The University of Warwick
Orienteering Club

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Contents:

• In the beginning (2001-2002)
• 2002-2003
• 2003-2004
• 2004-2005
• 2005-2006
• 2006-2007
• 2007-2008
• 2008-2009
• UWOC Hall of Fame

In the beginning (2001-2002):

There are many similarities between the Olympic Games and the University of Warwick Orienteering Club (UWOC), the least of which is that there have been two distinct eras of the clubs life. Little is known of the original formation of the club apart from that it was at one point called the ‘Orienteering and Fell Running Club’, and had a website with a picture of a compass and map on. The main reason no one knows any more information than that is that nobody has done any research on the subject, though if you were around prior to the clubs reformation in 2001 and can remember some interesting facts then please let us know. Until that happens though this history page is going to ignore that era and instead focus on the clubs modern era starting in 2001.

Over the summer of 2001 the orienteering club at Warwick was reformed due to the interest of a number of people at the university including Alistair Pooler, Shabir Najmudin, Jim McDonald, and Laura Austin. They, together with some other keen orienteers – James Golding and James Wickens, became the first modern era exec (note the excessive number of James’s  on the exec).

With Alistair as the first President of the Club things got of to a quick start. The first event the club went to was a local Octavian Droobers (OD) event somewhere within about 10 miles of the university. For the clubs first event it was relatively well attended and started a long relationship with OD that was to later play a major impact on the clubs development.

That original event was followed a few days later by an ‘on-campus event’. This event is the first recorded orienteering event to be held on the Warwick campus, and used the unusual punching method of ‘coloured pens’. Each control had a different colour, and the course stretched around from the path up to Gibbett Hill (the first control was on the bridge across the lake), to Varsity where a post event social was held. The mapping for this event was the Warwick Uni maps they hand out to Freshers for their orientation, but still provided a lot of enjoyment to those running.

Around that time there was also the infamous Orienteering Rag Quiz entry. At the end of Week 2, the club entered the rag quiz where the team (and especially Shabir), helped the club to 1^st place in the quiz and prizes that included wine, beer and the legendary ‘Orienteering Club Bottle Of Vodka’. (Side note:  that bottle was last seen in 2004 in the Student Cinema offices at the back of L3, and is thought to now be lost)

After those first two weeks, the club continued to provide events, and the club even considered going to the BUSA Orienteering Championships in 2002 as shown in the well preserved e-mail snippet below:

We now have info on when and where the BUSAs are.

They are being held in Edinburgh on the weekend of Sat 13th and Sun 14th April, and are hosted by Edinburgh Uni, who are providing Accomodation.

We need to let them know early next term our approxiamate accomodation requirements.

Alistair

Unfortunately the BUSAs in 2002 were not to be, and indeed little more is known/remembered about that first year of the club. 2002-2003 on the other hand is a different matter…

2002-2003:

For the clubs second year Alistair passed the role of President to James Golding, to give him a chance to show what he was made of. Indeed he quickly became known as 'Le president' thereafter known as el-presidente.

Here is an official transcript of his first e-mail sent out in late Sep 2002:

Hi!

I`m James, the president of the orienteering club. For those of you who are new to the club, HELLO!!!! and for those of you who were in it last year, ....er....did we do something right?

The club is now a year old, so still very young and there is still alot to work out and improve to make the club run effectively. If any of you would like to be on the exec committee please email me using the address below. At the moment there are 4 people on the committee but we would really like others to come up with ideas and organise trips and stuff. Orienteering is a good club to be on the exec for as the club is small, so meetings are occasional and brief and it doesnt matter if you aren`t very good at orienteering (I`m not!!!).

As you can see, the tone of the message was potentially dire, the club was small and needed people to run it. Many of the new members may have been scared by the tone of the message, but not all. For of those who answered the calling of the message there was one who would come to stand out from the crowd. His name was often abbreviated, but he soon rose up through the ranks of the club. His name was Graham Gristwood (GG).

Again the club travelled to a number of events around the Midlands, including the West Midlands Championships. Night events were also attempted, include one particularly wet one (Midlands Night Champs I believe), where one member of UWOC get lost and found a pub)

All those events eventually led up to the first outing of the UWOC team at a BUSA event. In 2003 the BUSA Orienteering Championships were held in the beautiful sun of Sheffield, though things didn’t all turn out to plan. Firstly GG fell over and hurt his nose, then a certain team member got attacked by a dog half way round the course. However, Warwick didn't leave its first BUSAs empty handed. Oh no, our president, humbled on the battlefields by other competitors with only a decades more experience at the sport, won the ‘Pork Pie and Reef’ downing competition by a mile. Also, GG came third on the Men’s A Course and won a bottle of wine which was quickly drunk, while the winner of the Men’s A course (Shuoc’s Matt Crane) downed a yard of lager which was seen by some as being fairly impressive.

Anyway it isn’t the intention of this section to give the impression that Orienteering is all about drinking....

2003-2004:

After two years of UWOC’s existence, and GG ready to lead the club to new heights, the exec elections for 2003 - 2004 were held. Nobody knows for sure how Rich Bradfield become President for that year, but he did. Though much investigation work has been undertaken to discover the leadership style that Rich brought to his role as President, very little material could be found.

Here is part of a rare e-mail sent by Rich:

Right, further to my previous e-mail, in which I was a complete injit. I am going to give the proper details of the compass-sport cup tie....

To be fair though, the year of 'Braddy', was by far the clubs most successful year so far.

This was the year that the club started coaching, thanks to the efforts of Peter Guillaume, an Orienteering legend in his own right. The club went on a number of training events to local areas giving the clubs members the opportunity to improve a wide range of their skills.

This year also witnessed the start of the end-of-term social. This quickly became a popular event, with events including curry’s, pub dinners, and trips to the legendary Wing-Wahs all you can eat buffet.

Of course the club also went to some Orienteering events, and it was during this year that the club participated in it’s first national event at Blackheath in Surrey. Memorable mostly for the fact that GG’s parents let as all stay round their house, and even cooked us a nice chicken dish.

Having experienced the demands of a national event, surely nothing would now stand in the way of BUSA glory? 

In the clubs second trip to a BUSA event the outcome was 1 whole BUSA point (which in the overall scale of things means nothing because Loughborough always wins the BUSA sports competition).   This second BUSA event was held by Oxford, though actually took place on an Army barracks in ?????. After the individual event held on the grounds of the base, the relay was held on a nearby tank training area. It was generally agreed that this was a decent BUSA event, and UWOC even won a prize!  This time though it was for something to do with our new kit. For it was at this event that the club unveiled it’s first O-Kit. For some strange reason no-one seems to wear it these days…  or even remember it…  it’s like everyone has deliberately tried to hide all memory of that kit, which is strange as, as previously mentioned, it was an award winning kit. (Editors note:  the award was for worst kit)

So after 3 years the club had found it’s place at Warwick, and with Rich moving on to pastures new the call went out again for someone else to lead the club. This time GG did become ‘King of all Orienteering Men and Women at Warwick University’ (more commonly known as President).

The first few months of Graham’s time in office also coincided with some of the most successful months the club has seen.

At the 2004 Sports Fed awards UWOC-er’s GG, and Sarah-Jane Gaffney won the Sportsman of the Year and Most Improved Female awards respectively. Indeed Sarah-Jane had only taken up Orienteering properly a year or so before and had in that short space of time become the 10^th best female in her age class (W20).

The end of 2004 also saw the clubs first foreign trip. Some people say you should start things at the bottom, but that isn’t the UWOC way, so it was decided that for the clubs first foreign trip a group would go to the largest Orienteering festival in the world – Sweden’s O-Ringen. This event is so big they literally can’t find enough space to fit everyone, which may explain why UWOC found itself camping for a week in an overgrown, rocky, rough, tree-covered patch of land just off a main road that under normal circumstances no-one would even think about camping on. But that didn’t stop UWOC-er’s GG, Sarah-Jane Gaffney, Rich Bradfield, James Wickens, Rob Latham, Yvonne Cooper and Sam Aitken from making it their home for part of that July. For many this was their first experience Orienteering in the rocky Swedish landscape, but everyone enjoyed the challenges it provided, even if a certain individual was worn out before the events even began by running the 20k (advertised as 10k!) to one of the training areas. The event was also noted for introducing certain UWOC members to Swedish tastes. Sour Crème Chips were generally agreed to be nice, though not everyone got what all the fuss was about with those Yoghurt Drinks.

So with BUSA points glory, prizes for people, prizes for the kit, national and international events undertaken, what more was there for UWOC to do in 2003 / 2004…

2004-2005:

Fresh from adventures overseas, 2004 started off with, unsurprisingly, yet more Orienteering. Training was again provided by Peter, and was still proving popular. Indeed the club was growing so much that by the second term there was the second international club trip – Scotland!

All the events and training done over the club winter of 2004-05 was all training for events taking place over the Easter Holidays in 2005. Firstly there was the club’s first trip to the Jan Kjellström Orienteering Festival, also know as the JK. The JK is Britian’s largest orienteering event and is held by a different part of the country each year, over the Easter weekend. The West Midlands held the event in 2005, and through the contacts the club had made within OD, as well as the West Midlands Orienteering Association, the club was given the opportunity to run the JK Training Day on the Friday before the event. Admittedly this event was mostly run by GG, but he was helped on the day by a number of UWOC members, and ultimately a few hundred people enjoyed tackling the controls laid out making the event a good success, and a nice warm up to the main events over the weekend. 

There were no great successes for UWOC at the JK, but there were high hopes set for the BUSA tournament to be held the following weekend. After realising that the hills of Sheffield, Edinburgh or any other University were never going to give the Warwick Team a fair chance, UWOC themselves offered to run the event in 2005. With a home advantage, the club was feeling positive about their chances, and everything was set for a great weekend. Over 100 competitors turned up from more than a dozen universities, as well as a good contingent from Warwick itself. The individual event on the Saturday was held a few miles away at Bentley Woods to the north west of the university, and despite attempts by one of the Warwick team to sabotage some competitors from a few other universities by driving them in circles around the local roads, everyone ended up enjoying a fast-paced sunny days orienteering on some of the best terrain in the Midlands. There was not to be the UWOC wished-for Warwick whitewash, but GG did manage to equal his BUSA best by coming 3^rd on the Men’s A-Course after a little controversy involving EUOC’s Scott Fraser and a missing map. Scott gentlemanly declared himself disqualified, removing the need for the organiser to mjake a decision – which as GG was the organiser could have been an interesting situation. Just of the record ShOUC’s Oli Johnson was won the event just ahead of his compatriot Matt Crane. There was one UWOC winner that day though, as James Wickens gave Warwick an uncontroversial first place finish on the Men’s C course.

After such a great day everyone headed back to Warwick for a hearty dinner in Rootes Restaurant and the social in the Union’s Cooler. Highlights of the ‘Heaven & Hell’ themed evening included the ‘almost-defrosted’ chocolate cake eating race (Sam Aitken giving UWOC another win, with a valiant attempt by EUOC’s Dan Halliday to come second). There was also the traditional beer race, and much drinking undertaken to ensure that not everyone was feeling on top of their game the next morning. Hangovers weren’t too much of a problem though, because Rootes Restaurant was used to provide everyone with a filling breakfast before taking the short trip to Rootes field for the start of the Relays. Unlike some events where there can be a good mile between registration and the start, there was probably not more than half a miles walking required that morning between getting out of bed, going to breakfast, and getting to the start – a concept that many felt made these relays one of the best BUSA events of the past few years. Also helping the days racing was the fast flat courses around, and through, the university grounds which providing exciting competition and perhaps a little controversy. The competition mainly around close times between some competitors, most noticeably seen when Graham Gristwood and EUOC’s James Tullie(?) had a photo finish for 3^rd place (James just beating GG). The controversy coming from miss-punching – James Tullie in his rush to beat GG didn’t properly punch the last control, and despite being seen by all the spectators at the control the rules meant he was disqualified. So in theory GG brought UWOC home in third place, but again (unknown to GG at the time) miss-punching by a previous team-member meant that UWOC was disqualified too. Indeed with closely placed controls on fast terrain a large number of teams miss-punched. ShOUC, however, seemed to be the only uni not to be effected by that problem and came away with a historic 1-2-3 in the Mens race. The woman’s race was won by Oxford, followed by Sheffield and Edinburgh.

One downside to the weekend, was that someone pinched a clock-radio, bathrobe and towel from one of the rooms and I had to fork out £40 to cover the theft. So if you have seen someone walking around in a ‘Warwick Hospitality’ embossed bathrobe recently then please let me know – I want my money back.

Anyway, after an exceptional weekend of Orienteering it was back to normal for Warwick when Summer term started up again. Alongside the usual events and exams some members of the club also started planning for what had become ones of the largest events to be held at the end of the term. Since 2002 the Orienteering club had held a ‘3 Peaks Challenge’ event. Starting in 2002 with 6 people followed by 19 in 2003, 2004 was planned as the big trip. With the aim of getting around 40 people (and worrying we wouldn’t get that many), we ended up with nearly 100 walkers raising over £1650 for charity. Though some people in the club didn’t think it could get any bigger, others had plans for an even bigger trip, and between the two main end-of-year balls (Final Fling and Sports Fed), nearly 200 walkers took part in the event raising around £5000 for charity, and monopolising the West Midlands minibuses!

Before it had seemed to begin though, the term was coming to an end and at the sports fed ball, GG again won ‘Sportsman of the Year’, albeit tied with some sailor guy. He wasn’t the only UWOC member to collect an award, however, as a number of orienteers were awarded Full Colours for the university for taking part in the annual British Universities vs. Combined Services event. One award UWOC didn’t win though was the ‘Most Improved Club’ (again) – BUSA, JK, more members, coaching, 3 Peaks – what more does a club have to improve before they get that award?!

All the disappointment from missing out on the most improved club award was forgotten though a couple of weeks later when the club took part in their second major international event in Latvia during the Summer holidays. Eight club members went on a trip to the 3 day Kapa festival on the west coast of the Baltic country, and they were rewarded with great terrain, great weather and great beer prices.    

2005 ended though with the departure of some key members of the club, most notably GG, though he decided to stay in the area and coach local schools / the uni, as well as drawing maps for the next year. With his graduation who could step up and take over the presidency?  It was a big job, and took two people to do this — Robert Latham and Caroline Northall. 

2005-2006:

2006 started quickly, and though people had talked about it before, no one had really been bothered enough to organise a trip to the annual street race in Venice, Italy. With the club growing ever bigger there was now enough demand to make a third major international event a reality, so in November 2005 a number of UWOC members made a trip out to Venice for a weekend’s orienteering in one of the o-worlds most truly unique locations. So as well as enjoying pizza, pasta and the amazing sights of the city, those who went enjoyed a great race along the narrow streets and over countless bridges, whilst trying to avoid the endless pedestrians blocking up even the widest of passageways. It was also a good idea to avoid the canals too.

Back in England, UWOC was able to help our local club, OD, seize the Compass Sport Cup, holding it alongside the Yvette Baker Trophy (won the previous year) for two months.

BUSA this year was in Edinburgh, and a sizable contingent travelled up there, and braved the snow-clad courses at South Achray in the Trossachs, and Kinneil Wood near Linlithgow. Despite the adverse conditions, and with occasional instances of sledging on map-bags to reach controls, UWOC managed to achieve a net position of fifth place over the weekend. The social also proved to be a memorable one, especially for anyone who danced with Iain Embrey during the Celidh (or indeed anyone who was foolish enough to dance anywhere ‘near’ to Iain – may that be a warning to you all). The superhero theme was poorly supported by UWOC though, especially when compared to the effort put in by those coming as Mutant Turtles and even Mr Muscle. (Admittedly UWOC had a few ‘The Incredibles’ eye covers - and coach GG did a good effort with his Wolverine). And don’t even mention that Beer Race…

The JK, held shortly after BUSA, was also a good event for those who went – and especially for GG, as he actually won it, so well done him.

During Summer term one event that was always going to be a success was the 3 Peaks Challenge. After four great events, some people didn’t know when to quit, so for 2006 it was decided to make the Challenge even bigger – almost 150¹ walkers to be precise (we’re fairly sure no-one died). This year almost £10,000 was raised for charity, but due to insurance issues, and some problems with minibuses the students union decided after the event that they wouldn’t support it in 2007, so congratulations to all those who completed the 3 peaks challenge, and thanks to all who took part, but after 5 awesome years, 600 walkers, £15000 raised for charity, 3 Youth Hostels banning us for life and countless sausages cooked at 3am the 3 Peaks Challenge came to an end at just before 7am on the 24^th June 2006 - RIP.

One tradition that only seemed to be getting stronger though, was the UWOC Summer Tour, and this year Lithuania was chosen as the clubs destination. So in early July 2006, eight members of UWOC travelled there to take part in the Takas 5-day event. Based around the town of Druskininkai, the events were in densely forested richly contoured regions, and the weather there was very hot (in fact, this was a record-breaking period of high temperatures in Lithuania, exceeding 100F at times!). Held alongside the 2006 JWOC event, this was a good opportunity to run on great terrain, and again have some cheap beers. There is not enough room for a full report so check out the EWOK page for a full in-depth analysis of the ‘often amusing’ events that took place that week.

However, the year had to come to an end eventually, and finally it did, with a number of UWOC members graduating and moving on from the club. Those moving on included Rob Latham, bring to an end his year as co-president. Caroline, however, had another year to go and was enjoying being President so much she agreed to continue on her own for the 2006-07 year.

2006-2007:

UWOC were chosen to host the Midland Night Championships at Oversley Wood in January, followed by a district event the following day. With a waterlogged field being used for parking, several of the helpers spent much of the weekend pushing cars around. The barbecue, once it got working, was particularly good though.

BUSA was hosted by Durham this year, in the midst of the Easter holidays. Despite this, UWOC made a strong appearance. This was helped by the efforts of Linus Kaisajuntti, a visiting Swede who anchored the men’s relay team into fourth place, allowing Warwick to achieve sixth place overall.

The end of the year saw UWOC again featuring the Sportsman of the Year, in the form of Iain Embrey who also gained selection to the British JWOC team.

2007-2008:

What will become of the club this year?  With GG moving on to pastures new (the exciting terrain of Sweden), Iain Embrey has taken over the task of both captaining and coaching the club. Caroline also moved away (the less exciting terrain of Nottingham), leaving long-term UWOC member Mark Cummings to step up to become the clubs 7^th President. We are due to host an event in January at Hay Wood, and the British Sprint Championships in April will be held on campus. Will UWOC achieve any success at BUSA, this year hosted by Sheffield? Can we stop finishing last in the beer race? And will we ever manage to win the most improved club award? Only time will tell.

2008-2009:

Would anyone like to update this history?

UWOC Hall of Fame:

Finally, a list of the good, and the great, from the clubs past, in order from when they become eligible for inclusion (normally the year they left Warwick). All of the people mentioned below have played a part in UWOC’s history, and have helped create the best University Orienteering Club ever². Thanks to all.

If you feel your name should appear in this list, for whatever reason, please feel free to complain to someone at the club and if you pass the stringent requirements for inclusion then you too could become a member of the UWOC Hall-of-Fame!!!.

_____________________________

¹ Ammendment by Kate Bennet, organiser of the accomodation, who, it turns out, did not see double.
² Poll of UWOC members July 2005.