SOUTH EAST LANCASHIRE

ORIENTEERING CLUB


INFORMATION PACK

and

MEMBERSHIP

APPLICATION FORM

INFORMATION SHEET

Thank you for contacting SELOC. Information on orienteering and on some forthcoming events is enclosed. You are welcome to try a few events before joining the club.

SELOC is one of the oldest established clubs in the sport. It was formed in 1966 and was a founder member of the NorthWest Orienteering Association (NWOA) which, in turn, is a member of the British Orienteering Federation (BOF). SELOC members generally live in North Manchester in the Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham areas. Members cover the whole range of age and abilities from dedicated sportsmen and women to recreational orienteers.

The sport is almost entirely an amateur one. All orienteering clubs plan and organise events which are run by their members and financed by the entry fees of the individual competitors. Most large orienteering events take place on a Sunday but informal events usually take place on Saturdays or midweek evenings. Large events take place either in forests or open moorlands. Some of the best orienteering areas and best events take place in the Lake District but some take place nearer at hand on the Pennine moors. Informal events take place in local parks or country parks where the terrain is not too difficult and the navigation is relatively easy.

There is no season for orienteering. Events take place all year round but the larger events tend to take place in the Spring and Autumn when undergrowth is low. It is possible to find an event most weekends if you are prepared to travel.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership details are set out below. There are a number of categories but, essentially, they require decisions about whether:

• You want full or local membership
• You want individual, family or group membership
• Your age entitles you to concessionary junior rates

The membership year commences on 1^st January each year and juniors are described as people aged under 21. Transfer to senior status takes place at the start of the year in which the person becomes 21.

Local Members only compete at local events and attend local SELOC meetings. They receive the club newsletter and information about club fixtures.

Full members receive all the benefits of Local members. In addition, they may compete at all orienteering events wherever they take place and can attend and vote at BOF meetings. They receive fixture lists both from BOF and a comprehensive fixture list of all events in the north west from the NWOA. Full members who do well at events may be ranked in the BOF Ranking Lists. Nearly all SELOC members are Full members.

Family Membership covers both parents/guardians and all children under 19. Either full or local membership can be taken.

Group Membership is designed for organised groups such as schools, scouts, guides etc and again, may be taken at Local or Full level.

The benefits of membership other than those already described above are:

• Contact with fellow orienteers
• An opportunity to help at events and put something back into the sport
• An opportunity to receive training
• Participation in relays or team events

If you would like to join SELOC, please complete the enclosed membership form and return it to the club treasurer at the address shown below.

Alan Heron
Hon SELOC Treasurer
1 Lyntonvale Avenue
Gatley
Cheadle
Cheshire
SK8 4DF
Tel: 0161 491 0913

If you would like any more information about orienteering or SELOC then please contact the member of the SELOC committee in your area listed below:

LETS GO ORIENTEERING

Permanent Orienteering Courses

There are many permanent orienteering courses in Greater Manchester area and nearby. They are all in large parks or country parks. Permanent courses are so called because the control site markers are always left permanently in the ground and any members of the public can turn up and have a go at any time. In nearly all cases, the permanent course maps and instructions can be purchased at a café or shop in the park.

The Greater Manchester Orienteering Association (GMOA) controls the permanent courses. A GMOA Leaflet is enclosed.

SELOC helps to administer the permanent course at Lever Park, Rivington, Horwich. Map packs are available from the Lower Barn café. Permanent courses can also be found at Haigh Hall, Wigan; Tandle Hill, near Oldham, Moses Gate country park, Bolton, Heaton Park near the M66/M60 junction and a bit further afield at Witton Park, Blackburn.

Informal events usually take place on Saturday mornings or an evening in mid week in a local park. There are a limited number of courses, primarily aimed at young people and those new to the sport.

Colour Coded events are so called because each course at the event is described by a colour. The deeper the colour, the more difficult the course. There are usually 6 or 7 courses. The easiest course is the white course. White courses are usually about 2km long and the navigation and terrain should be easy. It should be almost possible to see one control site from the preceding one. The most difficult courses are the Blue and Brown courses, which have a high degree of technical difficulty and in the case of a Brown course, can be 10km to 12km in length. There is no pre entry required for colour coded events – just turn up, register for whichever course you think best suits your fitness level and navigational expertise and have a go.

Badge and National events are very competitive and some orienteers are prepared to travel a long way to compete in these events. There is a short technical course and a long technical course for each age range. For example, the W35L course is the Long course for females aged between 35 and 39. There are also a few colour coded courses for less experienced orienteers.

It is usually (but not always) possible to turn up at a badge event and enter on the day (EOD). However, it always advisable to pre enter so you are guaranteed a run.

Competitors finishing times are compared to the average of the 3 fastest finishers and categorised as below:

All finishers are allocated a number of points depending on how well they did. Competitors who obtain enough accumulated points from all the badge and national events they have attended will be ranked in the Ranking list published by BOF.

When competitors have achieved a number of performances at the Bronze, Silver or Gold standard they can apply for the appropriate Badge from BOF.

Other events include score events, night events, street events and schools champs.

Score events involve competitors finding as many controls as possible in a given time rather than follow a particular course. Competitors score a number of points for each control that they visit and the winner is the person with the highest score.

Night events take place at night – obviously! For a night event you need a large torch and it also helps to be slightly mad!

Street events take place around local streets, often in the evenings in winter when it gets dark early.

In conjunction with the Manchester and District Orienteering Club an Annual Schools Championship is staged. It is open to all school children in the Greater Manchester area.

GOING TO EVENTS FOR THE FIRST TIME

The best way to learn how to orienteer is to turn up, have a go and learn from your mistakes. It may be worth trying a permanent course first before trying the real thing. Your first event will almost certainly be an informal event or a colour coded event. You do not need to pre enter for these events. When you are ready, have a look through your fixture list, choose an event convenient for you and off you go. You need to take with you your running kit (full leg cover required), waterproofs, a compass, a whistle, a change of clothes, some money, a polythene bag, some safety pins, a pen (preferably red) and hope in your heart!

The event will be well signposted from a road junction easily identifiable on a road map. Start times at weekends are usually between 10.30am and 12.30am and registration is usually open about 10am. You should arrive well before your intended start time to allow yourself time to register for a course, get ready and make your way to the start.

As soon as you arrive, go to the registration area – ask for help if required. There will be a notice by one of the cars used for registration describing the available courses. Choose your course and then make your way to the appropriate registration car. Once you have handed over your money, which will not be more than a few £s at the most, you will receive:

• A map. Study the key carefully. The colours used are yellow for open areas, white for runnable forest and various shades of green for thicker forest.
• A description of all the controls you have to find on the course you have chosen
• A control card with your name and start time (see later)

Once you have registered you should see if there are any map corrections. Orienteering maps can quickly become out of date because of new fences, vegetation being cut down etc. The map corrections, if there are any, will be displayed on a board near registration. Copy the corrections onto your map.

Obviously, you will want to know how well you have done when you finish. There will be some envelopes available near registration. Put your name and address on one and put the cost of a postage stamp inside. When the organiser has worked out all the results he/she will send them to you in this envelope.

If you haven’t got changed already, now is the time to do so. Put the map and control descriptions in your polythene bag (some competitors copy the descriptions onto the back of the map in case the description sheet becomes lost in the ‘heat’ of competition) and use your safety pins to pin your control card onto your clothing. Don’t forget to take your compass, red pen and polythene bag with you.

The excitement is now mounting as you make your way to the start. If the event is a colour coded event you will probably also need a whistle in case you get lost. The organisers may not let you start if you do not have one.

When you arrive at the start a number of competitors will be starting every minute, on the minute. The start times will be displayed on a clock or flip over clock. When the start official calls your start time, move to the start boxes which are marked out on the ground. A stub is attached to your control card and this will be torn off and taken from you. For safety reasons, the organisers need to know who has started so that they can check all the starters came back safely.

At last the starter’s whistle blows and off you go. However, there is still one last task before you can start orienteering. Just beyond the start all the master maps will be laid out. Go to the map for your course and copy all the controls from the master map to the map you were provided with at registration. There should be a pen by the master map but in case there isn’t, this is where your red pen will come in handy. Take your time copying the controls from the master map to your map. It will be very frustrating later on if you make a mistake. (When you progress to badge events, the maps will be marked up for you already and sealed in a plastic bag with the control descriptions).

The map is now marked up and off you go. Use your compass to make sure the map is the right way round and navigate to the first control. The control description sheet will describe the feature you are looking for and will also tell you the code you will find on the control flag when you get there. And here is a tip – walk to the first control. It is easy to rush off at the start and get lost before you’ve barely started.

It is always a thrill to navigate to the first control. When you get there, check the code on the control flag matches that on your control description sheet. If the control code is the correct one, use the punch which will be hanging by the control flag to punch the appropriate square on your control card. This will show the organiser that you successfully found the control.

Now you need to find the second control and then all the other controls in the correct order. Use the punch hanging by each control flag to punch your control card.

When you have found all the controls you will run into the finish. WELL DONE! Your control card will be collected from you and your finish time will be written on it so your time can be calculated. Now you can tell people you are an orienteer.

Hopefully, you will have enjoyed your event and will be eager to look at your fixture list to find another event to attend. A few days after the event, the results will arrive in the envelope you put your name and address on at registration.

e-punching (which is short for electronic punching). This innovation took place in the late 1990s. e-punching isn’t used at informal events but it is used at some colour coded events and nearly all badge events. Control cards are no longer necessary. When you find a control, you use an e-card attached to your index finger (the e-card looks like a plastic, stumpy finger) and dip it into an electronic control box by the control. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

The advantage of e-punching is that when you get back to the finish your overall time and your time between each individual control can be given to you on a computer print out. By the time you get home, all the results may have been downloaded via a mobile phone to the BOF web site and you can go onto the web site and compare your time to everyone else’s – the wonders of modern technology!

The e-cards can be hired at a small cost when you get to the event. Later on, you may wish to buy your own.