The officers and committee members for 2022-2023 are listed below. You can contact our Membership Secretary, Treasurer, Chair or Webmaster via our contact form.
O-tobiography to follow
O-tobiography to follow
When did you start orienteering?
I started Orienteering when our family first moved to Shropshire in 1987. It is something I had had a little experience of in school. In those days we stuck coloured stickers from jam jars onto cards to prove we had done the course – how things have changed, especially since the advent of IT-based systems!
I joined Wrekin Orienteers and have never regretted it. My first course was at Madeley Court and I failed to find my first control but persevered and was hooked. In fact I was amazed that more people weren’t attracted to the sport, as it combines physical effort with problem solving! In fact it was effectively a Treasure Hunt where a circle marked the spot instead of an “X”! A quick look round some of our senior competitors shows how it helps with staying active and alert.
I am now retired and less active than before, but I still love the sport and the people who take part. Our club embraces individuals, families and people of all ages and has been very good to me over the years.
What do you do when not orienteering?
Aside from Orienteering I confess to being a Railway Modeller, go Walking and Volunteering, and enjoy most DIY jobs!
How did you start Orienteering?
I started Orienteering with football club coach in 1972, then joined Octavian Droobers, travelling the country on Sundays in self organised car sharing trips
Tell us about your experience as an event organiser, planner and mapper…..
My first organising experience involved persuading a teacher to take a school group to local orienteering events. I’ve held various roles, ShUOC Secretary, on the committees of SYO, LUOC, WYE, WREKIN and was BOF International Committee chairman 1987-92. Crowning glory is WREKIN Chair from 2017 until now
I first planned an event at Kinver Million in 1974 and have been planning and controlling ever since, including the Northern Champs, Junior Home Internationals and SinS. Organisedthe British Universities Championships with ShUOC in 1977.
I began mapping in 1973 by drawing thefirst map of Deffer Woods in 1979, consequently surveying on many maps for a many clubs OD, ShUOC, SYO, LUOC, NGOC, WYE, AIRE.
How have you been able to share your experience with the next generation of orienteers?
In 1977 I was one of the first qualified and recognised BOF Coaches. Since then I have coached at every level from absolute beginners to senior international teams: Leading the grass roots Cawthorne Coaching Collective for SYO in the late 1980s. Acting as Coach and Team Manager for British Junior and Senior teams during the 1980s and 1990s. Setting up an Orienteering curriculum for Weobley School 1995.
What is your biggest orienteering success?
Competitively the first events I won were in 1974 at Symonds Yat, then the West Midlands Schools Championships on The Ercall. I was GB Team Manager and Coach before being selected as a GB Team Member from the mid 1980s to early 1990s. After the mid-1990s with more focus on family and work I have had flickers of competitive success… becoming British Sprint Champion in 2013 and running in England Veteran teams on and off until 2017.
Do your family also orienteer?
None of my children are regular orienteers but all of them still come on family orienteering holidays so there is hope yet.
How and when did you get into orienteering?
My first event was at Swinnerton in Staffordshire, aged 9 years. I began running on my own on the yellow course and progressed to joining the West Midlands Junior Squad as a teen. Whilst certainly not the best orienteer, I enjoyed meeting other juniors and the social side of the sport, learning new skills to help become a better orienteer. Although I think orienteering also taught me resilience, after getting lost spectacularly on many occasions!
I left the sport for some time, returning in 2012 after having my own children. I have really enjoyed participating as an adult, seeing my own children enjoy the sport and joining the West Midland Junior squad, as I did.
What is it you like about orienteering?
I enjoy visiting such interesting areas and locations and experiencing the varying technical challenges they present. I particularly enjoyed running at Newborough Forest in Anglesey, with a mix of woodland and sand dune.
I also love the fact that the sport is open to all ages and generations. It’s fantastic to have my children competing in an event where my 70 year old dad also competes.
Who do you admire in the sport?
I really admire and feel grateful to those who coach within the sport. Those who give up their time to share their own experience and skills to inspire the next generation of orienteers.
When did you start orienteering?
Originally from ‘The Black Country’ near Dudley I became aware of orienteering after seeing an event at Cotwall End Valley, Nr Sedgley.
My first participation in an event was a Red course at Hawkbatch in January 1991, with my brother-in-law. I became hooked and joined HOC a few weeks later as M21. Several years later I enjoyed a British Championship event at Brown Clee (1993)
Since then I have ran over 1000 events. I joined WRE briefly, then returned to HOC and have since rejoined WRE as I now live in Muxton. Elected to the WRE committee 2020 I am a Grade 3 Planner and Controller.
What do you do when not orienteering?
I also enjoy Fell running and cross country and am a member of Telford Athletic Club.
How and when did you get into orienteering?
Aged 7 with my dad, and then on/off for a few years until gaining sufficient confidence to go out alone. I was fortunate to take part in West Midlands Junior Squad activities including residential trips to Scotland and Sweden.
What is it you like about orienteering?
Mindfulness – going out for an ‘ordinary’ run, I find the day-to-day worries seems to pop up and take over. When orienteering the need to focus solely on where you are, and where you need to be, means you arrive at the end with a clear head and the endorphins from being outside and exercising. Add to that the stunning locations you find yourself in and the glimpses of wildlife, which have even included moose!
What is your favourite discipline? (Forest, urban, night, score etc..)
All have their plus points but I love being in open runnable beech forest, or out on exposed moorland where I can see and plan where I’m going. I don’t think anyone enjoys scrub/brambles! Relays and larger events with club tents alongside the finish funnel are great fun.
What is your favourite area you’ve competed at?
I do love Graithwaite in the Lake District, although nearly always get lost. Also enjoyed the French 5 Days in 2019 – having got there by sleeper train added to the experience.
In Shropshire, Brown Clee is great for a technical challenge and the Long Mynd for training with long distances and hill climbs.
Who do you admire in the sport?
When you see an elite glide effortlessly past you in the woods (usually when you’re dragging yourself out of a ditch or bramble patch), its hard not to be very impressed! However I admire most those who give up their time tirelessly to organise, plan and help at events, sometimes not even taking part themselves – without such volunteers we wouldn’t have any events.
What would you change in orienteering?
The carbon footprint – most events are advertised for people arriving by car. I’d like to see events on Saturdays when public transport works better and for organisers to consider public transport or group/coach transport from key hubs and provide shelter for changing when at events. This would have the benefit of opening up more areas, as finding adequate car parking is usually harder than planning the actual orienteering event.
The image and low profile. In Scandinavian countries it’s a national sport. It combines exercise with interest and varied terrain. With electronic punching and GPS its also a great spectator sport. I’d love to see it introduced properly in schools as a sport, not just as tick box on the curriculum. However we need a lot more people power and probably funding to do so.
Do you have any orienteering ambitions or Targets?
Probably the same as most orienteers – get faster, become more accurate, be able to get to more events (by public transport!).
Other interests – what do you do when you’re not orienteering?
Fell running, cycle touring, generally being outdoors
O-tobiography to follow
O-tobiography to follow
With a “palmares” of trophies: nil, medals: nil, I will freely admit to being more “enthusiast” than “high flyer”, but this wonderful sport of ours has had me hooked since my first event. That was way back in the mid 1970s, when I was in my teens: a “come and try it” event put on by POTOC to coincide with the Stone Festival on the Downs Banks, an area I knew well from family walks. I mispunched, not realising that the control code on the descriptions had to match the two letters written on the flag – lesson learned! Ever since, I have been searching for that elusive “perfect run”.
After my teenage years, being ferried to events by my dad (who, by the way, was then a colleague of Wrekin legend and UltraSport founder Ken Broad), my next spell of orienteering started in my post-grad days in Cardiff, and continued briefly after I moved to the Reading area.
Following a lengthy enforced break, I returned to the sport with Walton Chasers in the “noughties”, before moving to Shropshire and joining Wrekin in 2018. While I was away, the sport had exchanged master maps, map bags, punch cards and SAEs for pre-printed water-proof maps, SI cards and on-line results within hours – quite a change!
I’m conscious that ours is a wholly volunteer-driven sport, and have been a helper in a variety of roles, beginning with checking pin-punches on control cards, later registration, car parking and currently download (a strange sort of circle!), plus recently taking on maintenance and development of this web site. I also take an interest in the technologies becoming available to the sport, such as GPS based “virtual” orienteering courses – although I very much hope we won’t lose the car-park “de-brief”!