With the New Year approaching, about 1/5 of the club’s veteran members will change age class. If your birth year ends in a 0 or a 5, 2025 could be your ‘glory year’ when you are the youngest in class!
As we age, the terrain becomes more difficult to negotiate, as described in CompassSport in June 2024 by Andrew Bell of Borderliners. His article is reproduced here as a note to course planners (info on technical difficulty is found on the Officials Help Page).
- Planning & Physical Difficulty (Part 1; note the article starts on the 2nd page)
- Planning & Physical Difficulty 2
Note from Jane (DVO Chair): Show a little respect
I was 99% through writing something about the recent incident at Stratford when my attention was drawn to the BOF December Newsletter, Conduct at Urban Orienteering Events, which covers several incidents where members of the public were, for one reason or another, unhappy about the conduct of orienteers in public spaces.
Then at the weekend, Annie and I were far to close to an orienteer, in a school car park, with his pants down and showing his bottom, in full view of anyone walking past. Note this was a school, with changing facilities. He also had a car but chose, instead, to stand in the road and reveal all. In discussion about these two events, one of our members raised the issue of an orienteer having an outdoor wee, in full view of the queue to the mobile loos. We have all seen it.
These three separate incidents have a common theme; respect. Respect for other orienteers and the children of those orienteers, for members of the public and for yourself. Some of the things that might have been more acceptable (or a blind eye might have been turned) twenty years ago, aren’t any more and the sooner orienteers understand this, the better. Open spaces are busier since Covid, towns are busy all year round and people deserve to be able to enjoy towns and countryside without being barged into or seeing more of a orienteer than they expected to. Saying ‘I’ve got changed at the back of my car for 30 years’ is not a reason to not cover up. And urban orienteering has a higher density of people than the middle of the forest, so we need to watch where we are going.
We need to get a grip on all these behaviours before British Orienteering feel obliged to introduce sanctions to safeguard the public from us, and us from each other, particularly where young people are concerned. Let’s ensure that DVO is never the club behind any of these accusations and let respect be our byword.
Diary Dates 2025
All eyes are on Christmas and Derby Urban (Final Details here), and some of us on a hillside near Belper are addicted to scrolling Fabian as entries increase. But there’s lots happening later on in the winter:
January
Sat 11th Whitworth Park and Darley Dale, 12:30–2pm
(map extended to include Hallmoor Wood and SI timing)
Wed 15th Open Meeting (Church in the Peak, Matlock) 7–9pm
- Chris and John will present on the work of the Development Team.
- Richard will be talking about transforming maps from contours and LIDAR images to what the orienteer would expect to see on the ground.
- Viv will talk about the work of the Orienteering Federation.
Sandwiches provided – please let Simon know if you are going.
February
Sat 8th Belper Parks, 12:30–2pm (SI timing)
Sun 16th Martinshaw and Ratby Woodlands, East Midlands Championships
Sun 23rd Clumber Park ***CompassSport Cup Heat*** Christine will be taking entries in the New Year
March
Sat 1st Brichen Edge EML, 10–12 also British Universities Orienteering Championships*
Sun 2nd Carsington Pasures BUCs Relays (closed event)
Sat 8th Alfreton Park, 12:30–2:30pm (MapRun timing, with kites)
Sun 15th British Middles, Crawley
Sun 16th Worthlodge Forest, UKOL
April
Sat 12th Derby Dracula from Thrivemind Village on Irongate
Sat 17th Eyes Meadow (Duffield), 12:30–2:30pm (MapRun timing, with kites)
Fir 18th Sprint, Sheffield 
Sat 19th Middle, Tankersley
Sun 20th Long, Wharncliffe
Mon 21st Relays, Middleton Park, Leeds
Entries open 21st Dec: https://www.thejk.org.uk/index.php?pg=455
Trip to Sherwood Observatory
Jane noticed that the Sherwood Observatory has just opened. It’s between Mansfield and Kirkby in Ashfield, and details for group visits are here. We’re making enquiries about a DVO visit and will have more details soon. In the meantime you can get your astronomy fix here!
Distant dates for pot hunters!
Sat 10 May British Championships, Grizedale
Sun 11th May British Relay Championships, Bigland
Sat 24th May Ludlow Urban
Sun 25th May Springtime in Shropshire Day 2
Mon 26th May Springtime in Shropshire Day 3
Sat 30th August RAF Honington, British Mixed Sprint Relay Championships
Sun 31st August University of East Anglia, British Sprint Championships
Sun 7th Sept Midlands Championships, Chinley Churn
End of year Results Roundup
UK O League 2025 full schedule:
https://www.ukorienteeringleague.org.uk/page/schedule
UK O League 2024 Results – Club League
DVO were 18th, with the following high scorers
NERIJUS ROZKOVAS (M35), Richard Parkin (M55), Jake O’Donnell (M18), Christine Middleton (W75), Judith Holt (W70), Jen Gale (W75), Derek Gale (M80), Sarah Duckworth (W21), Rachel Duckworth (W21), John Duckworth (M55), Doug Dickinson (M75), Helen Chiswell (W45), Sal Chaffey (W55), Sally Calland (W45), Simon Brister (M75)
UK Urban League
Many of us have enjoyed the UKUL events this year, but only Doug achieved runner-up status! Here are the events for 2025 … your best 8 results count …
We look forward to seeing you in Derby on New Years Day – please bring along any unwanted gifts/donations for the Tombaffle! We’re every excited about using the city centre with it’s bridges, underpasses and alleyways. Assembly is at Derby Rowing Club at the south end of Darley Park. Hot drinks and bacon cobs will be on offer!
Our NYD events have been going a good few years now!
Puzzle Page: Tangled in The Outwoods
Seasonal congratulations to Michelle Mackervoy and Chris Millard for solving the previous puzzle – Maze Craze.
Here is the solution, courtesy of Chris himself:
I did have a perfectly good puzzle lined up for you. The words to use were all sorted out in my head, and I knew how to phrase the puzzle.
Unfortunately, I then decided to “run-up” at The Outwoods, and do the Brown, it being “only” a middle-distance race. My brain became as tangled as the vegetation underfoot.
Here’s what is left of the puzzle in my head:
CCPOOOSLRNAGNTTPAORNNNUUOEILLSEERRRRR
That string of letters is an entanglement of five orienteering-related words. All the letters are still in the right order, but, as you can see, they have all become, well, a mess.
Can you disentangle them? Answers to David before Thursday 20 February please.
