Posts by Peter Hambleton

November Classic – Kings garn gutter

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…

Salisbury City Race 2024

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…

Meet our new club mascot -sam

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…

Compass Sport Cup and Trophy Final 2024

What is it about the CSC Cup final that seems to bring on foul weather with loadsamud? This year it was Storm Ashley that blessed the North West of the country, together with CSC competitors, with strong winds, rain and mist, oh, and loadsamud. For clubs in the South it was a long haul North…

SWO League: Bulford Ridges

Sarum’s contribution to the 2024 SW Orienteering League was held on Bulford Ridges. For a change there was no rain, just a still, overcast and pretty cold day. For a relatively small and linear area Bulford Ridges includes some complexities that than catch people out, especially in and around the old slit trenches. Oh, and…

Caddihoe ’24 – Braunton Burrows

This two-day event, formerly known as the Caddihoe Chase, is an annual competition that SWOA clubs take in turn to organise. This year it was in the hands of Devon OC who opted to site the event on Braunton Burrows, a complex set of sand dunes not far from Barnstaple. Braunton Burrows is a bit…

Croeso 2024

A small contingent from Sarum joined an international field for a multiday festival of orienteering based in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons National Park).  With the Event Centre sited in Aberhonddu (Brecon) a mix of four long distance and two middle distance races with the best four results counting towards the competition. There was a…

Sarum Championships 2024

As we were unable to hold our event at Farleigh School on the preferred date there was a late change of venue to The Moot at Downton. It is some time since we used the Moot which, although small in area, lacks nothing in complexity giving Planner Liz Yeadon plenty of scope to fit in…

In the beginning……

How Sarum Orienteering Club emerged from nothing. Our hard working Secretary Hugh was recently contacted by someone asking how old Sarum is as a club and whether we were close to celebrating our 50th year. Rather impressively, Hugh managed to find an article I had written in SCAN, our club magazine back in 2014, I…

SARUM DINNER 2024

Back together again To misquote Samual Pepys, it’s good to see how dinner and feasting reunite everybody. It is nearly two years since the Club held its last Dinner and Trophy Presentation so it was good to get together again at the historic White Hart in Salisbury and have the opportunity to catch up with…