Looking back over the year

Competitions

During the year the club has successfully planned and organised 10 competitions one of which was an urban race.  These have been possible due to the continued support of members who plan and organise our club league events.  2014 fixtures are now published and thanks go to the members that have volunteered to organise this year's events.  

The club welcomes anyone willing to offer their services in planning and organising. Support will be available to anyone who hasn't planned or organised before and they will be mentored by an experienced planner until such time that they feel comfortable to plan on their own. If you feel you would like to give it a go would you please contact Clive Thomas our Events Organiser.
 

Major Events

The club has been represented at several major events throughout the year, a few are highlighted below;

• The first was the Midland Championships in Sherwood Forest on the 3rd February.  Quite a number of our members were entered, the most notable result was William Thomas in the M12A class who finished 3rd.
• Portugal Orienteering Meeting  9th-12th February Idanha a Nova - This is a fantastic international competition attended by orienteers from all over the world. Several club members attended.  Megan Carter Davies came 1st in the sprint competition. Fay Walsh was placed 2nd in the sprint competition and 2nd in the main competition. The juniors were delighted to meet Thierry Gueorgiou who continued his world class performance with another win. He has won more than 20 gold medals in international competitions and been world champion 7 times.
• Jan Kjellstrom  29th March to 1st April Chilterns Southern England. Megan Carter Davies came 3rd in W18E. Megan Carter Davies, Fay Walsh and Emily Thomas came 2nd in the JK Relay Intermediate Women team. William Thomas, Harry Thomas and Gwenllian Thomas came 4th in the mini relay.

• British Middle Distance Championships 21st April Stanton Moor  Fay Walsh 1st in W16.
• British Long Distance Championships 4th May  Winterfold   Harry Thomas came 2nd in M10A Bill Marlow came 1st on M65S.
• Scottish 6 days 28th July – August 3rd Moray  Many members enjoyed the delights of the Moray coast with some good performances including Megan Carter Davies coming 2nd in W18A on two of the days. 
• The Veterans Home Internationals held at Kelling Heath in Norfolk on Sat 5th October saw two of our veteran  members Mike Kay and Clive Thomas help Wales into second place beating both Scotland and Ireland.

Schools

Each year for the past 3 years Bill Marlow and Terry Smith have planned and organised orienteering cluster competitions for Primary Schools in Powys.  This began as a LAPA funded project  the aim of which was to introduce orienteering into schools with the ultimate objective of encouraging new members in to the club. Since the LAPA funding ran out costs for maps and other materials have been part funded by a small levy being charged to schools. Other than travelling costs the coaching and organisation of these events have been done purely on a voluntary basis.

A schools cluster normally covers about six primary schools and there are six cluster groups in Powys given a total of 36 schools in total. They are run on the basis of a series of coaching exercises in the morning followed by a competition in the afternoon, which involves two courses; white for years 3 and 4 and yellow for years 5 and 6. Help is provided by the 5x60 Officer of the designated cluster area supported some times by six formers from the local high school. Because of the ages involved children are put into pairs and compete as such, the top 10 pairs from each cluster going forward to the County Championships and ultimately the Inter-County Championships held in the Summer.  The competition is organised and planned on the same grounds as would be for a normal club competition with waterproof maps and Sportident equipment.

This year the cluster competitions have varied in attendance from 47 children to 251 with 969 children taking part in total.

The County Championships saw  a further 215 youngsters from both primary and secondary schools taking part competing over 5 courses; white, yellow, orange, long orange and light green.  All competitors received a certificate and the first three from each course received medals.

In total we delivered orienteering experiences to a grand total of 1184 children.

Liaison and co-ordination with schools was through Gareth Oldham (Sports Development Manager) along with his Development Officers for the different cluster groups whose help was invaluable.

In Ceredigion Gabriella Walsh assisted by Eunice Carter and Kate O Sullivan ran an introductory 6 week course for children age 8 – 12 which was attended by 22 children.  Many of the children went on to compete in the Inter- County Championships which they thoroughly enjoyed. Further sessions are planned for 2014 thanks to the Community Chest funding.

Gabriella Walsh with help from Fay and Zoe Walsh ran introductory sessions for 95 pupils in Year 4 and 5 of Plascrug Primary school in Aberystwyth.

Gabriella Walsh ran a Young Leaders course in September for 8 Young Leaders to develop their skills for running orienteering sessions.

The county has also  organised a Young Leaders Training Course to be held in the New Year to help deliver fun and exciting orienteering sessions through the 5x60 officers in the secondary schools in Ceredigion. Alwyn Davies (Active Young People Manager) has been successful in gaining a grant from Matalan to fund this new initiative and has been very supportive in developing orienteering in the county.

Scouts

The first All Wales Scout Orienteering Competition took place on 6th October at the Begwns.  This was organised and planned by Terry Smith who is also the Welsh Scout Council Orienteering Advisor.  There were 50 entries from all over Wales competing over three courses, Yellow, Orange and Light Green. There were medals for the first three individual positions on each course plus a cup for the winning team . As there were insufficient entries from any scout group for the Orange and Light Green courses, it was only the team winners of the Yellow course that received a trophy.  Considering the time of year the weather was excellent, which led to a very enjoyable day.

The feedback we had was very encouraging and hopefully the next event  to be held in 21st September 2014 at Aberedw Rocks will see an increase in numbers.

Juniors

Many of the club juniors are members of the Welsh junior squad and receive excellent coaching from Mark Saunders and Alice Bedwell.

The Yvette Baker Trophy is a competition between the junior members of orienteering clubs in England and Wales. The Yvette Baker Qualifier was held at Headless Hill on the 17th March. We saw our Juniors win and go through to the finals later in the year.  The club juniors came 5th out of 12 teams at the Yvette Baker National competition in Grantham in June.  Three juniors were awarded wins for their categories at this competition; Megan, Emily and Harry.

A number of the older juniors had the opportunity to train with the Welsh Junior Squad on their Sweden tour in August, and were in good form at the Peter Palmer Relays, in Keswick, Cumbria, on 8th Sept.  This unusual race format entails a relay starting at 4.30am, with six legs progressing through the dawn and culminating in a finish before 9.30am and breakfast. The first two legs run in the dark, dependent upon good head torches.  Again, there were teams from all over Britain, demonstrating a keen level of competition between clubs.  Mid Wales Orienteers came in tenth overall, and  won the Norwich trophy for the Small Clubs Competition, for the first time. They also retained the trophy for the Best Welsh Club. Megan Carter-Davies won the medal for being fastest female on her leg, in the dark.

September has been a very busy month. 11 junior members represented their country as members of the Welsh Junior Squad in two key competitions, the Junior Home Internationals, held this year in Brecon on Sept 14th and 15th, and the Junior Inter-Regional Competition, in the New Forest on Sept 28th and 29th. In each of these competitions, teams from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales battle it out over two days of technical and challenging running to reign supreme.  The Welsh Squad took home the Judith Wingham Trophy from the JHIs in Brecon, placing third in the four nations. Megan had a first place in the individual races, and Fay Walsh was third.  At the subsequent JIRCs, the Welsh Squad came fourth out of ten teams, their best result in this competition to date. 

Megan represented Great Britain in the European Junior Orienteering Championships in Portugal at the end of October.  She continues to attend regular British Orienteering training camps as part of the Talent Development Squad.

Joe Thomas was selected for the British Training Camp at Cairngorm this summer.

The club is delighted to be able to provide the juniors with support to help them achieve their orienteering goals. We look forward to continued development of the junior membership of the club it is fantastic to see the club develop and grow and gain recognition in the elite world of orienteering.

Club Acronym & Logo

As of the 1st January 2014 the club acronym  will no longer be POW, the new club acronym will be MWOC to reflect the name of the club Mid Wales Orienteers. The website and all of our master maps will be changed to reflect this, British Orienteering have already changed our name to MWOC. If you are searching on their website for any of our events you will need to look under MWOC not POW.

New kit is now available as shown on our website under the news article Christmas event, if you would like to order one please contact Clive Thomas.

Written and submitted by Terry Smith & Gabriella Walsh

03rd Jan 14  by Terry Smith

Categorized under: News