adjourned to the pub while the rest relaxed at the hostel.

The following morning saw the team up bright and early for an 8.30am departure. By 9.30am we were parked in our fab parking spot adjacent to the arena where we could smugly watch people traipsing across the moor from the main parking area – it’s not often the coaches get the superior parking arrangements! There was a certain reluctance from much of the team to leave the warm, cosy coach so we instructed the juniors to put the SYO tent up whilst the rest of us stayed put! However, it was eventually deemed necessary to move and we joined the juniors in the tent where face painting in team colours was in full swing (even the SYO chair was spotted sporting the SYO logo on his cheek!)

The assembly field offered a lovely vista over the area and the spectator control meant we could cheer on fellow team mates as they entered the final loop of their courses. The weather remained reasonably bright for most of the day and the courses were surprisingly tricky with plenty of headless chickens on view in the areas of gorse and plentiful paths. Like last year, SYO’s main competitors were BOK and FVO. Whilst we fielded a very similar sized team to FVO, BOK had almost double the amount of runners and as a result they swept away with the competition scoring 2363 points to take the cup, which they last won in 2013. SYO scored 2296 finishing in third behind FVO on 2324 but surprisingly this was actually closer than the result last year when we were on home turf. This is very encouraging for the future as we were actually without a lot of our top runners and just shows how well the club is developing in strength and depth.

Congratulations to everyone who competed. It really was a stirling team effort with those who didn’t score contributing by pushing down the scores of others. Well done in particular to those who did score: Nick B, Bill E, Martin, Peter G, Euan, Alex E, Lucy, Isobel R, Sam C, Colin S, Dom, Nic, Pete T, Ian, Freya, Pauline T, Ryan, Clive, Henry, Isabelle H, Amanda, Bill H, Paul B, Tony and Tim W. Fabulous to see the strength of our juniors and also great to see lots of people scoring for the first time at a compass sport cup competition.

The coach journey home was long but far more relaxing than driving and we passed the time by eating our prize winning chocolates. We were also treated to a surprisingly tuneful sing song by the juniors from the back of the bus!

Many thanks to Jacky for organising the coach and booking the hostel and Tim T for co-ordinating the entries. Next year we are hosting the heat at Canklow on 11^th March and the final is at Beaudesert in the West Midlands on 21^st October 2018. Please put the dates in your diaries; with the all our best runners out we really could lift the cup again!

The second event of the league at Meersbrook Park had another great attendance.  This was a new area - with a map of the park by Dom Dakin and the park linked up to the woods and urban area around Gleadless.  Thanks to the Möbus family for planning and all of our helpers who managed to cope with the record numbers.

We have also added a further team competitiong to the league - a year group competition.  Up to Y7 it is split girls and boys per year group and combined Y8 & 9 and Y10 & 11. 3 people to count for the team with the best 5 results from the 9 races in the year to count for the league.

More than 60 members travelled south at the weekend to compete in the British Sprint and British Middle Championships.

The weekend began with a lovely sunny day for the British Sprint Champs in Campbell Park, Milton Keynes. The Sprint Champs comprises of 2 races - a qualifier in the morning, followed by the finals in the afternoon. For the over 16s the qualifying heats were held in the relatively easy Springfield housing estate, while the younger juniors remained in the park. Racing was fast, furious and uncontentious with no disqualifications for out of bounds transgressions unlike last year!

The afternoon finals were all held in Campbell Park. Starting was quite exciting with around 20 people racing off at once to a number of controls in close proximity. Infact the finals were surprisingly tricky due to the high number of controls and the maze of paths and thickets in the wooded area. 

Sprinting certainly seems to be a strength for SYO with 6 wins and another 5 podium positions. Congratulations to the British Champions Nick B (M40), Dave P (M50), Peter G (M70), Freya (W10), Imogen (W12) and Jenny P (W45); silver medallist Amanda (W45) and bronze medallists Robbie (M10), Dom (M16), Andy (M40) and Charlie A (M50).

Sunday saw the action move to Wendover Woods near Aylesbury for the British Middle Championships. Fortunately the forecast rain held off though the car parking field was rather on the windy side. The terrain was fairly technical and courses had been planned to avoid the worst of the brambles. Lots of controls meant quick decision making whilst maintaining a fast running speed. With 4 wins, 6 other podium positions and 4 fourth places, SYO managed this with aplomb! Congratulations to British Champions Nick B (M40), Dave P (M50), Peter G (M70) and Jenny P (W45), silver medallists Amanda (W45), Andy (M40) and Robbie (M10) and bronze medallists Dom (M16), Charlie A (M50) and Freya (W10). Special mention must also go to those who came so close in 4th place - Ella (W10), Imogen (W12), Kim (W21), Lucy (W45) and particularly Conrad (M12) who was 1 second off bronze!

On Saturday 9th September 23 SYO juniors travelled to Sutton Coalfield to take part in the annual Peter Palmer relay challenge. 

The weekend began with the traditional team pizza before we continued the journey to Sutton Coalfield. On arrival at the sports centre the team quickly grabbed a luxurious spot on the gym floor and laid out mats and sleeping bags. We then rushed out to recce the start and changeover before it got dark. The juniors then had a bit of free time, so most of them headed off to play 5 a-side footy until it got too dark to see the ball, while the adults relaxed in costa coffee! 

The footy was followed by a team meeting where we embarrassed Dom by singing happy birthday. Jacky gave a rousing team talk while the juniors scoffed birthday cake. Then it was time to lay out all the kit so there were no last minute panics before the evening ended with the obligatory nail varnishing and team photo.

4.15am arrived with a cacophony of alarms as first leg runners and supporters emerged from their sleeping bags. The SYO team were very calm and organised and there was even time for face painting as we waited for call up.

Finally 4.50am arrived and Dom (SYO killer bees), Yasmin (SYO worker bees) & Joe (SYO bumble bees) made their way to the start line ready for the mass start. Eventually 5am arrived and the 24 runners rushed off into the night with their head torches bazing. Then we settled down to a nervous wait for the first arrivals at the spectator control.

WCOC 1 were the first through the spectator control and then just 2 minutes later Dom arrived in the chasing pack with 6 other runners. Positions remained unchanged for the final loop and Dom handed over to Ryan in 7th place - a great start for SYO Killer Bees. Yasmin and Joe also had good runs bringing SYO's two other teams home safely. 

Ryan had an excellent run on leg 2 against some very experienced orienteers to gain one place for SYO. He handed safely over to Sam Crawshaw on 3rd leg. By now it was starting to get light and the spectators enjoyed a gorgeous sunrise whilst sipping hot tea from O Nosh. A good, solid run by Sam kept SYO's 6th position in the overall competition and 3rd place in the Joan George Competition for teams with a combined age of 90 or under. We were still in contention!

Next out was Alex E (each team must have at least 2 girls) on the orange leg. Her speedy time of just 21 minutes barely gave time for a trip to the loo and within no time at all Alex C, Josie and Naomi were out on the yellow leg. At the Peter Palmers you are allowed up to 3 runners on leg 5 and it is the first one back that makes the handover. A fab run by Alex (closely persued by Josie and Naomi) meant she was first back to send Euan out in 5th place overall and 3rd place on the Joan George Trophy.

The spectators then settled down for an anxious wait. Could Euan catch up the other 2 teams in the Joan George on the long green leg? WCOC 1 arrived at the spectator control, followed by MAROC 1 and then no-one else. Suddenly a shout from Dom - "There's Euan!" He was being closely followed by the OD runner but seemed to be clear of LEI and WCOC 2 - our rivals in the Joan George. An anxious 8 minutes followed until Euan appeared on the run in to take 3rd place overall and win the Joan George trophy to the great delight of the SYO team. A superb team effort.

There were also excellent runs by the juniors in SYO's other teams. Special mention must go to Conrad, Olmo and Carys for very fast times on the yellow and to Seb and Max for great performances on the red night leg and long green leg respectively. Well done also to Isobel Reuber for bravely stepping up to run one of the night legs with no night orienteering experience whatsoever! Throughout the weekend the behaviour and attitude of all the juniors was superb.

Thank you to Anita, Pete M, Sylvia, Paul T and Amanda for chauffeuring and supporting and particular thanks to team captain Jacky for master minding another SYO victory. In 2018 the Peter Palmer relay is over the same weekend - venue to be confirmed. Any SYO junior from M/W12 upwards can take part so put the date in the diary!

A great turnout for the first Saturday event of the autumn.  431 runs is another record I think, amazing given the weather!  Really good to see lots of new people today, I hope you enjoyed your courses.

Very preliminary results are available on the event page along with split times so you can see how you did on each leg.  With so many new people it will take a bit of time to go back through the entries and check the details are right but hoefully final results and schools league results will be up tomorrow.

Thanks to all the volunteers that helped today, coping admirably with the record breaking numbers.  If anyone would like to help out at any of the future events then please get in touch.

Finally good luck to our three teams of juniors competing in the overnight relay tonight at Sutton Park.

Day 4 Assembly

More than 70 members of SYO travelled to Deeside for the biannual Scottish 6 Days orienteering competition. Over 3500 competitors took part in the competition from little tots on the string course to those in their 80s. There was a large foreign contingent with people travelling from as far a field as Austraila, New Zealand, America and South Africa to take part. 

View from a control on day 4

The organisation was superb with the assembly areas based in stunning surroundings. The terrain and courses were very physically and technically demanding, providing an excellent challenge. The weather also played it's part in helping to create a great week with only the odd shower here and there, allowing plenty of opportunity for socialising with club members and orienteering friends from far and wide. SYO held an afternoon tea social after day 4; the demanding courses providing plenty of excuse to gorge on cake.

SYO Social

Prizes are awarded at the end of the 6 days of competition, with a competitor's best 4 scores counting. SYO had a very successful week with a number of members on the podium amongst very stiff competition. Congratulations to Nick Barrable 1st M40L, Peter Gorvett 1st M70L, Freya Tryner 1st W10A, Pippa Dakin 1st W20L, Jenny Peel 1st W45L and Lucy Wiegand 2nd W45L. We also had a number of almost podium places with Oli Johnson (M21E), Charlie Adams (M50L) and Andy Preston (M40L) all finishing in 4th place.

 Lucy, Freya & Peter celebrating their podium places.

It is with a sad heart but with joyous memories that I am letting SYO members know that Doreen Best passed away on 7th August in Weston Park Hospital after a brave, brave battle against cancer that had lasted many years.

Many of you will not know Doreen because many of you are relatively new to the club and Doreen's illness forced her to retire from the sport well over a year ago – the last event she ran in was the 2016 JK sprint around Leeds Uni. She was not a particularly keen competitor - she was more likely to come back from her course and tell me about the flowers she had stopped to look at on the way or about the birds she had seen rather than how quickly she had got to a control - but she was an active volunteer. Before her illness took hold she served on the SYO committee and was editor of the club’s newsletter, contributing with her comical doggerel poems and handdrawn front covers. You would have seen her helping at most SYO events, usually on Registration. When I was listed as the organizer at an event you can be sure that it was Doreen's organisational strength that was behind it and it was she who enabled me to appear efficient.

She was indeed my bedrock and I could not possibly have made the contribution to the sport and to the club that I did without her support and encouragement.

Her funeral service will be held at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium on Tuesday 22^nd August at 12.30pm. There will be refreshments following the service at a venue to be confirmed. If you are able to attend please let me know. Please don’t feel the need to wear black if you do.

Her wishes were for no flowers but donations in lieu may be made to Weston Park Cancer Charity.

Colin Best