Today should have been the first of our series of summer events. To compensate, inspired by last weekend's Lockdown event, Duncan has planned a virtual course around Southampton on Google Street View with a series of questions to answer as you go. Due to OS licensing, we can't share the orienteering map on the website but, if you drop an email to soc [at] david.currie.name (soc[at]david[dot]currie[dot]name), we'll send you the map and instructions for taking part.

Over the Easter weekend, Duncan and I, along with Rob, Tamsin, the Lights and 500 others took part in the virtual Lockdown Orienteering Championships which proved to be great fun and with proceeds going to a good cause. A full write-up follows but, if you missed out, there's another chance to take part on the 24-26th April, this time with a sprint focus. Details on the website and entries via Fabian4 close on Tuesday.

Lockdown Orienteering was the brainchild of GB orienteer Chris Smithard and, thanks to a heads-up from Rob, Duncan and I managed to get an entry for the Easter competition before the deadline (which closed early due to the explosion in interest for the event).

There were two parts to the competition, the first consisted of eight online challenges, all with an orienteering theme:

1. Friday started with a simple Route Choice Game where you have to pick the shortest route for a leg: left or right around some obstacle. Amazing how something so simple can get the heart racing!
2. Next up was a course on World of O's Running Wild site that Tamsin has previously written a post about.
3. Saturday's first test used Simon Errington's control description site that Kevin has already mentioned. If you don't know your anthill symbol from bare rock, here's a chance to learn!
4. Graham Gristwood had then set a quiz whereby, after a brief glimpse at a control site on a map, you then had to select the photo that matched without referring back to the map. A good exercise in simplification.
5. This was followed by a quiz. Even with access to the internet, I still struggled to answer many of the questions.
6. Sunday brought a fiendish spot the difference competition - comparing two fragments of map under time pressure.
7. There was then a course around Chester where competitors had to make use of Google Streetview to answer a series of questions.
8. The competition ended on Monday with a challenge on a Czech site that allows you to test your TempO skills - attempting to identify which, if any, of the controls in the photo match that shown on the map.

The second part of the competition consisted of four events in the virtual orienteering game Catching Features. We made use of the discount code provided in order to buy a copy at a reduced price but weren't sufficiently practised to enter our results in the competition. It's a surprisingly good test of orienteering skills and, in particular, provides a valuable lesson in not loosing contact with the map! There is a demo version for free or, for something similar that you can just play for free in your web browser, I can recommend The Forest.

The Catching Features competition concluded with a live final that the Currie family watched whilst eating dinner on Monday!

All in all, the competition provided a welcome distraction over the Easter weekend when we would normally have been away at the JK. Emma was sufficiently enthused that she'll be joining us for the next event and I see that Anya and Helen are already on the start list. Why not join us?!

Dear All

I noticed the other day that the London Marathon is due to take place on 4th October this year. So I am hoping that there is at least a chance of the final that we qualified for on that memorable last event on 15th March going ahead. The Final is due to take place at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield on 18th October.

Things we could do:

1. Pencil in the date in our diaries. We will need  a good turnout if we are to have a chance of doing well in the final.

2. Take a look at the routegadget map  of Sutton Park where the event is due to take place and familiarise ourselves with the terrain. 

https://www.od.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#53

3. Take a look at who we are up against and try to work out our chances.

https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/index.php?pg=news_archive&item=5119

4. Start chatting about the event. It will take place at some stage! Has anyone run at Sutton Park and could give us some idea of what it is like there? 

Hope you are all fit and well and enjoying the lovely weather

Best Wishes 

Helen Wheelwright