Christmas quiz - Thursday 17th Dec
Peter Archer will be running another CLOK quiz this Thursday at 7:30pm, with a special Christmas theme. Join via your computer or tablet at https://us04web.zoom.us/j/76386164219?pwd=UTg1bHJod1F3QSs1L3RMREUzZ3RKUT09. Everyone in the club is welcome to come along. Expect about 50 questions, a mixture of topics, some of which may have an orienteering connection, and many will have a Christmas connection! You mark your own answers, and you don't have to announce your score if you don't want to! We hope to see plenty of you there!
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Coatham Dunes sprint race - Sunday 20th Dec
CLOK's next event is this Sunday, at Coatham Dunes. This is a newly mapped extension of the dunes between South Gare and Redcar (map extract above). The courses are sprint courses - not too long, but don't be fooled: it is technical out there so you'll need to keep your wits about you. It'll be lots of fun! Full details on the flyer here. You MUST pre-enter via the online entry system by midnight Friday (but earlier entries are much appreciated to help us estimate map numbers).
The CLOK TOP Shop will also be open - Last chance to purchase new CLOK running tops and jackets as surprise Christmas presents. Look for the 'little white Kia' after your run. You can pay by contactless card or cheque. Joan Selby - 01642 782475 - email.
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Lockdown lamp-O roundup
Last week was the fourth and final lamp-O event in the current series at Ingleby Barwick (map extract above). Results will appear in due course here. You can still run any of the courses, and the maps are available at the relevant pages from here. Many thanks to all our planners: Dennis Hooton (Acklam West), John Green (Yarm), Graeme Addison (Shildon), and Ingleby Barwick (Alan Cranke).
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New CLOK member
We welcome Chris Clegg from Silton, near Thirsk, who joins the club. We look forward to seeing you at an event soon!
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Virtual Running Routes
We're trialling a new idea - Virtual Running Routes (VRRs) - as a potential way of getting more people interested in orienteering. VRRs are similar to Virtual Orienteering Challenges (VOCs), except that the MapRunF app displays a "trail" showing the user where they are and where they've been. There's a screenshot on the CLOK web site here, where you'll also find more information and links to the current three VRRs. The idea is they will be attractive to runners, joggers and walkers who are reluctant to try orienteering because they don't want to risk getting completely lost somewhere out in a competition area. The idea is to give people an opportunity to try a run, jog or walk with a "non-threatening" element of navigation, and the hope is that once they gain confidence they won't get completely lost they'll try a VOC (same thing, but without the "training wheels" safety net of the "trail") and then maybe a conventional orienteering event.
We currently have three VRRs on offer in Sedgefield, Stockton and Darlington South Park. A fourth will be coming shortly in South Burdon Wood, once we've got a non-orienteer volunteer to do a test run to make sure that the idea works in forest-type terrain with controls slightly off the paths.
I'd like to invite you to get involved.
First, it would be great if you could ask a non-orienteering friend or family member to have a go at one of the VRRs - possibly with you shadowing them? - and let me have some feedback. How did they get on? How difficult did they find it to download, install and use the MapRunF app? What can we do to make trying VRRs easier and more fun for non-orienteers? Do you think that their experience of VRRs will make it more likely that they'll progress to trying other forms of orienteering?
Second, please let me have suggestions about where else we might want to set up VRRs. We can use any terrain - urban, parkland, forests, moorland - although it does need to be somewhere with public access and we can't put control sites where there isn't a reasonably good GPS signal (e.g. under dense trees, in narrow alleyways or adjacent to high metal fences. We can use Open Orienteering Maps for urban areas and existing orienteering maps where we have them. The routes themselves will be of an Orange / Red length and navigational standard (i.e. TD2/3), although they'll be made easier because MapRunF will show the participants where they are at all times.
We're hoping that VRRs will help to set things up so that our new Club Development Officer will have every chance of getting more people to take up orienteering and join CLOK once there's been sufficient progress with the Covid vaccination rollout to enable us to get back so something like business as usual.
Caroline Mackenzie
CLOK Chair
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Upcoming events
Note that many events are subject to a variety of restrictions, e.g. pre-entry only, fixed start time windows, not advising travel between tiers 2 & 3, etc. and may be subject to last minute changes. Please check individual club websites for details.
- Tue 15th Dec - EBOR night event, Clifton Backies
- Thu 17th Dec - CLOK xmas quiz, hosted by Peter Archer (see above)
- Sat 19th Dec - CLARO local & night events, Conyngham, Knaresborough
- Sun 20th Dec - CLOK local event, Coatham Dunes
- Mon 28th Dec - EBOR regional event, Duncombe Park
- Sun 10th Jan - NATO local event, Wansbeck Riverside
- Sun 10th Jan - AIRE urban event, Morley
- Sat 16th Jan - BL Cumbrian Galoppen, Penrith Beacon
- Sun 24th Jan - NOC Robin Hood Trophy, Clumber Park, Nottingham
- Sat 6th Mar - British Long Champs, South East England (provisional)
- Sun 7th Mar - NATO regional event, Dukes House Wood
- Sun 14th Mar - CLOK NE score champs, Dale Town Moor
- 3rd/4th Apr - CLOK Acorn weekend, Sneaton West and Pickering Forests
Don't forget that all of the CLOK Virtual Orienteering Courses that can be done anytime. It was also great to see a non-orienteer taking part recently in the new Elm Tree VOC in Stockton - see Faye Buckton's report here.
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