|
|
|
| Back to Club News | Deeside Home Page |
|
Chris Owens retains M14 Northern Champion title Mike Smithard reports on various happenings on 17th February 2008. Somewhere in the far north east. So soon after the 2007 version, Deeside sent a select team of 1 plus 1 driver to the Northern Championships. A well chosen representative, Chris Owens won the M14 trophy by a comfortable 13 seconds with the next 2 within 2 minutes of him. Congratulations to Chris on retaining the trophy! Also to Pete for a mid class finish on M45. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, many went to Cannock Chase where the temperature was just above freezing but with no wind but with hat and gloves, it was very pleasant. More so for the M55, M60, JW5L, JM5M, ... classes who had the pleasure of a 1km uphill, straight, track run from control 4 to 5 - though I hear the white forest it went through wasn't so white inside. The pit at the end of this leg was not so far from 'a pit' I never did find in the 1968 British Champs (sponsored by Guinness - which was free at the finish but not quite what you needed) when I was young and hairy and 'navigating' on an OS 1:25,000 map with lots of tree symbols, contours and rides but nothing else. Editor's note: Modesty prevents Mike from pointing out that he won the M55L class at Cannock in a scorching 43:02. Steve Ingleby came a creditable 4th. Full results on the Walton Chasers website. |
|
Winter Weekend 2008 DEE's Winter Weekend at Lakeside - the largest outdoor activity centre in Europe - drew around 50 participants of all ages. On Saturday afternoon there was training planned by Pete Owens, who cunningly used one set of controls for at least three different exercises. The corridor/window exercise was particularly popular. As soon as it went dark, it was over to Jon Hateley's night event within the grounds of Lakeside. Some went round jolly quickly, but the real kudos goes to the winners of the coveted DEE Discharged Duracell trophy for the longest time out on the course (Bob Elmes, his first individual trophy in five years' orienteering) and the trophy for the dimmest light (Liz Jackson - it didn't seem to slow her down). Evening games were led by Pauline Smithard, who kept us all active and amused with Orienteetle (like Beetle, but you build an orienteer), photo recognition, and many more. On Sunday we were off to the Bouth Regional event, then home. Many thanks to Mike Smithard for organising the weekend, and to Pete Owens, Jon Hateley and Pauline Smithard for their events. |
|
Junior Sports Club of the Year 2007 Deeside Orienteering Club has been named Junior Sports Club of the Year 2007 by Chester City Council, for the successful performances of our juniors including 
Congratulations to our terrific juniors, and to all those involved in their training. The award was presented to the Club on 21st January 2008. |
|
England selection Congratulations to Tom Beasant, who has been selected to run for England at the Interland international - often used to give those not in an England squad a chance to run internationally - on 2nd March in Holland against the hosts, Belgium (French), Belgium (Flemish) and NW Germany teams. Brother Mike ran in this event last year. Tom has been selected to run as an 'M20' (the rules allow 2 M20's and 1 M18). |
|
JK and BOC relays If you wish to run in these, please send names and other details with entry fees to Mike Smithard as normal rather than enter direct via the web. See January's DEENEWS for more details. |
Chester City Sprint-O Races in 2009?Not off the drawing board yet but looking positive, with a good reception to the idea from Chester City officials and strong interest from club members in planning etc. Hope is for a low key club-only trial event in 2008 and a more major event in 2009. Watch this space! |
|
Summer Evening Events 2008
The provisional programme is now available. Some events still await members to volunteer as Planner, Organiser or Controller - please check the programme and contact to volunteer. |
Yvette Baker FinalMike Smithard writes: It was always going to be hard to follow last year's superb performance by our juniors, and so it turned out. 21 juniors competed for the club on what was a not TOO bad day (during the race time), but performances were not up to last year's consistency. DEE finished 5th behind what can only be described as a fantastic result from OD, who averaged 2nd place for their 9 counters. We were well behind WCH (4th), WCOC and NOC. Best result was from Zoe Vokes, almost our best counter and Ed had a fast time too. Our counters: Yellow - Ed Calow (5th), Orange - Zoe Vokes (4th) and Sam Drinkwater (9th) Lt green - Mike Beasant (3rd), Chris Owens (7th), Green - Chris Smithard (4th) and Liz Hughes (10th). Our last 2 places were joint on 11th by Sean Pickering, and Chris and Tom Beasant on yellow, light green and green respectively. |
More Junior Selection News: David Schorah has been selected for the British Orienteering Junior Squad 2008. David is now continuing his orienteering with Sheffield University, where he has just started a 4-year MEng course. |
Yvette Baker Trophy Heat, Shoal Hill, 23 September 2007: Congratulations to our juniors who turned out at late notice and won the heat. Four wins (Chris S, Mike B, Aidan C and Ed C), four seconds (Sam D, Philip V, Nia B and Helen E) and one third (Chris O) were our counters against WCH and HOC. WCH were second and go through to the final as well. Only 4 points between DEE and WCH, so well done to all of you, especially those who have not counted before. Quite a few had to move up a class this year but our yellow course runners did us proud - a first and two seconds. A few new names this time - Michael Kayley, Lachlan Chavasse and Evelyn Elmes - thanks for coming. In a couple of years you'll be our yellow course stars! Full results can be found here. The final is on 2 December near Scunthorpe. |
Northern Champions 2007:
The 2007 Northern Champions were decided at the Attermire National event on 16 September
2007. Trophies were awarded to the Northern (NW, NE, YH) winner of L/A classes.
Congratulations to Chris Owens (M14), Tom Beasant (M18), David Schorah (M20) and Mike
Smithard (M55) who are now Northern Champions. |
Peter Palmer Pickle (9 September 2007, report by Mike Smithard): Another year, another scenario in the saga of how the fates can conspire against DEE winning this race - but we've worked out how to beat AIRE! End leg 3 not too far ahead of them, they catch up on leg 4 (the orange course), follow Florence on the yellow course, then overtake Jack on the last leg! Easy! It works! We crossed the line ahead of them but sadly a little blip in the dark early on had ruled our team out, then Tom had a fight with a branch and lost a contact lens which slowed him down so a pack of hungry girls with very long legs caught him up (and passed him - briefly!) which set Zoe up in the leading pack on the orange with her friend from HOC and others (they've never creased themselves so much), then Jessie in the pack chasing Flo with Chris easing past Jack in the last section of leg 6. A misty morning, another old army munitions camp and another might-have-been experience. Well done but hard luck. Full results can be found here. |
Selection News: Congratulations to David Schorah and Chris Smithard for their selection for the GB team for the Junior European Cup competition (JEC) in France in October and to Michael Beasant for his inclusion in the Start Squad for his year. Commiserations to others who missed out on selection. Full lists on the News Page of the BOF Website (see entries dated 5 September). |
Report by Mike Smithard on the White Rose Weekend (25-27 August 2007): A few hardy souls ventured once more into the depths of the undergrowth of the North Yorks Moors forests - some camped, never once leaving the site (by car) due to the excellent weather. Many prizes were gained by various means, not least by choosing lightly entered competitions or swopping answers. Congratulations to Pauline Smithard and brother-in-law Phil for 3rd place in the quiz (chocolate prize!) only just ahead of Elaine Sutton and Darren Baker on the tie break (number of drawing pins in a jar). But down to the serious stuff: Chris Owens 2nd in class in the night event; Beatrix Calow 3rd in the night event; Sian Calow 3rd in the night event (chocolate again!); Owens family 3rd in the family team score; Chris and Mike Smithard and brother Phil 2nd in the 120+ team score; Pauline Smithard, Sian Calow and Jon Hughes 2nd in the ad-hoc (no prizes for 2nd and 3rd). Now the really serious stuff where mugs were to be won: Mike Smithard 2nd M55; brother Phil 2nd in M60; Pauline Smithard 1st and Pat Moody 3rd in W50S. Sorry if I've missed anyone - especially if Darren won something in the MTBO event on Monday pm! Full results can be found here. |
JK2008, East Sussex, 21-24 March 2008: Too early for camping? The organisers have accommodation at the event centre for hire - rooms, dormitories, camping etc - see website for details. If there's enough interest, DEE is prepared to book 16 bed dormitories or, alternatively, family rooms or twin rooms can be booked individually. Please contact Mike Smithard (01244-380565) if you are interested. |
Scottish 6 Days, 5-11 August 2007 : Top performers for Deeside were Michael Beasant (2nd M14A, with Chris Owens in 10th) and Chris Smithard (3rd M18A) close behind two Swedes, one of whom finished 3rd M18E in the Swedish 5 Days. Both Michael and Chris S had one win and two 2nd places in their four counting scores. In W60L Pauline Abblett finished 6th (including one win) and Barbara Majumdar finished 7th. Showers affected the first three days and the last day, but DEE's start times favoured us on two days, as most of us had finished before the rain arrived. Terrain varied from the sand dunes at Culbin to rough hillsides and forested moraines - a great event. Full results can be found here. |
Selections for Junior Home Internationals : Congratulations to Chris Smithard and Michael Beasant who have been selected to run for England in the Junior Home Internationals in September in Northern Ireland, and to Rachel Findlay-Robinson who has been selected to run for Wales. |
Summer League Final Scores now available : The Final Scores for this year's Summer League can be found here. Peter Hills apologises for not having provided the Summer League Table on a regular basis this year, due to pressure of other things. Note that there are only ten events counting towards the League this year, as Primrose Hill had to be cancelled due to storm damage, and Brereton Heath did not include separate Blue and Green courses. Because of this, the final results are based on the best FIVE runs, not six as in previous years. |
Peter Palmer Relays, Yardley Chase (near Northampton), 8/9 September 2007 : BAOC has again stepped in at a late date to ensure this event goes ahead. Full details can be found here. Many sporting activities are on offer, including football, volleyball, tug of war and, of course, orienteering for those who aren't too exhausted. Could anyone interested (12s to 18s only) please let (01244-380565) know before the Scottish 6 Days (ie before 2nd August). |
|
Junior Tour Selections : BOF's junior tour selections are now
out and for the 6th consecutive year, DEE have someone going to the M/W14 week
at Lagganlia. Congratulations to Michael Beasant and the others: Lagganlia: Michael Beasant,
Glenmore (M/W16 year 1): Matthew Vokes,
Uppsala (M/W18 year 1): Tom Beasant.
NW have 7 (yes, seven!) juniors going to Lagganlia (out of about
24), 3 boys and 4 girls. Full lists on the
BOF website. |
| Junior Selections : Congratulations to those selected for the NW team for the JIRCS, namely Mike and Tom Beasant, Matthew Vokes, Rachel F-R, Chris and Zoe S. Chris has declined his place at the European Champs as he has an exam on the Monday morning, so will run at JIRCS instead! Mike Smithard presumes that, as reserve, Tom Beasant will go to the European Champs instead as he is not in the JIRCS team. Well done to him for his selection. |
| Photos taken at the British Relays, 7 May 2007 : Thanks, Steve, for these photos of Deesiders at the finish of the British Relay Champs: |
| Mega success for juniors at British Champs
2007, 5/6 May South Wales! Congratulations to David Schorah (M20E),
Chris Smithard (M18L) and Malcolm Irvine (M50S) on winning their classes at
the British Champs - rare successs for DEE in the individuals! Well done also
to Michael Beasant 3rd M14A, Matthew Vokes 7th M16A, Tom Beasant 8th M18L,
Mike Smithard 6th M55L, Sara Campbell 9th W40L, Kate Ingleby 9th W50L and
Barbara Majumdar 4th W60L. Once again, there were major successes for DEE on relay day:
Full results can be found here. Click here for a photo of our successful juniors. |
| Junior Selections : Following the Future Champions Cup series of races this spring the Junior Selections have been published on the British Orienteering website. Congratulations to Chris Smithard and reserve Tom Beasant, both M18, who are in the team for the European Youth Championships in Hungary in June. David Schorah (M20) has just missed out on selection for the Junior World Champ's team who will travel to Australia in July this year - however he has been selected for the "JWOC 2008 Training Camp" tour in August to prepare for next year's race in Gothenburg, Sweden. |
|
JK2007 Results, Forest of Dean, 5 - 8 April 2007 :
A fine, sunny and warm weekend for all except the campers at night! Three
interesting areas with some fierce route choices on day 1, spoil heaps on
day 2 and a derelict army camp for the relays. Congratulations to those who
performed well and commiserations to the rest of us who came home muttering
'if only....'. Top 10 finishers in the individual races were:
Tom Beasant M18L 5th, Chris Smithard M18L 7th, Dave Schorah M20E 7th, Mike
Smithard M55L 8th, Sara Campbell W40L 10th, Pat Spoonley W70L 10th, Michael
Kayley M10B 6th, Malcolm Irvine M50S 7th, Martin Cranny M65S 6th, Liz Hughes
W20S 3rd, Lisa Majumdar W21V 3rd.
In the relays, running round the derelict army buildings, ammunition stores and railways provided some close running and finishes but the force was not with the Deementors or Deemons and they were edged out of the top places, our younger team of Philip Vokes, Sean Pickering and Chris Kayley finishing 4th, 25 seconds behind the winners in the M/W40- class, and Matthew Vokes, Aidan Chavasse and Chris Smithard being 3rd, 2 minutes behind the winners in the M48- class. Thanks, Mike, for this report. Full results can be found on the JK2007 website. |
| SPORTident ‘knowledge base’ for DEE members : Tim Palmer has started to setup a webpage to form a ‘knowledge base’ of the club’s (and others) knowledge on how to use SPORTident. If you have any documents or links that you would like to add, please them to Tim. |
| Spring Cup, Denmark, Monday 26 March 2007 : Chris Smithard went to this high quality event as part of the Start Squad training programme and ran well in the 3 events in 38 hours, running 6min/km at night and during the day on areas similar but more detailed than Delamere, with 2.5m contours and many paths, but with a lot of direct legs through the forest. British results can be found on BOF's News Page - Chris ran the 3rd leg in the Relay. The British W18s showed their class once more, winning the Relay, and all finishing in the top 13 in the Individual. |
Hellrunner Event in Delamere Forest, 29 April 2007This popular off-road running event is being held in Delamere Forest for the second year running on Sunday 29th April at 11:00. Further information, including entry details for both the 10-12 mile main race and for the 1.5 mile Little Devils Fun Run can be found at www.hellrunner.co.uk. TrailPlus, the organiser of the event, is keen to hear from any club members who might be able to help as race marshals, and has offered to make a donation to DEE in return for any assistance provided. Anyone who thinks they might be able to help should contact Paul Magner at TrailPlus on 01457-855425 or by email. You won't be able to run, of course, if you help, but you may prefer to watch the suffering, rather than experience it! |
| Write-up for new planners at SEEs : Click here to download a write-up that David Beattie has produced for new planners at Summer Evening Events. Thanks David. |
| Junior News - Michael Beasant selected for England! Congratulations to Michael Beasant on his selection for England for the Interland competition in March in Belgium - means he misses the winter week-end but hey who wants to go sledging in the Lakes or helping your brother to put out controls for the training or skating across Tarn Hows or helping DEE to get to the CSC final. Much rather sit in a bus for 24 hours, run for 23 minutes and get back on a bus. With him in the team, England are bound to win - well done and good luck! The Deeside junior squad conveyor belt of talent rolls on! |
| Deeside Juniors Triumph at Yvette Baker Final, 10 December 2006: What a climax to the Yvette Baker final at Cold Ash, Hermitage as the results were read out in reverse order. A great shout from Deeside as OD were announced as being second, Deeside having won the event for the first time by 6 points. Congratulations to all 18 of our juniors who competed with our 9 counters being Chris Smithard, 2nd, Elspeth Ingleby 5th on green, Mike Beasant and Matthew Vokes, 3rd and 5th on light green, Chris Kayley and Callum Crocker, 2nd and 7th on orange, Beatrix Calow, 7th on orange and Aidan Chavasse and Sam Drinkwater, 1st and 4th on yellow. Click here for full results and here for several photos (courtesy Chris Smithard). |
| Club Champs Photos, Bickerton, 26 November 2006:Don't forget to look at a selection of photos from the Club Champs, courtesy Chris Smithard. |
|
Sean Cranny married Holly Whiteman in Brisbane, 3 November
2006:
Many congratulations
to Sean Cranny, erstwhile member of DEE and son of Martin and Carol,
on the occasion of his marriage to Holly Whiteman in the suburb
of Teneriffe in Brisbane. There was an impressive turnout of 35
from the UK, including, of course, Martin, Carol and Michael. Sean
and Holly had a great day and a good week pre-wedding with their
overseas guests at Stradbroke Island. Sean even found the energy
for a 35 minute run on the morning of the ceremony! Click the following
links for photos of 'Holly
pre-wedding', 'first
dance kiss' and 'cutting
the cake'.
|
|
Peter Palmer Relays - Sutton Park, Birmingham, 9/10 September :
Once again, DEE was pipped at the post in the Peter Palmer Relays.
Leading after leg 2, they held on until leg 5 when AIRE overtook.
David Schorah tried as last year to overhaul the leader but one
slip foiled what would have been a fantastic effort and AIRE ran
out winners by 5 minutes after 3 hours 15 minutes of racing. Well
done to all - Michael Beasant, Chris Smithard, Tom Beasant, Zoe
Smithard, Nia Benson/Jesse Evans and David Schorah in the Deementors
team and the others in the Deemons team. Great event, great result
- DEE has been runners-up 3 years running now! Click here
for full results.
|
|
DEE/MDOC
Challenge, 2 September 2006 :
Barbara Jones reports
that there were very few Deesiders at the DEE/MDOC Challenge, but
those who went had a great time.Whether they were experiencing a
60-minute scamper through the woods, or following a 27-sculptures
trail, or walking the plank, experimenting with blind navigation,
pot-building, square construction or stick arrangement in the field,
there was never a dull moment. There were also in-the-marquee puzzles
- O-Sudoku, Sudoku jigsaw, O-wordsearch, etc. And then out came
the picnic chairs round the BBQ, and we were treated to the usual
MDOC hospitality of sumptuous salads and scrumptious sweets. Many
thanks to Julie Brook, who mastermided the day, and to all the helpers,
cooks, bottlewashers, etc. Above all, thanks to Rosemary and Roy
Hayes, who made us all so welcome.
The scoring appears unintelligible to someone who wasn't there, but the Verity team seems to have achieved the second highest score while the (Findlay)-Robinson team had the second lowest. However, the average DEE score was 417, a full 6 points greater than the average MDOC score. Does this mean that DEE won? Who knows? Does it matter anyway? |
|
Malcolm McIvor shows that there's still life over 65! :
Congratulations to Malcolm McIvor (M65) who won both the Medium
and Long courses at the Canadian Champs at Orangeville (Ontario)
from August 24 - 27. The Medium course starts were delayed by 2 hours, but Malcolm was able
to put in a good run to win by 1:18 in 38:57.He was sure that a 4 minute error had cost him
the chance of winning the Long Championship course, but Alex
Kerr from the Victoria club made an even greater error so
he came away with a second win, this time in 54:21, a lead of 46 seconds. Not
so successful in the Relays, which started 30 minutes late at 17:30,
and finished in the dark. Malcolm was running the last leg and had
to retire after control 13 because he didn't have a head torch!
The Sprint event start was also delayed, this time by 1½
hours, and again it was quite a dark evening. Malcolm took
25:03 but the computer system broke down so no times could be recorded
on the day. It would appear that the organisers managed to successfully
interrogate the SI boxes, as times are now posted on the web. Malcolm
was 3rd, 2:30 down on the winner. Click here
for full results.
|
|
White
Rose successes, 26-28 August 2006 :
Mike Smithard reports that, many years ago, a Swedish competitor
stood on the rostrum at the JK and advised that any Swede who couldn't
win a trophy in Sweden should come to the JK! What cheek (though
true at the time!). Well, if you can't win anywhere else, go to
the White Rose and enter the team score event! Many classes, not
many teams, come home with a mug! WELL DONE to Bob Elmes, Chris
Calow and Rik Hughes - 3rd place in the over 165 category. Pat Moody
noted for next year that there were only 2 teams in the open women
class! Meanwhile, successful bracken bashers from DEE were Terry
Harper, 1st in M65, Beatrix Calow, 2nd in JW3, Mike Smithard 1st
in M55 (brother Phil in 3rd), Malcolm Irvine, 1st M50S, Mark O'Donoghue,
2nd M35S. In the team event, Mike and Chris teamed up with Phil
to win the 120+ class. Click here
for full results.
|
|
Harvester 2006, 10/11 June 2006 :
A small hardy band of Deesiders went up to the Tullies' farm at
Teviothead in southern Scotland to run the B race at this year's
Harvester. With about 37 teams in this race, Steve Ingleby had plenty
of company on the first 5.6km day leg and came back with the first
pack, 3 minutes down (on a slip of a girl who he didn't follow because
'she won't last'). Bad move, Steve! Catherine Taylor is a (the?)
top W16, running for the infamous CLOK ladies team which won the
B race overall. Darkness then fell as John and Sue Findlay-Robinson
completed their courses and Mike Smithard only lost 5 minutes on
Heather Munro on an 8km leg (pretty impressive!). Rachel F-R finished
off the race on the last leg, still in the dark, making it a family
affair with 2 friends. It was a very warm night with plenty of midges
to keep up the protein level! Click here
for full results, and here
for a full report on the races.
Thanks to Mike Smithard for this report. Mike's legs didn't last too well at the regional event on the Sunday, having finished his night leg only 9 hours earlier. Mike notes that the area was quite interesting open grazed fell with detailed tops and well worth the 3 hour journey. |
|
Not-the-Club-Champs Score Event, Saturday 3 June :
Marbury was a very pleasant location for the Deeside members who
turned out for the ‘Not the Club Champs’. The weather was ideal
for a picnic – hot and sunny – not so ideal for a run! The map was
not entirely truthful (the wardens have been busy!) but the fixed
controls were not hard to locate. The 2 roaming controls were not
so easy – they seemed to have an inclination to run away from competitors.
Jon Hateley used his normal subtlety and rugby tackled the one he
‘found’, allowing Hannah to punch. Following a restful picnic came
the World Cup – Beasants and Hateley versus the rest – with a narrow
win by a golden goal to the Beasants and Hateley. Thanks to Jenny
for organising, and to Nigel for this report.
|
|
World Schools Meet, Slovakia, 25th and 27th April :
Zoe and Chris Smithard have spent the last week (off school) in
Slovakia competing for the English and Welsh Schools' teams against
a dozen or more other countries including the Congo and China (and
Sweden). In the Classic race, they finished in 9th (excellent result,
Zoe!) and 19th places and in the Middle distance race, they finished
14th and 5th (great run, Chris!) respectively. Both their teams
finished in 3rd place. First 6 finishers got prizes in each race.
One British gold for Julia Blomquist and 2 silvers - Kate Farley
of Ulverston HS who had a storming run in the Classic and Anne Edwards
in the 'Select' W16 team. Bronze for Peter Hodkinson in the Classic.
Click here
for full results, photos and maps.
|
|
Northern Championships, Graythwaite, 23 April 2006:
A great area and a great day in the Lakes - and 2 trophies for the
Beasants. Tom and Michael are now M16 and M14 Northern Champions
- Michael by a few seconds from Matthew Vokes. Hard luck also for
his brother Philip who was 3rd M10, only 30 seconds behind the winner.
Thanks to Mike Smithard for this report, and congratulations to
Mike on his own near miss - only 16 seconds away from being M55
Nothern Champion! Full results can be found on LOC's
website.
The previous day, Rachel Findlay-Robinson did enough in the JOK chasing sprint to get into the top 15 in the W18 FCC series so goes to the final in 2 weeks time near Oban - making 4 Deesiders in the finals. Good luck to them all. |
|
JK 2006 - two first places and several near misses :
It rained, shined, blew hot and cold. We ran up Ilkley Moor and
down again, did the White Rose in April and ran orange courses
(the relay) in the park. Congratulations to Elspeth Ingleby who
won W20L by 15 minutes, and to Anya Crocker who won W21V by a
massive 40 minutes. Elspeth agreed afterwards that she would have
enjoyed the JK more if she had been running W20E. Anya had originally
entered W21E, but switched courses following an injury. Judging
by her minutes/km, she's obviously well on the way to recovery!
Apart from Elspeth and Anya, DEE members, one way or the other,
managed 4th and 5th places in plenty but didn't make the podium(s).
A shame as we seem to have a group of very good runners, probably
more so than for some time, but it didn't happen for them this
time. Visiting junior groups from Kongsberg (NEOA junior exchange),
Ostfold (NW junior exchange) and the Czech Republic added extra
competition in some classes. Best of the Individual results were:
Tom Beasant 4th M16 (5th/3rd), David Schorah 4th M18 (5th/3rd),
Mike Smithard 4th M55 (5th/6th), Ron Williams 4th M70 (5th/5th),
Chris Owens 5th M12 (4th/8th), Matthew Vokes 7th M14 (4th/15th),
Michael Beasant 8th M14 (12th/7th), Philip Vokes 9th M10 (10th/10th),
Chris Smithard 9th M18 (13th/8th) and Rhys Findlay-Robinson 11th
M20E (8th/12th). Well done especially to Chris Smithard and Michael
Beasant who are in the first year of their age groups, to Rhys
who has been out injured over the last few months and wasn't fully
well after his training trip to Portugal with the National Squad,
and to Ron who has been at or near the top for so many years.
Also to Chris Owens in, we think, his first foray into the 'big
time' where he definitely made his mark. Congratulations to Rhys,
David and Chris for reaching the final of the Future Champions
Cup on the basis of their results over the series - their parents
have earned a long w/e in Oban in May for which they are truly
grateful!
Relays: Well done to our team in the M/W12 relay - were they in 3rd, 4th or 5th place? The results web page shows them as being 5th, but the 4th team is showing as non-competitive on the day and the 3rd team was the Irish junior squad, so maybe DEE had the third best club team on the day. However it turns out, Philip, Sean and Chris had a great result only 2 minutes behind the winners, and gave us all something to cheer about early on (were some of them really doing 2km in 10 minutes?). The battle of the day was to have been our 2 teams in the M48- relay, but controls on two adjacent ditches caught out our first runner, so the A team was disqualified, doubly disappointing as Michael Beasant, on second leg, ran the fastest leg time of the day to return shortly after the leader. If he had been competitive David might well have converted this position into victory, but without the spur, he took it easier (having fun misleading other runners?). The B team finished fast with Chris S running the third fastest leg time (for 1st and 3rd legs), lifting them 8 places into 5th place on the last leg, 3 minutes behind the winner - not bad for a B team! A few other thoughts: Was Chris Beasant (M16) the youngest runner in the 'over 120' category? With all our ageing members why can't we get an 'over 165' team together? Welcome to Mark O'Donoghue, a new under 40 team member. Click here for full results. |
|
CompassSport Cup report, 9 April 2006:
Thanks to the 52 or so members who turned up for DEE's heat in Macclesfield
Forest - a reasonable turnout for our club but not enough on the
day to get to the final. The timing did not help being at the start
of the Easter holidays. I reckon 10 certain counters could not make
it so we struggled to make an impact. With those 10, I think it
would have been a close result with MDOC. One day, DEE will make
it to the final! Full results can be found on MDOC's
website. Thanks to Mike Smithard for this report and for co-ordinating
DEE's entries.
|
|
British Relays Successes, 2 April 2006:
The strength of Deeside
Juniors continues to gather momentum and last year's bare trophy
cupboard from the British and JK relays is now re-stocked. Congratulations
to our M14 and M18 teams who 'coasted' and 'stormed' respectively
to victory in Sussex last weekend. Mike Beasant 'did the business'
on leg 1 of the M14 as he stayed in the leading pack slightly down
on the leader but Aidan Chavasse came back 2 minutes clear with
Matthew Vokes repeating Mike's fast leg 1 time to score a clear
win. The M18s had it tougher with AIRE 3 minutes clear over Tom
Beasant in 2nd place after leg 1. Chris S was unaware of the extended
felled area abutting his first control ( it was on a map pinned
to a tree in the changeover area) so lost time to LOC who arrived
3-4 minutes clear. Dave Schorah set off in pursuit with others on
the 3.4km last leg and it was with great cheers from the DEE tent
that he was announced at the 2nd last control ahead of the pack.
Click here
for full results. Congratulations to both teams for running to form.
We are now looking forward to the JK relays where our second wave
of youngsters will hit the M/W12 relay, unknown to their rivals
at the British. A 30 year old map of Bramham Park is available from
Mike Smithard, but he thinks the trees might have grown by now!
(Thanks to Mike for this report and for his report on the British.)
|
|
British Individual Championships, 1 April 2006:
Plenty of minor placings (great results) but no wins for Deesiders.
Well done to all those who competed - some interesting route choices
were offered on this new area near Midhurst. Family result of the
event goes to the Vokes family (Philip 3rd M10A, Zoe 3rd W14B, and
Matthew 3rd M14A). Other good junior results were achieved by Michael
Beasant 4th M14, Tom Beasant 5th M16 (22 seconds behind 3rd), Chris
Smithard 4th M18, David Schorah 6th M18, and Rhys Findlay-Robinson 3rd 20E.
Sara Campbell, 4th W40L, and Mike Smithard, 4th M55L, showed we don't let the juniors get all the plaudits!
Apologies if anyone has been missed. Click here
for full results.
|