Published 22nd May 2018

photo credit - Deeside Camera Club

Over the weekend of 19th / 20th May many SYO members undertook the epic journey to Deeside to compete in the British Orienteering Championships. The British Long Championships were staged at Balmoral on the Saturday. Competitors were treated to a glorious sunny day in the stunning surroundings of Balmoral castle. The forest was beautiful - not a bramble in sight - and the courses superbly challenging.

The Scots proved tough to beat in many classes so this made Dave (M50), Amanda (W45) and Freya 's (W12) victories especially noteworthy! There were also well-deserved silvers for Robbie (M10), Euan (M14), Martin (M50), Laura (W35) and Jenny (W50) and bronzes for Ella (W10) and Peter G (M70). A special mention must go to Conrad, Imogen, Sam C and Judy who all finished 4th, just missing out on a podium place and also Will who was 2nd on M10B. Sadly the prize giving wasn't held until after the relays which meant some people missed out on their presentations.

Sunday saw the turn of the relays on Torphantrick in grey rather overcast conditions but at least it wasn't raining (much!). The terrain and courses were interesting though it was a rather hard to work out how well teams were doing due to the very uneven gaffles.  There were plenty of SYO successes to celebrate including 4 relay class wins. Well done to Robbie, Oscar and Conrad (1st mini relay), Andy P, Pete T & Nick (1st M40), Martin, Tim & Dave (1st M50) and Ryan, Alex E and Jamie (1st junior ad-hoc). There were silvers for the W40 team (Amanda, Pauline & Jenny P) and the M14s (Sam C, Max and Euan). Finishing 4th and just missing out on medals were the women's open team (Mary, Laura & Kim) and the W14s (Freya, Alex C & Imogen). Well done to everyone who took part. Next year, BOC will be held in Yorkshire over the weekend of 4-6th May so hopefully there will be a very large SYO contingent competing.

Published 14th May 2018

Sunday 13th May saw 58 SYO juniors and their families travel to the Yorkshire and Humberside heat of the Yvette Baker Trophy. The heat was hosted by EPOC who chose a fabulous venue in Oakwood Country Park. Aside from their courses, all the juniors enjoyed the free maze O, glorious sunshine, the chance to socialise and of course the very popular ice-cream van.

SYO had juniors competing across all the courses and on yellow we had an amazing 30 runners! Well done to all the juniors that took part - you all play an important part in pushing down the scores of other runners. Congratulations to the scorers: 

Yellow Boys - John Joe (100) & Caspar (99)
Yellow Girls - Anna (100) & Charlotte (99)
Orange Girls - Freya (100) 
Orange Boys - Conrad (100) & James (99)
Light Green Girls - Imogen (100)
Light Green Boys - Max (100), Sam C (99)
Green Girls - Alex E (99)
Green Boys - Dom (100), Euan (99)

Thank you to EPOC for organising a fabulous heat, the parents for getting all the juniors there and Jacky for doing a super job as team captain. The final is on 1st July in Redditch. Jacky will be sending out the preliminary information shortly.....

Published 24th April 2018

SYO had another super successful competition at Wass on Sunday with 10 members crowned Northern Champions in their respective age classes. Congratulations to Anna (W10), Freya (W12), Conrad (M12), Euan (M14), Aislinn (W21E), Amanda (W45), Jenny P (W50), Charlie A (M50), Peter G (M70) and Brian (M75) who all took home trophies. 

Published 4th April 2018

More than 90 members travelled to the West Midlands over Easter weekend to compete in this year's JK competition. Despite the severe weather conditions, SYO members performed out of their skins to produce 22 individual medallists and 6 team relay podium positions -  a truely fabulous club achievement!

The weekend began on Good Friday with the Sprint event at the Stafford MoD. Whilst the navigation was technically easy, the racing was fast and furious and those that topped the results list proved they could perform under pressure. Well done to Robbie (1st M10), Anna (1st W10), Ella (2nd W10), Conrad (3rd M12), Freya (2nd W12), Imogen (1st W14), Pippa (3rd W20), Judy (2nd W65) and Peter G (3rd M70).

Saturday saw the start of the JK overall individual competition with the middle race at Brereton Spurs. Despite overcast skies and freezing temperatures, the day stayed dry. The orienteering was physically and technically demanding and there were many top performances by SYO members. Robbie, Oscar, Conrad, Euan, Andy P, Charlie A, Brian, Anna, Charlotte, Freya, Imogen, Pippa, Amanda & Jenny P all held top 3 positions overnight.

On Sunday the JK moved to Beaudesert for the classic distance and the 2nd day of the overall individual competition. Although the orienteering was not too technically demanding, the courses provided a significant physical challenge and keeping concentration to the very end was key to a good race.

Well done to JK Champions Robbie Lightfoot (M10) and Freya Tryner (W12) who triumphed after 2 tough days in the forest. Congratulations also to silver medallists Charlotte Chapman (W10), Conrad Reuber (M12), Euan Tryner (M14), Jenny Peel (W50), Charlie Adams (M50) and Peter Gorvett (M70) and bronze medallists Anna Todd (W10), Oscar Peel (M10), Pippa Dakin (W20), Andy Preston (M40) and Amanda Crawshaw (W45). There were also good runs on the short classes for Mark C (1st M50S), Louise P (2nd W40S) and Wendy (1st W55S).

Monday saw a return to Beaudesert for the relays. The day dawned with the shock of snow which was particularly challenging for those travelling form Sheffield - well done to those that made it. The snow made the parking field unusable so there were long queues and on arrival at the arena competitors were faced with a quagmire! This didn't faze members of SYO though....

In the Mini Relay Robbie, James and Freya won by a very impressive 6 minutes, whilst Ella, Oscar and Charlotte grabbed 3rd spot just 2 seconds ahead of 4th despite Charlotte falling in the mud on the run in but a quick return to 2 feet kept her in front. In the Junior Relay Sam C, Conrad and Euan had an equally impressive win by over 6 minutes. It was also really great to see our M18s finish 2nd in Men's Short relay - Ryan, Seb and Dom ran incredibly well against experienced adults. It was close in the Senior Women's relay with Amanda, Jenny J and Jenny P holding off SN by 30 seconds. In the Senior Men's relay Nick B, Andy P and Oli ran impressively to win over long term rivals FVO.

A special mention must go to our members competing at their first JK. There were some very impressive performances in tough conditions. Let's hope the weather gods smile kindly on us at the remainder of this year's major competitions. The next big race is the Northern Champs on 22nd April - entries close on 8th.