It is with great sadness that we pass on the sad news of the death of John Warren, who was well known and a friend to may of us in Sarum. John was a very active member of Wimborne Orienteers for some 50 years, was a mapper, controller, organiser and committee member over the years.…
Posts by Peter Hambleton
Congratulations to Charlotte Thornton who put in a great run at 2025 The British Middle Distance Championships at Holmbush and Buchan Country Park to win the W80 Class and be crowned Champion. Well done also Marc Balston (M50), Lizzie Balston (W16), Paul Lane (M65) and Ian Peirce (M80) who each reached Silver Championship standard. A…
Sarum Saunter at Great Ridge The Sarum Saunter was held at Great Ridge this year with the kind permission of Lord Margadale and the Fonthill Estate. The event hosted the Southern Championships resulting in a large turnout. Great weather, a great team of helpers and great courses meant that some 470 orienteers from 47 clubs…
Back in 2014 (I think) was last time Sarum fielded a CST team at Long Valley, when we competed in the CST Final, coming third – winning several large green umbrellas. This time round a blessed dry interval meant that the Compass Sport Cup and Trophy regional qualifying heat at Long Valley was run in…
Another small, but perfectly formed, Wessex Region Night League Event from Sarum, this time held on Martin Down. Parking is sometimes a problem here but the team managed to squeeze in 28 cars with potential to squeeze for another 5 – an impressive achievement. The 31 runners all seemed to appreciate Mark White’s planning of…
Star Posts/Swinley This event had been postponed by three weeks because of bad weather – what a surprise! Nevertheless, five Sarum stalwarts turned out on the night to navigate the complexities of the Star Posts/Swinley map along with 118 other keen night owls. The area is a favourite one for trail bikes and some excellent…
Nine young Sarum orienteers and a cohort of helpers recently enjoyed an evening of map reading training in the Reading Room at Stratford sub Castle. The evening started off with the presentation of a cake to Charlotte Thornton on the occasion of her (censored) birthday. Marc Balston and Liz Yeadon put together some challenging exercises…
There was a good turnout of 723 runners for the ever-popular November Classic, run this year on Kings Garn Gutter. After the easy going underfoot of the Salisbury City Race, runners found this a greater challenge; tough terrain and navigation and very wet underfoot – with some unexpected mispunchers and missed punchers in the results…
Holding the City Urban event alongside the November Classic has benefits for both events as this attracts runners keen to have a weekend of orienteering and makes it well worthwhile travelling. Unfortunately the weather was rather grey with the odd spot of drizzle for the City Race but brightened up somewhat for the Classic the…
At the Sarum AGM it was suggested by two of our Juniors, Bea Halsey and Lizzie Balston, that Sarum should have a club mascot, maybe a sheep (perhaps redolent of orienteers running aimlessly around or following one another). Fortuitously, a few days later, a lonely looking lamb was spotted in a Trussell Trust shop window…