(corrected live tracking link added) This weekend the Tollymore Festival of Orienteering wasn’t just a big enough challenge for some of our members. In the early hours of Saturday morning (2am) Greg McCann will start on the Denis Rankin round with his partner Jim Patterson, veteran fell runner and local legend. They plan to walk the complete route in under 24 hours. A previous attempt missed out by 30 minutes but additional training, revised strategy and planning should be the recipe for success. The back up team includes Tich and Aine McCann. We wish them every success. As if that Read More …

The no loitering protocol meant that I got to consult with very few people over the colour balance table samples. There were 2 points raised. The first concerned the white shadowing on the course overprint which, especially in the complex fencing and hedging around the leisure centre created doubts about the existence of gaps in line features, a concern with which I agreed. This week’s map will not have shadowing but I shall bring along a shadowed version of the long course map for comparison. The second point was about the intensity of full yellow areas (open land) and how Read More …

These updated tables have been slow in coming due to me forgetting to download after finishing last Wednesday. With thanks to last week’s and this week’s organisers under the guidance of MarkP my time was recovered from the SI units. While it may not cut much ice in the racing it allowed me to show an improvement of 42secs/km in my handicap – hurrah for hCOW! Resources>OneDrive Public>hCOW>hCOW2021

There are a lot of you hungry orienteers looking forward to the barbecue at Saturday’s Tollymore Festival. Please let harrybellni@gmail.com know by Wednesday evening if you have any special dietary requirements and I’ll pass your request on to the caterer. Along with your special requirements, please also let me know what option you originally booked online (adult/child, meat/vegetarian). And remember, entries for the Colour Series event, Camping and Barbecue all close on Wednesday 23rd June 2021 at 20:00.

In additional to the courses already advertised there will now be a short green course on offer for Saturday’s Colour Series. If you should wish to amend your entry you can do so on SI Entries.

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!