This year we raced on an area new-to-DVO but used some decades ago by MDOC, and a record 54 runners took part. Officials and supporting family swelled the crowd to 70+ on a cracking autumn day! Start times were calculated so that everyone is predicted to finish at noon, making for exciting head-to-head racing not often seen in this country outside of national relays (results here).
This was followed by a bring-and-share lunch at a community room in Buxton, where Ann-Marie presented the championships trophies and our annual awards. In her words:
“Thank you for coming to our very well attended Club Championships. Grin Low is an area that DVO has inherited from MDOC and we will be investing effort to renew the permanent courses and aiming to hold a bigger event in 2027 for more people to enjoy the woods.
I have to acknowledge the effort and help that Jane gave chasing down the access permissions from the Buxton Civic Association (who are a group who really want everyone to enjoy these woods). And Jane’s continuing work with Derbyshire County Council to gain permission to use the grass area around Solomon’s Temple tower.
I would also like to think Chris O’Donnell who planned 3 lovely courses that explored the slopes, depressions and clear woodland. Thank you Chris.
On to the TROPHY presentations:
- The Chris Yardley [quartz] for 1st man across the finish line – Mike Brett
- The Judy Buckley [amethyst] for 1st woman back – Kate Brett
- Peter Bourne [tankard] fastest man – John Duckworth
- Karen Jackson [glass] fastest woman – Sarah Duckworth
- The Lithuanian [amber] goes to the fastest junior – Ben
Now Club AWARDS:
Some of these awards were debated and agreed by the Committee based on the facts and the figures, but some are more about impressions and being an enthusiastic DVO club member.
Orienteer of the year goes to John Duckworth
His trophy count is impressive this year being a champion on so many different orienteering terrains, John is the:
- British Night Champion
- East Midlands Champion
- Midland Champion and…
- best M60 sprint orienteer in the whole world! Well done!
Junior orienteer of the year is Jessica Williams.
She has taken on many challenges this year – and shown how competent an orienteer she is by running well on tough Lakeland or Peak District terrain and the contrasting southern woods in the Compass Sport Cup and Peter Palmer night relay competitions. She is a key junior of the EMJOS East Midlands junior squad – who enthusiastically joins in the training and creating some of the fun that we have when away on squad sessions. She has also planned her first summer event at Eyes Meadow. She moves up to W21 next year – so good luck Jessica.
The Most Improved orienteer is awarded to Austin Rolland.
This is a fact based award based on the BOF rankings and shows that Austin is leaving the rest of us standing! His fitness has improved and he is now a regular Monday Night runner as well as enjoying the MapRun series. His hard work is obviously paying off – well done Austin.
Most Enthusiastic Newcomer to DVO is presented to Matt White.
We love a new member who joins the club and adds a bit of his enthusiasm to our activities. Matt is an energetic and talented coach who is leading our members only coaching series. Welcome Matt and Karen to DVO.
The David Parkin Trophy is for the Volunteer of the year – this year it
goes to Mike Gardner
We all know Mike (if not by name, then by having our runs downloaded) – he does the great job managing the club’s download facility and the team. This year Mike has had to get to grips with a catastrophic system failure at a championship event, new hardware, new software, wind, rain and snow, all with a smile and a commitment to getting results out as quickly as possible. He is also busy with East Midlands Association roles including the EMOA Secretary and editing the excellent EMEWS newsletter. Thank you Mike for all your help.
Newstrack contributor – (Sally Calland) – Some words from Sal Chaffey
Sally has written articles on her trips to Malaga and Maderia as well as the O’ringen in Sweden, and she always enthuses our WhatsApp Group with fun route-choice dilemmas!
Sports Personality Of The Year – tricky. No one is doing memorably stupid things any more!
So, I thought about the challenge at this year’s CompassSport Cup to be the fastest runner from the last control
to the Finish – otherwise known as the Golden Boot sponsored by CompassSport. For those who stayed to the end and the prize giving, you will know my daughter Rachel won the women’s Golden Boot trophy (quite hideous) for the second time, and the men’s competition needed a head to head re-run to decide between 3 men who had the same time! But our DVO award does not go to them.
All 29 DVO members who participated in the competition, were mostly unaware of the importance of resting before that last control to have a burst of speed up the run-in!
Now none of this is statistically correct but I can spin a bit of a yarn on the results – I took all the times and ranked them. Yes Rachel was there at the top, but there were also some notable fast runs by energetic (juniors) Ben, Imogen and Jessica – proving that our very own Tiggers can bounce and fly up the last bit of their course.
But hold-on I hear you say – young legs will always have something in the tank for that last push. SO I then factored in our age class years – seconds divided by years – and the younger wiper snappers dropped well down the list. The biggest mover was Andrew Middleton up 14 places, with Lester and Graham moving 12 and 11 places
respectively.
This extra manipulation of the times did not change the top 3 places:
3rd Richard Parkin, 2nd was Darren Cook, and our very own DVO Sports Personality of the Year and winner of a Golden Orange trophy is James Prince.”
