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orienteering a great way to keep fit
the sports development in Britain This early activity was uncoordinated and sporadic. Peter Palmer, later to be a major figure in the development of British orienteering, remembers: I took part in my 1st orienteering event on Jesus Meadows, Cambridge, in November 1958. 2 Swedish students persuaded the University Cross-Country Club to look for colored biscuit tins in a fog-bound fen landscape with the help of an OS inch-to-the-mile map, Silva compasses, grid references and helpful descriptions like 'the wood corner south of the village church'.
A major step towards organized orienteering came in 1959 when Baron Lagerfelt of Stockholm, an accomplished orienteer in his day and fired with a missionary zeal to spread the sport throughout the world, turned his sights on the UK. He arranged a demonstration competition in Nottingham and wrote to the Scottish Tourist Board. His letter ended up on the desk of Charles Wilde, a Development Officer in what was then the Scottish Council of Physical Recreation, and on December 15th 1960 Wilde called a meeting to discuss Lagerfelt's proposal to introduce the sport of orienteering to Scotland through staging a well publicized demonstration by teams of expert Swedish orienteers, to be held in June 1961, at some suitable place in Scotland. 11 people, representing education, youth groups, the armed forces and the Forestry Commission attended this meeting. The Swedish Orienteering Council decided to delay its visit until 1962 but the Advisory Committee went ahead and arranged its own demonstration race on the Penicuik Estate on Sunday April 16th 1961, using members of Edinburgh Southern Harriers. |
This became the 1st orienteering event in Scotland and consisted of 2 courses, a short trail run of about 2 miles to give the athletes the feel of orienteering, followed by a 5½ mile race. The winner was a woman, Agnes Wright, in 58.32, 7 minutes ahead of Brian Jamieson who went on to become a British international and a course planner at the 1976 World Championships. Baron Lagerfelt himself finished 1 second behind Jamieson.
The Swedish team visited Scotland the next year, and its demonstration event at Dunkeld on June 23rd was followed by Open Men's, Junior Men's and Women's races. These count as the 1st Scottish Championships, and also included an international competition between England, Scotland, Germany and Sweden - won, of course, by the Swedes. June 24th 1962, the day of the Open Men's International race, was also the day of the 1st Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Orienteering Association. It was attended by twenty four people representing eighteen organizations, with apologies from nineteen individuals representing a further fourteen organizations. The first Scottish O club was Edinburgh University in late 1964, followed by Edinburgh Southern and Strathclyde University in early 1965.
Following the 1957 Lake District Mountain Trial, members of the Preston Mountain Rescue Team led by Gerry Charnley and Ken Turner were experimenting with compass and map exercises on the Pennine fells.
An orienteering race was held at Whitewell near Clitheroe in 1963, and on December 4th 1964, the 1st English club, South Ribble Orienteering Club, was formed, closely followed by Pendle Forest Orienteers. SROC represented England in an international competition in France in July 1965.
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