Author: Alan Gartside

You should by now have seen the posting on the NIOA website announcing the start of the 2025 Colour Series with the event at Learmount Forest, hosted by NWOC (with entries closing at 21:30 next Sunday). That signals the start of a number of year-long league series. The NISeries runs over 7 events, with your best 4 to count, so it’s time to decide your target colour for the year. The other series is hCOW, specifically for LVO members, and runs over 8 events (the club’s Autumn Trophy is the extra one). It deals only with the TD5 courses (Brown Read More …

To help you see in the New Year the Colour Standards and Colour History tables have been reset, allowing you to consider how to manage/improve your colour event performance in 2025. You can see them by going “STANDARDS>Colour Standards” from the web site home page. The Colour Standards table has been reset in a number of ways:- Your 2024 achievement has been transferred to the Colour History table, and cleared ready for your 2025 heroics. The Colour History table now stretches back over 34 years to 1990, listing all members and their standards history in that time. The 2023 results Read More …

Following the final colour event of the year, at Todd’s Leap last Saturday, the year-long competitions have reached their conclusions. The NISeries tables are already available on the NIOA website, but a copy can be found here at “Resources>OneDrive Public>NI Series”. Congratulations to the class winners and a “well-done” to the numerous LVOers who achieved podium places. Of the 14 classes 2 were void due to no-one having the requisite 4 results, but LVOers won 11 of the other 12. How about a clean sweep next year? The Colour Standards table “STANDINGS>Colour Standards” now shows, in the “2024 Standard” column, Read More …

With only one event to go (Todd’s Leap) winners and final battles are starting to appear all over the place (and one champion has emerged!). The NISeries tables have gone for publication on the NIOA website but a copy can be found at “Resources>OneDrive Public>NISeries>NISeries2024.pdf”. Congratulations to Alan Elwood, Olivia Baxter, Helen Baxter, Paul Graham and Joanne Graham for joining the band of LVO class winners. That leaves just 3 classes still to be decided, with LVOers in the mix in two of them. The Colour Standards table can be found at “STANDINGS>Colour Standards>Colour Standards.pdf”. With only one event dropping Read More …

The fifth and final TempO cluster of the 2024 TrailO Champs will be set up alongside the NI Colour Series event at Glengariff Forest tomorrow. It is intended that you come along to make decisions after your run; the location is close to the car park on the path to the café/toilets. 17 folk have so far attempted the mandatory 2 clusters and another 27, with a single cluster to date, could come into contention for the TrailO title. Even if you can’t make the 2 do come and have a go and don’t be concerned about making mistakes; of Read More …

The final episode of the 2024 Club TrailO Champs takes place alongside NISeries6 at Glenariff next Saturday (for which entries close on Monday at 11p.m. – no entry fee for the TrailO). As previously it takes the form of a TempO cluster (6 kites, 6 decisions against the clock, time penalties for wrong decisions). The TempO viewpoint is close to parking, part way to the café/toilets and will be set up for action after your run. A look at the standings will show that, of the 17 folk with the necessary 2 results, Wilbert Hollinger holds a substantial lead over Read More …

The last TempO cluster of the TrailO Champs series will be staged alongside NISeries7 at Glengarriff Forest on 19th October. I was there today prospecting a suitable site. Although it was drizzling on the journey the sun broke through and the view down the glen was magnificent. It might be necessary to bring binoculars on the day – there might be a TempO control on the Mull of Kintyre! “Eastern Spur, Upper Part” The current standings can be found on the Club OneDrive. Go “Resources>OneDrive Public>LVOTrailOC2024>Standings.pdf”.

From the home page on the web site go “Resources>OneDrive Public>LVOTrailO2024”. There you will find the solutions map and control descriptions (SolutionsTempO-4.pdf), the results (ResultsTempO-4.pdf) and the current standings in the TrailO Championship (Standings.pdf). The asterisks indicate those who have got the requisite two results – the final cluster in the series will be at Glenarriff. There are a number of one-event folk sitting on a lower average decision time than leader Wilbert Hollinger so all is still to play for. It was a little disappointing that, out of 48 LVO FootOers only 13 had a go at the TempO Read More …

Apologies those those who had to provide their maps for re-use yesterday. The yellow toner cartridge needed changing during printing and the replacement proved to be faulty. A nw cartridge is on its way – if anyone wants a paper copy of their map please let me know.

The Colour Standards table (Colour Standards.pdf) can be accessed from the web site with “STANDINGS>Colour Standards”. Not too much activity but, with last year’s Portstewart event dropping out of the 12 month window some folk who were not at Whitespots may have dropped down a level. The hCOW standings can be viewed at “STANDINGS>hCOW>hCOW2024”. The event variance of 1min13secs hints at tough going. The number of asterisks (5 counting results) in the hCOW table is growing, with 2 previous winners at the top of the tree. Note that, although included in the event lists, there has been no word about Read More …