Author: Stephen Gilmore

Thanks to all club members who have been out checking our forested maps. We have 40 maps with at least some woodland and of this 18 have now been checked. Some areas are still at least partly closed to the public so it has not yet been possible for club members to access these areas. You can see the update here. The good news is that although we do have damaged areas, in quite a few cases the damage is not quite as bad as at first thought. However we still have the following10 areas that need someone to check: Read More …

A week after Storm Éowyn it is apparent that some of our forested areas have been hit hard, but others have been pretty much unscathed. As a club we need an audit to work out how this will affect our fixture list, so we need “boots on the ground” to check over all our mapped woodlands. This is quite an extensive task so it’s necessary to mobilise the club. No special skills are required, other than basic experience of orienteering! So what is involved? Listed here are the various maps that need to be checked, so please look at the Read More …

Stranmillis University College was used for the first World Ranking Sprint Race in the UK and Ireland as part of JK 2011 and has been rarely used since. You have an opportunity to test your wits in this complex sprint area next Wednesday 22 November. As the final part of the college’s centenary year, this will be a “Scatter”, using SportIdent with Air+ enabled, with the added challenge of finding the quickest route to score 100 points. We have challenged the students to see if they can beat the orienteers, with of course an extra handicap for the orienteers. All Read More …

Entries are now open for NI Colour Series 7 at Whitespots Country Park, Newtownards. All the detail is on the event page. Entries are on SiEntries. Don’t miss the final colour event of 2023 with 8 courses on offer for all abilities and experience on a brand new map on on an area that hasn’t been used this century!

On Friday 5 May, last Saturday’s excellent Spring Cup courses will be available again as a middle distance training activity just before the British Sprint and Middle Distance weekend. This is primarly aimed at our visiting competitors in the late afternoon/early evening, but if you missed out last Saturday then please do enter. All the details are available via the Emerald Isle page at http://www.niorienteering.org.uk/emerald2023/ Alternatively, if you would just like to run your course again and see if you can run those tricky legs error free, then just turn up with your map from last Saturday and run free Read More …

We are off again to Lisburn for WENT this week, meeting again at the Ground cafe at 7.15pm on Wed 7 Dec. This will be for a differnet MapRun using a differnet part of the city of Lisburn. All the details, including the course that you should upload to the MapRun6 or MapRunG are on the page for this activity on the LVO website. The weather is looking cool but dry, so come on down and stay after for a hot chocolate and a particularly good traybake. Sufficent maps are printed!

WENT on Wednesday 23 November goes back to Ground in Lisburn. Enjoy a 45 minute urban score using MapRun6 or MapRunG on a different part of the city than last time. All the details are in the event page on the LVO website. Sufficient maps are printed and the forecast looks reasonable. Do come along!

There are some extra maps printed for the Lisburn West event, so if you didn’t get around to pre-enter just come along and pay on the day at non-member rates. Exact change please! All the details are on the event page.

The pre-entry closing date for the Urban League event in Lisburn on Sunday afternoon 20 November is on Friday 18 November. Entries are on SI Entries with full detail on the event page on the LVO website. For the last NI Colour Series event of the year at Learmount Wood on Saturday 26 November, the closing date is Sunday 20 November. Entries again at SI entries with full details on the event page on the NWOC website.

This week’s Wednesday Evening Night Training will be in Lisburn, meeting at the Ground cafe at 7.15pm. All the details you need to know are on the event page. Note particularly that MapRun6 or MapRunG is being used, so especially if you have never used this before do get this set up before you come. Also remember Hi-Viz clothing and a head torch. Under 16s are very welcome, but must be accompanied by an adult.