CHIG Dinner

Our annual dinner was held at the Miller & Carter in Epping Forest on Friday 6 December. We had quizzes to entertain us between the courses, and after the meal the Club Captain Harold Wyber presented trophies to this year’s successful members.

In the Club Championships, the winners were:

Open Women - Philippa Allen

Open Men - Harold Wyber

Novice - Joe Toller

Veteran Women - Dominique Lazanski

Veteran Men - Thomas Elgood

Ultra Veteran Men - Dave Norman.

Jacob Stevens was awarded the Maycraft Trophy for his outstanding contribution to the Club: planning several Events and introducing new runners to the sport.

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Pictured from left to right are Harold Wyber, Philippa Allen, Jacob Stevens and Tom Elgood.

A big thank you to Sally for organising the event

Mitre event on 8th Dec is POSTPONED

The CHIG Mitre event on Sunday 8th December IS POSTPONED.  Epping Forest has now issued advice that the Forest will be closed over the weekend (all Saturday/Sunday) meaning that we will not be able to hold the event on Sunday. What a shame!  

We will look to reschedule the event. We are currently looking at Sunday 12th January 2025. When we have confirmed whether that is possible I will write to you again. We will automatically transfer your entry to the new date, or offer you a refund or credit for a CHIG future event, if you cannot attend. 

In the meantime, hope you keep safe over the weekend.

Mitre weather bulletin

4 Dec 09:30 We ill aim to notify participants by Saturday lunchtime whether the event will go ahead or not

3 Dec 16:30 We are aware of the potential on Sunday for storms/high winds. We are in early communication with Epping Forest about this. We will update this page accordingly

Orienteering for Schools

CHIG is delighted to announce that it has recently signed up two Redbridge secondary schools, Beal High School and Oaks Park High School, to set up orienteering after-school clubs in their schools.

The aims of the clubs are:

• To engage and attract new juniors to orienteering and CHIG, targeting KS3 (11-14 yr old) athletes in Redbridge secondary schools

• To give student participants a “Track to Yellow” experience, i.e. they have experienced real orienteering event conditions and are ready to go solo at a relatively easy level

• Widen access to orienteering, aiming for a representative Redbridge demographic, welcoming especially participation from underprivileged (pupil premium) and currently under-represented minority groups in orienteering.

CHIG is funding the clubs for a year, and will be free to participant schools and students. We hope to attract 10-20 students per club, with the support of the school PE department. Up to 4 sessions per participant school are offered over Easter/Summer terms. Sessions will be a mix of theory and practice, culminating in a joint competition, and will be professionally designed and run by Charlotte Moore of Complete PE who has already successfully run orienteering clubs at schools in SE London with DFOK.

CHIG will also be hosting an introductory orienteering event open to PE teachers of both schools at Valentines Park in early 2025.

Other Redbridge secondary schools that might be interested in setting up a similar club over the school year 2025-26 should get in touch with us via this link

National event on 24 November

Saxons are hosting a National event near Frant (4 miles south of Tunbridge Wells) on Sunday 24 November. It’s an interesting and challenging area, a mix of forest and open deer park and a new map. Details can be found here

Membership renewals

It’s time to renew your membership: click here to renew

Forthcoming events

On Saturday 9th November, Saxons Orienteering Club are hosting the SE Night Championships at Knowle Park. The following day, South London Orienteers are running their premier event, the OK Nuts trophy, at Hankley Common

A weekend of orienteering

There was a good CHIG turnout for DFOK’s event at Thamesmead on Saturday and HAVOC’s event at Weald Park on Sunday. Seven members competed on Saturday and eight of us enjoyed the glorious sunshine on Sunday.

Pictured: Harold Wyber, Iain Ambler and Dominique Lazanski. 

Iain is sporting his winner’s medal for the 2023/24 SWELL competition (Blue course), presented to him by Janet Biggs just before the photo (he’s probably taken it off by now!)

Introductory course for US students

In September 2024, CHIG provided a small introductory course in orienteering to a group of students from Skidmore College in NewYork state, USA.

The group were based in central London studying things map-related and were keen to do some basic navigation and specifically learn how to use a compass.

Due to the inexperience of the students, we decided to use the Roding Valley Recreation Ground rather than the nearby Epping Forest. It also meant that we could use Loughton AC’s clubhouse if the weather was not ideal.

In the event, there was only a short shower at the very start, and the students were able to complete all or most of the score-type course in the dry.

They greatly enjoyed the afternoon, especially getting away from Central London. They seemed very surprised that an almost rural area could be so close to such a large city.

City of London weekend

DFOK, SLOW and LOK staged a weekend of orienteering in London 13-15th September. There was a good turnout from CHIG members, particularly on the Saturday when we had seven runners taking part. Well done to Harold Wyber, Jacob Stevens and Donatas Tumaitis for finishing in the top quartile of their respective races.

For details of the event click here

CHIG to host England Junior Squad selection event

This year’s Mitre event will be used to help select the England Junior Squad for the 2025 Interland Cup. England will be competing against The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxemburg on 2nd March in The Netherlands

Reduced fees for new members

From 1st September, new members can join our club at reduced rates: Adults £15 (instead of £25), Family £34 (vs £57), Young Adults £9 (vs £16) and Juniors £4 (vs £7).

To qualify you must not have been a member of British Orienteering in any of the previous four calendar years.

From 1st January 2025 new members will need to renew at the standard rates

Medal for CHIG member at the World Biathlon Championships in Denmark

CHIG member Dominique Lazanski was part of Team GB’s Bronze medal-winning W95 relay team in this year’s World Biathlon Orienteering Championships. Similar to its winter equivalent, biathlon orienteering involves rifle shooting but with competitors having to undertake orienteering courses before returning back to the range, providing both an endurance (and navigational) challenge. Speaking after the event, Dominique said that “it was very technical orienteering and so so hard. I learned a lot!”. Congratulations Dominique!

Dominque (left) after receiving her bronze medal alongside teammate Pippa at this year’s World Biathlon Orienteering Championships

Captain’s Newsletter

Click here to read the latest Newsletter from Club Captain Harold Wyber

Training/coaching programme

The programme for this Autumn is as follows:

• 5th October: Hainault Forest

• 26th October: Walthamstow Forest

• 23rd November: Epping Forest

• 14th December: Epping Forest

These sessions will start at 10:30 and last 90 minutes. They are designed to cover all capabilities and experience.

Details of each session will be emailed nearer the time

Club Championships on 8th September

The Club Championships will be held at HAVOC’s Dagnam Park event on 8th September. Details of which Course you should enter can be found in the Newsletter

Results for SWELL 2023/24

The 2023/24 South and West Essex Local League has now concluded and various CHIG members feature prominently in the results. Iain Amber came first on Blue (out of 178 competitors), Donatas Tumaitis came third on Brown (out of 109), Harold Wyber came sixth on Brown, Joanna Qiu came sixth on Orange (out of 47) and Tim Pribul came 16th on Green (out of 226). The full set of results is available here

Iain Ambler (right), overall Blue course winner in the 2023/24 SWELL series, along with fellow CHIG members Dave Norman (left) and Harold Wyber (centre) at the final event of the series in Hornchurch Country Park

British Sprint Championships

Congratulations to Jacob Stevens who came 13th in the M45A class at this year’s Championships held at Warwick University on 23 June. Jacob was just 2 mins 7 secs behind the winner

The Fairlop Flyer

The Flyer for our next event on 16th July at Fairlop Waters has just been published.

This event is suitable for both newcomers and families, and you can start your course between 18:15 and 19:30.

Online entries are now open on the Fabian4 website.

GLOSS competition starts 23rd June

The Greater London Orienteering Summer Series (‘GLOSS’) is an annual Summer inter-club competition between orienteering clubs in and around London.

There are two courses: the GLOSS course which is about 3½ to 4½ km (with optional extension to around 6 km) and is of moderate navigational difficulty, and a ‘Yellow’ course which is about 2km with easier navigation. Navigate between control points – you decide the best route to complete the course in the quickest time. Beginners welcome!

The best six handicapped times for each club at each event score points, which are totalled at the end of the season. GLOSS uses a handicap system in determining individual performance , based on how well you perform against the average of your British Orienteering Ranking Scheme scores.

There are three events this year, starting on 23rd June. Click here for details.