JHI congratulations

Well done to Ciara Silby and Jordan Pim who ran in the Junior Home internationals in October. Thanks to Manager Jeni P for her support. 

.......and to Ciara who represented Ireland at EYOC and SHI too

Christmas review

This post is just a look back at the involvement of club members in events since August:
JFK in August

Carlow in October

 Tower Hill in October

                                    Manchester at midterm

                        and Dunmore in November

Tower Hill, Portlaw 14th October 2018

The next SE club event organised by Wato is on Sunday 14th October at Tower Hill, Portlaw.

Take the road out past Portlaw primary school on to the Scrouty road to the top of the hill 

Grid reference S 446 184

This map has not been used for a few years but we have been busy updating sections of the map so there are many new control sites. 

There will be a regional Beaver event with starts between 10 and 11.30.

All other orienteers should arrive to start after 11.30. the last start is at 1.15. Courses close at 2.30

There will be 4 courses available:

Long 7.5 km

Medium 4.5 km

Short technical 3.2 km

Scout 3.4 km

New season begins

The new season begins with our annual visit to Kennedy Park near New Ross in County Wexford for Heritage week on SATURDAY 25th September. This will be the first Southeast league event with short, medium and long courses. All are welcome. Please note that starts are from 12 to 2 to facilitate the Park run.
Cafe, toilets and playground open.

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.