Fingal News 2012

The Leinster Autumn League is just complete, after 5 tough events. There are 2 Fingal prizewinners, Jean O'Neill first on the Green course, and Katya Gatova, 2nd girl on the Yellow.

Our own League event went off well in Castlemorris. The worst of the rain only arrived when we were collecting the controls. Not all Leinster orienteers travelled to Kilkenny, however the WatO contingent made up the numbers, and we even had one visitor from Greenland. He was encouraging us to go to his event in Nuuk! We had many compliments on the new map, including that we could have kept it for a Leinster Champs, and that it was good to get some decent forest orienteering. The top runners on the Brown liked having a 1:15000 scale. There were some complaints of course about the brambles. However most mixed Irish forests of this type have some brambles, especially after a wet summer. The brambles were no worse than our other forest maps such as Dun A Ri, DerryCassin, Rossmore, or Castletown. The times on the Green and Orange in particular were longer than expected. The Brown was planned to be a tough course, but the times on it were also a bit longer than expected.

Thanks to Sarah for organising, and getting access to the parking area from Coillte, which was nice and convenient on the day. Thanks to Ian for doing SI and overcoming some computer glitches on the day. (Downloading a patch by phone on the day may be a first.) Thanks to the other club stalwart members who helped out, Dave, Bernie, Jean, Mick O'Keeffe, Val (planner), Ciana Ciara, and Anna. Thanks also to Andrew Cox of WatO for controlling.

The next Fingal event is a Leinster Autumn League event in Castlemorris, County Kilkenny, on November 18th, a new area surveyed this year by Val and Tommy. It is just off exit 10 on the M9, near Knocktopher, and will be signposted from that exit. As usual, 6 courses will be available on the day, from a 2K Yellow course to a > 9 K Brown. Entry is on the day, registration will be from 11.00 until 13.00. We will be using SI, bring an SI card if you have one otherwise you can rent one.

The forest is a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees, young and old, and there is some undergrowth in places. Lidar data was used for the contours, although there is not a lot of intricate contour detail. There are some rock features in the higher sections.

<- Brian Farren starting the Leinster Championships at Carraig Na Seabhac

Tough Leinster Championships at Carraig Na Seabhac in Wicklow. Fingal Prize winners were Leinster M16 Champion, Donal Kearns, and Ciaran Kearns, 2nd M12.

Great final 2012 Scatter League event today at Malahide Castle. We had over 200 competitors, everyone enjoyed the courses planned by Steven McNamee, the Barbeque went down very well, and the weather stayed dry. Prize giving for the League took place at 13.45, thanks to Alex for calculating the scores. Thanks to Anthony, Claire, and Bernie for running the Barbeque, and thanks to all who helped at this event and the other scatter events. Looking forward to next year, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, or favourite venues, please email us.

League prizewinners were as follows
Long Course - Male 1st Angus Tyner, 2nd Jonathan Quinn, 3rd Paul Keville
Long Course - Female 1st Heather Wood, 2nd Kathryn Walley, 3rd Bernie O'Boyle
Medium Course - Male 1st Alex Bogomoletz, 2nd David Quinn, 3rd Eamon O'Briain
Medium Course - Female 1st Eileen Young, 2nd Aine Ní Shúileabhán, 3rd Sandra Velthuis
Medium Course - Junior Male 1st Ciarán Kearns, 2nd Paul Gillen, 3rd Roy Harford
Medium Course - Junior Female 1st Eadaoin McCavana, 2nd Zoe Tyner
Short Course - Junior Male 1st Darragh Young, 2nd Cian Wickham, 3rd Dexter Hodkinson
Long Course - Junior Female 1st Sinead Kearns, 2nd Sinead Young, 3rd Cliodhna Donaghy

2012 Final Scatter League Table.

Click here for Malahide Results.

The final 2012 Scatter League event takes place next Sunday at Malahide Castle. Parking and Registration is in the car park on the left just inside the main gate. Registration from 11.00 with all courses starting at 12.00. There will also be a Barbeque afterwards, and the league prize giving.

The event in Tolka Valley park, Blanchardstown, went off very well. Everyone was very positive about the new map to the ISSOM Sprint standard. The map was produced for us by Laurence Quinn of GEN, who also planned the event. Ian organised and controlled the event, and did great work with the logistics. The numbers at the event were somewhat disappointing, perhaps because Blanchardstown is a new area for us and we haven't contacts with local scout groups and others. Unfortunately too the car park was closed and people had to park in the Blanchardstown center car park.

Click here for Results from Tolka Valley, Blanchardstown.

The event in Rivervalley went off well. We were most grateful to the scouts who set up their marquee for us and a large number took part. Unfortunately one control couldn't be put out because of a crowd of intoxicated youths who had probably been in the park all night. Thanks to Rory for planning the event, and Dave for organisinf and controlling

Click here for Results from River Valley, Swords

Click here for Results from DCU/Hampstead Park

Over 130 took part on a fine Sunday morning. Most people enjoyed the short sprint-style courses, although there were a few comments on the map. Thanks to alex and Bernie for planning and organising.

<- Fiach carrying the Olympic Torch in Wales

The Fingal Scatter Event League returns in September. The events are as follows

Sept 2nd	Hampstead Park/Albert College/DCU	Glasnevin
Sept 9th	Ward River Valley Park	Swords
Sept 16th	Tolka Valley Park	Blanchardstown
Sept 23th	Malahide Castle Demesne	Malahide

The event in Dalgan Park on Sunday 10th June went very well. Thanks to Kathryn for planning and organizing the event, and also for having us back to her house afterwards. There were over 120 entries, many were groups and most were local adults and juniors. The weather was also nice and warm which made it all the more enjoyable. Click here for Results

There were 2 Fingal prizewinners at the Irish 3-day in Connemara, Jean O'Neill 1st W65 and Val Jones 1st M55. A very relaxed and enjoyable weekend of orienteering on very typical west of Ireland complex contour terrain, very wet underfoot. The weather wasn't great on the first 2 days but picked up nicely on the Monday. Great credit is due to the small team in Connaught who put on the event and put in a lot of time and effort over the 3 days, and I'm sure many weeks preparation beforehand.
Click here for results
Click here for photos

Apologies for the mishaps at the event in Ardgillan Park on Sunday, May 27th. We were nearly going to cancel the event because of the bicycle race, but decided to go ahead because we thought access out of the park would only be closed while the 'peleton' passed, not that it would be closed for 2 hours. But what we didn't know was that the west side of the park would be completely closed off, for a scout camp that wasn't taking place until the following weekend! It essentially ruined the compass challenge corses that Eamon had planned. I hope everyone who came got some enjoyment out of the hastily planned sprint 'RetrO' course. (RetrO - going back to the last century to copying a course down from a master map and punching a card, what a concept!) Nevertheless the day was really nice and those of us who didn't get out before the bike race enjoyed sitting around in the sun. Click here for results

The Irish Championships went off well over the May bank holiday weekend, in spite of the controversy. Not that many Fingal members made the journey to Kerry. Club prize winners were W60 Long Jean O'Neill, M45 Long Ingus Rektins, W60 Middle distance Jean O'Neill. The Kearns brothers team was 2nd on the Junior 48 relay.

Our weekend away, in a corner of the country that took in 4 counties, was a great success. We spent the Saturday training in Derrycassin, Co. Longford, then stayed the night up the road in the Breffni Arms Hotel, Arvagh, Cavan, then on the Sunday took in the Setanta event in Mulaghmeen on the Westmeath/Meath border.

For our training day we split the group into beginners and improvers. Bernie, Jean, Kathryn, and Anyta, as well as Roxanne White, took care of the beginners, mostly younger children, mainly just introducing them to the whole idea of following a map and recognising features, with a few fun exercises thrown in. For the improvers, aimed at people moving to a Light Green or higher course, Alex did some warmup exercises, then Val and Dave did pacing, compass work, a contour exercise, a corridor exercise, and finally a route choice exercise. Only 2, Ian and Brian, lasted to complete the full route choice exercise. A total of 30 took part including 12 juniors. Derrycassin was ideal for training, with a variety of forest and some contour detail. Some clearing has taken place since the event last year and the forest was a bit rougher underfoot, but hopefully we'll be able to get another event out of it.

We were very grateful to the Breffni Arms for giving us a good rate for the weekend and a great evening meal and breakfast, as well as plenty of liquid refreshment. Jean even organised a fun course around the hotel for the juniors. Our performances may have suffered the next day in Mullaghmeen. As usual though, Mullaghmeen was a great to run in this time of year, with plenty of bluebells and wild primroses on the ground. Where the forest has been thinned though, the brambles are starting to proliferate.

We intend having a similar weekend again next year, but probably earlier in the year because we are holding the Leinster Championships in April

A Club meeting was held last week, Tuesday, 17th April. Plans were finalized for the Derrycassin training, as well as planning for our events next year. The main event this time next year will be the Leinster Championships in Cahore, Co. Wexford.

The next club outing is a training day on Saturday, April 28th, in Derrycassin woods, Co. Longford, followed by the Setanta league event in Mullaghmeen the next day. We will be staying overnight in the Breffni Arms Hotel, in Arvagh, where we stayed last year.

<- The organiser has everything under control.

Great event at Rossmore yesterday. Everyone was complimentary of Ingus's courses and the wood itself. The weather was as good as could be expected for February. We had over 110 competitors, good for an event so far from Dublin. Thanks to the LVO contingent who came, closer for them to come from Belfast. Also several local families who came for a walk gave it a go. Click here for results. Apologies for the control that 'walked' during the night. The leg to the control is removed from the result times, but is still in the splits in splitsbrowser.

Rossmore Event Details

2012 Spring Cup 1 Event, Rossmore Forest Park, Monaghan, Sunday, February 12th

Grid Reference - H 653 316
Directions - Go to Monaghan Town - from Dublin advice is to take the M1 to junction 14 then left via N33 towards Ardee, then N2 to Monaghan. From Monaghan take the N54 for Clones. About 1 mile outside Monaghan Town take a left turn on the R189. The entrance to the forest is about 1 K down this road on the left.
You can use Fingal Orienteers Google Map of orienteering locations in IRL here. Select Rossmore Forest Park on your smart phone via google maps -> layers -> my maps -> Orienteering locations in IRL to navigate to the event.
Map

Parking is in the forest car park, Registrations from 11.00 until 13.00

Planner Ingus Retkins, Controller Ian Murphy, Organiser Bernie Sharkey

Course Details

Registration Form <- click to open (pdf file), print and fill out and bring with you, to save time.

The St. Stephens day event at 3ROC will include fundraising for Mick Kellet's son Paul and family. Paul suffered severe spinal injury in an accident in Australia. Although Mick is a member of GEN he has helped Fingal out many times, including surveying the River Valley map for us, so it would be great if members could support this event.

We had a great end of year club event and social in Santry Demesne and Clonliffe Harriers club house. Great work was done by Jean who planned the three courses, and did most of the work of taking times, putting out and collecting controls. She had also organised the Clonliffe Harriers club house and the caterers. anyta also organized the quiz and some competitions for the juniors. It was great to see a lot of the club families and young children at the event.

Results of the event are here

Some photos are here.

Thanks to all who came to the Night event in Howth. It was a lovely clear night, not too cold, and only a brief shower. There were lovely views of the bay and city from the summit. We were delight to have 2 illustrious visitors from the UK, Nick Barrable, former british team member, and Sarah-Jane Gaffney. Most people enjoyed the courses, the main complaints were from those who ended up in dense gorse. Click here for results

Next Fingal event is a night orienteering event on Howth Summit, next Saturday, Dec. 10th. The registration and start will be at the Howth GAA club on Dungriffin Road. Grid Reference O 286 382, Lat 53°22'42" Long 6°4'0". The bar will be open afterwards for orienteers. There will be 2 courses available, Long, 4.5 K approx, and Short, 3 K approx. SportIdent will be used.

We are also having a social event for club members the following day, in Clonliffe Harriers club house, at Santry Stadium. There will be a long and a short course in Santry Demesne, start times from 12.00 to 1.00, then retire to the club house where food will be served at 2.00. There will be a game and a quiz with various prizes for young and old.

Castletown League event results are here

<- Early morning at Castletown.

Thanks to Dave Richardson for Planning the event, Sarah for organising, and Mike Long of Ajax for controlling. There were over 170 competitors, including a good few unfamiliar faces, and some unfamiliar to orienteering but familiar to hill running. Although it was cold and frosty at 8.00 when we assembled to put out the controls, the day turned out to be the best of the season so far. Everyone seemed to enjoy the variety of the area, even though it is nostly flat there was a good mixture of fast running in the open and technical orienteering in the woods. Dave's chaining of the SI units worked well and we didn't loose any controls. Thanks also to all others who helped out, Eamon, Val, Anyta, Alex, Bernie, Ian, Ciaran, Jean, Andreas, Kathryn, and Katalin.

We had a very good training session for beginners in Newbridge House on Saturday, helped by beautiful weather. It was attended by many families with younger children. Alex gave a good talk going through the basics then Bernie led a walk on the map explaining the map features. They then did a course set by Kathryn to put some of what was learnt into practice. Thanks to Alex, Bernie, and Kathryn for setting it up, and Anyta for organising and providing tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits.

The next Fingal event is a Leinster League event at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, on November, 6th. We will be using SportIdent for this event. Dave Richardson is planning, Sara Ni Ruairc is organiser, and Mike Long of Ajax is controlling.

We are also planning to do some basic training, mainly for begginers and new club members, on Saturday afternoon, November 5th. If you are interested please contact Anyta Richardson, or email us at fin@orienteering.ie.

Final 2011 Scatter League Table

Malahide Castle Scatter results

Thanks to all who came to our Malahide Castle event. We had the largest number of entrants for a scatter event, and considering many people went in pairs or more, we had well over 200 people taking part. Everyone enjoyed the event and the hot dogs afterwards.

Report on Newbridge House event

Newbridge House Scatter results

Newbridge House Micro-O results, splits, and maps, including map of all controls with the control codes.

Newbridge House Micro-O Results

Newbridge House Micro-O Splits

Micro A course

Micro B course

Micro C course

All Controls

Thanks to all who did the Micro O and I hope you enjoyed it. The proceeds, 66 Euro, will be divided between the 3 Fingal juniors going to the JHI next month.

St Anne's Park Results

Thanks to all who came to St. Anne's Park today. We had a big crowd over 140, and we were lucky with the weather. We had just about collected the controls when it really started to lash at 2.30. Thanks to Alex and Bernie for planning and organising, and to everyone else who helped out, Jim, Dave, Anyta, Ian, and Val.

Registration for next Sunday's event in St. Anne's Park will be near the carpark beside the tennis courts on All Saints Road, on the north side of the park. Grid reference O 210 376

Registration is from 11.00 until 12.00 with runners on all courses starting at 12.00.

Fr Collins Park Results

Thanks to everyone who came to Fr. Collins Park today for the start of the league. Everyone appeared to enjoy the new ISSOM sprint standard map and times were mostly fast, true sprint orienteering on flat park and urban terrain.

The Fingal Scatter League returns again this Autumn. As before, the league consists of 4 events, with 3 out of 4 events to count for prizes. First off is a new map of Fr Collins Park and adjacent streets in Donaghmede, followed by a return to St Anne's Park, Raheny after an absence of a few years, and then the always popular Newbridge House and Malahide Castle. Details are as follows

Day	Date	Venue	Area
Sunday	28 August 2011	Fr Collins Park	Donaghmede
Sunday	4 September 2011	St Anne's Park	Raheny
Sunday	11 September 2011	Newbridge House	Donabate
Sunday	18 September 2011	Malahide Castle	Malahide

At each event there will be 3 courses on offer, Long, Medium, and Short. Long course runners will need to get 18 controls in any order. Medium course will get 12 to 14 controls, short course 6 to 8 - exact number will be announced at the start. All runners on the long course will start at 12.00, the medium 2 minutes later and the short 2 minutes after that. Registration for each event will be from 11.00 to 12.00. Please come early so you don't miss the start.

News from the World Master in Hungary - Jean came 4th in the sprint and 10th in the long distance final in W65 - congratulations. Ingus was also there running M40, and Sandis was in the public event where he ran in M18!

Dalgan Park Results are here

The Dalgan Park event was a great success. It was great to see so many juniors from Co. Meath turn up especially lots of M and W 10s. Great work Kathryn for getting the word around. There were nearly 90 runners out, even though there were not many regular orienteers from other clubs. Maybe summer orienteering will catch on?

Prize winners were as follows. If the 2 Muldoon Children or Jack Dardis read this, please contact Kathryn - 0469025075 to collect your prize

Short Course
Boys M10	Girls W10
Jack Dardis John O’Regan Luka Murray Coudray	Aibhe O’Regan Millie Wilkinson Lauran McManus
Boys M12	Girls W12
Ciaran Kearns Sean Byrne Keelan Murphy	Sophie Finnegan Emile Muldoon
Boys M14	Boys M18
Fiachra Finnegan Lee Laffan	Stephen Finnegan
Long Course
Juniors	Seniors
Donal Kearns M16	Eileen Young FIN
Tommy Muldoon M12	Murray Cowan LVO
Sean Kearns M16
Vince O’Keefe M14

 

FINGAL Retain Leinster Inter Club Challenge Trophy

<- Sandis receives trophy, Fingal club members with the Trophy, Dave, Jean, Rainers, Sandis, Zanda, Ingus, Anyta, Deirdre (with Pat Jnr) and Pat.

Thanks to a good turnout of club members, including some old faces former chaiman Frank Flood and secretary/treasurer Lillian Quill, we retained the GEN Leinster Inter Club Challenge Trophy with some points to spare. The scoring system definitely favours clubs with a good turnout across the age categories. Other clubs may have been missing people away, CNOC had a team at Jukola, but we were also missing runners, including the Kearns, the Hoares, Fiach, the Youngs, all who had various other commitments.

 

The GEN Leinster Inter Club Challenge is now on the 19th of June, at Carrickgollogan. Try to make it if you can so we'll have the best chance of retaining the trophy.

Kathryn may hold an event in Dalgan Park, Co. Meath, on Saturday 2nd July. Details as soon as we know.

Newbridge House Compass Challenge Results - Click here

Thanks to all who came, everyone seemed to enjoy something out of the ordinary. Thanks to all club members who helped out, Dave, Anyta, Sarah, Ciaran, Bernie, Alex, and especially Eamon who planned it

Apologies for the incorrect bearing on number 6 it was 67, and should have been 87. Ocad calculated it correctly, I copied it wrong. The runners marked with an asterisk on the Mild course went wrong mainly because of this. Most of the feedback was positive, and we'll probably do it again. Some suggestions for next time is the 'severe' runners will get just a blank map, and 'savage' no map at all.

<- Sandis, (and Zanda), Sean, and Donal at IOC.

Congratulations to all prize winners at the Irish Champs. The J48- team of Sandis, Donal, and Sean - we finally won this one after many years of coming second. Congratulations to Sandis Rektins who won the M14 Irish Champs in both middle and long distance. Also congratulations to the following in the long distance, Shane Hoare, 3rd Irish in M16, Pat Ryan, 2nd M21S, Val Jones 3rd Irish M55, Eddie Hogan 3rd Irish M75, Deirdre O'Neill 2nd Irish W40S, Kathryn Walley 2nd Irish W50. On the middle distance Donal Kearns 2nd Irish M16, Pat Ryan 2nd M21S, Eddie Hogan 2nd M75, and Jean O'Neill 1st on W65.

More Photos here