THE WRITE TRACKNewsletter of

30th Anniversary

Issue 2020/4 December 2020

EditorialThis end of the year edition sends you seasonal greetings. We mark the thirtieth anniversary ofthis newsletter and, thanking Brian Davies for his leadership, now welcome Frank Shillitoe tothe Chair. Jeremy Lakey reports on the challenge of planning a self distancing event. We lookforward to the Christmas event, this year at East Cramlington rather than the usual PlesseyWoods. Finally, draft plans for the coming year are set out.

Take care! Peter Firth

Chairman’ s Column As the club’s new chairman, I’d like to introduce myself, but firstly, I’d like to saythank you to our outgoing chair Brian Davies, who has been in the post for threeyears and has done a great job keeping the NATO machine well oiled. He’s alsoput in numerous hours organising many of our profile events such as last year’sGateshead & Newcastle Urban which attracted competitors from far and wide,and the Sprint Day for the JK2020 sadly cancelled with only one month to go, so

all of the hard work had been done but without the reward of seeing the event happen.

It’s that time of year when you’ll be getting reminders in your inbox to renew yourmembership. Given the lack of orienteering this year and perhaps due to personalcircumstances you may be thinking about saving yourself a few quid and not renewing. Yourmembership fees go partly to funding the club and partly to fund British Orienteering, and Iwould like to make the plea that if you can, please renew.

So, what do we have in store for 2021? Well, we’re going to have to keep things flexible andadopt to changing circumstances, concentrating on keeping what Sunday events we can alive.The Saturday LOPs and Night Owl events are off the table for the time being. The DukeshouseWoods event in March was going to be a CompassSport Cup/Trophy heat, but is now no longerso. Nonetheless, we will endeavour to hold the event. We’re looking to use Sewingshields inthe early summer and to hold the North-East score champs at Druridge Bay towards the end ofthe year. There should be a healthy sprinkling of urban and park events in-between.

We’re always in need of volunteers, whether it be planners, organisers, mappers etc. You maynot think you have the skills or abilities to do these but there are plenty of us that can providementoring and guidance. Please get in touch if you’d like to get involved and help secure afuture for orienteering in the North-East. Frank Shillitoe

Introducing Myself ~ by the ChairmanI joined the club in 2009 in my mid-thirties having not orienteered sinceschool. For the last decade, along with my partner Kim and sons Ben andOscar, we’ve been enjoying the orienteering scene attending local andnational events, with some of our family holidays based firmly around annualclassics such as the Scottish 6 Days, Lakes 5 Days, White Rose and JK.

Apart from orienteering, I also take part in fell running and mountainmarathons. Work wise, I am a chartered electrical engineer working for theglobal engineering consultancy WSP. My day job includes providing technicaladvisory and project management services to electricity distribution networkoperators, and generators such as wind farms, solar PV farms and energyfrom waste schemes. One of my client’s is Gateshead Council.

Did you know they run a combined heat and power plant, which powers a district heatingscheme and high-voltage electricity network supplying the Sage, Baltic, Gateshead College andvarious other buildings in the locality? They’re even looking to install a huge water source heatpump to extract heat from underground mine workings some 150m beneath the town centre. (Photo: Frank surveying/planning at Sewingshields, Ed.) Frank Shillitoe

Puzzle Corner (Thanks to Jeremy Lakey)

Orienteering Anagrams with IOF symbols tohelp.

Responsive Wrongdoer

Ant Pretender Sprawling Report

Orienteering Word LaddersCHANGE ONE WORD INTO THE FINAL WORD BY CHANGING ONE LETTER AT A TIME, EACH TIME FORMING A NEW WORD. There may be several solutions, with one possible later in this edition.-----1) BANK 2) PATH 3)RUIN

---- ---- ----

---- ---- ----

---- ---- ----

---- ---- WALL

WEST EAST

Write Track 30th AnniversaryThis edition marks the thirtieth anniversary of TheWrite Track and its antecedent NATO News(letter).At this time in 1990 the club as presentlyconstituted as Newcastle & Tyneside Orienteerswas formed from an amalgamation of NewcastleOrienteers (NO) and Tyneside Orienteers (TYNE).Both these clubs had a history going back to the60s/70s with TYNE once being Kenton Kanterers1969 and NO once Knightsbridge Orienteers 1974(after the street on which Gosforth High School(previously Grammar, currently Academy) stands.

As can be seen here, formerNO News morphed into NATONews under the distinguishededitorship of Richard Field.

The first item is a discussion ofa possible punchy name forthe publication.

As it turned out, this debatewent on for four whole yearsand more, with the title NATONews last used in December1994 and The Write Track firstin March 1995.

Many suggestions were madeover this period as shown inthe extracts here.

Richard, who had previous aseditor of his former clubmagazines at SUFFOC & CLYDEcompleted his marathon stintin 2006 to be succeeded byNicola Crosby, Paul Boyles andyours truly.

February 1991

December 1994

December 2020

Orienteering during a pandemic – don’t frighten the horses!Jeremy Lakey

Like the rest of the NATO members who agreed to plan an event this year, my duties wereallocated sometime before the March lockdown. Clearly, I had not thought I would be puttingon our first event after opening up. As the timetable of easing played out, it happened that theBlyth South Beach and Hartley Links event was the first one to go. It was probably not theobvious choice for a socially distanced race and my first visit on a Sunday morning revealed avery popular place which has probably got even more busy during lockdown. Thus, it was clearthat courses would need to avoid busy areas. At the same time Fred Miller had startedremapping the area, replacing the venerable edition which had been drawn by the late, greatAdrian Barnes. It was a splendid example of his skills, using on-the-ground surveying to createaccurate contours of sand hills before more modern methods were available. Sadly, sand dunesmove, vegetation grows and paths change, so Fred’s efforts, starting from a fiendishlycomplicated LIDAR representation of the dunes, were badly needed.

This turned out to be a heroic effort because of the area size,dune/grass detail, maze of paths and areas of very unfriendlyvegetation. I won’t repeat Fred’s description of this particularlywidespread, low growing, thorn bearing plant, but I think it is Rosapimpinellifolia, the Burnet Rose. In the right place a lovely plant,but for Fred this was not the right place.

Fred and I communicated by email and phone and the courses took shape. Not as interestingas I’d have liked, being more linear than usual, but hopefully keeping competitors and public ata safe distance. If you ran along the beach to some controls then thank you for taking the hint!

Richard Torr controlled in a pandemic friendly way whichsadly entailed us never meeting until the day. Thanks tohim for sorting the shorter courses, which, as ever, werethe most challenging. Bob Richardson looked after thestrange organisation of the event, ensuring that we didn’thave a big crowd all at once and covering all the myriadchallenges of pandemic orienteering. John printed themaps and we were set.(Photo: Richard)

Collecting the equipment gave me the chance to experience the ultimate man-cave that is PaulBoyles’ garage. How so much can be assembled in one building still amazes me, to the extentthat I now wonder if I dreamt the whole thing.

Photos: Carole Firth

On the day, my son Chris did a great job helping putting out the controls whilst Katherine andRichard checked the courses in a pincer movement from North and South. There was no windat 7.00 a.m. but by 10.00 there was enough to carry away some of the controls. I thought I hadchosen the best Start site with a clear separation from the car parking. However, the sight ofJoanne trying to push pegs into solid ground to set up the start boxes confirmed that plannersalso need to look below ground level sometimes. Apart from a few lost controls the event thenappeared to run OK but social distancing meant that I didn’t get the usual feedback. Thanks toMary and George for collecting in. The main reported problem was that a control, which I had used to guide green and blue awayfrom the crowds, kept being moved and thrown into the grass. Eventually it appeared that itwas near a “horse path” and it was frightening the equine members of the South BeachCommunity. So, in planning orienteering during a global pandemic- don’t forget the details!

Jeremy Lakey

This year’s Christmas eventhas been relocated fromthe usual Plessey Woodsvenue in order to provideeasier self distancing.

Full details are on the club website via the front page Highlight Event panel. Entry must bemade by the closing date of 16th December 8:00 p.m.

East Cramlington Nature Reserve was once the site of collierywaste stretching for a mile and a quarter from where our startpoint will be to Shankhouse and had three mines around its edge.East Cramlington (1825 to 1939), Shankhouse (1896 to 1940) &Cramlington Ann (1825 to 1925). Processing work continued atEast Cramlington for a further 20 years after closure.

At the southern end was a brickworks, and the pond may oncehave been a claypit like the one slightly nearer Seaton Delaval.Waggonways linking the three pits to the Tyne crossed the area.

After lying derelict until 1970s, the enormous task of reclaiming the landbegan. The waste heap was regraded, contoured and plantations created.Once fenced, these have matured and become more open. Grand plans tocreate a Sports Park came to nothing. The O map shows an intended arena.

It is now a County Council managed local nature reserve. The pondis home to frogs, toads and newts, swans, mallard, coots andmoorhens. Bats sometimes fly over. Endangered lowland birdssuch as skylark, thrush, linnet, partridge and yellow hammer havebeen seen. The site supports a wide range of butterflies includingsmall copper, orange tip, green-veined white, wall, large skipperand large white.

If travelling to/from Seaton Delaval, safely look up between thetwo right angle corners and see the Squirrel Bridges over the roadinstalled recently as this is a haven for Red Squirrels.

Squirrel photos courtesy : John Osborn& Cramlington Red Squirrel Group

Future Event

Wansbeck Riverside Local EventJanuary 10th

Future PlansYour club committee are trying hard to establish event plans for the future amidst the ongoing uncertain situation. At the time of writing, the following have been agreed as from the New Year, but remain subject to Government and British Orienteering regulations or guidance at the time.

10/01/2021 Local Cross Country Wansbeck Riverside14/02/2021 Local Urban Prudhoe07/03/2021 Regional Cross Country Dukes House11/04/2021 Local Urban Sprint Morpeth Gathering25/04/2021 Local Cross Country Newburn23/05/2021 Regional Urban Killingworth06/06/2021 Regional Cross Country Sewingshields12/09/2021 Regional Urban Cramlington24/10/2021 Local Cross Country Broomley21/11/2021 Regional NE Score Druridge Bay19/12/2021 Local Festive Frolic Plessey Woods or E. Cramlington

Puzzle solutions:

Possible word ladders:

-----PATH BANK RUIN

-----BATH BAND RAIN

-----BASH BEND RAIL

-----CASH BENT WAIL

-----CAST WENT WALL

-----EAST WEST

Others will be possible

Anagrams:

Responsive Wrongdoer Overgrown Depression

Ant Pretender Deep Re-entrant

Sprawling Report Spring lower part