Ajax Orienteering & Hill Running Club

Marcus Geoghegan is nothing if not a perfectionist, so when 60 mins had elapsed with no sign of the front runner, Ger Butler, on the 4 km  Long course, doubts started to creep in.  

"Have I overdone it..some of it is tricky..there's some rough bits..."  he starts muttering.

Standing under an umbrella by the car with a light implanted in his head it was dark and wet.  His concern wasn't helped by the headlamp walking by the car reading a map,.. this isn't a normal route choice   "...WHERE did you get this Manky piece of forest..." spits the headlamp and grumbles off.

It's a strange sight..20 or so cars thrown up on the side of the road by the forest, it's dark wet and misty...no street lights...frightening for townies like us.    Apparently a local had pulled up and roared at the sight of the cars..."What's going on here lads?".     Probably expecting some normal pursuit like badger baiting he turned on his heels quickly when invited to take part in a spot of night orienteering.

The young Shorts, Ruari and Conor clatter up in their spikes to the car, grab control descriptions and go.   Tall and light they're seasoned O-soldiers at this stage, a couple of kilometers on a wet night in February is nothing to them, a mere skirmish.

Finally a finisher... Ger Butler comes in.  Shakes his head at the time and the missed controls, the one on the hide lost him time...it's a story that will be repeated. Marcus's mood improves immensely, going form zero to one finisher is a big step.
After that finishers start rolling in, despite the numerous tracks, and relatively open forest the mist in the forest turns picking up controls in the forest tricky, stories abound of the one that got away.

Ruari Short wins Long in front of Philip Brennan with Mary O'Connell snatching third ahead of  Martin Flynn and Conor Short.
Andrew O'Mullane leads in a small field on the short ahead of a brace of Redmonds and Patrick O'Brien.  Old names on young shoulders.

Finally I'm sent of on my allotted task with Gavan and Tony,  control collecting, the pinnacle of orienteering tasks.   My choice of a LED bike light as I was going out the door proves unwise... at 10:20 I can't find the last control.  Mobile phone calls in Marcus to sweep up the one in the hide.
Back on the road everyone is gone ... as though it never happened.    It's a strange one, night orienteering, you can't get it on Playstation or by pressing the red button.  You have to  go out in the black dark.    There's one left in the Dublin series... worth a try.

Peter Kernan

Dublin-by-Night 2008 #4 of 5 will be held in Slade Valley Woods near Saggart, County Dublin, on Tuesday February 5th. Slade Valley Woods is a typical working plantation forest and will be better known to most Leinster orienteers as the northern part of the Saggart Woods map.

Two courses are on offer: Long, approx 4KM, Technical Difficulty 4 and Short, approx 2KM, Technical Difficulty 3. The map scale is 1:7,500 with 5-metre contours. Don't expect any help from the moon - on February 5th it is waning 3.2% of full, moonset at 15:04.

Starts from whenever it gets dark enough to 7:30PM. Sunset is at 17:15, lighting-up time begins at 17:45. Courses close at 8:30PM and the controls will be removed at that time. 

The event will NOT be signposted - please use the Slade Valley Golf Club signposts from Saggart village and the orienteering.ie fixtures map. The event will be near the entrance to the golf course.

PARKING
Parking is tight - please only park on the forest side of the road downhill from the registration car. Do not park near the crest of the hill at the forest entrance, this is a dangerous blindspot. Park tight to the side of the road. 

SportIdent will be used - please make sure that your card is properly registered with the orienteering.ie results system. Competitors who do not download will not be welcome at future Ajax Orienteering events. Note that the sportident units will be horizontally mounted, the international standard, not vertically mounted. Maps will be pre-marked on waterproof paper. Control descriptions will be on the map, will be available at the registration car and can be downloaded here: Slade Valley DBN Control Descriptions.pdf

Entry fees €8 - batteries not included.  SportIdent cards can be rented for €2 at registration. Competitors must be over 16 - juniors are not allowed.

See Dublin-by-Night 2008 for league details and tables. 

Dublin-by-Night events have a long tradition of retiring to a local hostelry for sweetmeats and convivial conversation, so we hope see you afterwards in the Brittas Inn, about 2KM south of the event on the N81 (Blessington road).

Orienteering is an adventure sport. Competitors take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety.

Marcus Geoghegan
Planner/Organiser

Andrew McCarthy (Ajax) at Glendalough.  Of the Ajax contingent on the Brown course Andrew had the slower start only overtaking Marcus Geoghegan and Paul Smyth at the 10th and 12th controls of 19.

Still it is early days yet in the league, next Sunday's event in Donadea on totally different, flat terrain may favour Marcus's and Paul's experience.

My prediction is Marcus, Paul, Andrew.

Peter Kernan 

Photo : Martin Flynn

Niall Ewen (AJAX) David Healy (GEN) Colm Hill (CNOC) Ruairi Short (CNOC)
  Four Irish orienteers in search of Swedish technical training arrived in Stockholm's Svalsta airport (NOT in Stockholm) on the morning of Friday the 14th and drove north to the home map and  extensive club house of a south Stockholm club "Jarla IF" http://www.jarla.com/jarla_ny/index.asp who kindly gave us maps,,. just short of two hours later I came back tired but grinning from cheek to cheek.,,

Continued north to Uppsala home of Patrick Higgins who had kindly given us his apartments living room. Woke the next day to -10 degree temperatures but none the less we were soon running in enchanted forests once again courtesy of Patrick’s club.

Sunday we drove south to northern Stockholm and visited the elite Swedish athlete village, where we got another map, Ruairi completed a 104 control course....a true hero, we retired to Stockholm's Zinkensdamm hostel to eat and sleep before making our way back to Svalsta airport to catch our flight home,.

Report, photos by Niall Ewen.

Ajax first leg runners not showing the tension as they line-up for the start of the 2007 Irish Relay Championships in the JFK Arbouretum, Wexford, on October 27th. Pictured from left are Martin Flynn, Thomas Callery, Niall Ewen and Aonghus O'Cleirigh.

The full Ajax line-up was:

AJAX Amazons - Women's Open (3rd)
Fiona O'Brien, Nuala Callery, Brid Higgins

AJAX Warriors - Open Premier (2nd)
Aongus O'Cleirigh, John Casey, Brendan O'Brien

AJAX Attackers - Open Premier (5th)
Niall Ewen, Andrew McCarthy, Marcus Geoghegan

AJAX Invaders - Open Premier (9th)
Tom Callery, Ed Niland, Brendan O Connor

AJAX Apatorsaurus - Open Premier (11th)
Martin Flynn, Mike Long, Rory Wallace

Full results at wato.orienteering.ie

It's WWR 'time of year' again and as usual Ajax have entered a team for this challenging event on Sat. June 9th. We fielded two teams last year but this involved people running two legs and drafting in a few orienteers from outside the club. Our teams finished a creditable 10th and 16th.

This year we've only one team but as everyone will only be running one leg we should be well placed to improve last year's results.

The team and running order are:

Leg 1: Andrew McCarthy
Leg 2: Paul Smyth
Leg 3: Catherine King
Leg 4: Fiona O'Brien
Leg 5: John Casey
Leg 6: Marcus Geoghegan
Leg 7: Brendan O'Brien
Leg 8: Mike Long

Hats off to Mike Long for organising our entry and acting as 'unofficial' team manager. Logistically the WWW is a bit of a nightmare and Mike has done a great job of coordinating everything.

Niall Ewan, whom you've no doubt seen blazing around events wearing our very snazzy new O-gear has been selected to run for Ireland at the forthcoming European Youth Orienteering Championships in Hungary at the end of June. We wish Niall the very best for the competition and we're delighted to announce that Ajax will be providing a grant to Niall to assist with the cost of attending this prestigious event.

In fact this is just the start of a new effort by Ajax to support it's juniors. More details to follow in a few weeks...

(Photo: courtesy of Martin Flynn)