Hope everyone has had a good start to 2024. Apologies for the tardy New Year, but its has been busy so far. A quick thank you to Lyra and Rob for planning and organising the Cold Harbour event. I thoroughly enjoyed supporting Lyra and updating the map, I think the area is great for a middle/long-middle, and Lyra had a tremendous time planning the courses and overseeing the day’s events. She has now accepted the invitation to plan our event at Holmsley in October, and the draft courses are planned already.

We also had a SW junior training day at Bramshaw, with Robbie joining Lyra and Esk for junior training, and hopefully Emma and Oliver will be able to join the next one at Bath Spa.

Speaking of training, WIM are organising a training day for WIM and WSX at Coldharbour on Saturday 9th March.

Before that we have our Compass Sport Trophy fixture at Bere Wood. We need all our members to take part, as there may be two final places up for grabs, although overhauling the scores of the WIM and SARUM is always a challenge. Remember, we need a spread of ages and genders, so everyone counts. Please let James know if you can join the team.

Also, please remember to renew your membership, I see that a few of you haven’t yet.

The night league continues to keep us entertained, its up to Larkhill Garrison this weekend, then events at Southampton, Basingstoke, Studland and Fordingbridge (3 events in 5 days!) bringing us almost to the end of the season.

A little further ahead is the British Long champs and relays in faraway forests near Whitby and the JK in the Midlands at Easter. If anyone is planning to do the Welsh 6 days in July in the Brecon Beacons, we have a designated campsite.

See you at the Southern Champs this Sunday, or the British Nights the week after, or at the Compass Sport Trophy qualifier the week after.