At the recent LVO AGM three nominations were received for the Steve McGibbon Trophy. This trophy is awarded annually for contributions to orienteering by members of LVO. It honours the memory of LVO member Steve McGibbon who died in 2006 aged only 51. Under normal circumstances the trophy would be awarded by Christine McGibbon but that was not possible this year due to a “virtual” AGM. Our photographer managed to catch up with this years joined trophy winners – Harry Bell and Mark Pruzina who will share the trophy for the next six months. Thank-you from club members for all Read More …

The hCOW results relating to last Saturday’s NISeries event are now available, showing a large gap between speeds at WEE events and the technical and physical test that was Crossmurrin. As this was the first in the series no place points were available as everyone was running(?) to set their handicap. There will be place points on offer at Tollymore! “Resources>OneDrive Public>hCOW>hCOW2021”

I received positive comments about the white shadowing on the course overprint on the WEE series maps. I have since been adjusting the colour balance, trying to get the club printer output to match the IOF standard definition document. This involves making small changes to the intensity and proportions of the 4 inks of the laser printer and this process induces a sort of colour blindness after several hours of adjustment. Accordingly I would like some opinions as to whether or not I’ve got the balance correct. I will be along to WEE7 on wednesday with the LVO-printed template and Read More …

For next wednesday’s WEE planner SarahG has set courses which cover Antrim Castle Gardens and visit lots of controls, with the result that there’s not much room left on the map for control descriptions. This means that the map legend will be obscured. For the Short course there will be a legend on the reverse side; for Long course runners who are concerned about their O-vocabulary there will be legend slips available at registration.

The Tollymore Festival of Orienteering is back! Entries are open. Enter here | Edit entries here | Entry list here. The event page here has all the details about – the Colour Series | Score Event | Camping | NIOA AGM | Barbeque | Boules | Junior Training. All in one weekend!

The updated hCOW tables (WEE6 and handicap movements) are available at “Resources>OneDrive Public>hCOW>hCOW2021”, allowing you see how your handicap is faring. This was my first WEE of the year and, true to the concept of hCOW (honourable Company of Orienteering Walkers), I perambulated the whole course (apart from a stumble down one of the steep slopes!), thus setting the “proper” hCOW standard. If there any other real hCOWers out there we might start a walkers’ league!

Today marks the end of National Volunteer Week 2021. To celebrate, we have Jenny Lau who recently planned for LVO for the first time, Jenny is going to tell us a bit more about that experience…. Hi Jenny, thanks for joining us! So tell us, how long have you been orienteering for and when did you join LVO? Hi Juls, thanks for having me. I found my first ever control point almost exactly four years ago from today. I was visiting a friend in Surrey, and while on a walk in the Surrey Hills, I came across the then mysterious, Read More …

I have had representation from some more visually-challenged (i.e. older!) members about the legibility of the course overprint in the WEE series. The course setup (circle size etc.) is a matter for the planners, but what I did for Grove Park was to add a white shadow to the overprint circles, numbers and lines. Did this make the course more legible? Did anybody notice?

The WEE5 results table and the handicap movements table are available to view in “Resources>OneDrive Public>hCOW>hCOW2021”. Things get serious next week with the first colour event of the year, FERMO’s Crossmurrin event, in which performance in the 4 technical difficulty 5 courses (brown, blue, green, short green) will be considered. The following colour events will see place points being awarded, but until it is known how many events there will be it’s not possible to define how the overall result will be computed. What is known is that there will be points available to those who are <non-active> because of Read More …

The hCOW table for WEE4 is now available for your perusal. It can be found in “Resources>OneDrive Public>hCOW>hCOW2021”. Also there is a table showing how your handicap has moved over the first four events; you should be able to match the movements to your good (or not so good!) performance.