Oxford University Orienteering Club

Bubble and Squeak

Trinity Term Week 3

6.34pm, Saturday 13th May 2006

Hi Everybody,

I've finally been convinced that the most important event of the week is not the pub meet, as I alleged at the 2005 AGM, but orienteering itself. So I thought I'd send out my nuggets of wisdom today given that we've been racing on a Saturday for a change.

I was overwhelmed by the turnout for cuppers today: whilst records are somewhat sketchy, I don't think there have been as many people at a cuppers event since I was in nappies. Wadham relinquished their brief hold on the cuppers trophy to New College, and Chris M narrowly won the men's race after Joe Mercer slipped up on a gaffled control. In the women's race, Helen Gardner had a decisive ten percent lead over her nearest competitor. Our fastest novices were both from New College: congratulations are due to Anair Beverly and Finbar Williams. Full results here.

It's also important to thank the people without whom cuppers would have been a non-event: Kat Asker who planned the course, Timmeo, Cerys and Ian who hung the controls, Benjamin, Ian and Chris W for manning the start, and Scott for getting the results on the website within minutes of the race finishing. Massive thanks to all of you - you really made a great difference!

Still thinking about orienteering successes, we had the first of the Summer Series races at Shotover earlier this week. Several people showed great form, with Joe, Chris M, Kat O and Ove Oksvold, our visiting Swede, sneaking into the top ten finishing positions. We also saw two very creditable performances from relative novices Henry Martin and David Johnson, who showed up and ran well despite the infamous "Curse of Shotover".

Away from the true orienteering activity there was the Annual Dinner, where most people only got lost while we changed places between courses. I think all will agree with me in saying that this was a truly amazing evening, and that we should be genuinely grateful to Steve Fisher for organising it. Few Oxford societies can have a Senior Member who's prepared to take twenty students into his SCR for a night of good food and plentiful wine in the way that he did! (Oh, and Steve now has your cheques so they will be cashed very shortly. Be warned!)

The next week brings a plethora of Good Things once again. Tuesday will showcase Kat O's planning at the Summer Series in Youlbury. This is within cycling distance of Oxford and we'll be leaving Carfax at 6:15.

Training is making a comeback. Joe has taken on the role of training officer with gusto, and things are looking good for us at the moment. Core session of the week is still Club Run - where we turn out to run at the pace of the slowest: there's a cross-country session straight afterwards for those who want to run eyeballs-out!

Word on the street is that Cerys is planning a barbecue this Wednesday, and then next Weekend we have the British Sprints in Milton Keynes, and a World Ranking Event at Rowney Warren followed by a joint social with the Cambridge Orienteers. It's going to be a good week. Again.

Right, that's it. Best wishes to Kat and Kat who are in New York and Melbourne respectively, and thoroughly deserve to be jet-lagged for missing cuppers. See you at the second most important event of the week in Chequers at 8:30 tomorrow!

SGB
OUOC President 2006-7