Happy New Year everyone. Hope you are keeping dry in all this rain. The forests are certainly pretty sodden at the moment.

We start the year by welcoming some new members and saying goodbye to those that have decided to retire from orienteering. First of all to Pella Rye, our oldest member (even older than Andrew), who at 94 has decided to retire from the sport. We also say goodbye to Celia Robertson, who after 50 years of orienteering has decided to retire her compass and dibber. We wish them both well.

We also would like to thank Eric Whapples for his work on the committee, particularly in recent years in relation to our activities on Brownsea Island, as he steps down from committee responsibilities. We also say goodbye to Michael Tsang who has moved to SLOW, we wish him well in London.

We do have three new members, all juniors, so welcome to Robbie Miller (Martin’s son), Saphire and Harrison Eydmann (Andy’s youngsters).

Speaking of youngsters, we have decided to start a junior league, encouraging juniors that Jason trains at schools and other junior groups, to attend our summer series. This will include the three events in BCP, and more details will appear on our brand new juniors page.

Hopefully we will have many more juniors joining the club in 2023.

Congratulations also go to Esk Medlock, who after four selection events, has been picked for the England junior team (W14 category) to represent her country in Belgium at Interland Cup against Belgium, Netherlands and northern France. A great effort.

On to upcoming events:

14th Jan – WSX Wareham night event

15th Jan – WIM Bere Wood event

22nd Jan – WSX Compass Sport Cup heat at Holmsley

26th Jan – WIM Shillingstone night event

18th Feb – WIM British Night champs at Moors Valley CP

19th Feb – WSX/SOC SW League event at Longbeech (organised by SOC)

2nd Mar – WSX King’s Park night event.

Details are on our events page, or on Wimborne Orienteers page. Please offer to help at these events if you can.