Author: Richard Gamble

👍Many of you have been involved with contributing to the new 5 year Strategic Plan – thank you so much for helping with this. 👏Huge thanks go to Moire O’Sullivan who has had hours of conversations with members and non-members associated with our club/sport, listened to your thoughts and ideas, collated all this evidence and chaired the strategy planning discussions. 🎯Members of the club met on Saturday 17 June for a Strategy meeting to discuss the findings of this feedback which were used to form a vision for our club and set out a plan of action over the next Read More …

The fantastic NI Colour Series event on Saturday 24 June at Meelmore hosted the annual LVO Club Championship event. All who attended will agree that the courses were certainly fit for a Championship – thank you to George Savell for planning such a challenge for us to enjoy/endure! It is sometimes a bit tricky to decide what colour course is best matched with each age/gender class. Some people bravely ran up a course meaning they were competing with people in a different age category. This means that some winners are being awarded a title for an age class which is Read More …

Our 4th and final June WEE took place at Belvoir Forest. Fortunately the dry weather returned for the 40ish participants to enjoy. 👋 Mother and son team Norma Rea and James Ewart planned two excellent courses using a great mix of forest trails and the more open areas, so a great mix of running. 🥇🥈🥉 Being the final WEE event in June we now have the the results for this months series! Long – Men: This was a very closely fought series. The top 5 men were all within 7 points. Lyle Fleming M60 came out top with the maximum Read More …

Those of us lucky enough to get down to County Down at the weekend enjoyed a real varied selection of racing along with the usual craic. 🏖 🏡 Friday evening saw almost 50 of us running round the streets and Parks of the seaside town of Newcastle. The Urban courses were fast (if you could cope with the humidity) and although it is challenging to make the town technically difficult, Planners Fionne and Moire kept things interesting with route choice and control locations. Others involved in supporting this event were Stephen Gilmore- Map Corrections, Steph- Controller/ Set-Out/Collection/ Starts, Dan Earnshaw- Read More …

🤿 Where did all the lovely sunny Wednesday evenings go? Over 30 of us braved the biblical weather which welcomed us to Bangor this past Wednesday, certainly poor Alan the planner who was out all evening got a good soaking! 👋 Participants enjoyed fun courses with lots of changes in direction. This and good use of a central control on the long course kept us needing to keep our maps orientated on the exits from controls to have a clean run. 🥇🥈🥉 We now have people who have completed three June events and are sitting pretty at the top of Read More …

There is a band parade in Ballynahinch tomorrow evening. It would be worth trying to get through the town before 7pm if possible. When I looked the outward parade was 1930-2000 and the return was 2000-2300. I have asked the parade commission to check with the organiser as the return times seem very odd. Details can be found here: viewparade – Northern Ireland Parades Commission

Reminder that entries close this evening (Tuesday 20 June) at 11pm. 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣ great Orienteering events – Urban Newcastle, Club Champs Meelmore and Fun Score Tollymore. 🌭🍗🍻 BBQ and social! 🌞 Forecast looks good! Don’t miss out – Get yourself entered!

Sorry I am a little late on this WEE reminder and report – if you haven’t already pre-entered online you have up to midnight tonight! Here is where we are at so far….. 🌞 Another beautiful sunny evening welcomed everyone who came along to Lagan Meadows for the 2nd WEE of the June Series. It has been a while since we have visited this area, so it was good to get back. 👋 It was great to see around 20 juniors and 20+ newcomers/non-members who took part either independently or in a friendship/family unit. Almost 60 entered competitively and the Read More …

Alan Elwood will be leading these coached sessions. Each session is planned to be in two parts: Part 1️⃣ – will involve about 35 minutes of technical coaching and Part 2️⃣- will have an training exercise/course for you to carry out. ❎2️⃣ There will be a double session on the 20th August which will include both a technical navigation session and a physical training session. There will be limited places on this programme – if interested contact Ric Gamble: rgamble@britishorienteering.org.uk

Do you Know? – you probably have heard that, after 6.5 years, Juls has finally [come to her senses / lost her mind]* and is moving on from her Development Officer role with NI Orienteering to working as the Outdoor Development Officer with Mid & East Antrim Borough Council. Don’t go just yet – although yesterday was Juls’ last day sitting [at her desk in the office / in the back garden in the sun]*, she will be at the Tollymore Festival the weekend of 23-25 June. The whole Orienteering community are hoping to say a proper and heartfelt thank Read More …