Glen Richardson

  • Success at British Schools Orienteering Championships

    Success at British Schools Orienteering Championships

    Junior club captain Steven Denby fulfilled a long-held ambition on Sunday by winning the British Schools Championships. Steven first competed at this competition when he was in year 7 in 2012. In that time he has come 13th, 2nd, 5th, 3rd, 10th, 3rd, and now, in his last year, he has finally won the gold medal.

    This year’s competition took place in Blackburn, and Steven set the leading time of 39:29 early on. We then had a nervous wait of over an hour while everyone else tried to beat him. Matthew Clarke from SUFFOC was always going to be one of the big threats, so when he posted 41:42 we started to believe this could be Steven’s year.

    Eventually it was confirmed that Steven had won, and was declared the Year 13 British Schools Orienteering Champion for 2018, emulating Ella Gilbert’s win in 2015. Following on from the Jukola and the Compasssport Final, it was great to see NOR and SUFFOC together on the podium. There were also impressive 6th place finishes for the Bartram brothers, and 5 juniors made their debut at this level.

    Full results can be seen here. EDP article is here.

  • CompassSport Cup Final – How did we do?

    CompassSport Cup Final – How did we do?

    We made our first ever appearance in the CompassSport Cup final on Sunday, held by Walton Chasers at Abraham’s Valley. While the final result reflected our status as debutants, we can at least now say we’ve been to the final. And Tom Bartram ensured that NOR got plenty of airtime from the commentators. Tom led the run-in competition for a considerable chunk of the day, and was joined in a share of the lead by Steven Denby and myself, before finally being pipped for the Golden Boot by 1 second by last year’s British Sprint Champion. Still, 2nd out of 1017 isn’t bad.

    Results can be found at Walton Chasers Website

    Some of us had waited a long time for the chance to appear in the final, and thought it might never happen. So many thanks are due to everyone who ran so well in the qualifying heat, back at Shouldham Warren in March. Thanks also to everyone who made the long journey to Cannock Chase, ensuring we had a team of 35 on the day.

  • Competition Update

    Competition Update

    As many of you are aware by now, Ella Gilbert has been over on the continent recently, as a member of the England Orienteering team. As if this wasn’t impressive enough in itself, Ella managed to come 2nd in the competition, beating all opponents from France, Belgium and Holland, and finishing runner-up behind one of her England team-mates. Ella’s result helped England to win the junior and women’s team competitions. Many many congratulations to Ella on this magnificent achievement.

    Not one to put her feet up, Ella was straight back into action on her return home, at the British Night Championships in Leicestershire on Saturday night. This time Ella had to settle for 4th place. I also came 4th in my own age group, and I have to say it was a thoroughly baffling but exhilarating experience. If you’ve never tried orienteering at night, I would strongly recommend it.

    GlenMidlandChampsA few more of us were in action on Sunday at the Midland Championships in Sherwood Forest. On this occasion we had 3 winners – Ella on W18, myself on M35 and Peter Leverington on M80. We also had Jonathan Gilbert 3rd on M55 and Helen Lloyd 4th in an incredibly close W55 race.

    This weekend sees Ella in action again (surprise surprise). This time she will be captaining the NOR team in the Yvette Baker Trophy heat at Hockham. We have our largest and strongest team for many years, and with home advantage, our juniors have every reason to be confident as they take on the other clubs from around the region.

  • Club Championships

    Congratulation to the winners at the club championships on Sunday at King’s Forest, kindly hosted by SUFFOC. Thanks to a few gremlins in the technology, we weren’t able to calculate the overall results on the day, so the trophies will be presented at the next NOR event, at Lynford on 13th December. There were concerns that the new system would favour young, fast people. I’m sure Barbara and Mick will be happy to be described in such terms. Well done to you both. The winners are as follows:

    Carol Towler Salver – fastest age-graded female

    1st Barbara George
    2nd Kim Eden
    3rd Nicky Nicholls

    Barry Chilvers Cup – fastest age-graded male

    1st Mick Liston
    2nd Ian Renfrew
    3rd John Ward
    4th David Ball
    5th Paul Price

    And the age group winners (non-handicapped)

    Fastest male – Ian Renfrew
    Fastest female – Kim Eden
    M14 – Steven Denby
    W14 – Katja Ruda
    M45+ – Ian Renfrew
    W45+ – Nicky Nicholls
    M55+ – Ian Shepherd
    W55+ – Kim Eden
    M65+ – Mick Liston
    W65+ – Barbara George
    Fastest run-in – John Ward

    At the same time, some club members were running the Norwich Half Marathon in particularly unpleasant conditions. Well done to Jan Kaiser who came 37th in a time of 1:20, and Sam Nicholls, who did 1:30, not bad for a junior!

    For those who do enjoy running without a map occasionally, the Norfolk cross-county championships are at the UEA playing fields on Saturday 5th December. See here for more details