October News

Fingal Orienteers take Leinster Inter-Club trophy competition.
A surprise result saw north county Dublin club Fingal Orienteers snatch the Leinster inter-club trophy from under the noses of CNOC and GEN at Corkagh Park, Clondalkin, on September 20th.
The event format has changed from year to year, ranging from a full-scale event, through score formats to this year's sprint, with equal points being awarded in every age class.
The club scores were
FIN 1383
CNOC 1360
GEN 1047
3ROC 927
AJAX 490
SET 320
The excellent new map by Pat Healy showed the area to be ideal for this type of race: the area had been mapped some years ago but the park has grown and matured in the meantime from the bleak, fairly featureless terrain it once was.
The photo shows David Healy of the organising club, GEN, presenting the trophy to Val Jones of Fingal. (Photo: Finn Van Gelderen).
One side effect of winning the trophy in the past was that the winners had to organise the event the following year. See the individual results here. More details on the GEN site here.

Northern Ireland Mountain Bike O-Championships postponed
It is regretted that due to access problems LVO have been forced to postpone the MTBO Champs which were to be held at Castlewellan forest on 10th October, (not 10th November as stated in an earlier TIO blog - Ed.). It is hoped to re-stage the event near the end of November so keep an eye out for that!!



Munster Champs closing date reminder
The closing date for the Munster Championships at Toureen Wood, Ballydavid, near Cahir in Co. Tipperary on November 1st is Wednesday 14th October. For Dublin orienteers, there's motorway most of the way now, so you should make it in two hours or less ... Enter on-line here.

Teaser: Here's a question for you: Which is the odd one out: Munster Championships, Connacht Championships, Leinster Championships, Northern Ireland Championships? (Answer at the bottom of the page).

Junior Squad Train
The Irish Junior Squad had another intensive training weekend on October 10th/11th, starting with the well-established time trials in Dublin's Phoenix Park. If anyone tells you that the Park is flat, just ask any of the juniors who gave their all running laps of the gruelling circuit in the Furry Glen! This was followed by compass work training at Massey's Estate (beside the Hellfire Club) on Saturday afternoon, and more technical exercises at Knockree Youth Hostel that evening. Sunday's training brought the squad to the open mountainside of Trooperstown Hill and finished in the mixed Scandinavian or Scottish-style forest beside the Avonmore River.
Once again, all due to the efforts of IOA Juniors Officer, Ruth Lynam.
Read more about the Junior Squad here.

Busy weekend in November
The weekend of November 14-15th is a busy one for orienteers: the Veteran Home International takes place in the Peak District of Derbyshire between Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales; there is an OCAD computer-mapping course in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, given by Pat Healy (Details here); some Irish runners are going to the annual street-O event in Venice (read about it here); and local events at Ross Castle (Killarney), Corrin Hill (Fermoy) and the Glen of the Downs (Wicklow).

Teaser: The odd one out is the Munster Championships. It's the only one to have always been run in the area described by its title. We've had the Leinster Champs in Ulster (Monaghan, 2009), the Connacht Champs in Leinster (Offaly) and Ulster (Donegal), and the recent Northern Ireland Championships in Cavan, in the Republic!