Member News

A very warm welcome to new members Eddy Anderson, Giorgio Avella, Esther & Milo Byan, Jim Butterworth, Alex & Rafe Cadman, Ralph Coe, Jasper Davies, Otis Dee, Leo & Mia Hart, Florrie Johnston, Imogen Lilley, Finn Mackie, Max Mann, James Mellor, Caitlin New, Chloe Potter, Kim Randall, Miia Roller, Felix Rutter, Polly Taylor, Poppy Tedstill, Paul & Joseph Trenell, Ged & Jemma Waters and Siri Watson.

We offer a discounted membership rate for seniors, who are full time students. Please contact Jacky to claim your refund once you have renewed your membership.

2023 has got off to great start for SYO with a bumper crop of new members and 4 successful events and there's plenty more to look forward to over the year ahead. 

Bowden Housteads Night Event - Sat 4 Feb

We have a regional night event at Bowden Housteads this Saturday. More details here. Entries can be made online via Fabian4 until Thursday 2nd Feb. It's a good area and there's an indoor assembly and a coffee shop - what more could you want?!

We still require more volunteers, including control collectors. If you are available to help, please enter using discount code SYOHELPER and email Rosie.

Northern Championships weekend

We have a fantastic weekend of racing coming up at the end of February on 3 fabulous areas. The weekend kicks off with a sprint event at the Edge on Friday 24th Feb in the afternoon. More details here. Entries are open now on the SYO entry system and close on Sunday 19th Feb. 

On Saturday 25th Feb our neighbours DVO are putting on a middle race at Birchen Edge. More details here. This event is part of the UK Orienteering League. Enter in advance by Monday 20th February to guarantee your choice of map - there will be limited entry on the day subject to map availability.

On Sunday 26th Feb we host the Northern Orienteering Championships on Burbage. More details here. This race is also part of the UK Orienteering League. Trophies will be presented to the leading competitor from the north (NWOA / NEOA / YHOA)   There are also prizes for the first 3 in the junior A / Elite classes and for winners of the adult long classes (elite M/W21). Enter in advance on Fabian4 by Sunday 19th February.

SHAFF volunteers

SHAFF (Sheffield Adventure Film Festival) takes place annually in March - this year on 4th / 5th March. As usual SYO will have a stall in the Outpost and will be offering a free maprun course around the city centre. This year for the first time there will be chance for festival goers to try virtual orienteering via the laptop station on our stall. More info here.

We require volunteers to run the stall for a couple of hours on Saturday 4th or Sunday 5th March. You will be there to answer questions on orienteering and SYO and explain how to use Maprun. Full training will be given. This is an excellent volunteering opportunity for those looking to clock up DofE hours! Please email Pauline if you can help.

Condes training course

Condes is the software SYO use to plan events. We are running a 2 hour training course on how to use it, which will hopefully mean the planning process is a bit less daunting. The course is suitable for complete beginners but will also be helpful to those who have some condes experience. Please email Pauline indicating your availability for either Thursday 2nd March and / or Tuesday 7th March.

Major Events

Attending a major orienteering event is normally a great experience. Not only is it a good opportunity to socialise with club mates but the races are held on the UK's best terrain. Both the JK and British Long champs also include a relay competition, which provides a great opportunity to race with other club members. Here are the details of this year's major events:

British Night Champs, Sat 18th March, Dorset. Entry closing date 5th Feb.
British Long champs Sat 25th March, Newbury. Price rise after 5th Feb.
JK Fri 7th to Mon 10th April, Lake District. Price rise after 5th Feb.
British Sprint & Middle Champs Sat 6th & Sun 7th May, Northern Ireland. Price rise after 26th Feb.
Scottish 6 Days, Sun 30th July to Fri 4th Aug, Moray Coast. Price rise after 31st Jan. This is a wonderful event - very social, fantastic orienteering, lovely holiday vibe. 84 club members are already entered!

Event Officials

We are so grateful to all those that take on the main event official roles (organiser, planner & controller) at our events. Please take a look at the programme of events here and email Susan if you can fulfil one of the roles.

Upcoming positions that we particularly need to fill soon are:

Planner – Parkwood Springs – Sat 29^th Apr
Planner - Wincobank - Wed 17th May

Wednesday and Saturday events are ideal for first time planners and help and mentoring will be provided. 

We also have 2 vacancies for on the day organisers at Loxley on 29th March and Wharncliffe on 19th April. This is a really easy way to get involved in organising as the "in advance" jobs are done for you - risk assessment, entries, finding helpers etc. If you'd like to find out more about what it involves, please get in touch with Pauline. 

Call to the CSC heat

Our CSC heat is on Saturday 12th March at Park Hall Country Park. More details here.

There is a team limit of 50. We still have space on the team sheet despite the numbers limit. If you are keen to see us qualify for the final, please sign up on the google form asap.

Different age classes are allocated to different colour courses. These can be found in section 4 of the document here. Please note on the form if you would like to run up on a longer course.

Entry costs are £10 for adults and £5 for juniors. For those running in the competition, SYO will subsidise entries by 50%. Please transfer payment for your run (£5 for adults, £2.50 juniors) to the SYO bank account using the reference CSC.

If you have any questions please feel free to email Chris

SYO Grant Policy

We have updated our grants policy as follows:

If a member is selected by British Orienteering to represent GB (or another National Team) for a major competition*(see below) the level of support is a maximum of £300 per year with the caveat that they need to contribute to the club by competing for us regularly in relays / CSC and /or by planning, organising, mapping etc.

We do not contribute to veterans representing Home Nations but we do support juniors and seniors (W/W21’s) at the following competitions:

Interland, Senior Home International, Junior Home International, World Schools Orienteering Championships

Juniors and Seniors representing the Home Nations are eligible to claim one third of the athlete contribution up to a maximum of £120 in one year. In return for funding members are expected to contribute to the club by planning, mapping or organising or write an article for the newsletter / website.

There may, in addition, be exceptional circumstances of hardship where the Club would consider offering support for athletes representing GB or the Home Nations.

To apply for funding please email Mark Dakin 

*Eligible competitions are WOC, JWOC, WORLD GAMES, EYOC, JEC, WORLD CUPS, EOC, WUC, WTOC, ETOC and WMTBOC.

Club Night

Club Night sessions are proving very popular with around 70-80 participants each week. The sessions are currently full to new joiners under 13, although there is space for those aged 13 plus. Priority is given to club members, so if you are interested in giving it a go, please email Pauline. The programme up to Easter is:

On Wed 8th Feb we visit the brand new area of Whitwell Woods near Worksop. There is space at this session because of the travel distance involved. If any club members, who don't normally attend club night, would like to join us for training on this day, email Pauline. There will be plenty to keep TD5 orienteers entertained.

On-line Training Courses

British Orienteering offer a number of elearning courses, which can be completed in your own time and take between 10 minutes and an hour, depending on the course. Please click here for details.

There are 2 free courses - Dealing with Cardiac Arrest and Keeping your Child Safe in Sport.

There are also 2 mapping courses for those with an interest in mapping and a safeguarding course for coaches / coach assistants. Finally there is an Event Safety course, which should be completed by all organisers, planners and controllers. These courses take approximately 1 hour to complete and cost £10 (£8 until 31st Jan). SYO will reimburse you for the cost of these courses. Please email Pauline if interested.

Kit

We have a great array of club branded kit and have good range of stock items. Pictures can be seen here. 

Pricing is as follows - adult top £30, adult mesh £26, adult jacket £46, buff £6, adult vest £23, adult hoody £26, kids top £24, kids jacket £32, kids hoody £22

Please email Pauline if you would like to order any kit.

Children's University

South Yorkshire Orienteers are signed up to the Children's University scheme. Children can earn points competing at orienteering events and by attending club night. Please email Susan if you would like claim points for attending SYO sessions.

Event Thank Yous

GB Performance Selections

2022 Club Champs & Awards

The 2022 Annual Club Champs were held in Graves Park on 3rd December. The long and medium competitors set off in a mass start. Both courses had 3 butterfly loops to split the competitors. Once the masses had departed the less experienced members set off on the orange and yellow courses.

Oli took the victory on the long course, while Freya was 1st female. On the medium Kris was first male and Jenny P was 1st female. The orange course was won by Jack W and Sophie was 1st female; while Zac won the yellow with Lucy H 1st female. However, once Peter G's fiendish handicapping system had been applied and the results from the long and medium courses amalgamated the club champs prizes went to John Doyle (first male junior), Ciara Keen (1st female junior), Rosie (1st senior woman), Todd (1^st senior man), Dave T (1st vet man) and ......... (1st vet woman - please let me know who this was?!).

Post-race members adjourned to the Sheffield Transport Club for a delicious pie lunch. Lunch was followed by the very brief AGM before it was time for the annual awards ceremony. We began by presenting our younger juniors with their British Orienteering Racing Awards, before moving on to recognise the best achievements within the club.

Best junior performance at the CSC: Freya 
Best senior performance at the CSC: Brian
Best junior performance at the YBT final: Lucy W

Best Junior Relay Team: BOC & JK mini relay winners – Hannah, Freddie & Maxwell
Best Senior Relay Team: BOC & JK relay winners – Tim, Charlie & Martin
Best Individual Junior Relay Performance: Conrad
Best individual Senior Relay Performance: Dan

Best Senior International Performance: Peter G
Best Junior International Performance: Euan
Best Male Junior Performances: 1st Robbie, Runner up Maxwell
Best Female Junior Performances: 1st Ella, Runner up Imogen
Best Senior Male Performances: Chris W
Best Senior Female Performances: Jenny J
Best Vet Male Performances: Tim
Best Vet Female Performances: Jenny P

Oustanding Progress by a Junior: Louis
Most improved senior: Todd
Wooden Spoon Award: Chapman Family

The final part of the day concentrated on thanking the club's volunteers for the hundreds of hours they dedicate to orienteering. All the major officials, SI managers and coaches received a small prize and Oli and Ian were presented with a framed copy of their new maps. Ian also received a towel print of his composite map of Ecclesall through the decades.

The club's coaches were thanked for the huge commitment they put into club night and other coaching sessions. The Junior volunteer of the year award went to James, while Dom won 'Senior Volunteer of the year' for being our technical guru for maprun and the SYO entry systems and for masterminding the decorations at the 50^th anniversary do at Cutlers.

Martin was awarded the trophy for the 'outstanding contribution to orienteering’ for steering the club so successfully for the past 6 year in his position as chair.  Finally thanks were given to Dave H and Hannah for the fabulous job done planning and organising this year’s club champs.

SYO success at the British Schools

In the primary competition, it was a clean sweep for Sheffield schools with Hunters Bar taking the win, Westways in 2nd and Carterknowle in 3rd; whilst in the large Secondary category High Storrs were a convincing first. In the year group competition 11 Sheffield schools took home medals. Well done to:
Hunters Bar - G5 silver, B5 gold
Westways - G5 bronze, B6 silver
Carterknowle - G6 silver, B6 bronze
Mundella - B5 silver
Nether Green - B5 bronze
Ecclesall B6 - gold
King Edwards - G7 silver, G9 gold
Mercia - G8 bronze
Tapton - B7 gold, B9 silver
Silverdale - G11 gold
High Storrs - G8 gold, G9 silver, G11 silver, G12 silver, B9 gold, B10 gold, B11 gold, B12 gold & B13 gold.

Plenty of SYO members, competing on behalf of their schools, were incredibly successful in the individual competition. There were gold medal wins for Hannah Chapman (Y6), Sophie Howsam (Y7), Charlotte Chapman (Y9), Freya Tryner (Y11), Imogen Pieters (Y12), Louis Bryant (Y6), Freddie Guy (Y7), Caspar Reynolds (Y9) & Euan Tryner (Y13). Silver medal winners were Lucy Holt (Y8), Ella Baxter (Y9), Anna Todd (Y11), Jack Walwyn (Y6), Lawrence Hodgson (Y8), Oscar Peel (Y9), Robbie Lightfoot (Y10), Conrad Reuber (Y12) and Olmo Combley (Y13), while Beau Elliott (Y6), Lucy Walwyn (Y7), Alice Pieters (Y9), Lotte Sykes (Y11), Alastair Reid (Y6), Oskar Woods (Y8), Jamie Lightfoot (Y12) and Dylan Jenkinson (Y13) all gained bronze.

A huge thank you to planner Mark Chapman and organiser Amanda Crawshaw, who pulled together a fantastic event and also to Ian Cooper for updating the map.

Lift Whatsapp Group

We have set up a whatsapp group so people can more easily arrange to share lifts to events. If you require lifts, are happy to car share or can offer lifts to others, please email Pauline with your mobile number and I'll add you to the group.

Social Media

Social Media is an important marketing and advertising tool and SYO are keen to use it for publicising the club, sport and our events. We also regularly report on events and celebrate members' achievements. Please like our page , join the SYO group and follow us on Twitter. The more likes we get on our posts, the more people see our page, so please try to engage regularly.