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Next Event
None, in the Foreseeable Future
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We have decided to postpone all events in the Maprun League until the current lockdown restrictions are eased. We will re-start with a continuation of the Attleborough event. The Attleborough course will remain on MapRunF and you are more than welcome to run it, but this would be a personal decision. We do not feel that the club can "effectively" endorse people travelling to Attleborough and the other towns we had planned to use. We had hoped to re-start Tuesday Night Training at the beginning of January, but this is also suspended.
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Note: In some e-mail clients, some of the internal links will not seem to work. If you scroll to the bottom of the e-mail there will be an option to open the full e-mail in a browser, where the links will work.
Articles in this issue:.
- I feel somewhat remiss that in the 3+ years that I have been doing NOR News I have not asked Barbara George to be the subject of the interview - she is definitely the most decorated orienteer in the club. I think Barbara would have been quite happy for this omission to continue, but it is rectified this month.
- We ran a very successful virtual relay, our Christmas Cracker, over the Christmas weekend. Glen managed to get 8 teams from Norwich School + 3 from the club. This is impressive enough, but he managed to ensure that every leg across all these teams was completed. Here is his perspective, Ben Bethell was in "Mission Control" fielding questions that came in over the day and keeping the facebook page lively. Find out what was involved here.
- Due to the pandemic, we have had to re-think the types of event & activity that we can put on as a club. In many ways this has been a good thing, and hopefully many of the things we have started through necessity will continue once things get back to normal. One of these activities is Turf. I'll leave Rini to explain more.
- Glen has done double time this issue and written of an eventful trip to Thursford, or rather back from Thursford. He did mention how close he had been to calling on us, which I couldn't really understand given that he said that he was coming back from Thursford. I hadn't realised the full extent of his plight, until I read his article. Suffice to say, that despite the pandemic, there would have been room at the inn.
And, not forgetting the usuals:
Once again, thanks to everyone that has contributed articles etc.
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Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all had as good a Christmas as possible under the circumstances and are keeping safe.
Looking at my results from 2020, I see that I did 7 colour coded events, which is more than I had thought - I managed to get a good number under my belt at the beginning of the year. However this is less than 20% of the number I would have expected to have done. Hopefully, I will do a few more this year, but it isn't looking good. I guess we are all pinning our hopes on things returning to something like normal in the autumn, but didn't we say that last year!
So far, there are 10 optimistic club members who have entered the Scottish 6 Days, which is being held at the beginning of August - I could do as much orienteering in a week than the whole of last year! A number of us are camping at Linnhe Lochside Holidays, so if you are thinking of going and considering camping it would be good to get as big a group at the campsite as possible. If you check online, it may look that they have no availability that week, but we found that you needed to contact the campsite directly. When I spoke to them they said that they had plenty of space.
Although the pandemic has been unremittingly depressing, some good things have come out of it. This time last year, we would never have conceived of starting a Street-O league or running a virtual relay over Christmas. Well, a year on, and both of those have happened and we fully intend to continue such events after the pandemic is over. The great thing about these activities is that they are relatively easy to put on, and really expand the number of activities that club members can get involved in. If you've not yet tried MapRun, then I really recommend that you give it a go. Given the number of courses we have up now, there is bound to be one "local" to you.
We have been thinking about Tuesday Night Club nights and trying to make them more orienteering focussed, rather than just a run. We see GPS based apps such as MapRun and Turf (see article from Rini) being integral to this. Turf even lets you setup private events, which would be ideal for a Club Night.
Another new activity, initiated by the pandemic last year, was Lockdown Orienteering, or Orienteering Unlocked as it now is. We see potential for using these types of activities in Virtual Club Nights during lockdown. Watch this space - Glen is running one with Norwich School next week, so we'll see how it goes.
Over the last few years, I have noticed that Lincoln Orienteering Group (LOG) have been running a Wolds Mountain Marathon. This is basically a 3 hour score event run on an Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map. Although we have no mountains, I think that there is potential to run a similar event in Norfolk - think Thetford Forest, North Norfolk Coast, The Broads. If restrictions relax, we are looking to run a similar event in June / July. Maybe we will call it "The Without" - The Norfolk Without Mountains Marathon.
For the last year, I have sent out the newsletter and thought "There is no way I will be able to get enough material for the next issue". However, with the your help, I've always managed it. This time is no different, but expect to see the next issue in early March!
Jonathan
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It would have been nice to write this welcoming you all to a bright start to a new year of orienteering. Unfortunately yet another lockdown has put paid to all events for at least the next two or three months. However, we have had some good points to look back on during the end of last year.
The MapRun series was a great success with 36 people taking place in at least one event. The highest number at any event was 28 and the lowest was 19. Ten people ran at every event and a further 4 people ran or planned at every event. There are some more "fun facts" on the facebook.
The final results, which were adjusted for age class produced a clear winner in the women’s league, Carla Sutherland but there was a much closer result in the men’s league with Rini Hoogkamer taking the win on the last event. A big thank you to Ben and Jonathan for organising the league and for all the volunteers that planned the events.
Here are the full results:
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The MapRun league was such a success, in these difficult times, that we had planned to run another series from early January through to Easter. Again, this has had to be put on hold as it was felt that travelling the distances to do the events was not allowed under the new covid rules.
Another great success was the Christmas Cracker, both for the organisation by Ben Bethell and Jonathan Gilbert and the competition, in which 3 NOR teams competed.
The competition was based on teams of 10 people completing different courses of varying distances with a total team distance of 70km. Some courses had different percentages of off road running and one course had to be run at night. There were several other rules but the idea was to get teams to compete on an individual basis over the Christmas period.
A total of 46 teams entered, some from other orienteering clubs, some from running clubs, some teachers and students and some from families and friends. The event was very successful with all 46 teams competing the total course. Two of the NOR teams did very well and were very close to each other finishing 16th and 19th overall, but the biggest news was that NORw A won the whole event beating the running clubs and the top ‘O’ teams of SHUOC and SYO. Well done to all of the team. The full results can be found here.
While the future for orienteering in forests looks a bit bleak for now, lets hope that the vaccines get out to everyone as quickly as possible and that this period of lockdown will not be too long and that we can get back to Orienteering in our favourite woods.
Stay safe and keep healthy,
Tim
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An Hypothetical Navigation Challenge
Imagine you are coming home to Norwich along the eastbound A47 at about 10.30pm. You get to the Honingham / Mattishall roundabout and find that the police have closed the road. How would you proceed? Imagine also that it has been lashing it down for the past 6 hours and there is standing water everywhere, and you’ve already been through some of the deepest water you’ve ever driven through. How do you get home to Norwich?
This is what happened to us on our way home from a very wet and windy evening at the Thursford Christmas spectacular on December 23rd. As we headed back to Norwich on the Fakenham Road, driving conditions got worse and worse, with lots of water on the road. Aiming for Costessey, we realised the roads from Taverham and Drayton would both probably be flooded at the Wensum, so we turned right at the Dinosaur Park to head for the A47, which we assumed would be the safest road. Immediately we hit very deep water and considered ourselves lucky to get through, with all sorts of flashing lights on the dashboard and suggestions that we seek immediate assistance with engine faults. There was also deep water as we joined the A47, and then we found it closed altogether. Now what?
At this point there were a number of other cars and an ambulance with us. We figured following the ambulance would be a sensible way forward. Wrong! The convoy all headed down a farm track that eventually reached a dead end. When we turned at the end, we realised lots more cars had followed us, and it looked like it might become gridlocked. But thankfully we got out eventually. I can only assume this was caused by someone following a satnav.
Next we decided to head for Dereham, as we were quite low on petrol. We filled up at Tesco's and considered our options. North, back across the Wensum, or south across the Tud and Tiffey to the A11. We tried south first, but hit more deep water after a mile. A policeman had just come through in his big 4x4 and suggested we turn round. Its worse further south, he told us. When we asked him for advice about getting to Norwich, he had none. So we turned round and tried going north to Swanton Morley, but just found more water.
At this stage, I decided we ought to give up and find a hotel. Have you ever tried finding a hotel in Dereham? No luck there. So we headed further west, thinking we might head north or south from Swaffham. By this time, Annika was reminiscing about the time she spent a night in the car in a McDonalds carpark in the Alps, when snow closed all the roads on the way to a family ski-trip. So when we hit yet more deep water just before Swaffham, then saw the golden arches, we decided to call it a night.
McDonalds seemed a better bet than a layby, as there would be food available if we got hungry. But it turned out not to be 24h after all. So we made ourselves as comfy as possible and settled down for the night. At first the car was still warm, and the kids were very good in the back. But inevitably the temperature dropped. It didn’t help that our coats and various other garments had got soaked at Thursford, but we all slept fitfully for a few hours.
About 3am, the boys started to complain about the cold. As the rain had stopped and all seemed calm, we decided to try to get home again. If nothing else, at least it would warm the car up. So we made our way back east along the A47, only to find the road still closed in the same place. This time we decided it was worth trying some of the minor roads to the south to get to Easton. It was only a couple of miles, but we still encountered several more flooded stretches. It was now a beautiful, calm moonlit night, and Annika got out and waded through each stretch in her wellies to gauge the depth. I think she did this 3 times, and we made it to Easton, where we were able to re-join the A47 and get home. My head hit the pillow at 4am.
So that was our Christmas adventure for 2020. We had a lovely evening in a hurricane at Thursford, and then an experience to tell everyone about. I’ve certainly learnt lessons about heading out into the wilds of Norfolk in bad weather. Next time we’ll bring more food, water, blankets and petrol. And maybe a boat.
Glen
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Know Your NOR Member
Barbara George
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Barbara receiving another Carol Towler Salver (from Tim) at the 2019 Club Championships held at Sholdham Warren.
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Age Class: W85
Clubs: NOR
Orienteering Achievements: To have kept on orienteering into my mid eighties! Certificate of merit for first map (UEA and Earlham Park with Cringleford Wood) in 1995. I carried out the survey and drew it by hand as before OCAD. Ed: Barbara has forgotten to mention winning the British Middle Distance Championships at Chinley Churn in 2019 and numerous podiums at British Campionships and JK's. I'm afraid I can't give more details as there doesn't seem to be a set of collated results anywhere on the internet.
In 5 words or less describe what sort of orienteer you are? Fairly competitive
Think of a word beginning with O that best describes you: Octogenarian. Ed: Brilliant, I hope that I can use that one day.
When and why did you start orienteering? In 1983. I was working at UEA as Map Curator in ENV (Environmental Sciences) where there was a group of keen orienteers, including John Harvey and Fiona Coventry who persuaded me to have a go as I thought it sounded very interesting.
What made you carry on orienteering? I went along initially with my daughter Lucy, but I soon got hooked and continued after Lucy left home.
If you hadn't discovered orienteering, what would have happened? I would have had more time for other interests. See below.
What do you do when you are not orienteering? Walking, gardening, bird watching, family visits, cooking, watercolour painting.
Apart from orienteering what is your most unusual hobby? Keeping a diary of sightings of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, mammals etc. - I am fortunate to live in a house overlooking Strumpshaw fen so plenty of wildlife.
If you were not an orienteer which sport (that you have never tried) do you think you would have excelled in? and why? Rock climbing might have been fun to try. I was brought up in Scotland and have always loved hill walking and scrambling up mountains.
What is your most memorable O race? The British Night Champs at Sandringham on 26th November 1988 when I was a W50. This was rather ambitious as I had only done two local night events but it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. I found the 1:15,000 map very difficult to read, especially in the area of complex brown features near the end of the course and my Petzl Micro headtorch was not really bright enough to see controls in the bottoms of depressions of which there were many. I managed to finish though, taking 127.35 minutes to do the 3.2km course.
Where is the strangest (or best) place you have ever orienteered? The South Australian ‘O’ Champs at Keynes Gap in October 2018. Rocky hillsides and open terrain with lots of boulders and virtually no vegetation or paths, this was a very good technical area. I found it very difficult to navigate and was very surprised to find I had beaten the only other competitor in W80, an Australian.
Can you remember your worst mistake in an O race? Missing an easy control just before a fence crossing in the Second Qualification Race in the World Masters Games in New South Wales in 2009.
Why do you normally make mistakes? Losing concentration. Trying to go direct when there is a better route choice with a good attack point.
Do you have any orienteering tips? To go carefully to the first control.
What is your favourite discipline? Classic ‘O’ events out in the countryside where I prefer Long rather than Middle. Score events are good fun as well. I have come to enjoy Sprints more in recent years though I do not exactly sprint round them.
What is your favourite area? And, if different what is your favourite area in Norfolk? I particularly like Scottish terrain with open hillsides such as Craig ‘a Barns near Dunkeld. Locally my favourite area is in north Norfolk along the Cromer ridge at sites such as Sheringham Park and Weybourne Heath.
How many events will you compete in this year? No way of knowing at the moment. It depends on when it will be safe enough. Only able to go to 4 events in 2020 before Covid-19 struck.
How many countries have you O'd in?
England, Scotland (including 13 Scottish 6-Days), Wales (Croeso every 4 years), Australia (including 2 World Masters in Victoria in 2002 and NSW in 2009) and Denmark in 2019. The last was to see my grandson, Alastair George, running for Australia in JWOC (Junior World Orienteering Champs). Spectators, mainly parents and other family, were able to take part in the JWOC Tour, which comprised races on the same terrain after the JWOC races had finished each day.
Is there anything you would ban from or change about orienteering? Emit ‘brick’ - though it is easier to hold now than it used to be. I think it would be better if all clubs used Si dibbers.
How do you file your maps (if you keep them)? With a folder for each year and in date order.
What is your favourite O top? The club one.
How many pairs of O shoes do you possess? Two. A pair of old ones without studs and a pair with studs.
What type of compass do you use? Silva base-plate
If you have the radio, what station is it tuned in to? Radio 3. I am a lapsed viola and piano player and love listening to classical music.
Have you watched something memorable on TV recently? ‘Mr Holmes’, with Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes in old age.
What is your favourite food? Fruit and veg straight from the garden.
What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Sit final exams for an honours degree in geography at Edinburgh University.
What is furthest you have ever run? Never recorded but not more than a mile or two.
Did you make any New Year resolutions? If so, how are they going? Not really, but I must get on with writing up more family history.
If you could have dinner with a sporting star (past or present) who would it be? and why? Sarah Brown - not exactly a sporting star but one of the top W65s. I have 3 of her vegetarian cookbooks and might be able to pick up a few ideas!
If you were a biscuit what sort of biscuit would you be? and why? A chocolate finger. Loved by my grandchildren, all 6 of them.
What do you eat for breakfast before an Orienteering Race? Porridge with stewed fruit followed by toast.
Do you have any orienteering ambitions? To keep on with it as long as possible.
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A Captain’s Perspective (from Glen)
Last Christmas, I did the Brighton City Race on Saturday night and jumped on a ferry to Dieppe the next morning to spend our traditional Christmas with the in-laws in France. While there, I did a Boxing Day parkrun in the grounds of Fontainebleau Chateau. Then it was back home in time to start 2020 with an indoor 800m race at Lee Valley. This is how I like to spend my holidays, and I was looking forward to a similar program this year. Of course, Covid made sure that wasn’t going to happen, so I was glad to hear that something was being organised to fill the void. Little did I realise quite how good it was going to be.
Back in November, while Ben and Jonathan set about the task of organising the actual race, I was given the task of assembling a race-winning team. I knew we had a few handy runners in the club, and hoped I could persuade some of them to take part. Well, everyone was so keen that I almost didn’t get in the team myself. We ended up with a total of 3 teams, and I had high hopes for NORw A. Could we take on the might of SYO, SHUOC, or real running clubs?
Meanwhile, I thought I’d try and get a school team together. This snowballed out of control until we had a total of 8 school teams, made up of pupils, staff, parents and Old Norvicensians. This meant I was effectively managing 11 teams. I wondered if I should delegate a bit, but having oversight of all the teams did have advantages when it came to swaps and substitutes.
I thought a lot in advance about route choice. Would it be better to go for parkland, playing fields or the mud and puddles of Marriotts Way. I was determined to avoid hills if at all possible. What would happen if it was snowy or icy? Nobody could have foreseen quite the amount of water that came our way.
The action kicked off on xmas day. This was never going to be an option for me, but some people did get their run in before the turkey was served. For me personally, Boxing Day has always been a day for sporting action, so I planned to do my night leg that evening. But then Storm Bella was forecast to wreak havoc at that time, so I decided to run my 15km leg for my school team on Boxing morning, then do my NOR night leg on the 28th. This turned out to be a good idea, as it gave me a look at the conditions on Marriotts Way. It had turned into a river in places, as you can see in the pictures. It was great fun running through it, but I’m sure these aren’t optimal conditions for a fast time, so I decided to alter my route for my NOR leg.
Meanwhile, others were getting busy. Carla and Jan were the first to post times for the A team, and we were off to a good start. Steven and Laurence then posted incredible times on the longest courses to put us in a very strong position. I had tried to make Norf Sea and Norf Pole roughly equal teams, and they were proving to be well matched. Reports were also coming in of widespread flooding on routes at UEA, Keswick and Surlingham among other places.
The NOR teams proved amazingly robust, with all 30 runners completing their allotted legs, from Christopher aged 12 to Mick, over 70. My school teams proved more fragile. Three runners came a cropper and couldn’t complete their run due to injury. This forced me to get creative with substitutes. In one case, I got a family to split a 10k leg into a 4x2.5k relay, and when an 8k leg was cut short on the final day, I trawled Strava, and informed an ex-pupil that the run he did the previous day was now counting as a leg in a relay race he’d never heard of. He was more than happy to oblige.
As the final day moved towards completion, teams were reaching the finish line. Norw A always seemed a bit behind the curve in this respect, but April, James (sub 17 for 5k!), Emma and Will posted good times. As other teams posted their finishing times, I realised for the first time that we were actually winning. But there was one problem. Patrick didn’t appear to have run his 10k leg. And it was now dark. An emergency plan B was proposed by Ben. Hero of the hour, David Vinsen volunteered to run my 5k night leg, and I would run the 10k. This was supposed to be a daylight leg, but it was too late for that. So I headed out on Marriotts Way about 20:00, avoiding the submerged Hellesdon end. It’s a good job Santa got me a good headtorch last xmas!
I was extremely pleased to finish in under 40 mins, and arrived back home full of beans. Then I was informed that Patrick had posted his time, 10s quicker than me. Now what? I was on something of a high, and decided to head straight back out and do the 5k night leg. This only had to feature 1k off-road, so I did a couple of laps of the local football pitches, then up and down the deserted streets of Costessey. My legs soon ran out of oomph, but I managed to bring it home in just under 21 mins. Not my finest run, but in the circumstances I was over the moon. A check of the results convinced me that we had in fact won the Christmas Cracker!
I would like to say another big thankyou to Ben and Jonathan for having the idea and seeing it through, and to everyone for taking part. Assuming ‘real’ sport returns at some point this year, I’ll be interested to see if ‘virtual’ events like this continue in the future. I certainly think they have a future for team events. Normally team events seem to put people off, maybe because it seems like too much of a commitment. But the Cracker offered everyone the chance of a bit of camaraderie without committing yourself to being in a specific place at a specific time, so everyone could work it around their own Christmas plans. And everyone seems to have enjoyed it. Bring on 2021!
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A View from the Control Room (from Ben)
I’m not sure that the idea of a virtual running event was met by the Committee with huge enthusiasm. Not that there was any resistance – the proposal wasn’t going to cost the club or cause any issues. Understandably, there were questions about the possible take-up, but we agreed to give it a go.
It transpired that the inaugural Christmas Cracker was fantastically well supported by groups and clubs from across the country. The main draw was being a team event which had some flexibility around the timing of individual runs (4 days starting on Christmas Day) along with providing a motivation to run off some Christmas excess!
The event planned to get teams of ten running a set ‘menu’ of courses (or legs). In keeping with orienteering, courses were colour coded with the lighter colours being the easier courses. For most courses there was a requirement to run a percentage off-road. Courses varied from White (a 3km run with no off-road requirement) to the Black course (15km run with at least 60% of-road). There was even a Red course which had to be run between 9pm and 6am. Routes were planned by the individual runner and times / routes were submitted with Strava (or similar) to provide the evidence.
Jonathan makes a fantastic wing-man. As is always the case, a team helps bring ideas to reality and having a ‘systems expert’ onboard certainly made the world of difference. My initial thoughts of keeping records on an Excel spreadsheet were soon overtaken by Jonathan’s plans to find a web-based solution that reduced workload during the event. The system worked flawlessly and was very easy to use. One unexpected positive is that we now have a system which can be employed for other events in the future.
Glen became the third key member of the team. With the bit between his teeth and his Club Captain hat firmly jammed onto his head, he set about building teams for the club and for his school. It seems he got carried away – over a quarter of the 46 teams were a result of Glen’s efforts. I’ve said it before, but we certainly have the right man for the job!
Paul and Karen have dutifully kept on top of the finances. This was never intended as a fundraiser and was planned to just cover costs. Any excess was to be passed to Great Ormond Street Hospital (owing to Matthew’s involvement with them). Whilst, at the time of writing, there are still a few bits to be finalised, it looks like over £300 will be donated.
Team registration started slowly but, as time went by, we continued to see new enquiries. We had asked that teams were all registered before mid-December and when we closed the system for new entries we had 46 teams. A few runners were signed up to run for more than one team so the number of runners was around 450. Teams were entered from various running clubs from around East Anglia and as far as Sevenoaks, and orienteering club teams from all four corners of the UK! Norfolk Orienteering entered three teams, appropriately named NorfA, NorfSea, and NorfPole.
The four days of the event went very smoothly. We had a steady trickle of enquiries about various things, but we had no real issues. Times came in over the days and we updated folk regularly. We had plenty of engagement on Facebook and teams reported plenty of camaraderie. Lots of photos of mud, floods and ice were provided – but the runners were grinning and having fun.
The event closed at 10pm on the 28th. It had been obvious that our Norfolk A team was flying and it was fantastic to see them at the top of the table when we finished. Somehow we avoided a stewards enquiry. Well done to all of those who took part.
We’ve had some wonderful feedback about the event and we’ve been asked to run it again in 2021. Whilst we hope that we’re not still restricted by Covid by then, the event still provides motivation to get out and enjoy a run over Christmas without having to be in a particular place at a particular time. It’s possibly one of the few benefits from Covid – we’ve tried something that we’d not have normally and come away smiling and happy.
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Turfing in Norfolk
Warning: reading this article could lead to you spend considerable time outdoors.
The corona virus pandemic has upset many (orienteering) plans for 2020 which had to be either ditched or seriously adapted.
There have also been positives. Personally, I have discovered some very enjoyable walks and runs ‘close to home’, that I was never aware of. I found it interesting to realise how ‘stuck in a rut’ I actually was with the routes I would run.
Then two further things happened for me: MapRun and Turf.
MapRun
Although I came late to the game, I have really enjoyed the MapRun experience..
As an ex-trackrunner, I would never have imagined myself happily running around with a phone in my hand. I would have dismissed such an idea outright.
How easily things change when circumstances force you to adapt! I realised I could work the technology. I enjoyed running around in new places, with a competitive aim.
Turf
I read two articles in the October 2020 CompassSport (Vol 41, Issue 5) about this other Scandinavian thing: Turfing. It sounded interesting: a mixture of an endless MapRun / Orienteering course combined with computer game elements.
It has been going for 10 years. It started in Sweden and was taken on by other Scandi nations with many dedicated, fanatical ‘exergamers’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turf_(video_game).
It had me intrigued and I wanted to find out more.
Before I knew it, I was hooked – and Jonathan asked me to write this article about it.
At first, I intended to write a simple ‘What is Turf and how do you start playing it’ guide.
Whilst thinking about what to write, a lot of things have happened recently. The ‘game’ of Turf has suddenly become much more popular all over the UK and there is now a lot of good quality information about the ‘how to Turf’ available in English (some starter links can be found at the end of this article). A fair number of NOR members have signed up and started Turfing already. Ed: After a quick search, I found NORRini, NORBen, NORCarla, NOREllen, NORkb, NORni, NORjg, NORWill, NOREmma, NORJonas, NorJAM. I know there are others, but at the time I couldn't find a zone that they controlled.
I do hope that others will also give it a go soon.
This is a brief explanation of the basics of Turf-ing (with links to learn more), including my experiences over the last two months.
What is TURF?
Like MapRun, Turf is an app-based game that you play outside and for which you need a smartphone (with the Turf-app downloaded on it) and a GPS signal.
Wikipedia tells us that “Turf combines elements from traditional orienteering with elements commonly seen in many video games, such as a levelling system, leaderboards and achievements. The goal is to collect points by capturing virtual zones using the built-in GPS system of modern smartphones and try to keep them for as long as possible to compete with other players. Zones are located all over the world, but with the highest concentration in countries with active competition, such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Great Britain.”
You can do it walking, running, cycling and I have also successfully done it whilst kayaking. Swimming is to come in the summer. Speed as such is not particularly important, so all ages and abilities can take part and enjoy.
When you open the app, you start with seeing a Google-earth type map of the area you are in. You can zoom in / out with + / - buttons or your fingers.
At the moment the map of Norfolk looks something like this (with new zones often appearing):
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Here is an enlarged snapshot of the situation around Chapelfield: the yellow ‘zones’ have not been claimed this round The Zones in red have been visited at least once and are therefore claimed by somebody (who gets points for as long as they manage to hold on to).
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Our orienteering colleagues in Edinburgh, especially those in ESOC, have enthusiastically taken to Turfing as part of their lockdown entertainment. Hence the above mentioned articles in CompassSport.
They have also been ‘rewarded with thousands more zones being set up / opened in the areas where they have been active.
But as things stand at the time of writing this (08/1/21), NOR is already giving a pretty good showing in the UK Turfing scene, as measured by number of active participants. We too are starting to see more and more zones in Norwich and the surrounding villages, see below.
But that was not the case in early November 2020! Here is my attempt to chronicle local developments over the last two months.
My Turfing experience, so far:
Tuesday, 3rd Nov 2020 There is nobody there:
Having read the CompassSport articles, I decided to try it out in early November 2020, expecting to find that half of NOR was already out there.
Hmm, that was strange, no activity at all in the whole East of England Turf area! Where was everybody? Or was this a dud app that doesn’t work?
Undeterred, but slightly bemused by the absence of expected frenetic activity, I did download the app, gave myself a name in the ESOC tradition (NorRini) and went out of the door.
Second week Nov 2020 Zones start appearing:
Luckily, I live next to the UEA and there were already zones close by, with more in the city centre.
When I started, there were about 50 existing zones in and around Norwich, made in 2016, as far as I can tell. To my delight, once I started visiting zones, more and more appeared, opening up new areas to explore, with interlinking ‘travel corridors’.
Third week Nov 2020 Distances increase, no longer just running or walking:
At first, I did everything running, slowly. But then realised that the newer zones exceeded my running limits, and I took to my bike (a recommended strategy). I also ‘took’ some zones on bridges whilst paddling on the river in a kayak, a strangely satisfying experience!
By late November, there were already zones in Cringleford, Bowthorpe, UEA, Golden Triangle, City Centre, around Whitlingham, Marriott’s Way, Mousehold and more. It seemed that an ‘Eye-In-The-Sky’ was actively monitoring areas for ongoing / new activity, and responding by setting new zones around those areas, sometimes overnight. Great, at least the Eye-In-The-Sky was playing with me.
Fourth week Nov 2020 Addicted? Probably!
I got hooked on trying to get all available zones. The end of the month, I had indeed visited all Norfolk zones bar two (a single zone in Great Snoring (why there?) and a new zone in Bowthorpe. I had earned a Greed-150 medal for holding 150 zones.
A few days after the Nov 2020 round was finished, I received a welcome, automated email telling me my personal stats for the month:
“Your own performance
You gathered 145289 points during the round and ended up as no. 437 internationally.
This was accomplished by taking 174 zones.
All points have now been reset for the new round, you will keep your rank and the medals you have taken.
Sunday 6th Dec 2020 But a bit lonely! :
It turned out that there had been just 5 people who had been active in the whole of the East-England region (one was my neighbour, another was Rodney, whom I had met on a run and told him about Turf-ing ): just enough to qualify for a R medal (Regional Winner): yippee!!
But not much fun in the long term if it stayed like that.
First week Dec 2020 Explosion:
Things started to happen very rapidly for the embryonic Norfolk Turfing scene:
There was a BBC interview with an orienteering female colleague, féarglass, in Scotland who had gone all-out for a month. She ended up with a world silver medal for the month of November. Very few non-Swedish Scandinavians had ever managed a podium position, let alone a non-Scandi.
BOF put this story on their website. More Turfers started to appear in other areas in the UK, including East Anglia, and not all of them with an orienteering background either.
I also met Glen, Ben and Jamie (socially distanced) on the last day of the MapRun league and suggested that they might want to look at the Turfing app and try it out for themselves.
They did.
Zones started being taken, stolen and re-taken by multiple people, especially in the UEA / Roundhouse estate area.
Many more Zones popped up further away, including neighbouring villages. Partly at the request of people (there is an option on the app to do so), partly by the ‘Eye-In-The-Sky‘ stretching us. If those outlying zones got taken, soon there were additional zones to be found in that area.
So now Lingwood, Strumpshaw, Heathersett, Wymondham and Surlingham are on the map too, with no doubt more to follow.
Jan 2021 And further:
There is clearly a lot more that can be explored in this ‘exergame’, even in the current pandemic rules. This is especially useful whilst orienteering events are a no-go. There is a chat function within the app and if GPS is on, you can see where other Turfers are and where they are going. Options are there to set challenges, friendly Turf-wars, tactics and strategies.
I suggest, whilst still in COVID lockdown, that you treat Turfing like your daily fruit and vegetables: try to just take 5, 7 or 10 zones a day, it is good for you and might help keep you sane.
I hope some of you that haven’t started Turfing yet, will discover what fun it can be.
More info:
Here are some of the many possible places to learn more on the internet:
NorRini aka Rini Hoogkamer
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Fellow Turfers beware, as this could also happen to you!
Here is a sequence of computer screenshots I took last month, having become aware that there was an intruder in ‘my’ territory.
A young upstart Turfling from Northern Island called Norni was on a raid, but luckily, he was caught red-handed.
Appropriate countermeasures are being considered (drone strike??).
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The sequence explained:
- First picture: the BatesGreen zone; within is an as yet unidentified intruder (red).
- Second picture: clearly shows this zone as part of my (NorRini) domain.
- Third picture: shows the robber leaving the zone, having left his dark mark.
- Fourth picture: the www provided me with some meta-data, allowing me to properly identify the culprit, who by then had left the zone (now white):
- Fifth picture: Norni on his way to more marauding mischief as caught on camera here a few minutes later:
Stay safe, stay alert!
NorRini
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In the sum below, each letter represents a different number (0 - 9, but not all 10). Can you work out which number is represented by which letter, so that the sum is correct.
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Last Issue's Bonus Puzzle
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Fit the letters from the word ROOTSTOCK into the grid to make 6 5-letter words (3 across and 3 down). Note: I have used a proper noun - think cars and football. Once again, I have no idea whether there is more than one solution.
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This issue's puzzle - with thanks to Alex Bellos of The Guardian:
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The puzzle concerns three people standing in a line all facing the same direction (let's say to the right). They are all extremely logical people, and they can only see who is in front of them.
A hat seller shows them three white and two black hats. She places a hat on each person and hides the remaining two.
She asks: “Does anyone know what colour hat they have?” No answer.
She repeats: “Now does anyone know what colour hat they have?” No answer.
She asks again: “Now does anyone know what colour hat they have?” One person answers.
Which person and what colour hat?
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Bonus puzzle - Lexica from The Times:
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Slide the letters either horizontally or vertically into the grid to produce a completed crossword. Letters are allowed to slide over other letters. All the words are related to orienteering control descriptions.
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