The Fingal Flyers, Erika Jones, Ciara Burke, and Helena Jones, at the Irish Championship Relays in Tullamore.

The Leinster League has now concluded. The girls have a 1-2-3 (W) on the Yellow course to add to their IOC relay win. Others in line for prizes are Deirdre O'Neill, 3rd W, Blue, Jean O'Neill, 2nd W, Green, Robert Flanagan 2nd M, L.Green, Cathal Burke 2nd M, Orange, and Feargal Burke, 3rd M, Yellow. Mick O'Keeffe, Val Jones, Tom Burke also completed 7 events in the League.

Believe it or not a project is under way. We have commenced updating of Dún a Rí Kingscourt. The initial computerized redrawing of the map using OCAD is almost at a stage where draughts can be produced for surveying. The southern section of the forest needs to be surveyed and updated. When completed it should give us a map suitable for League events. It is not planned to have it ready for our event in December, but all going to plan it should be ready next year. Anyone interested in doing some surveying ? If so contact Tommy or myself.
For the long term we are considering Carnavaddy, near Dundalk, which is mostly an open mountain area with some wooded areas between Ravensdale and Rockmarshal. For this we will need to get good aerial photography which is expensive.
Other possible areas are updating Rockmarshal, re-investigating Howth Summit if permission/ownership issues can be resolved, or Longwood, Co. Meath. Anyone have any other ideas ? If you have any views leave a message or contact myself or Tommy.

Fingal Wins at the Irish Championships.

The Fingal Girls W14- team had a great win at the Irish Championships Relays. The team, consisting of Ciara Burke, Helena and Erika Jones came in with a comfortable margin over the second placed BOC team. Also at the relays a two-thirds Fingal team of Jean and Deirdre O'Neill, and Ger Power of 3 Rock won the AD HOC W Mixed category.

Erika Jones at the individual prize-giving in the Bridge Hotel, Tullamore with Erinna Foley-Fisher, MNav, W12 winner.

At the Individual Irish Championships the previous day, Jean O'Neill continued her winning sequence, winning the W50 class for the 4th year running. Erika Jones won the W10 class, Ciara Burke was second in the W12 class, and Feargal Burke was second in the M10 class.
Overall the weekend was very enjoyable. The weather picked up nicely, especially for the relays. The first day at Baunreagh was all in a large mostly mature forest on the southern side of the Slieve Blooms, in County Laois. The longer courses were planned to keep runners off the forest roads. Even though it was mostly white forest it was still very tough to run through in some places. One small complaint was that the mapping of the contours within the forest wasn't as good as recent maps of open areas such as Croghan.
Charleville Estate was a fine area for the relays. It was all flat, consisting of open fields and mixed wooded areas, some runnable, and some very dense sections. The run-in area was well chosen with a good view of the last 3 controls, and the weather made for a very enjoyable atmosphere.

Phoenix Park Results.

Thanks to all who came out on a fine sunny morning to support our event. Thanks to Jean for Planning, Doug for Controlling, and Bernie for Organizing. Thanks to all club members who helped out on the day, Tommy, John, Michael, Lilian, Deirdre, Helena, Fran, and Bríd. ( I hope I haven't missed out anyone. )

Paul Nolan put in a fabulous time to win the A course, averaging almost 4 minute Ks ! Many of the top runners were off in Cumbria but I doubt if anyone else would have beaten him on that form.

There were a large number of newcomers and families doing the orange and yellow courses, which made it worthwhile for us, and hopefully they were encouraged to try the sport again.

There were 2 Fingal firsts at the Leinster Championships. Doug Corrie won the M40 class and Erika Jones won the W10. Ciara Burke was 2nd in the W12 class. I haven't seen the full results yet so I hope I haven't missed anyone else. It was an almost perfect day for orienteering at Carlingford, unlike the last time the Leinster Championships was held there when the mountain was shrouded in mist and visibility was down to 10 meters. The Fox's Rock map was used this time and the ground was fairly dry, apart from the obvious boggy sections. The courses that I saw were well planned and navigationally challanging without being too physical. The climb on my course was not excessive, which is difficult to avoid on Carlingford. Doug was surprised to win the M40, however his hill running exploits obviously stood him well ! He also won the 40+ category of the Winter hill running league.