11th Feb

Club Meal.

There is now an option of:-

a) two courses for £16

b) Chicken goujons or lasagne for the juniors if wished.

Contact Carole for more details.

10th Feb

The LOC event on Sunday has been cancelled more details on their website.

"Lakeland have had to cancel the
Cumbrian Galoppen on Sunday February 12th due to snow & ice on the
north facing approach roads and in the parking field.

The Night event
on February 11th is using limited parking at the bottom of the hill and
is therefore still able to go ahead."

 

22nd Jan

The North West Night league is now half way through and the results so far are in the table here.

Plenty of PFO members have been taking part. At the half way stage Steve Wilson is leading the M 19-39 group. Mark Jesson is 4th in the M40+ group and Hannah Goldswain is 4th in the W18- .

The remaining events are:-

Saturday 28th January 2012 SELOC event:Venue Beacon Country Park, Skelmersdale

Saturday 11th February 2012 LOC event:Venue: Bigland East

Saturday 3rd March 2012 DEE event:Venue: Arrowe Park, Wirral

More details and links on the fixtures page.

16th Jan

Diary Date - Annual Dinner

PFO's Annual Dinner is now arranged for Saturday
February 25th at the Classic Bistro, Shuttleworth Mead, Padiham
7pm for 7.30.

£20 a head

MENU - Choose what you want from the menu for each person and let Carole know - contact details below.

STARTERS
Black pudding, bacon, tomato and potato salad
Garlic Mushrooms toped with Brie
Chicken goujons with sweet chilli dip
Goats cheese salad with walnuts and raisins

MAINS
8oz Rib eye steak, beef tomato and peppercorn sauce
Pork Loin Steak with mustard mash and cider sauce
Salmon wrapped in smoked salmon with prawn & sherry sauce
Wild mushroom stroganoff with wild rice

DESSERTS
White chocolate cheesecake
Stick toffee pudding with toffee sauce
Strawberry and raspberry meringue

To finish - coffee and petit fours

VENUE
Simply Classic Café Bistro, Shuttleworth Mead business park, Padiham. Website with location map.

For travelling instructions phone Carole (01282 618592)
Menu choice and numbers - carole.pilling7@btinternet.com

 

11th Jan

Entries are now open for the British Orienteering Championships 2012
Individual Saturday 5th May
Relay Sunday 6th May

"The British Orienteering Championships Return to the Lake District and offer you an excellent extended weekend of orienteering in early May.

Clubs from across the North West have worked hard to bring you a warm up day near Keswick, an excellent area for the Long Distance Championships in Eskdale a change of terrain type for some fast and furious relays, followed by a complete change of scene for a bank holiday urban race in Kendal.

British Long Distance Championships will feature in the UK Masters Cup, competitors should enter the age-class in which they want to score points."

General Information
Moorland terrain with rock and contour features characterise the upper part of the area and sections of mature woodland make up the rest of the area, mainly on the lower slopes between the open moor and the Eskdale Valley.

There was very little bracken in evidence on the moor in early May 2011 and the woods were quite clear of undergrowth. Conditions are likely to be the same for BOC 2012.

Running is likely to be fast on the open moor unless it is very wet prior to the event in which case the fastest routes will be the ones avoiding the worst of the marshy ground. In the wooded areas care will be needed on the slopes which have areas of rock covered by moss.

For more information see the BOC website.

3rd Jan

Compass Sport Trophy

Steve and Catherine Wilson have taken over as club team co-ordinators, after the super job done by George over the last few years.

Our first round match is on Sunday 19th February, at the Border Liners Askham Fell event, near Pooley Bridge. As always, we need as many club members to take part to make sure we beat BL and SELOC and make it to the final for the 3rd year running.

Full details of the event are on the BL website.

If you are able to run, please could you let Catherine Wilson know by 22nd January (cath.wilson@yahoo.co.uk). We'll then confirm to everyone by 29th January at the latest, which class we'd like you to enter. (For most people, this will be their usual class, but we may ask one or two people to enter a different class to make sure we have enough counters on each course). You'll then have to enter yourself via OEntries (www.oentries.com) before 9th February.

Start times will then be available from 13th Feb.

If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to contact Catherine. Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Cath Wilson

 

22nd Dec

At the Club Night Christmas Party last week around 18 people enjoyed fun + games with mince pies and crisps afterwards. The night centered around a number of team challenges. Games included a word search and map simplification game. There was also a timed computerised jigsaw challenge and an Christmas themed orienteering relay race to finish with.

To watch a video clip from the party please click here.

 

21st Dec

PFO members were out in force at the weekend with Night orienteering at Worden Park in Leyland on Saturday night and the EPOC Royds Hall Woods Sunday morning event.

Notably five juniors from BRGS ran the Orange course at the night event - George, Idrees, Hannah, Lydia + Chloe. Thanks to Tom + Hamish for providing transport and some coaching at the event. Hopefully photo to follow!

The night event results can be found here.

George (who came 3rd on Orange) and Hannah also ran at the EPOC event the following day along with Corrina another BRGS and club night attendee who did very well to come second on the Yellow course at her second orienteering event.

Jack Cryer did very well on the Light Green to gain 4th place - only 14 seconds behind Dave Rose.

Full results from the EPOC event can be found here.

 

21st Dec

Our equipment officer Mike Fairburn is asking for any equipment belonging to the club to be returned to him as he needs to do an updated inventry for the insurers.

If you been involved in any of the PFO events please have a good hunt around your garages sheds etc for any signs, marshal bibs, padlocks and wires, etc. and let Mike know if you have any PFO equipment.

Thank-you.

13th Dec

Congratulation to Charlotte Jackson who passed her UKCC level 1 orienteering coaching qualification this weekend. She already had an Orienteering Young Leader award and regularly helps at BRGS after school orienteering club and PFO club night.

This makes a total of twelve PFO members who have completed a UKCC level one (or level 2) coaching course which is a great achievment for a small club. To be be licensed to coach coaches need to also have a valid CRB check and a valid 1st aid certificate.

12th Dec

There were several PFO runners at the first NW Night League event on Saturday despite the cold and rain. Regulars from previous winters were Steve Wilson + Mark Jesson on Blue and Graham Horrocks + Kathryn Willis on Green.

A newcomer to Night Orienteering on th Orange course was Andy Ellis a Club Night regular attendee +coach. Three year seven BRGS pupils also did the Orange course which is a great achievment especially as they are all new to orienteering.

At the Sunday event PFO helpers were out in force manning car parking, start, SI, registrtion and other such jobs.

Over 90 runners took part in the event which was a great turnout despite the very wet + cold weather conditions.

David Wallis was the top PFO scorer on the Brown course, narrowly beating Paul Targett + Mike Wallis.

On the White course there was a good show of PFO juniors from BRGS and Wednesday Clubnight with Eleanor Ellis winning the White course and her brother William coming 3rd with Jack Smith 4th. The club night training looks to be paying off for these three.

The Yellow course was dominated by PFO runners with Idrees Nazir + Chloe Brotherton returning having also done the Orange course at the previous night event. Max Sutcliffe ran a consistently steady course coming second on the Yellow - fastest junior.

Well done to everyone who took part. It was good to see many of the Club Night and BRGS after school club people competing in both the events.

 

12th Dec

Organiser's comments from the Brun Valley Night Event.

 

North West Night League - first event winter 2011-12.

PFO, Brun Valley Forest Park, 10th December 2011.
The newly designated Brun Valley Forest Park is the product of an agreement between Lancashire County Council and Burnley Borough Council. The area runs from Rowley Lake to Thompson Park downstream along the River Brun corridor.
North of the river the narrow strip of woodland has always been open for public access. LCC and BBC have come together to progressively open new areas for public access, especially the old Rowley Colliery and landfill site south of the river. PFO asked if we might use the new area before public access was granted. The resultant competition area is complex and varied.

Organisers Comments:
This was the first ever event in this newly mapped area. When the area was first identified PFO knew it would make an excellent venue for a night event as the Thornton Arms was on the map!
Organising the event could hardly have been easier. Parking, registration, start, finish and social were all within 100m of each other. A perfect location.
John Aston's courses were praised by all, though it has to be said that finding the finish caused problems for some.
Our thanks are due to LCC and BBC for permissions and to BrightBikeLights for sponsoring the NWNL series. To see these amazingly bright headlights, ideal for orienteering, go to www.brightbikelights.com
I trust you enjoyed your visit. See you next year.
George Crawford-Smith
PFO

 

Planner's comments from the Brun Valley Day Event.

This was the second ever event in this newly mapped area, the first being the night event just 16 hours earlier! Only 6 competitors did both events. Four men, who ran Blue Night followed by Brown Day, had 8 common controls (out of 27) but only one common leg (reversed). I hope that didn't spoil your fun. Overnight, several controls were re-sited to ensure greater variety between the two events.
We were fortunate to be able to use the large car park and site cabin for registration. The fenced industrial plant is extracting methane from the landfill site - a small eco-contribution to our energy needs.
The White and Yellow courses dictated the position of the start to make use of the few line features ending at the car park.
Other courses had free choice of the many features around the area, compromised only by some long running legs to get between areas of technical difficulty.
I am pleased to report that 99% of comments were favourable, competitors enjoying the deciduous woodland and variety - everything from meandering streams to open parkland and contour features to scattered thickets. One control caused difficulty for some. Control 130 (Clearing, E side) was located on a steep spur that proved to be slippery in the conditions. It was correctly positioned on the mapped index contour, but it was not obvious that approaching from above would be easier than approaching from below. To those affected, I apologise.

Our thanks are due to LCC and BBC for access permissions, to Burnley Youth Theatre whose car park you may have traversed as a route choice (you were on camera!) and to Farmer Philipson whose sheep vacated the open field to let us run without hindrance (144 Boulder).
Thanks also to PFO members who turned out to make the event a success: Andrew the gate, Tony + Dave the parking & finish, Carole the banker, Steve + Mike + David + Gillian the computer, Wendy + Shirley + Helen + Kate the start, Kevin +Graham +Mike the marshals, Andy + Gillian the coaches and Kate the web-weaver. Jim Mitchell (controller) and Bill Griffiths (organiser) must also be recognised and thanked for their unstinting efforts to make the event a success.

None of this would have been possible without you, the competitor. By all accounts you enjoyed the slippery challenge. The area justifies more events here in future. We're told that a new bridge will span the main river by the end of 2012, which will increase the planner and competitor's options. The next event here will be when the leaves are on the trees and the river is fordable. Reduced visibility, particularly in the area of scattered thickets, will make navigating much more challenging.
Till the next time ….
George Crawford-Smith - Planner
PFO

For photos of the area with some comments about the sites please click here.

3rd Dec

We still have some Trimtex tops and a few of the Ron Hill T shirts left for sale. George will have these at the Brun Valley events for anyone who wants to try and buy. Ideal Christmas presents!

      

The Ron Hills T shirts are £10 for a junior size - and we have two left (size 9-10yrs).

They are £15 for an adult size - we have one left (adult medium). Cheques or cash to PFO.

 

 

The Trimtex tops are £40. We still have 2 x Medium, 3 x Large, 4 x XL and 1 x XXL. Cheques or cash to PFO.

[Fitting guide: M fits Helen, L fits Gillian & Wendy, XL fits George, XXL fits Mark.]

1st Dec

This year's North West Night League 2011/2012 is being sponsored by BrightBikeLights.
UK importers of the popular high power (900 lumen) LED head torch

 

The North West Orienteering Association are using the prizes of two top-quality headlights donated by the sponsors to encourage more participation and to tempt more 'newcomers' to Night Orienteering.

In typical orienteering fashion they have devised a novel scheme for the awards that rewards turnout as well as success, with an added element of chance thrown in for fun.
A slightly different system is in place for newcomers and lapsed night owls returning to the League, which is, like its daytime equivalent, open to orienteers from all regions and not just NWOA
So if you fancy winning a top-notch headlight and getting some quality night orienteering in over the winter, full details of the event formats and rules can be found on the NWOA website. Also on the flyer (click here).

The list of North West Night League events for your diaries is:

Saturday 10th December 2011 PFO event
Venue: Brun Valley Forest Park, Burnley

Saturday 17th December 2011 SROC event
Venue: Worden Park, Leyland

Saturday 21st January 2012 MDOC event
Venue: Woodbank Park, Stockport

Saturday 28th January 2012 SELOC event
Venue Beacon Country Park, Skelmersdale

Saturday 11th February 2012 LOC event
Venue: Bigland East

Saturday 3rd March 2012 DEE event
Venue: Arrowe Park, Wirral

For more details see appropriate Club website or the NWOA website

 

21st Nov

The Mountain Bike Orienteering in Gisburn Forest hosted by PFO on Saturday 19th Nov was enjoyed by 62 riders. It was a sunny day with good riding conditions. For the results + links to the event report and photos of the event please go to our results page.

Thanks to all the PFO helpers on the day - some were also tempted to ride the courses.

If you've never tried MTB orienteering take a look at the BMBO website - you may be inspired to have a go!

 

North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club - "O" board game

NGOC is again offering the orienteering board game “Forest Challenge” for sale. All profits will be donated to the Woodland Trust. Last year profits were used to help flood victims in Pakistan. Details of the game are attached.

You can buy your copy for £7-50 (please add £1-50 for postage, cheques payable to NGOC)

" The game includes everything you need to "step over the line" - laminated map, kites, punch cards, "Control" cards, "Advantage" cards, instructions, dice, tokens etc;
" Design a different course each time you play by using the moveable control stickers;
" The map sections can be fitted together in different combinations for more variety;
" Choose score or line orienteering;
" Add even more variety by drawing your favourite terrain on the blank map grids supplied.

 

20th Nov

Well done to all the PFO Juniors who travelled to the British Schools Orienteering Championships, held at Beecraigs Country Park, Linlithgow, West Lothian.

More details and a link to the results can be found on the Juniors Page.

 

12th Nov

SLJS South Lancs Junior Squad

The South Lancs Junior Squad is an umbrella name for all the juniors in both PFO (+BRGS) and SELOC. The idea is to encourage juniors and their parents to do additional training and encourage a team like atmosphere amongst our juniors. We hope that this will help some of them reach the North West Junior Squad so that they can represent the region and for others provide a suitable environment for them to continue to enjoy orienteering with their peers until they leave school.
To date we have had regular training days and a week's tour to the Forest of Dean in August 2011. We are hoping to repeat the tour again next August.
I run training days once a month normally on a Sunday so that juniors can come together do some training and get to know each other better. The last training day was at Beacon Fell in October half term when ten juniors came and had a great if somewhat challenging time. The next training day is on Sunday 4th December. More details will follow later on the PFO and SELOC websites and through Teamer.
I am using a free website called Teamer to run the team. You may have received an email asking you to register. This is a secure site which I hope will encourage more juniors to take the opportunity to do more training and keep parents in the picture as all emails go to a parental email address.

If you want any further information please contact me on 07967 318501 or at hamish.willis1@ntlworld.com
Hamish Willis Lead Coach PFO

 

3rd Nov

PFO shows increase in membership between August 2010- August 2011.

PFO’s membership grew by 11 members over this period. There were only two other clubs in the Northwest that grew - SELOC and Warrior, the remainder saw a small reduction in membership.

 

31st Oct

The Chairman's report from the NWOA Annual General Meeting on 22nd October is available to read on the NWOA website -


Bob Roach
Chairman of NWOA

 

18th Oct

There are photos of PFO members at the CST event at Longshaw now in the Gallery. Thanks to Wendy Carlyle for allowing us to put the photos on the website. More of her photos from the event can be found by clicking the link here. Wendy's permission is needed to use any of the photos elsewhere.

17th Oct

By now you may know that we came 7th in the final out of 10 and couldn't top our 4th placing of last year. Truth is we didn't have enough depth across the courses to beat the best. To get on the podium we'd have needed six additional PFO members to score 100 and the bottom six scores to be dropped. Quite an ask.

It turned out to be a very nice day for orienteering with improving weather, good terrain and challenging courses.

A special mention must go to members Chris Mitchell and Stephan Harris who travelled from Edinburgh and London respectively to compete for PFO. Thank you both.

I've distilled a few facts from the results which are in the attached spreadsheet. The club counters are asterisked. Lucy Wilson and Dave Rose were both 3rd PFO finishers on their courses so their score doesn't count while others with lesser scores do count. Baffling, but that's how the rules of the competition work.

I've also totted up the total scoring competitors from each club to see if there is a relationship between team numbers and final position. There isn't! FVO winners had fewer team members than all but 2 clubs near the bottom. It's all about quality!

One final piece of news - I've decided to hand over team co-ordination to someone else in the club for 2012. Confirmation soon. The competition starts with regional qualifiers in January or February so expect to hear from someone new.

George Crawford-Smith
PFO Team Co-ordinator for CST.

Full results from the event can be found here.

8th Oct

At the AIRE Dales Trophy weekend Jack Cryer came 1st in the Orange by a long way and has been sent a Medal for his efforts. Congratulations to Jack. Full results are here.

 

23rd Sept.

Peter Palmer Relays 10th/11th Sept 2011.

PFO and SELOC junior orienteers took part in the Peter Palmer Junior Relays, held in Beacon Barracks MOD Stafford. 24 Teams of 6 runners ran a combined distance of over 30km - with the mass start for the first leg runners at 4.45 am! The first two legs were run in darkness with the orienteers using head torches to find their way round the course. By joining forces with Juniors from SELOC, another local club, we had sufficient runners for two teams.Jamie Hoyle (Y9) and Dominic Walton (Y13) set off on the first leg. The course was set in a way that prevented following and at the spectator control Jamie had taken a short lead over Dominic. At the changeover however, it was Dominic in front with the team in 4th place in the small clubs competition. A disqualification by the Welsh team ERYRI on the next leg moved our overall position to 3rd with Alex Holland (Y10) running in his first ever night leg. Jack Cryer had a great night leg, pulling his team up five places, and handing over to Therese Thetford at the same time as another Welsh team POWhanded over to their third leg runner.

 

 

We were now neck and neck for second place and the race was hotting up! At the next two change overs, Emily Jesson (Y12) handed on to Ross Smith and Harry Anderton, whilst Therese handed over to Ben Comer and younger brother Joel Thetford. It all came down to the last leg, the longest by far at 7.2km. Charlotte Jackson (Y13) set off for our A team, whilst Phoebe Jesson(Y10) set off for the B Team. By the second spectator control Charlotte had built up a substantial lead over Phoebe but with tiredness setting in, Charlotte unfortunately mis-punched a control near to the end which disqualified the team. All Phoebe had to do now was finish the course and with superhuman effort, she did just that. The eventual winners of the small clubs category were MAROC who had come all the way from inverness. POW managed to pull away after the third leg to finish in 2nd but Phoebe's determination awarded our B team a credible 3rd place.
A massive well done to all the orienteers who took part and a big thank you to Gillian Rowan-Wilde (PFO) and Dean Thetford (SELOC) for helping out with the teams during the weekend.

Tom Gray.

 

 

20th Sept.

If you are interested in knowing more about the North West Junior Squad(NWJS) and what they get up to you can read their newsletter here.

 

20th Sept.

Welcome to new PFO members Max and Ella Cole. They have already competed at the Calf Hey event and we look forward to seeing them at many other events and PFO socials/evening training.

 

9th Sept

PFO's first event of the "autumn term" takes place tomorrow at Calf Hey, Haslingden. More details are on the fixtures page. There will be a full range of courses White to Green. The white and yellow courses are suitable for younger children and beginners although adult beginners with some experience of map reading may like to try the orange course which is slightly longer and harder.

This event is suitable for families with short easy courses on paths around the reservior. If you want more information please contact Hamish by e mail or on 07967318501. Coaching help and advice will be available for anyone who needs it - either to get statred or to try moving on to a harder course.

 

8th Sept.

Jamie Hoyle's write up about the Junior Tour.

On the 15th of August 2011, a group of PFO and SELOC junior club members set off from Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School southbound for the Forest of Dean, where we would do a series of exercises - some relating to orienteering, some definitely not!

One of the best orienteering experiences of the week was the night event (in the evening, funnily enough) round the castle, using EMIT cards that very few of us had ever encountered before. Our team sort-of won it (there was a heated debate about the results!) and it was a lot of fun - it put me in the mood for the Peter Palmer Relays, although I may be running *slightly* earlier than 7:30PM! Also, I really enjoyed the final day where we put the new skills we learnt and the existing skills we improved (like compasss-work, pacing, route choice and map simplification) into action.

On the non-orienteering side of things, the entertainment in the evening was great too. A highlight for me was Ye Olde Traditionale Medieval Banquet where we were given no cutlery but lots of meat to eat - which was a shame for Dom who is a vegetarian! He got an alternative meal and the luxury of cutlery... lucky fellow! We managed fine with the beef and the whole chicken but things got interesting when they brought out mashed swede... and got even worse when they brought out the dessert - stewed fruit and custard!

All in all, it was a great experience and I would like to thank everyone who put in effort to help make the trip what it was, and I hope a similar event is organised next year!

Jamie Hoyle

 

27th August.

This summer PFO and SELOC had a joint junior tour to the Forest of Dean. Below is the write up from Hamish.

On the 15th August this year seven juniors and five adults travelled to St. Briavels Youth hostel in the Forest of Dean for the first PFO/SELOC Junior Tour. The idea for the tour had come about following a conversation with Ed Nicholas when I had pointed out that unless a junior was very good and selected for a regional squad they are likely to never have the experience of going away on a tour and do some higher level orienteering training.

I therefore decided that we would have our own tour somewhere where the orienteering would be challenging and different. Having been to a JK in the Forest of Dean I decided that that would be an interesting area to train in. It was terrain that we wouldn’t normally visit to train in but not too far for the mini bus driver!

The Youth Hostel at St Briavels castle was recommended to me as a place to with character and it certainly added interest to the trip. The hostel staff were very accommodating and we were able to use the chapel (which acts as a classroom) during the evenings. The selection of accommodation was interesting with the females in the group being sent to the prison and the men sleeping in the Staterooms. The boys were in the porter’s lodge well away from the rest of us (I wonder why!).

My biggest problem was what to do on tour as I had never been on one. I had some ideas as a coach but I also enlisted the help of Pauline Olivant who has many years experience with the East Midlands Junior Squad.

Then came the tricky task of armchair planning as I didn’t have the time to go down and check out the areas. There were four coaches on the trip including myself three of whom had just passed their UKCC L1 although Tom Gray, has been coaching in a school for many years and has to be credited with getting me into orienteering and coaching. I divided up the days pairing two of the coaches up and giving myself and Tom a day each.

In the evenings different coaches led theory sessions and games such as Pictionary and Charades using orienteering terms. Preparation was also carried out by the young people for the next day’s training, for example they were given a simplification exercise where they had to draw a simplified map of the next day’s route to use as their only map. This exercise was one the juniors really enjoyed.

The week was broken up by a medieval banquet which required everyone to eat their meal with their hands providing much merriment particularly when it came to stewed apple and custard. The training was finished off on the final night with a night relay around the small castle grounds. This was planned by Tom and was both fun and important training for the Peter Palmer Relays.

At the beginning of the week each junior was asked to evaluate their ability to use various skills and techniques on a pre prepared form. This was then revisited at the end of the week during a one to one meeting. I am pleased to say that all the juniors felt that they had improved their application of several skills and they all felt that their orienteering had benefited from the training. They all enjoyed the experience and had had fun. The coaches also enjoyed running sessions out in forests rather than in a park or at club night.

Thanks must go to BRGS a local school for the loan of their mini bus and also to all the coaches for their hard work, enthusiasm and support.
Hamish

Photos from the tour can now be viewed via the Gallery.

27th August.

Congartulations to Andy Ellis, Debra Hoyle, Tom Gray, Gillian Rowan-Wilde and Rebecca Willis who all passed their UKCC level 1 coaching orienteering this summer. They will help with coaching at Club Night, junior training etc. Tom, Gillian and Rebecca have already been helping on this summer's junior tour.

9th August

Several PFO members travelled to Oban for this year's Scottish 6 Days. Dave Rose (4th) and Cath Wilson (9th) both finished in the top 10 of their class when the best four scores from the six days were calculated. As Cath only competed in four days this was an especially good result for her!

Also juniors Jack Cryer and Lewis Robinson both did very well at their first major multiday event - both coming in the top 45% of their classes with their 4 best scores.

Full results are on the Oban2011 website. If you have any photos we can use for the website please send them to Kate Willis.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves competing on the varied Scottish terrain. There were also various evening socials with two ceilidhs a blues music night and quiz night (to name a few) for anyone with energy left to spare at the end of the day. Various rest day activities included Mountain Bike Orienteering a sprint race, sea kayaking or a train ride to Mallaig over the Glenfinnan viaduct.

The next Scottish 6 days will be Moray2013 . Next year will be Croeso 2012 - 6 days of orienteering in Wales.

 

16th July

The Trimtex PFO club tops have now arrived! Amazingly the landed price has enabled us to sell these at the same price they were 4 or 5 years ago! £40 to club members.

Sizes available Medium, Large, XL, XXL. They are tight to size so you'll need a larger size than you expect.

It would be great to see all active club members wearing our club top at events, especially if you will be running in the Compass Sport Trophy final on 16th October at Longshaw near Chesterfield. One for the diary.

Contact George if you'd like to buy one!

10th July

Congratulations to Gillian for her good results at the WMOC in Hungary - World Masters. The very top level of
orienteering.
Although she was not an outright winner she did have some fastest legs on a couple of controls and on the run in. I would have loved to have been there cheering her on! Well done Gillian. Full results are on the WMOC website.

Maureen

It seems to have been a very hot week out there as well. Hopefully Gillian will be able to tell us more once she's back in the UK.

10th July

Photos from the Club Champs are now linked from the gallery. Also the results have been updated as somehow George lost all his points in the last set!

 

4th July

PFO Club championship report.

The sun shone all day and there were a lot of favourable comments so Maureen and I were pleased that the effort that we had put in was worth it.

We would like to thank several people for the help that they gave to make the event happen; in chronological order they were:-

George and Bill for obtaining permission,
Blackburn and Darwen for letting us use the park,
Cath for 'controlling' the yellow course
Steve and Cath for printing the map,
Mike Fairburn for gathering together all the equipment
Steve for doing the SI
Jim and Steve for bringing in the controls at the end.

It was good to see that the top ten was a good mix of adults and junior males and females and reflected the diversity of our club. Read more......

11th June

Summer evening events are now underway. Neighbouring clubs have a variety of events on offer. SROC are running a Summer Sprint Series through May, June and July and a Preston Summer Street League in June.

Each Sprint Series race will take the form of a prologue with start times 6.30-7pm followed soon after by head to head racing in a reverse-order final with the fastest from the prologue starting last in the final.

The Street League will be a Score event with a choice of 40,60 or 75 minutes. Starts 6.30-7.30pm.

Full details of both of these series will be on the SROC website.

MDOC and DEE also hold a series of Summer Evening events from April to July. Registration from 17.30 Start times 18.00-19.15. Fees £4.00 senior and £2.00 juniors
All events have courses suitable for novices and for experienced orienteers.They are usually colour coded with courses rom White to Blue but please check the details of each event nearer the time. Full dates + some details on their flyer.

 

18th May

'Peel Park Primary School Orienteering Festival'

On Wednesday May 18th a number of primary schoosl took part in an Orienteering Festival. In the morning years 3/4 went to the coppice and orienteered around a course just over 1km long. It was impressive to see that only one team mispunched. Huncoat school put in an excellent performance having four teams in the top six. There were some of us who were wondering if they had been secretly training but we were assured by their teacher that they hadn't done any. I was impressed to see how enthusiastic the children were despite the wet conditions.

In the afternoon it was the turn of years 5/6. Here the orienteering that Peel Park school do in class paid off with them getting the top three places with only a minute and ten seconds separating the top three. The winning pair did an impressive time of 9 minutes and 41 seconds.

Over all the honors were fairly well spread out between all the schools over the two sessions. A big thank to all the helpers and staff who made the day possible and a big well done to the young leaders for Accrington Academy for their help in making sure no one got lost on the course.

If you have any questions about orienteering please feel free to contact me on 07967 318501.

Hamish Willis Community Orienteering Coach for British Orienteering

15th May

Staghills Event Sunday 15th May.

This event must have been held on the coldest and wettest day we have had for the last few months. Thanks to everyone who turned out for a run. We hope you enjoyed yourselves despite the weather. The event was planned and organised by the PFO Rossendale Club Night. A large proportion of the Club Night attendees are relatively new to orienteering and hadn't been involved in the "behind the scenes" part of orienteering before.It was a chance for them to get involved with planning courses and organising an event.

They all helped either with planning, catering , running the start and finish etc. The younger children made posters which were put in in most of the local junior schools. This aspect went very well with members of club night working extremely well as a team.

Club Nights are there to introduce new people to orienteering and as such we need to continually encourage people to come and have a go at orienteering and find out what it is all about.
Due to the appalling weather there was a low turn out on the day which hopefully won't put everyone at club Night planning and organising a similar event another time (probably in 2012!)

PFO look forward to seeing you all at the Wycoller event on Sat 4th June when all todays helpers planners and organisers will be able to have a relaxed run (and there's a good cafe in the village as well).

 

10th May

Good luck to all PFO members travelling to Wharncliffe for the British champs this weekend.

We may be just a small club but we will probably have the furthest travelled competitor at the event. All the way home from Australia our very own Jon Sutcliffe competing on M21E. Very impressive, as he is at least an M45!!

Crazy man or super fit man? Either one, have a good 'un Jon.

Maybe we will be as successful as at the JK and come home with some very impressive results.
Sincere congratulations must go to Chris Mitchell who won M21 long with a very comfortable margin. I am very pleased for you Chris, a well deserved result.

Other notable results - finishing in the top 10 positions - came from: John Ashton on M60 short, finishing in runner up spot, he was quite relieved not to have to go to any prize giving ceremony. Read more...........

 

8th May

More details about the Junior Tour this summer (plus an application form) are now on the Junior's Page.

 

8th May

Junior / Club Night training

Seven juniors and two seniors from PFO and SELOC attended the junior training session at Calf Hey today. We did two exercises, Relocation and Control Flow. Relocation was an exercise done in pairs. One person had the map at a time and handed it other to their partner once they reached a point within a designated area on the map. Ben and Harry had fun with the Relocation drills trying to totally disorientate each other by not taking the most direct route to the next control.
"Control Flow" consisted of a short course where the aim was never to totally stop. The idea was to visualize the control you were going to then; whilst on route, plan the exit route from the control as well as the route to the next control. This can prove challenging if you are used to stopping at each control as you get there. People found it a helpful exercise to try but it is something that needs continual practise and it is something we will re-visit on later training sessions.
The two hour session was at the new starting time of 2pm which allowed people to attend other commitments first.
If you would like to know more about the Junior training and Club night sessions please feel free to contact me :-Hamish.willis1@ntlworld.com; 07967318501.

 

19th April

On Saturday 16th April nine PFO + SELOC orienteers took advantage of the B.O. coaching day in the Lake District. Hamish Willis + Paul Atherton were the coaches. The day started with checking paces over both flat ground + hills. Then the less experienced juniors went with Dave for a map walk to study contours in a very technical forest. The others did a variety of window + corridor courses designed to improve both fine compass work + distance calculation. Later in the day some of the group went on to practise visualisation + control flow. It was a useful day helped by ideal weather conditions and wonderful views of Coniston Old Man.

19th April

BARNOLDSWICK TOWN & COUNTRY SCORE ORIENTEERING EVENT 16th April 2011
Start and finish at West Craven Leisure Centre, Barnoldswick.

If you are reading this and you weren't there, you missed a belter! Warm sunshine, dry underfoot and overhead, but with a cooling breeze. Perfect running conditions!

Whilst the turnout was small, the competition was intense with some excellent scores. A lot of ground was covered and every control was visited by some competitors. The only downside for competitors was lack of time to stop and admire the views. Many of the controls were sited where the views are best - Letcliffe, Folly Lane, Weets, Duck Pond, Copy Nook and others. I believe the view from Weets is better than the view from Pendle!

In the 120 minute course Steve Lang of MDOC crossed the finish line with only 5 seconds to spare and a score of 415 points before penalty points would have begun racking up. He edged out Adrian Pickles of AIRE & Settle who scored more but took a tumble on penalties, finishing with 370 points. Adrian admits that he got 'lost' in the streets of Barlick. One lady helpfully pointed out that this was Manchester Road. Third place went to Jackie and Phil Scarfe EPOC who ran as a team notching up 360 points whilst keeping to the lower slopes and easier running. First local was John Ashton PFO with 315 points.

A special mention should be given to Roger Slater of JOK who travelled from Sheffield to take part. His reason for the long journey? He was born and raised in Barnoldswick, but hasn't lived here for 30 years, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to run on his home territory. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience. For my part, if Roger had been the only competitor, it would have all been worth the time and effort of putting on the event.

Read more......

To view All the photos from the event click on the link. (Click on each photo to read the comments.)

 

A few selected photos.......

     

 

 

     

5th April

TD 4/5 Training Day at Tockholes.

This took place on Saturday 2nd April. Twelve SELOC + PFO members took part in exercises led by Hamish + planned by Cath Wilson.

In the morning we practised visualisation, rough compass and route choice. There was also the option of trying with a "brown + blue only " map ie no paths or vegetation on the map. This meant having to concentrate on the contour detail and streams+ marshes for navigating between the controls.

After a lunch break we paired up to put out controlsfor our partners in an area with a lot of contour detail. This proved quite tricky as there was no control to confirm the position and partners would be swapping over to find + check each other's controls. The session ended with a short relay race to add some "race pressure" at the end of the day.

There will hopefully be a similar session at Peel Park on 18th June - watch out for further details.

5th April

Jim has written an article about the role of a controller and what is involved. It's quite a bit more than you may think! It is linked from the "About" page. But you can also read it here.

"In my role as controller for PFO club events I thought it might be useful to write a short article explaining the controller's job.BOF, surprisingly, has very little to say on the matter, obviously leaving it to qualified controllers to apply in practice the theoretical information learned at qualifying courses and conferences.

However, what is certain, and not universally appreciated, is that a controller has overall responsibility for all aspects of an event, from the initial pre-event information to the publication of final results, and can even insist an event be cancelled if he/she is not satisfied with the pre-event organisation!

In essence, however, the controller is principally responsible for the standard of the courses, for working closely with the planner with respect to their suitability as regards length, climb and degree of difficulty, for checking the accuracy of the control descriptions, for checking the correct positioning of the controls on the day of the event, and for checking that the results are correct before publication. Many controllers fail to ensure that the colour standards for each course are included in final results. I think this should always be done, especially (but not exclusively)for the encouragement of juniors.

And that, in a nutshell, is all there is to it! I could say more on the topic and 'flesh out’, as it were, the bare bones of what I have outlined. However, if you would like any more information, you know where to find me at club events. I’m usually manning the start!

Jim Mitchell."

31st March

SI training started at Club Night this week. Steve Wilson covered loading courses + entries. It will continue next Wed 6th April when there will be a recap of last week and then covering "download". If you are able to come please let Hamish know. If you would like to learn about SI to help at events but are unable to attend then again contact Hamish to see if another session can be arranged.

27th March

PFO/SELOC Junior Training Day Tockholes 27/3/11

Another excellent training day was held at Tockholes today, with 23 of us taking part, the largest session yet. This time we practiced compass bearings on the move, relocation, and route choice with a three leg relay to finish.

The training proved challenging to most of the participants with different courses for different abilities. All agreed that they had learnt something, although they did find it hard to stop trying to compete and focus on the technique they were meant to be practising.

I would like to thank everyone for turning up and especially Dave, Jim and Mark for their help with the coaching.

The Relay results are below with some surprises:-

1st were Jake, Jamie and Debra 24.48 (mins.secs)

2nd Lucy, Harry and Ben 29.14 (mins.secs)

3rd Mark, Chloe and James 31.47 (mins.secs)

Jim, Paul and Jack mp 22.20 (mins.secs)

George, Charlotte and Andrew mp 33.39 (mins.secs)

The next SELOC/PFO training day will be 9th Apri. All welcome (Yellow to Lt Green Standard again). Please let me know if you are able to come so I can print enough maps and have enough coaches available.

Well done everyone.
Hamish

 

24th March

Hi All,

We are going to run some basic Si training at club nights on the 30th March and possibly 6th April. This is to increase the number of volunteers who can run Download at our events. At the moment there are only three of us actively doing it (usually Gillian) which is not enough, especially if people are also going to have a run at the event.

The training will train you to put on entries and run download. We are not asking people to be come experts or solve major problems on the day as there will be some form of back up at every event, from either Gillian, Steve Wilson or myself.

Please can you contact me ASAP if you are interested.

Regards, Hamish

24th March

There will be a joint PFO + SELOC training day at Tockholes on Sat 2nd April. This will be TD 4/5 (Lt Green/Green).This a training day for adults or juniors already at TD4 and TD5. The day is open to all PFO members or Club night attendees.We will meet at the southern car park at 10.30am and finish at 3pm. This will not be suitable for inexperienced juniors/adults, it is designed to help develop the more experienced junior or adult who wants to orienteer at TD5.

The day will be led by Hamish with the exercises planned by Cath Wilson.

Bring a drink and a packed lunch. Please make sure you bring warm and waterproof clothing. Contact Hamish, for more information and to book your place (maps!). e mail hamish.willis1@ntlworld.com . For location map click here.

No charge for the day but there is a £1.00 parking charge for the car park for the day.

A rough outline for the days is as follow. Morning - Southern car park. Exercises with longer legs aimed at practising visualisation, rough compass and route choice (geared towards JK Day 1)

Have lunch stop at pub car park.
pm - some short exercises based in the flattish area to the SW of the reservoir, using the finer contour detail. Aimed at practising contour interpretation and visualisation (geared towards the sand dune area of the JK)... with possibly a fun exercise at the end to simulate relays!'

 

22nd March

Don't forget the Junior Training day shared by PFO and SELOC (members and non members) on the 27th March at Tockholes. This is open to everyone including parents and have proved very popular with everyone who has attended previous days. If you have not attended before that doesn't matter.

It will take place between 11am and 3.30pm. The training will be broad based and suitable for all abilities. Later sessions will become more focused as the squad progresses.

Please let me know if you are coming so that I can print the right number of maps. If you have any questions please email or phone me on 07967 318501.

Regards

Hamish

15th March

Summer evening events may seem a long way away at the moment but the clocks change at the end of March and then the midweek evening events start. Neighbouring clubs have a variety of events on offer. SROC are running a Summer Sprint Series through May, June and July and a Preston Summer Street League in June.

Each Sprint Series race will take the form of a prologue with start times 6.30-7pm followed soon after by head to head racing in a reverse-order final with the fastest from the prologue starting last in the final.

The Street League will be a Score event with a choice of 40,60 or 75 minutes. Starts 6.30-7.30pm.

Full details of both of these series will be on the SROC website.

MDOC and DEE also hold a series of Summer Evening events from April to July. Registration from 17.30 Start times 18.00-19.15. Fees £4.00 senior and £2.00 juniors
All events have courses suitable for novices and for experienced orienteers.They are usually colour coded with courses rom White to Blue but please check the details of each event nearer the time. Full dates + some details on their flyer.

In May MDOC also hold a series of introductory events at Lyme Park south of Stockport. You can arrive anytime between 5.30pm and 7.00pm. Finish by 8.00 p.m. Entry to the park and parking are free after 4.30pm. In other years there have been a range of courses from White to Lt Green. More details on their Lyme Park flyer.

14th March

Pictures from the Feb training Day + recent photos from Clubnight can now be seen via the gallery.

8th March

Alkincoates Park Event

Thirty six Orienteers braved the cold on Saturday to orienteer round Alkincoats Park and the surrounding countryside. From first timers to experienced long distance runners everyone found the courses enjoyable but challenging. For those wanting a longer run we introduced "Trail Runs" starting in the park and then continuing in and around the local countryside and Foulridge reservoir using navigation along footpaths, minor roads and a disused railway. On the longer courses this created the novel experience of using both an orienteering map then an ordnance survey map on the same course. This proved a challenge for a number of people as the maps are very different.
Several people who had attended the Marsden Park event came back to try out the different courses in Alkincoates and hopefully enjoyed them. Some came for the first time and hopefully will come to more PFO events in the future.
Some routes are on Route gadget already, if you haven't looked at this it's quite easy to do so have a go at putting your own route on. If you are struggling e mail Kate Willis for some help.

Thanks to Tom Gray for planning the courses and to all the helpers on the day.

You may have seen some photographers at the event, they were from www.whiteflyerphotography.com

Some of the photos they took are here :-

 

     

;              

3rd March

Danny Hoyle of PFO and BRGS fame is running the Edinburgh Half Marathon on 10th April. Danny was a member of PFO for many years and designed and set up the current website. Although he is now away studying at Mattersey College he still gives help and website advice when needed. Please sponsor him if you feel able to.........

"This April I am running a half Marathon to raise money to support myself to do mission work in Uganda this summer. If anybody would like to sponsor me for my efforts, please don't hesitate to get in touch either via facebook or e-mail (dhoyle@mriuk.org.uk). All donations are greatly appreciated."

23rd Feb

Relay results from the training day can be found here.

Some photos are now linked from the Gallery.

 

22nd Feb

The joint PFO and SELOC training day took place at Tockholes today. Seventeen juniors and adults took part in the exercises planned by Cath Wilson and led by Hamish with several helpers on the day.

The exercises included attack points, control picking and aiming off. The day finished with a relay race won by the Seddon family. Everyone had an enjoyable day and the hot chocolate served from the new PFO giant flask was much appreciated by the juniors.

The next PFO/SELOC training day is on Sunday 27th March. This will be organised in a similar way and will be the start of junior squad training. Parents are also welcome to take part (up to Lt Green standard). For more information read the flyer.....

There will also be a PFO training day on Sat 2nd April. This will be TD 4/5 (Lt Green/Green).

For more information see fixtures page.

Thanks to Cath for the planning and Jim, Tom, Caroline Barcham (SELOC), Charlotte and Lucy for all their help on the day.

Hamish

12th Feb

Eighteen PFO members enjoyed an excellent meal tonight. Thanks to Carole for ogranising and booking it. We look forward to the next PFO social event.

12th Feb.

Well done to everybody who orienteered at Whitaker Park today. We hope you all enjoyed the courses. Thanks to Steve and Cath for planning them. The next event will be in March at Alkincoates Park. There will be White and Yellow courses similar to today's.There will also be an Orange course which is a bit harder and longer, plus two trail runs.

More photos from Whitaker Park linked from the Gallery.

    

 

7th Feb

The Provisional North West Night League results are now on the NWOA website.

"Congratulations to the Winners of the 6 classes and as usual their prize is the proof and knowledge that they were better than the rest.

M18- AlexMcCann MDOC
M19-39 Steve Wilson PFO
M40+ Mark Seddon SELOC

W18- Katrin Harding SROC
W19-39 Heather Gardner EBOR
W40+ Karen Nash SROC

Thanks to all the organisers and planners and finally thanks to the record 230 different competitors and even though SROC hosted the Northen Nights to boost the average attendance to 46 there were no events with less than 35 competitors. Five years ago no events reached 30 competitors. So keep encouraging everyone for next season.

Thanks
Chris Rostron (coordinator)"

Congratulations to Steve Wilson winner of his M19-39 class. Jamie Hoyle and Kate Willis both came 4th in their classes (M18-) and (W40+) and Jamie and Kate along with Hamish Willis (and Jamie's shadow -mum Debra) were amongst only eight competitors who attended all five events.

The next North West night league should start in Nov 2011 and if you'd like to have a go speak to the PFO night league regulars; both those mentioned above and Tom Gray, Mark Jesson + Graham Horrocks. You can do the event alone or as a pair or with a (non helping) shadow. There are people in the club with spare head torches you can borrow until you get hooked and want to buy your own.

2nd Feb

Pendle Forest Orienteers go to Delamere Forest for the North West league.

On Sunday 31st Jan around twenty members of PFO were among nearly five hundred Orienteers who took part in one of the new North West League events. This is an individual competition based on best results from a number of events over the year. The day was bright but cold; ideal orienteering conditions. The Forest provides good orienteering country with large areas of forest being what we call 'runable' that is you can run through the forest off the paths without too much hindrance from the undergrowth of brambles or bracken. There is also a good path network for beginners and younger competitors to follow.
Again we had a strong contingent for Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar school who provided eight competitors read more ..............

 

 

     

 

31st Jan

There was a report in the Rossendale Free Press about the PFO's success in the Compass Sport Trophy. You can read it here.

Watergrove CST Jan 2011

 

24th Jan

Well done to everybody who competed at the Marsden Park event. We hope all the newcomers enjoyed it and will come to the Whitaker Park event in Rawtenstall on Feb 12th. More details are on the fixtures page.

The regular orienteers seemed to enjoy the hybrid score course. The top three places on the 35 min score were very closely fought but Jack Cryer had the fastest time just ahead of Jamie Hoyle and George. Only these three managed to get all the controls within the time limit although a few others came close.

Jack went on to win the Orange Course at Marsden Moor on the Sunday and Jamie did a NW night league course on the Saturday night. well done the pair of you! Several other PFO members also ran at Marsden Moor. The other noteable run was by Gillian Rowan-Wilde who won the Short Green - only a week after coming 4th on the Short Green course at Watergrove. Full results from Marsden Moor are on the EPOC website.

24th Jan

It now looks as though the Compass Sport Trophy results are final and PFO are through to the final on October 16th ! Well done everyone who took part especially those who helped us towards the final total. Congratulations should be shared equally amongst all those who scored 92 points although not all of those counted in the final tally.

A well earned Club Dinner can be enjoyed by all on 12th Feb. Don't forget to let Carole know if you are going.

George.

 

For news items from September 2009 - Dec 2010 click here.