The weekend of 30th April and Ist May saw a large number of SYO members travel to Brown Clee for the British Orienteering Championships. Brown Clee is both physically and technically challenging. It combines complex and rugged moorland with wooded hillsides. The woodland is predominantly mature and fast, whilst the moorland has intricate contour detail throughout with a profusion of depressions and pits. 

BOC Individual

A fantastic run for Kim Baxter saw her take the W21 Elite trophy. 

There were wins also for Euan Tryner M12, Dane Blomquist M20E, Bill Edwards M45, Tim Tett M50 and Jenny Peel W45.

 

 Well done also to the other medalists: Conrad Reuber M10 3rd, Imogen Pieters W12 3rd, Richard Guillaume M35 3rd, Charlie Adams M50 3rd, Jenny Johnson W35 2nd, Jaimie Buckley 3rd W35, Al Buckley 3rd M40, Pippa Dakin 2nd W18E and Lucy Wiegand 2nd W45.

 

BOC Relays

Sunday was the turn of the the relay event. SYO's Euan Tryner, Imogen Pieters and Jamie Lightfoot won the mini relay, completing the JK and British double. There were also silver medals for the W40 team (Jenny Peel, Pauline Tryner & Lucy Wiegand) and the M40 team (Al Buckley, Pete Tryner and Nick Barrable) and bronze for the M50 team (Tim Tett, Charlie Adams and Dave Peel).

Isabelle Groom, W10 Yorkshire Champion

The Yorkshire Championships were held at Londesborough Park on 10th April. Congratulations to Isabelle Groom (W10), Euan Tryner (M14), Dom Dakin (M16), Louise Adams (W18), Charlie Adams (M50), Janet Adams (W50) and Paul Bradbury (M55) who are now Yorkshire Champions.

There was further success at the Northern Championships at Mulgrave Woods on 17th April. Well done to trophy winners: Freya Tryner (W10), Euan Tryner (M12), Pippa Dakin (W18), Dane Blomquist (M20), Laura Goy (W21), Rachael Rothman (W35), Alex Rothman (M35), Bill Edwards (M45), Tim Tett (M55) and Hilary Bloor (W60).

Congratulations also to those members who gained a top 3 position at the Northern Champs: Imogen Pieters (3rd W12), Max Mobus (3rd M12), Oli Johnson (2nd M21), Jenny Johnson (2nd W35), Pete Tryner (3rd M40), Charlie Adams (2nd M50) and Peter Gorvett (2nd M60).

It is with great sadness that we heard about the sudden passing of Lee Scott.

Lee passed away last Saturday 9th April after a sudden illness caused by a brain tumour. Lee was in his first year as M50 and leaves a wife, Viv, and three teenage children.

Lee had orienteered since secondary school at Myers Grove, where he was encouraged to orienteer by Mike Giles, his Maths teacher. He became a regular attender at events organised by South Yorkshire Schools Orienteering Association whose key personnel included Mike and also Colin Best.

He had been a member of SYO for many years and his untimely death will come as a shock to many.  Our heartfelt condolences are extended to his wife and children.

His funeral will be held on Tuesday 26th April in Manchester. Please contact Pauline if you would like further details.

Yorkshire delivered a fantastic festival of orienteering to mark the 50th anniversary of the JK. The 4 days brought a great variety of terrain and widely varying weather conditions.  As the event was in our region, SYO were helping throughout the weekend.  A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered over the weekend.  A special mention must go to Lucy Wiegand and Peter Gorvett who managed the entries and enquiries team for the entire weekend and should be commended for their flexible and accommodating approach. Thanks must also go to Charlie Adams, who was assistant organiser at the relay and Louise Adams who coordinated the tasty YHOA junior squad cake stall – thanks also to those who provided cakes!

The weekend kicked off on Friday in glorious sunshine at the Sprint race held on the Leeds University campus.  Multiple levels and tricky covered areas called for careful navigation.  SYO had only one JK sprint champion – Freya Tryner on the W10 but there were a number of other commendable podium positions. Well done to:
Silver
W12 Imogen Pieters
M12 Euan Tryner
W18E Pippa Dakin
M20E Dane Blomquist
W45 Jenny Peel
M45 Martin Ward
M55 Tim Tett
M65 Pete Gorvett
 
Bronze
M20E Michael Adams
M50 Dave Peel

Saturday and Sunday were the two individual days, with the JK champions being decided by the combined times from both races.  Saturdays race was at Wass forest on the edge of the North York Moors.  Great runs by several club members put them in good positions going into day two with Imogen Pieters (W12A), Jaimie Buckley (W35L), Charlie Adams (M50L), Tim Tett (M55L) and Hilary Bloor (W60S) all leading their classes.

Sunday brought us to Kilnsey in the Yorkshire Dales; an area of lightning fast moorland with tricky areas of old quarrying.  A few club members were caught in a horrendous 20 minute hail / snowstorm whilst on their course which dropped them down the results.  Winners on the day were Euan Tryner (M12A), Tim Tett (M55L), Hilary Bloor (W60S) and Colin Best (M65S).

When the overall results were calculated Tim Tett won SYO’s only gold in M55 Long – a great victory!
Six silvers were awarded:
W10A Freya Tryner
W12A Imogen Pieters
M12A Euan Tryner
W18 Elite Pippa Dakin
W35L Jaimie Buckley
M40L Alastair Buckley
 
Well done also to the bronze medallists:
M35L – Andrew Preston
W35L – Jenny Johnson
W45L – Lucy Wiegand
 
Congratulations also to Hilary Bloor who won W60 Short and to Clive Wilson and Colin Best, who were 2nd in M60S and M65S respectively.
 
On the Elite Courses there were good overall performances by Aidan Smith 10th  in his 1st year as a senior, Nic Barber 19th and 32nd Nick Barrable (running up from M40!).  The Elites had a middle race at Wass followed by a long at Kilnsey – at 20.1km with 645m of climb it is one of the longest courses ever run in the UK.  In the Women’s elite race Laura Goy ran well to finish in 12th position overall.
 
Monday was relay day at Storthes Hall near Huddersfield.  Snow on the drive up was ominous but the weather held for some good SYO performances. 
 
The Mini Relay kicked it off; the Schools League has brought so many juniors into the club that we had 5 out of the 14 teams in the Mini Relay (M/W 12 and under).  Our top team of Jaimie Lightfoot, Imogen Pieters and Euan Tryner won the race and there were some great performances by all our runners in this class and in the Junior (40-) relay and Intermediate (48-) relay. For many it was their in their first taste of a big orienteering relay event.
Our other podium place on the day went to our Senior Women’s team of Lucy Wiegand, Jenny Lightfoot and Jenny Peel who finished in 3rd.  The Senior Men’s team finished just off the podium in 4th.  Laura, Jenny and Rachael ran well to achieve 5th place in the Women’s Trophy with Tim, Pete G and Nick 5th in the Veteran Mens.

The JK were the first races in this years main competition season.  Next up :
Sun 10th Apr YHOA Championships, Londesborough, Market Weighton
Sun 17th Apr Northern Championships, Mulgrave Woods, Whitby
 

Despite a rather soggy and grey day, we had a great turnout at our Brodsworth event. A grand total of £434 was raised for Sports Relief. Many thanks to all those that turned up and donated and to the skeleton team of helpers. Particular thanks to organiser - Paul Bradbury, planner - Colin Drury, controller - Dave Peel and SI Manager - Tim Wiegand.

SYO held another successful newcomer and schools' league event on Saturday 12th March at Forge Dam, part of the Outdoor City Weekender. The gorgeous Spring day ensured a good turn out and led to the cafe doing a roaring trade in ice-creams! We recorded 321 runs - a record! Hope to see as many of you as possible at the 7th event in the series at Parkwood Springs on Saturday 9th April. Thanks to everyone who helped and to Ricky Baxter for taking the photos - there are more on our facebook page.

Last weekend saw the beginning of the main orienteering competition season for 2016. The weekend began with the British Night Championships at Cademan and Thringstone Woods in Leicestershire, which was previously used for the British Middle Championships in 2008. The courses were physically and technically demanding; producing extremely worthy champions from highly competitive fields.

Congratulations to the 4 SYO British Night Champions: Dave Peel (M50L), Tim Tett (M55L), Pippa Dakin (W18L) and Jenny Peel (W45L). Well done also to the 6 silver medalists: Pete Tryner (M40L), Charlie Adams (M50L), Nick Lightfoot (M55L), Peter Gorvett (M65L), Henry Marston (M70L) and Louise Adams (W18L) and also Michael Adams who was 3rd in M20L

  On Sunday it was the turn of the Midland Championships in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. Courses were fast and furious through beautiful runnable wood and moorland. Well done to Kim Baxter who was 1st on W21 Elite, Richard Guillaume 1st on M35L and Tim Tett 1st on M55L. Congratulations also to Nick Barrable (2nd M21E), Andrew Preston (2nd M35L), Martin Ward (2nd M45L), Pippa Dakin (2nd W18E), Robbie Lightfoot (2nd M10A), Pauline Tryner (3rd W40L), Tim Wiegand (1st M45S), Louise Preston (1st W21V) and Monika Cooper (1st W70S).

 

Four members of SYO members were selected to run for England in the Interland competition in Belgium at the weekend. They all acquitted themselves well achieving some great results. Pippa Dakin’s victory in the W20 class was particularly impressive. Well done Pippa! Congratulations also to Charlie Adams - 2nd in M50, Nick Barrable – 5th in M21 and Lucy Wiegand 8th in W40. England finished 2nd to the overall winners, Belgium.

Monday 3rd February saw the start of the new indoor coaching sessions at Tapton School for our older SYO juniors (M/W12 and up).

The 1st session began with a challenging map simplification exercise. Participants were asked to jog for a minute. Meanwhile their partners looked at a map, deciding their route to a control; which they then had to draw their route onto a blank piece of paper. The pairs then swapped over and this continued until they had each drawn routes for all the controls.

The second exercise was a relay race using the SI equipment, which focused on the juniors’ knowledge of map symbols; although it’s unsure as to whether there were any overall victors as there seemed to be a lot of mispunches!  The session finished with a map discussion, analysing previous races and planning route choice to controls.

The next session is on Monday 22nd Feb from 7-8pm. If you are a junior club member M/W12 plus and would like to attend, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 

Orienteers from several Sheffield schools, including many SYO members, enjoyed success last weekend at the British Schools Orienteering Championships.

50 pupils from the city’s schools travelled to Sandringham in Norfolk to compete against schools from around the country.

There were individual victories for Euan Tryner, Hunter’s Bar in Boys Year 6 and Imogen Pieters, Sheffield High in Girls Year 5. Max Mobus, Tapton was 3rd in Boys Year 7 and Naomi Thornton 2^nd in Girls Year 7. Just missing out on a podium position, Seb Mobus, Tapton was 5th in B9, Ellen Harthog, Nether Green 6th in G5 and Ryan Elliott, High Storrs 8th in B10.

In the team competition Nethergreen won the Year 5 Girls competition (Eleanor Salmon, Isabelle Hampton, Ellen Hartog, Rania Maaranen and Rosie Shrimpton) closely followed by Sheffield High School in second (Imogen Pieters, Hannah Taylor and Elizabeth Chung) with Hunters Bar in 5^th (Freya Tryner, Millie Norman and Alice Stephenson). Hunters Bar (Euan Tryner, Conrad Reuber and Eli Hayes were 3rd in the year 6 boys competition, while Westways were 4^th, just off the podium, in Year 6 Girls (Miranda Gregory, Isla Fowler, Meg Withington, Ruby Ramsell, Erin Flannery and Ava Hewson).

Good team performances by Nethergreen, Hunters Bar and Westways saw them finish 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th overall in the Primary Schools competition.

More photos on SYO's facebook page.