Night Navigation October 2006

The fell running section of Preston Harriers. Some of our fell runners also do cross country and road running, but fell running is our main activity. Our junior fell runners are in a keen fell running section, you can read about them in juniorfellblog below. Preston Harriers running club was established in 1881. Mick McLoughlin our chairman of fellblog recently did the Bob Graham Round. Fell Runners are not as much bothered about PB's as they are about 3B's ( a local brewery).

WHO STOLE MY KITE

It was a humid midge biting night at Tockholes in October for the now annual night orienteering event around the woods and moors of the area.

Linked to a "curry night" at the Royal Arms (a proper pub) the course was set and maps copied and bagged, set ready to go.

Only 2 kites were needed to be put out on the night, and so they were at around 6pm with signs "orienteering event, please do not remove".

The event started at 6.30pm , with participants setting off every 2 minutes.

Now as all good organisors know, it's thirsty work waiting for runners to return so a pint of timothy taylor was required to help me pass the lonely solice of the now desolate car park.

Also it was the final part of my preparations in testing that the beer was "on form".

Attention to detail you see. That's what navigation skills are all about. Where is the pub and does it sell real ale ? what is the altitude of the bar, and is there an "escape route" if the misses catches me? If I go out of the pub not quite drunk enough, is there a "re-entrant" to get me back in again. Planning, it's the little things that count.

Teams arrived back with tales of woe, and of kites missing at c/p "k".

Yeah, right, whatever! Guess I caught you all out there then. It's just passed the style on the wall next to a big sign "do not remove".

I'll pick it up later.

They all come back relatively safely except newcomers Jim, sharon and vicky who decided to spend half the night around pendle hill I think.

To them I say you were not lost just not where you wanted to be.

RESULTS

karen and matt 200 pts

pete mcdermott 155

bob and chris 150

ash nixon 150

mick mcl 150

pete c 140

colin s 140

john and sarah 130

joe and bob 100

simmy and eddie 80

jim sharon and vicky minus 45

Big surprise of pete mcdermott who thought he'd turned the clock back 30 years to the "old days". well done.

karen and matt, by a land slide, excellent.

Apologies to pete carter who nearly threw the map back at me for a wrong answer, but sorry there is no such thing as "pink/purple algae. Really pete, "are you havin a laugh, he's avin a laugh"

Everyone piled into the pub and the curry was excellent again, much better than the crap jokes from bob and john. It must come from being sat in vans and cars all day.

One liners, they're the best!

To finish off I did go back before going in the pub to look for the kite and they were all correct. It was not there, gone, stolen, no more.

It did spoil what should have been a perfect night.

So, "will the real kite stealer please stand up, please stand up".

next curry night in january

thanks to all participants, it was fun.

jim doherty

Jim put a lot of work into the organising of the do, and I'm sure everybody will thank him for the splendid night that we all had. Not just the course set, but the pub meal and the odd pint we all had. What great value, £6.00 for a 3 course meal! Some swine moved the first marker which set Joe & me back. We persisted in looking for it for rather a long time, to no avail. Otherwise we would probably have won..............

We looked around this gate forever, nothing to be found. We also kept close to the reservoir, sometimes in it....

I kept close to Joe, I must admit I was a little scared. I didn't know what the orange steam was all about, nor those loopy things.