2024 Club Championships & Awards

Winners of our Club Champs trophies and annual awards

Racing in Allestree Park and celebrating members’ achievement and contributions

Our Club Champs were on Saturday 19th October, starting from the south end of Allestree Park. Michelle Mackervoy planned three courses, and Andrew Middleton arranged the handicapping, so that everyone was predicted to finish at 12 noon!

Di grabs her map!

Starts were between 10:13 and 11:31, and the rain stopped just in time. The park was looking very colourful, so much so that Ranald complained about Michelle’s choice of tape colour for marking the control sites – yellow and green!

Two trophies are awarded to the winning man and woman (i.e. first across the finish line), to add an element of surprise and keep the interest for the over 35s! Today this was Rob Williams and Helen Chiswell.

Our first finishers, Rob and Helen. Michelle (Planner) on the right.

A further two trophies are awarded on speed, and these went to Chris Millard (again; maybe this time the engraver will spell his name correctly) and Emily Bass. The fastest junior was Imogen, and she won the Lithuanian amber trophy for the second year running!

Chris, Emily B and Imogen, winners of the trophies for fastest man, woman and junior
The 2024 Mass Finish

It’s always nice to chat at the Finish and watch people come in, before retiring to change into mud-free kit to the chosen picnic venue – this time the Allestree Evergreen Hall. Food was eaten, cakes were circulated and splits analysed while the control collectors brought in the 30 odd controls and tapes from the taped route.

Full Results here.

Club Awards

Winners of our Club Champs trophies and annual awards

 

Orienteer of the Year: Simon Brister

This man is not only a superb membership secretary but has some phenomenal results to his name this year including podium places at the JK, where he was 1st M75 in the Sprints, and the British Sprints where he was 2nd. The man who can do a Parkrun in 22 minutes has put this together with fast and accurate navigation and become a bit of a star! 

Junior Orienteer of the Year: Imogen Satherley

How lovely it would be to have a club full of Imogens. Well, we have one and she’s a superstar in the making. She has taken to orienteering like a duck to water and if you have read her dad’s Peter Palmer Relays article, you will realise the lengths they are going to in order to take part. I was a bit nervous that Imogen would get fed up with orienteering after a year or so and move on to something else to excel at. But she hasn’t and she’s going from strength to strength. Long may that continue. 

Most Improved Orienteer of the Year: Kirsty Buxton

Kirsty has not been orienteering seriously very long but she and her family have been unable to resist the pull of the sport her in laws love so much. Anyone who has watched her progress over the last year will know that this award is well deserved. Nicky is fast and accurate and has progressed from Light Green to Green this year, and continues to run well. With Nicky on our side I have no doubt we will make the CompassSport Cup final in 2025.

Most Enthusiastic Newcomer: Sue Oates

Sue, as the trophy name suggests, is a new member thanks to Chris’ successful MapRun series with running clubs. At this year’s AGM we rotated Sal’s photos of events this year. Sue seemed to be in just about every shot either running or helping. She was even at the AGM! She is a proud DVO top wearer, a fully committed member of the Start Team and attends all our events. Even if she does need to be pulled out of marshes and welcomed back after a 2 hr run because she didn’t realise the PeakRaid event was on a 1:25k map, she’s always got a smile on her face. Sadly she’s not here today but we will award her trophy at the next MapRun.

David Parkin Trophy for Outstanding Services to the Club: John Hurley

This club member is one of the unsung heroes of our club. He is diligent, attentive, keeps the committee on its toes and also on the straight and narrow and takes very seriously any role that he is allocated or that he volunteers to take on. In no particular order, he is a controller, control collector, statistician, DVO history writer and, if you ever need a document reviewed, John’s your man. He is our rep on the East Midlands committee and has recently taken on the additional role of EM Development Coordinator. All clubs need someone as measured and insightful as John and we are lucky to have him.

Newstrack Contributor of the Year: David Vincent

Normally this trophy rotates around our roving O-reporters Graham, Sally and Helen (and their articles are always welcome). This year, I would like to award it to David Vincent, who took over the Puzzle Page [found at the end of each of our Club News posts] from Dave Nevell last year. The puzzle and the astronomy “wows” keep things nice and interactive, which is great for a magazine that’s recently transitioned from hard copy to web-based. Thank you David!

Sports Personality of the Year: Simon Brister [voted for on the day]

You can read about Simon’s epic at Worcester Urban here, as well as Derek’s nasty injuries.

As an aside, it’s long been a tradition that giving (and hence nominating) an award for an injury is too much Schadenfreude … but we’re all getting older, and more intrepid with our bicycles [“Call the lawyers” – Stuart]. Perhaps it’s time to lift this taboo?

A lot of fun was had by all at the meal. John Hurley’s excuse for non-attendance: he was at Rob Shooter’s 70th birthday party, where there was a falconry display! See you for our Club Champs in 2025 (details TBA by a TOP SECRET committee in a kitchen in Alfreton)!

Finally, thanks to Jane, Annie, Ranald and Derek whose roles made them unable to run, and to Annie for all the great photos at the finish!

Pauline, Marg and Viv then David V and Emily W

 

 

Future events

Thursday 27 February 2025
Belper

Saturday 1 March 2025
Birchen Edge

Thursday 6 March 2025
Mackworth

Recent results

Saturday 8 February 2025
Belper Parks

Spring 2025
Derby Night MapRuns

Wednesday 1 January 2025
Derby City

Routegadget (view routes)

MapRun Results

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