The BOF (British Orienteering Federation) members among you will have noticed the financial problems that BOF is experiencing and the possible course of action they are proposing to take and how it may affect members. But how could it affect club-only members?

The increase in the event levy payable to BOF will only have a small affect on event charges (about 10p per competitor at colour coded events) but there are some signs that there could be a surcharge on non-BOF members of as much as £2.00 per competitor. Would this encourage the club-only members to join BOF or to vote with their feet and stop orienteering? The committee is here to represent your views on such matters, if you have any comments then please contact us.

Joining BOF costs a senior £12.75 and a family £19.10 on top of the club fee. BOF is keen to increase its membership (especially from junior and M/W21) thus increasing revenue. If you would like to join BOF and contribute to orienteering in Britain then contact Anne Duncumb about BOF membership.

Neil & Pauline Humphries

Email: NeilHumphries@compuserve.com

The views expressed in Jabberwaoc do not necessarily represent those of the Committee Members or the Editors

Well, not a lot of chat this time (you'll be relieved to hear). We, er, just missed the Icenian and the first round of the CompassSport Cup, losing to NOR by a (not very narrow) margin of 28 points. Ah well, there's always next year! Moving quickly on...

The business of the AGM is recorded elsewhere in Jabberwaoc. But I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who turned up and especially to Hally and Lindsey who organised the games.

The O-season is now well under way, with badge events nearly every week and plenty of colour-coded to come. I'll probably be at many of the events, so I'll look forward to seeing you at the East Anglian Champs, Rowney Warren colour-coded, the JK, the British Orienteering Champs, and many more.

Enjoy your Orienteering.

Dave

It might seem like a long way off, but if you're thinking about going to the 1999 Scottish 6-days, which this time, uniquely, is coupled with the World Orienteering Championships (WOC), you should start thinking about your accommodation requirements NOW.

Highland '99 / WOC '99 will be held in the Inverness area between 31 July and 8 August 1999. Accommodation could be in short supply as there will be about 5000 Orienteers there, and its also prime holiday time in Scotland. Many regular visitors to Scotland who go there this summer will be booking their 1999 accommodation during their 1998 holidays so, by this summer, accommodation will already be being booked up. Get in there first - book now!

If you've not been to the Scottish 6-days before, you really should give it a go. The competition is effectively 6 badge events spread over an 8-day period, on the best Orienteering terrain in the UK. And, on this unique occasion, you'll also get to see the World's best Orienteers in action. There's always a good, friendly atmosphere, and the club tent will be pitched at each event where you can meet other WAOC competitors, leave kit etc.

For those of you who enjoy the healthy outdoor life, you can avoid the accommodation problems by staying on the event campsite. There will be plenty of WAOC people there too!

As well as taking part, WAOC will be helping in this mammoth event - just the usual on-the-day tasks of an O-event, but on a much larger scale. We'll probably only be helping on one day, and you'll still get a chance to run. More information will be available closer to the event. Last year, over 50 WAOC members went to the 6-days - why don't you join us in 1999!

Well get the bad news over first. We lost in style to NOR in the CompassSport Cup, 52 points to 80. It was a bit disheartening that many of our best orienteers were otherwise occupied on the day, either being involved with the running of the event or elsewhere. However a big thank you to everyone that did run. We did win the Orange course and they say the future is orange!! So things must be looking up!! Maximum points scorers for us were Richard Beard (Blue) and Helen Gardner (Orange).

There are very few Badge Events on the East Anglian calendar but one such event occurred at High Lodge in January. There were a lot of good performances by WAOC members, with the following achieving Gold times.

This shows the number of good orienteers we have in the club. I hope we didnt miss anyone out.

Relays

Following our article in the last Jabberwaoc a few keen folk let us know they wished to run in the JK Relays. However with the deadline for pre entries looming we had a meagre number of teams. Knowing that a lot of you were intending to trek over to the home of the dragon, Sue set about phoning those potential trekkers. We have now a total of 12 teams with a Trophy team taking shape too. Sue and I would like to make a plea that if you wish to run a relay think ahead and let us know, it would save a lot of hard work, and our telephone bill!! There are more relay entries to be done which include both the British and the Harvester.

British Relays

There are no less than 24 classes to choose from, so we are not going to list them here. The relays are being held at Mytchett, which from memory should be an excellent venue. So if you want to compete let us know ASAP.

Harvester

The Harvester is being held in our neck of the woods this year, at Downham and Thetford Warren. As it is so local and we will be having a major input in helping at this event, we should be able to muster up several teams. There is an A and B race. The A teams require 7 runners with a start time of 11.00pm. The B teams require 5 runners and starts at 12.45am. It is excellent fun and sheds a whole new light (so to speak) on an area that is familiar to most of us. Give us a ring and guarantee your slot.

Bits and Pieces

Don't forget we have the stock of WAOC goodies, O tops, bottoms, sweatshirts, stickers, coasters, mugs etc. We normally take as much as possible to WAOC events, so we will see you all at Rowney Warren on 5 April (EAGAL event).

Enjoy your orienteering,

Roger & Sue Orpin

Hello from your new club coach!

Let me start by saying that I have not taken this post because I believe I know any more about orienteering than the rest of you (indeed many of you could teach me a lot), but because I have the desire to improve my own orienteering technique and the enthusiasm to do something about it.

In case you don't know me, I'm the small W21 who goes to local events most weekends during the winter and also to those big events further afield such as the JK, the White Rose, and, last year for the first time, the Scottish 6 days. I've been orienteering for about 6 years, although I went very casually for the first 3, and I have been a member of WAOC for the last 3 years. During that time I have been on 2 training courses, the first in the Lake District about 2 years ago when I found out what form lines and attack points were. Since then I think my orienteering has improved quite a lot.

I have some ideas for training events, but would welcome advice and help from any of you experienced orienteers. I would like to organise some training exercises on a local area to be held probably on a Saturday and to organise a weekend trip to some technical terrain, such as the Lake District, and invite a "good orienteer" to give us all some coaching. I think we could also all benefit from some post-event analysis such as discussing route choices over a pint. There will also be a regular slot in Jabberwaoc in which some parts of maps with interesting legs can be printed and have a discussion on the best way to attack them. I could also organise some armchair exercises or seminars. I would like to get a feel for what sort of training you would like, as I don't want to spend lots of time organising a training event if no one turns up. Please fill in the form enclosed to indicate which of these styles of training you would be interested in attending and/or contributing to, and send it to me at:

Julia's address removed from the web version of Jabberwaoc

or hand it to me at the next event. If I don't get any responses I won't be organising anything!

I hope many of you will share my desire to improve your own orienteering and participate in the training events I will organise. Here's to a better faster WAOC!

Julia Carpenter

Hello everyone. Some of you will already know, but most of you probably will not, that I have recently taken over the task of mapping co-ordinator from Peter Duncumb. Now Peter has looked after our clubs maps for the past five years and I suspect he was just a little sad to part with his precious collection after all that time. We should be very grateful to him for keeping them in such good order. Also, I am particularly indebted to him for all the benefit of his experience that he has so willingly passed on to me.

Naturally, I would not have considered following in his footsteps unless I was seriously enthusiastic about maps. They are of course fairly fundamental to our sport. We might well manage without a compass, and indeed one of those very eye-catching WAOC tops, but we can't orienteer at all without a map! Well, we turn up at an event and there is the map, pretty much taken for granted. We pay our entry fee and off we go. Usually everything is fine, but sometimes we think it might have been better had we not had to copy up ten map corrections before starting, had that path we mistakenly followed for 200m actually been marked on the map or had that vegetation boundary been in the right place!

If you have ever had any thoughts like these, then there is something that you can do to improve things. Any club member can become involved in mapping, and it does benefit your orienteering too, as it makes you far more aware of all the map detail, and the criteria used to identify the mapped features. Ah, you say, but I can't do that. Surely, its a specialist job. Well, no. In fact, many orienteering maps are made by amateurs, employing mainly common sense, their past experience of using maps, a fair amount of enthusiasm and OCAD. The latter is an easy to learn PC drawing program, which very cleverly turns surveying information into proper O-maps. The surveying and cartography, although clearly closely linked to achieve the final product, are separate parts of the mapping process and can quite easily be undertaken by different people. So, there is a lot you can do to help, even if you dislike computers!

Existing maps are constantly in need of updating, and maps of new areas, large and small, are always being sought. If you would like to get mixed up in all this then please let me know. I can be found at most events, or you can phone or email me.

Fred Northrop

1997 events proved very successful and I'm hoping that, like last year, the organisers will volunteer so I've presented a list of dates/venues so that anyone willing to have a go can choose what suits them.

Available dates: 27 May, 24 June, 12 August, 9 September

Available areas:	West:	Ampthill Park
		Bedford Park
		Priory Park
	South	Rowney Wood (use early opportunity due to undergrowth)
		Therfield Heath
		Harlton (after June)
	Central	Milton Country Park
	Northern	Hinchingbrooke Park

These are all very light hearted and low key, anyone unsure about their abilities to either plan or organise will find them ideal to cut their teeth on! The more experienced folk seem to enjoy doing them simply as a change from the usual event. If someone is unsure about doing one on their own then I will willingly give them a hand. Please call and put your bids in.

Lindsey mailto:Halandlin@aol.com

This year's event is being hosted by the East Anglian OA (our region) at Downham & Thetford Warren Nr. Thetford on 16/17 May.

These relays start during the night with most of the legs being run during darkness (depending on the speed of your team!). There are 2 competitions as detailed below with various lengths and chances of running in darkness. The Start and Finish are close to the High Lodge centre which will be open all night. There will also be camping available in a nearby field for those who can't make it through the whole night.

WAOC has enjoyed (?) various levels of success (and failure) over the years in this competition so why not give it a go. If you would like to enter contact the club captains, Roger & Sue Orpin, who will be more than happy to accept your entry and make up a team.

As the region is running the event, they will need helpers to run the finish. I will be co-ordinating the volunteers from WAOC, so if you are competing and have an hour to spare then please contact me.

Neil Humphries

The WAOC Championship Gallopen is now off the ground, with the first event being the Mildenhall colour-coded event held on 1 February. Since there has only been one event, all class leaders currently have 1000 points, but some classes are likely to be closely contested over the next few months.

Follow this link for the current points table.

Remember that this Gallopen will be used to determine the Club Champions. Championship Gallopen events are WAOC's colour-coded events. All WAOC competitors will score points, you don't need to run on specific courses - just run on your normal colour-coded class. (We may need to adjust the rules slightly, in particular, it might be necessary to amalgamate some classes with very few runners. We'll see what happens over the next few events.)

The next Championship Gallopen event is the colour-coded event on 5 April at Rowney Warren

I omitted Peter Ryall of WAOC from the Blue Results (I must have just skipped over the stub when I was typing them in). Peter comes in 41^st at 81:34, within the Par time which remains unchanged.

On Sunday, 4 January, Dave, Steve Hardy and Clive Baker (NOR) won the Peddars Way Relay (PWR).

The PWR is an annual event organised by NOR Orienteering club and is a 46 mile relay race along the long distance footpath from Knettishall Heath near Thetford, to Holme-next-the-Sea on the North Norfolk coast. Its not an orienteering event, as the route is signposted, but its not marshalled and the route isn't always obvious, so it helps to have done some homework of the course beforehand.

We've run the race twice before, and so know the route pretty well. We also carry a guidebook map of the route with us, which sometimes helps. The rules of the event are simple: teams are made up of 3 runners (4 for all-women teams); you must compete on foot; and each runner must run at least 10 miles (8 for women). What the rules do not say, and where all the tactics come in, is how you should split up the 46 miles between you. Our strategy is to split the distance into 15 separate stages: we each run a 5.5 - 6 mile stage, then we each run a 3.5 - 4 mile stage, and so on, reducing the distances each time. This works very well: since your longest distance is no more than 10km, you tend to run the whole race at 10k pace or better and, as you finish each stage, you know the next one will be shorter, giving a good psychological boost. Mind you, the last 1 mile stage is still pretty gruelling! Other teams split the race into different numbers of stages, and different distances. Some teams simply run three stages of 15 miles each, but it isn't very efficient.

Of course, there are constraints: the Peddars Way is basically an old Roman road. About 30% is along tarmac'ed roads, the rest is off-road, along farm tracks and woodland trails. You need to plan your changeovers to coincide with points where the Roman road crosses tarmac'ed roads, so you can get your next runner there. Occasionally, because the car often has to detour much further than the runner, its touch-and-go whether the car will get to the changeover before the runner does!

The race is handicapped, with your start time dependent on the total age of your team. This year 12 teams took part, with the first teams starting at 8:33 and the last team starting at 10am. We started at 9:30, with three teams behind us. There were three teams from road-running clubs, four from NOR, and four I'm not sure about!

Clive started off for us, and covered the 10km in 45:13, handing over to me at Wretham. I ran the next 9km (5.6 miles) in 37:15, and claimed the first scalp, overtaking a team that had started 10 minutes ahead. So far the weather had been fine but with a strengthening tail wind. Just as I arrived at the changeover the rain started and boy did it rain! Diving into the car I watched as Steve set off battling against the weather. The temperature had dropped dramatically and the rain was coming down horizontally. And that wasn't the only bit of bad news: Clive turned to me, "I've pulled a muscle", he said. "I'm not sure how much further I can go. At least if I can complete the next stage I'll have done my 10 miles and you can split the rest between you". Great. We set off to the next changeover.

We drove to South Pickenham and waited for Steve. It was still pouring down, but just as Steve arrived, the rain eased. Clive set off and Steve climbed into the car. He was pretty philosophical: "Well that was pretty grim, but you'll both get your fair share, the weather's definitely turned for the worse". He was wrong, it didn't rain again for the rest of the day (tee hee!). The wind remained pretty strong but, for most of the way, it was behind us rather than against us, and was pretty helpful at times.

The next few stages were uneventful: Clive managed to run through his injury and, in fact, speeded up; and Steve overtook a runner coming out of Castle Acre. 5km further on, teams were beginning to bunch up, with 5 teams separated by only a few minutes. Feeling remarkably fresh, I set off on our 8^th stage (my 3^rd) along a gently undulating part of the course. Heading downhill, I could see the Wymondham runner climbing the next hill. As I reached the top of the hill, I could see a runner just ahead, but it wasn't Wymondham, it was Steve Searle of "Tim's Tubbies", one of the NOR teams, friendly rivals in the race. I passed Steve at the top of the hill and stretched out in front of me was a runner from the NOR women's team and the Wymondham runner, now leading the group. Flying down the hill, I overtook the women's team, but just missed catching the Wymondham runner before handing over to Steve.

Steve takes up the story: "As there was a Wymondham runner seconds ahead of me and Tim Eden [having substituted for Steve Searle] seconds behind me I took this fairly fast, i.e. eyeballs out. Easily overtook Wymondham and made ground on Tim". Steve's stage was 2.5km (1.6 miles) and finished at Harpley Dams, the second official checkpoint of the course. The interim results showed that there were now only the two Norwich Road Runners teams in front of us, and they weren't far ahead. Clive set off in pursuit whilst Steve and I drove to the next changeover.

We arrived at the changeover just in time to see the first NRR runner come through, followed 3 minutes later by the other one. Estimating when Clive's due to arrive, Steve commented "that second one's catchable, but we're running out of time to catch the first". Suddenly we saw Clive, 2.5 minutes earlier than expected. I tore off my jacket and leapt out of the car, only just ready for the handover, and set off after the two Norwich runners. As it turns out, the Norwich runners were tiring rapidly, and I managed to overtake both on the 3 mile stage. We're in the lead! And there's less than 8 miles to go. Steve took over and increased the lead, completing his 2.7 mile stage 3.5 minutes faster than the previous year. He hands over to Clive for his final stage, running into Ringstead.

My last stage is short, just 1.3 miles, but its uphill and, briefly, straight into the wind. Arriving at Ringstead Windmill, I hand over to Steve for the final stage, and victory is in sight. We believe we've got a 2 or 3 minute lead over the Norwich Road Runners but, as a precaution, Clive and I track Steve along the final mile - if they catch up, we'll do an emergency switch of me for Steve. As it happens, its not necessary, despite the Road Runners switching their own runners three times in the last mile in a desperate attempt to catch us. They fail, and Steve crosses the line, still 2:38 minutes ahead.

The handicap trophy is in the bag, with a winning time of 5:18:35, but there's still the trophy for "fastest team" to go for. Only the teams that started behind us can take it away from us. A nail-biting half-hour follows, but eventually its confirmed, we're also the fastest team overall. We've won the double!

The results:

Our totals:

Many thanks to Nicky Nicholls, Pat Martin, the Goldsworthy and Bedder families for organising a great event!

Held on February 28 1998 at Springfield House, Stevenage.

1. Apologies for absence were received from:

2. Chairman's report

3. Acceptance of accounts

   In the absence of the Treasurer, the Chairman invited questions and comments on the 1997 accounts (circulated with the AGM agenda) and the proposed 1998 budget (circulated at the meeting).

   There were no comments from the meeting.

   Catherine Sowerby proposed that the accounts be accepted and this was seconded by Peter Duncumb. The meeting accepted the accounts unanimously.

4. Election of Officers

   The Chairman, Dave Wotton; the Secretary, Anne Duncumb; and the Treasurer, Alan Milne were re-elected, unopposed.

5. Awards/Presentations

   Club Champions

   Junior men:	Peter Gardner	Junior women:	Penny Bickle
   Senior men:	Neil Humphries	Senior women:	Catherine Sowerby
   Veteran men:	Malcolm Mann	Veteran women:	Maureen Weldon

   Handicap trophy Helen Gardner

   Tortoise trophy Hally Hardie

   Awarded by the Chairman in recognition of Hally's service to the Club, in many areas.

   EAGAL class winners for 1997 were:

   Martin Humphries	M10	Bob Hill	M40
   Peter Gardner	M12	Colin Curtis	M60
   Stephen Lawson	M16	Leonie Brown	W16
   Neil Humphries	M35	Penny Bickle	W18

   Those who were present were presented with their trophies

6. Any other business

CUOC are planning a series of Street-O's in Cambridge on Tuesday evenings, to which all WAOC members are invited. Details are as follows:

All events are on Tuesday evenings with staggered starts from 5.30pm to 6.00pm

                 Week 1 : 21st April  : 3 Chesterton Lane
                 Week 2 : 28th April  : Lammas Land Pavilion
                 Week 3 : 5th  May    : Jesus Green Pavilion
                 Week 4 : 12th May    : Abbey Pool car park
                 Week 5 : 19th May    : Churchill College Porters Lodge
                 Week 6 : 26th May    : 17 Cranmer Road