Wato at MOC 2017

Thanks Steve for pictures at a successful Munster championships in Knocknagalty in November. Eoghan Whelan M14 Munster champion;  Jordan Pim 2nd/ W16 Munster champion; Gints Plaudis 2nd/M45 Munster Champion; Andrew Cox M60 Munster Champion

Autumn update: schools, scouts and storms

Kilbarry, Waterford city, September 14th was the first of the training days for schools. Fenor, Waterpark, Christchurch, Faithlegg and Butlerstown were the Primary schools represented. Gaelcholaiste Portlairge, Newtown, and Colaiste Cois Suire (Mooncoin) were the Secondary schools taking part.

Carriganore, Waterford city on October 7th was the venue for the regional Beaver event with 1st Port, Tramore, Ballygunnar, Faithlegg, Butlerstown, Sacred Heart, TBay, St Pauls and De la Salle all taking part. Big thanks to all the leaders who supported the event.

Next stop Woodstock Gardens, Co.Kilkenny on October 12th for the second training event for schools attended by: CBS High school, Clonmel; Newtown; Loreto Kilkenny; Ard Scoil na nDeise, Dungarvan; Ard scoil na Mara, Tramore; Carlow educate together; St Senans Kilmacow; Graig Boys school; Templeorum; Gaelscoil Charman.

The storms wiped out the third training day at Kennedy park in November

Rathwood event

POC launch and sprint race at Duckett's grove Carlow

A new permanent orienteering course will be launched at Duckett's Grove, County Carlow on Thursday August 24th at 5 p.m. This will be followed by a sprint race with starts between 6 and 7. Courses close at 8. Sportident Air system will be enabled and cards may be rented on the night.

Grid reference S 799 791

Coming from Dublin by M9, take Junction 4 Castledermot and then R418

Coming from Waterford by M9, take same as above or Junction 5 (near new Topaz) and then use Sat Nav or AA routeplanner. 

Total time from Waterford 1 hr and 7 mins.

Permanent Orienteering Courses in the SE

The Kilbarry permanent orienteering course has been launched successfully  and everyone is invited to make use of the facility at the Amenity park. You can download the maps from the Waterford Sports Partnership website here:

New Permanent Orienteering Course at Kilbarry Nature Park.

New Permanent Orienteering Course at Kilbarry Nature Park. Following the launch of the new permanent Orienteering Course at Kilbarry Nature Park, Waterford Sports Partner...

It is an ideal Summer activity when there are few regular events in the southeast. There are additional permanent courses at:

Kilkenny Castle  (from the OPW here)

Castlecomer Discovery Park ( laminated maps available at main desk for a small charge)

Woodstock gardens (downloadable maps will be put up shortly on the Kilkenny Council webpage. Anyone needing a copy in the meantime, please email me and I will send you them in pdf format)

Kennedy Park (New Ross) from the OPW here

You may be interested in a PhotoO challenge that I used with primary school teachers recently in the Viking Triangle in Waterford city. It was jointly designed by Laura and myself. Feel  free to download the challenge sheet from this link. PhotoO challenge

January events

Thanks you to the Family Cox who organised the Towers event near Lismore. Thanks to John and Jose who helped bring in controls.

There is a regional scout event taking place at Castlecomer Discovery park, Co.Kilkenny on the 29th January to which club members and the general public are invited .

Long course: 25 controls, 7.2 km
Medium course 17 controls, 4.2 km
Short technical course: 13 controls, 2.5 km
Short easy course: 7 controls, 1.8 km

Starts for club members/general public from 11.30 to 1 to allow scouts to start from 10.30 onwards.
The registration will be close to the main carpark at the Discovery park.

Revised Entry fees
Adults €8 (7€ for members of Wato or any club affiliated to the IOA)
OAP's/Students €6 (€5 for members)
Family €20 (€15 if members,  max 2 adult 2 children + €3 each child thereafter)
Juniors €5 (€4 if members)
Groups (of juniors) €3 each

Dungarvan urban event

Waterford Orienteering club invite you to participate in an urban orienteering event in the town of Dungarvan, County Waterford on Sunday 20th November. We are working in partnership with Waterford Sports Partnership to develop orienteering in the county of Waterford.
There will 4 courses on a brand new map of scale 1:5,000. It is rare that we get to run an urban map unless we travel to Venice of Edinburgh.

Long course 6.9 km, 25 controls
Medium course 4.7 km, 20 controls
Short harder (i.e. no unaccompanied children as roads are crossed) 2.4 km, 12 controls
Short easy (no roads are crossed) 1.7 km, 9 controls
Starts between 10 and 12. Courses close at 1.
Parking is beside the pitch and putt course at grid reference X259924.
To access the parking, it is advisable to take the ring road around Dungarvan to the south/Cork roundabout and then take the the old Youghal road back into town. Turn right after the CBS school, past the main church on your right. Take a right turn immediately after the church. If you are coming from the Cork direction, take the first roundabout on your way into Dungarvan. Please avoid travelling through the main town as it will spoil your experience.

Changeable weather at Tramore

Well done to John Casey and his team who braved the elements to put out the courses for the Munster league event at Tramore. This was the first time the new dump area had been stitched with the main dune section. It led to some interesting changes of scale!

Juniors representing Ireland

Congratulations to Ciara Silby, Eoghan Whelan and Jordan Pim who helped the Irish juniors successfully see off the Welsh to finish 3rd behind the powerful English and Scots at the recent Junior Home Internationals.

Woodstock wanders

Woodstock was the venue for a number of recent events.
First off was the schools training in which 500 young people took part. Thanks to the usual team led by Norman and Elizabeth Storey and Sally Silby. They were ably supported by Brid Casey, Liisa Honkasaari, and several TY students from Newtown school.









Next up was the regular club event on the Sunday....

.......followed the following week by the launch of a permanent orienteering course. Thanks to Norman and Elizabeth from the club, Pat Healy mapper and John Delaney head gardener from Woodstock for their help in getting this up and running.

Woodstock event

Woodstock gardens, County Kilkenny are  the venue for the next Wato event. The event takes place on Sunday 18th September with starts between 11 and 1. Take road signs from Inistioge village for Woodstock.
This is the second Southeast league event of the season. There will be long (ish), medium and short courses on offer.
All are welcome.
A schools training event takes place at Woodstock on Thursday 15th September and a new permanent orienteering course will be launched on September 28th at 2.30

Summer events

Two summer events were held, one at Kennedy park in County Wexford and the other on a new map at New Orchard, Kilkenny city.
A huge thanks to Conall Whelan for producing the new map and planning the courses at New Orchard.












The first southeast league was held at JKK at the end of National Heritage week. Thanks to Robert for helping bring in controls.

Club members around Europe this summer

Eoghan at the French 5 day

Ciara running the streets of Barcelona

Rob and Jeni in the Swiss Alps

Nigel running the spectator race at EYOC

Maybe the glow means No Entry in Aalborg, Denmark

Wato Charity event

A local orienteering event will be held at Carriganore sports campus, Waterford  S 559 116
on Wednesday June 22nd in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation.

There will be a short loop course for beginners and a score event for everyone else.
Registration at 6.30. Mass start at 7 p.m 
The aim is to get all the controls points in any order in 45 minutes. There will be a penalty for taking more than 45 minutes. Make sure you have a watch.

Massive turnout

The event on today (11th February 2016) had a massive turnout of 155 young and old at Kilkenny Castle. At least one member even came on their birthday (B.C.)

A huge thanks to all the helpers: Leonore (controls out/start), Joao (controls in), Jana (download), Julien (gofer), Angela (registration) and Thomas and  Conall (starts).
Thank you to Paul S for pointing out a potentially uncrossable wall that could have affected route choice on the long course. We will look into that site. Competitors will note that we have acted to put a dot beside the numbers to avoid confusing 6 and  on the map...we are learning all the time.
For those who did cross dangerous uncrossable walls, they are marked that way for safety reasons and myriad other reasons.
Thank you to Ja and Ju for the pix.

Kilkenny Castle event

The next round of the Southeast league will take place at Kilkenny Castle on February 7th using the middle distance format with kind permission of the OPW.
Long course 6.2 km, medium course 3.9 km and short course 2.1km.
Starts are from 11 to 1 and registration will be at the side gate of the castle grounds.

Courses suitable for all ages.

Don't forget to support the Sprint series race on Saturday 6th hosted by Trinity College in Dublin. Starts from 12 to 2. More details on the IOA website.

On the slopes of Slievecoilltia

The 4th round of the southeast short course series took place at Slievecoilltia, near New Ross, County Wexford. Thank you to the OPW for allowing us to use Kennedy park.
Thank you to João Monteiro for helping bring in controls and to Laura and Angela Cox for looking after registration.

Full results and current SE league standings posted on the left of this blog.

Local event January 17th

The first event of 2016 will take place on the slopes of Slievecoilltia, the eastern side of Kennedy park in County Wexford on Sunday 17th January. Starts will be from 11 until 1. Car parking in the main carpark at Kennedy Park. Please walk to the gate opposite the main entrance for registration and starts. Toilets are located at the interpretative centre. The playground will be open but unfortunately no cafe. I can recommend the Dunbrody cafe in New Ross for lunch.
There will be short, medium and long courses on offer. Please let me know if you are bringing a group to ensure enough maps.
This is an excellent opportunity to continue with Operation Transformation and in preparation for the forthcoming schools events

Munster champions 2015

Well done to all those who competed at the Munster Club Championships at Kilworth on 13th December. 
Munster champions:
Aislinn Callery (W12)
Jordan Pim (W14)
Nuala Callery (W35)
Hugh Whelan M10
Jeni Pim (W21s)
Brigid Coffey (3rd place W21s)