3ROC News 24th March 2017

Something to look forward to this weekend is the Leinster League event on the Bull Island in Dublin city on Sunday. Over the past few years Ajax have managed to pull off a miracle with the weather and it looks like they may do it this year too. The area is all open sand dunes with subtle yet complex features and the Brown course is made more challenging by the omission of all except the brown (contour) and blue (marsh) features, so no paths or buildings for you! The map is big, at 1:5000 scale, and it’s an event that’s definitely worth going to: they often get big numbers as it’s popular and easy to get to. You can see full details here. You can get there by bike, by bus or by DART (with a bit of a walk from Raheny station). After orienteering you can have a swim or try your hand at kitesurfing … and don’t forget the clocks go forward on Saturday night!

What a contrast last Sunday, though, at the Setanta’s “Come and try it” event at Ballinascorney: anyone who came and tried orienteering for the first time, and enjoyed it, should be signed up for the Irish team straight away – they’re the kind of people we want! The weather was tough, the terrain was tough and the courses were tough, made more difficult by the exceptionally sloppy and slippy conditions underfoot caused by motorcycle scrambler tracks. Some reasonable 3ROC runs on the Long course: from Eoin McCullough (2nd), Eoin Riordan 3rd and John McGrath 5th, and on the Medium course Cuan Riordan was 3rd. Anyone who finished their course deserves praise.

Later in the week we had the Leinster Schools Championships at Hellfire Woods on Wednesday, courtesy of Mary Healy and her crew from GEN. There were a few regular orienteers out and, not surprisingly, they took the top spots. Among them were four from 3ROC: Aidan McCullough (Belvedere College) was 1st and Ben McDowell (Rockbrook Park) 2nd on the 2nd/3rd Year Boys’ course,  Eoin Riordan (St Gerard’s) was 2nd on the 5th/6th Year Boys’ and his brother Cuan (St Gerard’s) was joint 1st (with Eoghan Whelan) on the 1st Year Boys’ course – every second counts, guys! Well done to you all, on another bad-weather day.

Reminder time: Final entries for the Leinster Championships at Brockagh 0n 9th April (near Glendalough) are on 3rd April. See here for details. There are only 132 entered so far, so do enter and support the event. The day before the Leinster Champs there’s a Sprint event to raise funds for the Juniors. The event is being run by the Juniors themselves, at Massy’s Estate (beside Hellfire Woods). They’ll be using the high-tech “SI Air” contactless electronic timing system. See details here.

Irish Championships, Oughterard, Co. Galway, April 29-May 1st. Entries close on April 9th. See details here. Relay entries close on April 12th so if you’d like to be included on a 3ROC relay team for the Monday, please contact us as soon as possible.

Next 3ROC event: Carrick, Glenealy, Sunday 23rd April. Organiser Lindie Naughton, Planner John McCullough, Controller Brendan McGrath. Thanks to these three volunteers for taking on the main roles, but we also need helpers on the day. Please e-mail 3rockOC@gmail.com to offer help.

Finally, annual subscriptions are due and can be paid online via Fabian4. See here.