By Steph Pruzina
As an intrepid band of juniors packed their bags carefully and prepared for an early flight to Birmingham the team leader was making last minute arrangements…..spare dibber- check; control description holders – check; whistles – check; driving license – Panic.. Apparently DVLA do NOT inform you when your license expires and it is theoretically possible to continue driving in blissful ignorance for an unspecified period of time, but not possible to hire a car with the same expire license!
A plan was hatched. If we just get the 9-seater advertised at the next hire place then Steph can travel in luxury and Michael can save the day and drive us all.
Alas, the said advertised car was unavailable. A second cunning plan was dreamt up. Two 7-seaters would work. Denis was recalled with his 4 passengers from Green Motion, instructed to change to a 7-seater and then swing past Europe Car for the extra passengers. As we waited the spacious 9-seater sailed past, barely occupied.
Next Hiccup- The boot would not close over the big suitcase. Not to worry, the burly Europe Car attendants pushed the back seats forward to close the boot, then leg-pressed them back until they clicked into place. We were off and heading to South Wales.
The Individual event venue of Kenfig Burrows is a great technical area and the juniors all enjoyed the challenge. The path network probably provided the most reliable routes but the fast or adventurous benefitted from direct running, well-executed…..some of the fastest and most adventurous were on other teams, but we all had our moments of glory. Suffice to say we sent 12 apprehensive juniors out on the course and had 12 happy finishers who all completed their courses and enjoyed the experience. Met Office report for the afternoon – perfect sunny conditions made for a great sand-duney event.
Athlete comments:
The orienteering was “very long” – Sam
“sandy” – Euan
“fun” – James
“a learning experience” – Adam
“a high quality event on a well mapped area, specifically the contours” – Peter
The Rougemount School in Newport gave us a great welcome. The food was great and the sleeping floors were as expected but some of the juniors were intimidated by the cold communal showers and may have skimped their usual ablutions! That evening Chloe and Steph joined the prize giving and JROS quiz where we maintained NIOA’s losing streak; Denis and the Rest of the Juniors enjoyed the Ireland – S Africa match in which Ireland did better; and Hero Of The Day, Michael drove around Monmouthshire in search of a tyre repair, accompanied by a helpful RAC man until the Less-helpful Europe Car declined to pay for a repair. So after inflating the tyre as a temporary measure, he returned, crestfallen, heroic and exhausted. Mega-thanks to Michael for this effort.
Sunday morning didn’t really dawn in the accepted sense of the word, but we were woken by the welcome smell of sausage and bacon baps being prepared. After a hasty breakfast and a hasty departure, packing the car again by levering the back seats into the big case and packing the athletes underneath the luggage, we were off to the relays in Llantrisant Forest. The rain persisted as we climbed the vertical 800m to the arena which was unusuall cramped- in fact it was a path junction. We crowded around to see the handover demo and soon the M16s were off. This year we only had one competitive team and most of our athletes were in mixed teams with other regions. The terrain was mature runnable forest but wet and slippery and with patches of ankle-trapping bramble. Despite sterling efforts by all the NI athletes we failed to achieve any points but decided to award our own accolades…
Prize for dogged persistence and determination goes to Sam
Fastest split on the run-in is to be confirmed!
Bravery receiving medical attention – Zach who only whimpered a little while having mud washed out of his arm!
The scores from the overall event belie the fact that the three of us, Denis, Michael and myself had a great time taking a group of enthusiastic juniors to a new and challenging orienteering area. I think they all had a great experience of competitive orienteering on some excellent and tricky courses.
Mega thanks again to Michael and Denis. It absolutely would not have happened without you!