The Steve McGibbon Trophy is named in memory of a hugely respected orienteer and stalwart of Lagan Valley Orienteers, who unfortunately died in 2006 aged only 50. The Trophy will be awarded at the AGM, happening after the Club Meet on 8 March 2025 at Belvoir (at time of going to press), starting at approximately 1pm.
Nominations received are presented to attendees, who then vote at the AGM.
The trophy is not focused on competition performance, rather the award is considered as recognition of the person or group thought to have provided the most outstanding contribution to the club’s affairs in the previous year.
Nominations should be sent to the me at secretary@lvo.org.uk by 7 March 2025.
Many thanks
Mark E
Recent winners are:
2024 Moire O’Sullivan
2023 Bill Simpson/Philip Baxter
2022 Stephanie Pruzina
2021 Harry Bell/Mark Pruzina
2020 Gordon Stephens / Mark Pruzina
2019 The Gamble family
2018 Cecil Armstrong
Background
Steve came to Orienteering through the original Queen’s University club and was a foundation member of LVO. Since then he was a permanent presence on the club committee serving as Honorary Treasurer, apart from a period as Chairman. But it was not his financial skills alone which made him such a valued member of the committee (he was, after all, trained in accountancy) but rather his down-to-earth attitude when collective flights of fancy were being taken on all sorts of topics. Steve was a man of few words but what he had to say was always worth listening to.
Steve didn’t aspire to achieving giddy height in terms of performance; he was rather a journeyman club member, playing a full part in all our activities and, with his sharp mind and knowledge of the technicalities of the sport, took on a large share of the planning and controlling functions, right up to Irish Championship level. It was a measure of the man that the week before he died in 2006 he was organising for staff at the Marie Curie Centre to come along and try an orienteering event.