Summer League #2: Currabinny Wood Results and Report

Currabinny Wood was the destination for the second event in the Cork Orienteering Club Summer League. Tuesday was probably one of the first balmy evenings of our summer so far and gave us a flavour of what a good summer could bring. Let’s hope it continues!The fine weather invariably draws people to the outdoors and it was great to receive over 100 entries. Once again it was fantastic to have so many families participating and we are always delighted to welcome you to the sport of orienteering. A few even managed to get in some post run picnics on the benches dotted around the car park area. The spirit of the summer league is the enjoyment of the outdoors and the long summer evenings, oh and a bit of friendly rivalry doesn't go astray either! So it was great to see all these on display in abundance in Currabinny on Tuesday evening.The terrain was looking pretty specular on the evening with lovely dry paths and the glorious sunshine made it a pleasure to run around. Regrettably despite all the bad weather of late the steepness of the hills hasn't diminished in any way since last year and on the Long course it was control three which provided a reminder to all of just how tough this hillock can be. Listening to feedback after the event it seems that control 6 presented the most difficulty with many getting disorientated in amongst the vegetation changes. Incidentally the splits to this control range from 1:10 to 20:23. There was a beautiful carpet of bluebells in the area around control 7 but I must sadly report that many of these got trampled by the 60+ orienteers that were competing on the Long course.The planner provided plenty of route choice on the Long course in particular legs 7-8, 9-10, 10-11 and 11-12. Given there was so many competitors in action on the night the wood seemed very busy with individuals and groups traversing the hill in all directions. This definitely spurred some folk on as they engaged in some head to head battles on various legs.This week’s course winners set a storming pace and charged ahead of the rest of the field to give themselves significant winning margins. On the Long Course it was the sprightly Niall McCarthy who set a very impressive winning time of 27:41. He definitely made light work of all the hills! Our league leader Donal Murphy had to be content with second place this week finishing in a time of 31:12. Jonathan Lucey took the final podium spot with a time of 32:32.The fastest lady around the Long course was Trishia O’Mahony who finished the course in a time of 44:17. Deirdre Creedon made her 2013 summer league debut on Tuesday and took second place in a time of 50:31. Surprisingly Elaine Sheridan was third in a time of 52:50.The winner of the Short course was John Lynch who flew around the circuit in a time of 14:55 giving himself over five minutes to spare ahead of runner up Tomas Manning. Tomas finished in a time of 20:14. It was a team effort for third place with Sean & Linda taking the honours with a time of 25:42.Thanks to everyone for participating. Full individual results with splits are available here.If you missed the event you can see just how picturesque the area was on the night by visiting our photo gallery.

We had another first time summer league planner in action this week so we would like to extend another big THANK YOU to David Bosonnet for taking up the challenge and planning interesting and testing courses. David’s right hand lady on the night was his daughter Sienna. So a big THANK YOU to her also, in particular for selecting all the brightest kites from the kit. They really stood out in the wood….especially for number 6!

Thanks also to Ailbhe Creedon for controlling the event and Rob McEvoy for organising the event. The rest of the team that assisted on the night comprised Dave O’Donovan on starts and Rob O’Sullivan and Deirdre Creedon on control collection, so well done team and thanks for all the hard work and a most enjoyable evening.

As a mark of respect for our friend and club mate Der Cronin, who sadly passed away last week, we will be donating all proceeds (€600) from this event to the North West Hospice Fund. Der was an active orienteer since the founding of CorkO in the early 80's and continued to attend local and national events up to last year. Fondly, known as Dasher or "The Dash" to his many friends he was a driving force in promoting this league when it started out in the early 90’s and the instigator of many a social gathering after the events. The Dasher will be sadly missed but always affectionately remembered.