News (September 2009 - Dec 2010)

The Organiser's comments from the Peel Park Night event are now on the results page, or read them here.

Simon Filmore (LOC) has written an article about the PFO night event which captures the feel of the event very well. You can read it here.

22nd Nov 2010

END OF AN ERA

Members of PFO have been associated with then Karrimor International Mountain Marathon - now the Original Mountain Marathon - since its inception in 1968 by a visionary member, Gerry Charnley.

Since then, club members have assisted at every event throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

Our oldest member - Carole Pilling, has only missed one year since the early 1970's, until 2010 when a hip condition and a long trip to Dartmoor meant that she was unable to attend.

To honour almost forty years of service Carole was invited to the de-brief meeting in Haslingden on Tuesday 16th November where as an honoured guest she was presented with a bouquet of flowers and gift vouchers from the organiser, Jen Longbottom.

During her 'thank you' address, Carole hinted that she may re-appear in 2011 if she could be guaranteed in indoor job.

PFO are maintaining their committment to the OMM in 2011 and anyone wishing to help on October 29th and 30th should get in touch with John Ashton.

If you have a chance to talk to Carole she has many interesting and amusing anecdotes which she will be willing to share.

Jen and Carole

Well done all the PFO juniors who competed at the British Schools Orienteering Champs on Nov 21st.

Top twenty places were earned by:-

Jamie Hoyle B8 (12th)

Benjamin Hoyle B5 (16th)

Joe Wood B13 (17th)

Emily Jesson G11 (19th)

George Turner B7 (19th)

Charlotte Jackson G12 (20th)

Full results are here.

Benjamin ran for Emmanuel Holcombe CofE Primary School; all our other juniors were running for BRGS.

The BRGS Year 10 girls team were 3rd. Well done to them for gaining a podium place. The counters were:-

23 Phoebe Jesson 60:34
24 Heather Cudworth 61:39
29 Eilidh Brailey 78:20

Apologies to Benjamin for leaving him off the list yesterday.

Thanks also to Mr Gray, Mr Willis + Mrs Sellens for taking the BRGS runners to the event and supervising the weekend.

Jack Cryer went to the SYO event at the weekend and looks to have had TWO good runs. He won the orange course and came 4th in the Light Green - not sure which one he did first but well done Jack! Several other PFO members also ran at the event. Full results are here.

23rd Oct 2010.

The first of two October club coaching sessions (Yellow to Lt Green standard) led by Hamish took place today at Tockholes. Eleven people from SELOC and PFO clubnights took part and practised going around a short course using "handrails"; using attack points and they also did a micro course in a small heavily contoured area (this helped them get used to reading and visualising contours and control sites. Thanks to Jim Mitchell for helping with the morning.

17th Oct 2010

Compass Sport Trophy.

Guys .......
The results are up on the SYO website.

Having been in 3rd place for much of the competition, we finally got pipped at the post to a podium place by Interlopers' 13th scorer.

This is our best CST result ever! Well done all - especially our juniors. But commiserations for just missing out on a Bronze. Read more.......

16th Oct 2010.

The organiser's comments from the British Schools Score Champs are now available linked from here.

Also the 2010 AGM minutes and list of new officers - linked from the home page and "About PFO " page.

9th Oct 2010.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

PFO members turned out in force today to host the BSSC event at Witton Park. As
a small club we should take great pride in our ability to put on such a huge
event so successfully. A terrific job well done! Read more ........

Thanks also to John and Maureen for organising the event and putting in so many hours in preparation and on the day to ensure that everything ran smoothly. They did an excellent job!

Kate Willis

25th Sept 2010.

The club champs took place at Thompson Park today. The event was open to everybody but only PFO members were eligible to win prizes. To read the flyer with more information on this and the handicapping table click here. Routegadget is now up + running. Don't forget to add your routes if you have time. It will be interesting to see the routes people chose. If you need help with using routegadget there is more information at the top of the results page.

The new Club Champion is John Ashton. Congratulations to John who won the trophy and unique PFO "Club Champion 2010" mug. He also has the task of planning next years Club Champs!

Read more.......

13th Sept 2010.

PFO won the North West round of the Compass Sport Trophy. Full results (subject to final verification) are on the MEROC website. On the results page click on Club Results (Trophy) and scroll down the page to see the results for the "Trophy" clubs.

The PFO "counters" were as follows:-

Jake Sutcliffe Orange M14- 100
Sophie Horrocks Light Green W18- 100
Chris Mitchell Open 100
Helen Smethurst Green W45+ W20- 98
John Ashton Green M60+ 98
Ben Smith Open 98
Steve Wilson Open 97
David Wallis Light Green M18- 96
Phoebe Jesson Orange W14- 96
Wendy Crawford-Smith Green M75+ W60+ 96
Michael Wilmore Blue M45+ M20- 94
George Crawford-Smith Green M60+ 92
Paul Wright Blue M45+ M20- 91

2nd Sept 2010. PFO and SELOC held a joint training day at Calf Hey, Haslingden on 1st Sept. Ten juniors attended and Hamish, George, Jim and Gillian all helped with the training. The morning session consisted of compass work + "understanding contours." The juniors found this very helpful.

After lunch and an ice cream at the cafe the afternoon session covered relocation and attack points. The day ended with a short competition. The next joint junior training day will be on Monday 25th October (during half term).

Several PFO members attended the Lakes 5 Days in August 2010 - either for the week or occasional days. The club tent was put to good use on a very wet day 2. Several of us the went over to Yorkshire for the the White Rose with some camping and some opting for more solid shelter from the wind that seemed ever present. The PFO feather flew high over the PFO pitches on the campsite and made it easier for the rest of the club members to spot us as they arrived each day. Mark Jesson made the most of the weekend by running two regional events, the sprint race on the Saturday afternoon and the Saturday night score event.

To all the helpers from PFO on Day 1 of the Lakes 5 Days a very big THANKYOU.The event went off very well, with many
compliments, thanks to your efficient organisation, and we set a high standard for the rest of the week. Thank goodness we had such brilliant weather.
Dick Whitworth (Borderliners)

Jamie Hoyle has written the following about the quiz night on his blog - and allowed me to copy it for the website, Thanks Jamie!

On 8th July 2010, 32 people from PFO and SELOC took part in a Quiz Night to raise funds for their respective club nights. After a closely competed 60 questions, the PFO Yorkies won the quiz… However SELOC claimed the raffle!

The Winning Team was…
Jim Mitchell M65
Richard Catlow M60
John Ashton M21 (!)
Gillian Rowan-Wilde W21 (!)

The winning team said…"we were lucky! We were good guessers – right up to Cyprus at the winning end!"

Well done to the Yorkies , who beat the SELOC team on a tie-breaker after both teams finished on 52/60 points.

My team, “anything but the rap!” scored 49 points – not bad!

Thanks to Carole and Gillian who organised the event, Maureen who sold the raffle tickets and Anne in charge of the questions.

Jamie Hoyle.

June 2010. The North West Junior squad including Sophie Horrocks from PFO were victorious at a very hot JIRCS at the weekend in South Wales. Sophie came 9th in the W18s. Full results are on the SWOC website.

Steve Vernon from British Orienteering recently presented PFO with their clubmark certificate at a Club Night in Whitaker Park Rawtenstall. To read the full Rossendale Free Press article click here.

There was a very good turnout of 51 entries for the Hameldon Woods Saturday morning event on 22nd May 2010. Despite the very hot weather 25 people attempted the 4.6 km Light Green course. Mike + David Wallis made the most of the small area and gave us a good course with plenty of changes of direction to keep us on our toes. Eugenio Carvalho won with a time of just over 40 minutes. The registration + SI team were grateful for the partial shade provided by the new club tent. Thanks to Kath Wallis for organising the event and Mike + David for planning. Thanks also to all the other helpers without whom the Saturday morning events couldn't take place. Don't forget to put your routes on Routegadget.

Seven PFO members joined with SELOC members to attend the B.O. Training Day at Graythwaite on 15th May and some then stayed overnight to use their new skills at the LOC event. The training day was organised by B.O. but led by PFO coaches Cath + Steve Wilson and George Crawford-Smith. It was a useful day with several different exercises to try and ended with a clock relay to get everyone into "race mode" before Sunday.

The ones who stayed up in the Lake District were joined by other PFO members for the Pike O Blisco event on the Sunday. After a warm sunny Saturday the Sunday looked less promising with light rain and grey cloud. This cleared by the time most people had walked up to the start (40-60 mins) and the views were spectacular making it well worth the climb. Full results are here. They are in colour classes rather then age groups which makes it a bit more difficult to see people's "true" positions but Alex Willis won his M20(S) class (and the Short Blue as a whole) and Jamie Hoyle came 7th in the Orange with a time of 25.04 at what must be his first regional event.

Congratulations to Sophie Horrocks on selection for the North West team going to the Junior Inter-Regional Championships in Wales at the end of June 2010.

'Welcome to the club' - Jack Cryer(M12) from Todmorden has recently joined PFO and seems to be enjoying the challenge of competing at as many courses as are on offer at the Saturday morning events. He never seems to run out of energy either! He is becoming a regular at the Wed. night training sessions too.
STOP PRESS.........
After his success at Sunnyhurst Woods on 8th May Jack travelled with Jim, Gillian and Helen to EPOC's event at Haw Park on Sunday. He should be extremely proud of his fantastic result - on the Orange course he came 2nd. just 3 seconds behind the winner. EPOC results here. WELL DONE JACK on a super weekend.

Several PFO members travelled down to Devon for the JK 2010. Friday was the sprint event at Bicton attended by the earlier arrivals to Devon. The differing terrains of Cooksworthy Forest + the sand dunes of Braunton then followed on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately we didn't get a relay team together. We did however make an appearance at the prizegiving - to recieve our Clubmark Certificate. Some club members are pictured opposite with the certificate. Results from the event are available here.

Wycoller, the fundraising event for 'Help for Heroes' on 20th March 2010 made just over £80. To read more about the event + PFO members achievments on 21st March click here.

Congratulations to Steve Wilson and John Ashton who both came third in their respective age classes in the RAB Dark and White Mini-Mountain Marathon Series held over the Winter months.

This is a series of 3 hour Score Events held in the Peak District each year.
The final event eventually took place last weekend (7th March), having been postponed twice due to the heavy snow this Winter.
Hopefully, Steve and John will receive a small prize in the post sometime soon!!

The PFO v SELOC bowling challenge finally took place at Pilsworth on Sat 20th Feb 2010.

A good night out - thanks to Carole and Caroline for the planning and organisation.

Mixed results for PFO

SELOC won the "Top Ten Challenge"

with SELOC's top 10 scoring 1018 points to PFO's 916 points.

Hamish won the "Chairman's Challenge" narrowly beating Paul Turner by two points.

Jim Mitchell won the "Seniors"

Top Junior scorer was Simon of SELOC

Highest overall score Eric Burton of SELOC with 158.

North West Night League 2009-2010. The final event was hosted by SELOC at Haslingden Grane in February and the final results table (with an explanation of the scoring) can be seen here.

Steve Wilson won the M19-39 category.Well done Steve! Kate Willis was third in the W40+, Mark Jesson was 5th in the very popular M40+ category.

PFO members seem to enjoy being out in the dark and a total of fourteen PFO members went to at least one event. Mark Jesson and Kate Willis were part of the select group of four that competed at all five events. New members Jamie Hoyle and his mum Debra borrowed head torches and did the orange course at Haslingden Grane - no mean achievment when they've not been orienteering that long. The club night training especially the "mini event" outside in the dark have obviously helped!

Night O stalwarts Tom Gray, Graham Horrocks and Hamish Willis were placed fairly high up in the very popular M40+ group.

Rumour has it that Gillian is now hooked on Night O and will be looking at buying a better head torch ready for next year! Jim however suffered battery failure at the SELOC event and that may have confirmed his often stated aversion to Night O! With Kate + Hamish having upgraded their 20plus year old Petzel zoom torches, Kate moving up to Green at night and Debra + Jamie training at club nights the 2010-2011 Night league could be an even better one for PFO.

The Whitaker Park event on Jan 30th 2010 was featured in the Rossendale Free Press, click here to read the article and see the photo.

January 2010 - PFO have achieved Clubmark Accreditation.

Here is the News item from British Orienteering:-

"Pendle Forest Orienteers (PFO) is the 33rd English club to gain Clubmark accreditation as a mark of their club management and activity programme. As a small club PFO has an excellent programme for their members and in their links with local schools and other community groups in some challenging parts of Lancashire.

Congratulations."

A little more information about Clubmark - from its website :-

"Clubmark is the only national cross sports quality accreditation scheme for clubs with junior sections. It is built around a set of core criteria which ensure that accredited clubs operate to a set of consistent, accepted and adopted minimum operating standards.

Sport England recognises and values the commitment made by sports clubs to develop high quality, welcoming environments for young participants. The development of clubs that encourage young people to take-up sport, improve their talents and give them the option to initiate and maintain life-long participation in sport is an essential part of our work to support the sporting infrastructure in England."

The club AGM was held on 3rd November 2009. For a list of the new committee members including our new Junior Representative + new Coaching + Junior Development Officer see the about page. To read the Minutes of the 2009 AGM look here.

PFO success at the OMM Oct 2009 - click here to read Maureen's report on the PFO competitors + the view from the helpers side.

PFO and SELOC members went to Moss Bank Park in Bolton in October 2009 to help film a short piece about about the sport of orienteering for Channel M (cable TV).
The feature was shown on Channel M. For a direct youtube link :- click here.

Have a look and see if you can spot any familiar faces!

The PFO Club Champs 2009 took place at Peel Park on 19th Sept.Planned by last years winner Chris Mitchell it took the form of a 45 minute score. By starting in the centre of Peel Park at a five way path junction the competitors were immediately scattered and faced some tricky route choices as there was no obvious route around the course.Thanks to Chris and Jim for planning and organising a challenging club champs.