Published 23rd November 2017

On Sunday 19th December 50 children representing 10 Sheffield schools made the long journey to the Forest of Dean to compete in the British Schools Championships. Ranging in age from 8 to 16; they all performed exceptionally well bringing home 9 individual medals, 3 team trophies, 5 team medals, a whole school trophy and podium position.

The day started exceptionally early as we all clambered aboard the coach in the dark at 6.45am. There was a bit of a kerfuffle as we realised we had one more person for the coach than we had spaces for - many thanks to Toby for giving up his seat at the very last moment - but eventually we were on our way. The journey down was smooth and we arrived at 10.30am with plenty of time to apply face paint before the first start!

It was a lovely surprise to arrive in a well sheltered, sun drenched arena and certainly made the job of the team managers and parent supporters a pleasurable experience. 11.00 arrived and the first of the Sheffield competitors headed for the start.  Early results indicated that the times were very fast on the primary courses so it was an anxious wait with frequent watch checks for the arrival of our first finishers. The juniors were soon streaming in, mostly with huge smiles on their faces.

Within no time at all, all the Sheffield contingent were back and there was time to relax, play and eat packed lunches before the prize giving. Back of the envelope calculations from the individual results indicated the likelihood of a good medal haul so it was with good spirits that we decamped to the (ahead of schedule) prize giving!

The final results proved even better than expected with a vast array for podium positions. Well done to the individual medal winners: Ella (2nd Y5G), Beth & Sofia (3rd Y5G), Freya (1st Y6G), Imogen (1st Y7G), James (3rd Y6B), Jamie (2nd Y7B), Euan (1st Y8B), Max (1st Y9B) and Ryan (3rd Y12B). There were also a number of team podium positions:

1st Y5G - Hunters Bar - Ella, Sofia & Beth, Ellen & Megan
1st Y6G - Hunters Bar - Freya, Ruth and Lotte
2nd Y10G - High Storrs - Isobel, Alex & Hannah
2nd Y5B - Nether Green - Robbie, Sam & Oscar
3rd Y5B - Hunters Bar - Ben, Toby & Rhys
2nd Y6B - Hunters Bar - James, Mark & Oliver
3rd Y7B - High Storrs - Conrad, Jamie & Ben
1st Y8B - High Storrs - Euan, Dylan & Olmo

Hunters Bar took the overall primary school trophy and Birkdale were awarded a bronze medal in the small secondary category.

Many thanks to Jacky for dealing with the trails and tribulations of the overbooked coach, Nick for the coaching tips and all the parents that acted as team managers, supporters and chauffeurs. 

Next year the British Schools Schools Champs is on Sunday 18^th November at Haigh Hall, Wigan. On Saturday 17^th November the World Schools Selection Race will be held at Tockholes near Blackburn. This is for juniors born between 2001 and 2005. Those that are selected will travel to Estonia to compete in the World Schools Champs in Estonia in May 2019!

Published 24th October 2017

Forty eight members made the very long journey to Virtuous Lady in Devon for the final of this year’s Compass Sport Cup final and were rewarded with an excellent 3^rd place.

Due to the epic distance involved SYO subsidised the cost of the coach. Most of the team took advantage of this and signed up to “Jacky’s Coach Tours”. The initial plan was to get some training in on the way down on the Saturday at an event in the Quantocks but unfortunately the fast approaching Storm Brian led to its cancellation at the last minute. Every cloud has a silver lining though and this meant a departure time 3 hours later at a very reasonable 10am. Following a leisurely drive down we eventually arrived at the youth hostel in Okehampton in the late afternoon and despite the torrential rain and gale force winds a few hardy souls went for a run / walk on Dartmoor before it got dark.  A delicious 3 course meal (leek & stilton soup, roast beef and sticky toffee pudding) was served at 7pm and everyone agreed that it was far superior to any other youth hostel meal ever sampled. Some of the childfree amongst the team then adjourned to the pub while the rest relaxed at the hostel.

The following morning saw the team up bright and early for an 8.30am departure. By 9.30am we were parked in our fab parking spot adjacent to the arena where we could smugly watch people traipsing across the moor from the main parking area – it’s not often the coaches get the superior parking arrangements! There was a certain reluctance from much of the team to leave the warm, cosy coach so we instructed the juniors to put the SYO tent up whilst the rest of us stayed put! However, it was eventually deemed necessary to move and we joined the juniors in the tent where face painting in team colours was in full swing (even the SYO chair was spotted sporting the SYO logo on his cheek!)

The assembly field offered a lovely vista over the area and the spectator control meant we could cheer on fellow team mates as they entered the final loop of their courses. The weather remained reasonably bright for most of the day and the courses were surprisingly tricky with plenty of headless chickens on view in the areas of gorse and plentiful paths. Like last year, SYO’s main competitors were BOK and FVO. Whilst we fielded a very similar sized team to FVO, BOK had almost double the amount of runners and as a result they swept away with the competition scoring 2363 points to take the cup, which they last won in 2013. SYO scored 2296 finishing in third behind FVO on 2324 but surprisingly this was actually closer than the result last year when we were on home turf. This is very encouraging for the future as we were actually without a lot of our top runners and just shows how well the club is developing in strength and depth.

Congratulations to everyone who competed. It really was a stirling team effort with those who didn’t score contributing by pushing down the scores of others. Well done in particular to those who did score: Nick B, Bill E, Martin, Peter G, Euan, Alex E, Lucy, Isobel R, Sam C, Colin S, Dom, Nic, Pete T, Ian, Freya, Pauline T, Ryan, Clive, Henry, Isabelle H, Amanda, Bill H, Paul B, Tony and Tim W. Fabulous to see the strength of our juniors and also great to see lots of people scoring for the first time at a compass sport cup competition.

The coach journey home was long but far more relaxing than driving and we passed the time by eating our prize winning chocolates. We were also treated to a surprisingly tuneful sing song by the juniors from the back of the bus!

Many thanks to Jacky for organising the coach and booking the hostel and Tim T for co-ordinating the entries. Next year we are hosting the heat at Canklow on 11^th March and the final is at Beaudesert in the West Midlands on 21^st October 2018. Please put the dates in your diaries; with the all our best runners out we really could lift the cup again!

Published 12th October 2017

The second event of the league at Meersbrook Park had another great attendance.  This was a new area - with a map of the park by Dom Dakin and the park linked up to the woods and urban area around Gleadless.  Thanks to the Möbus family for planning and all of our helpers who managed to cope with the record numbers.

We have also added a further team competitiong to the league - a year group competition.  Up to Y7 it is split girls and boys per year group and combined Y8 & 9 and Y10 & 11. 3 people to count for the team with the best 5 results from the 9 races in the year to count for the league.