All posts by Vince Grealy

Events

Winter Lampo #5

Well done to Matthew Rochester for a successful debut as Lampo planner last night. An excellent turnout – probably not far off a record. Results are now up. One more to go for this series, and the first time we have done a Lampo in Pateley Bridge, so don’t miss it.

Events

Guisecliff 4 Mar 18 – CANCELLED

EVENT CANCELLED

Unfortunately it has become necessary to cancel the planned Regional Event at Guisecliff on Sunday 4 Mar 18 due to the prevailing weather conditions. The decision was made because it is considered that it would not be possible to run a fair or safe competition. Thanks to those officials who have already put in a lot of time and effort into this event.

News

CLARO News 30 Jan 18

Claro Top 15s

Some excellent runs this weekend by our Junior men trying longer courses for the first time at Storthes Hall. Alex Robinson was 15th on Black and Matthew Rochester was 11th on Brown ( they had run out of Black maps). Ruth Ker was 1st W50 on the Green course and 5th overall, which made her W50 Yorkshire Middle Distance Champion 2018.

Lakes 5 days – Sunday July 29th to Friday 3rd August

If you plan to do this event, save a few pounds by getting your entry in before the first closing date which is Wednesday 31st January.

Organisation is now well advanced to deliver some excellent courses and a memorable visit to the Lakes this summer.

  • Silver Howe, near Grasmere
  • Angle Tarn Pikes, Patterdale
  • Harrop Tarn, Thirlmere
  • Askham Fell, Ullswater
  • Dale Park, Graythwaite

And don’t forget there will be an urban street race in Ulverston on the “rest day”. All can be entered via Fabian by clicking here .

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6 volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting this wednesday. Next event is the 7th February from Cheltenham Mount. Details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

 Date Venue  Organiser
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

JK2018

Last price hike was Sunday 28th Jan. Entries close on the 25th February.

Compass Sport Trophy

All club members should have had an e-mail from Mike Hind about the Compass Sport Trophy on the 11th March at Canklow south of Rotherham. It would be nice to replicate our success of last year so please place the date in your diary and send Mike the following information

Your Name
Your age class (e.g. W 55)
Your BO number (e.g. 286122)
Your SI dibber number

Don’t delay – do it NOW his e-mail is mike.hindATbtinternet.com ( you need to replace the AT with the symbol)
And the final is much closer than last year.

 

News

CLARO News 23 Jan 18

Claro Top 10s

No local races this weekend. The only result I have found was for Ruth Ker who was the fastest on the voided Edinburgh city race despite losing her dibber and having to go back to relocate it. The race was voided due to ice on the course you can see some on Anthony Udris’s headcam video here.

YHOA League Presentation and Alistair Tinto Memorial event.

Mugs for the YHOA Superleague 2017, YHOA Urban League 2017, and YHOA Night League 2017/2018 will be available for winners, seconds and thirds in each class of the leagues. Mugs are only going to orienteers from YHOA clubs who have completed at least 2 league events. The full list of winners is on www.yhoa.org.uk. There is still one event to go in the Night League so places in that competition are not finalised yet. Mugs will be awarded at the EPOC Alistair Tinto memorial event on Jan 28 at Storthes Hall. This is also the YHOA Middle Distance Champs and the first YHOA Superleague event of 2018. Mugs go to winners, seconds and thirds from the leagues who go to the event on Jan 28. There will be a place near registration/download where those entitled to mugs should check in so that we know who is there to receive them. There are a number of Claros who have qualified for mugs so congratulations to them and one Claro who needs to race in the last race to qualify.

Membership

Don’t forget to renew your membership. It is now due. A number of regulars are still showing on the BOF lapsed members list.

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6  volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting this Wednesday. Next event is the 24th January form the Black Swan at Burn Bridge.  Details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

 Date Venue  Organiser
Wed 24 Jan 18 S Harrogate Susan Birtwistle
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

JK2018

The next price hike is Sunday 28th Jan. Save yourselves £6 for the 3 entries by getting your entries in now.

Compass Sport Trophy

All club members should have had an e-mail from Mike Hind about the Compass Sport Trophy on the 11th March at Canklow south of Rotherham. It would be nice to replicate our success of last year so please place the date in your diary and send Mike the following information

Your Name
Your age class (e.g. W 55)
Your BO number (e.g. 286122)
Your SI dibber number

Don’t delay – do it NOW his e-mail is mike.hindATbtinternet.com ( you need to replace the AT with the symbol)
And the final is much closer than last year.

 

News

CLARO News 17 Jan 18

Claro Top 10s

Claro cyclists did very well at the first NYMBO event of the year. Tim Evans was first Vet and first overall with 424 points. Adrian and Luke Parker were second overall and and first generation team with 415 points. Jemima Parker and Jo Anderson were first Ladies.
On Sunday Ruth Ker was 2nd lady and 9th overall on the Blue at Rivelin. Liz Potterton was 9th Lady on Green and Richard Corfield was 4th on Light Green.

YHOA League Presentation and Alistair Tinto Memorial event.

Mugs for the YHOA Superleague 2017, YHOA Urban League 2017, and YHOA Night League 2017/2018 will be available for winners, seconds and thirds in each class of the leagues. Mugs are only going to orienteers from YHOA clubs who have completed at least 2 league events. The full list of winners is on www.yhoa.org.uk. There is still one event to go in the Night League so places in that competition are not finalised yet. Mugs will be awarded at the EPOC Alistair Tinto memorial event on Jan 28 at Storthes Hall. This is also the YHOA Middle Distance Champs and the first YHOA Superleague event of 2018. Mugs go to winners, seconds and thirds from the leagues who go to the event on Jan 28. There will be a place near registration/download where those entitled to mugs should check in so that we know who is there to receive them. There are a number of Claros who have qualified for mugs so congratulations to them and one Claro who needs to race in the last race to qualify.

Membership

Don’t forget to renew your membership. It is now due. A number of regulars are still showing on the BOF lapsed members list.

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

CLARO Junior League Event January 27th 2018

All club members should have had an email last Sunday requesting help for the junior event on the 27th January where we may have over 200 Junior Soldiers trying out Orienteering. Thank you for those who have volunteered so far, more volunteers would be welcome for a 2 hour shift between 10:00 and 14:00. If you can help please e-mail news@claro-orienteering.org.uk. If you are a club member and haven’t had the e-mail please can you advise as this means out contact system needs updating.

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6  volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting this Wednesday. Next event is the 24th January form the Black Swan at Burn Bridge.  Details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

 Date Venue  Organiser
Wed 24 Jan 18 S Harrogate Susan Birtwistle
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

 

News

CLARO News 9 Jan 18

Claro Top 10s

A number of Top 10s at Temple Newsam this weekend. At the night event David Day was 4th and Tim Evans 8th on the medium and on the following days event ( on a 98% different area) David Rochester was 1st on Light Green and Toby Rochester was 1st on Orange.

Membership

Don’t forget to renew your membership it is now due. A number of regulars are still showing on the BO lapsed members list.

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

CLARO Junior League Event 27 Jan 18

All club members should have had an email on Sunday requesting help for the junior event on the 27th January where we may have over 200 Junior Soldiers trying out Orienteering. Thank you for those who have volunteered so far. More volunteers would be welcome for a 2 hour shift between 10:00 and 14:00. If you can help please e-mail news@claro-orienteering.org.uk. If you are a club member and haven’t had the e-mail please can you advise as this means out contact system needs updating.

Alistair Tinto Memorial

EPOC are hosting the YHOA Middle Distance Championships and a Superleague event on January 28 at Storthes Hall. It will also be a memorial event for Alistair Tinto. Many of you will have known Alistair and also know how much he did over many years for EPOC and YHOA. Obviously all are hoping that the event will be a popular and successful one when we can remember Alistair as well as enjoy our runs.
Unfortunately, there is now a clash with a nearby attractive event. DVO had to cancel a National event on Eyam Moor on 10 Dec and it has had to be rearranged as a Regional event on 28 January. DVO have considered moving it to another date, but they are very restricted and it has to stay on January 28. Pre-entries from 10 Dec have been transferred to the new date and there were many YHOA entries. With the date change and the clashing EPOC memorial event, DVO understand that some people will wish to cancel their entries and get a refund. This is possible up to Jan 2 though there will be small administration charge. Pre-entries to the DVO event should have received an email about this.
Obviously we hope that all YHOA members orienteering on that day will choose to go to the EPOC event. However, we do understand that those who already have an entry for the DVO event and/or find Eyam Moor an attractive alternative, may still wish to go to that event. The clash is unfortunate, but please understand that DVO and EPOC have tried to avoid it.
The EPOC event can be entered via Fabian4. It is cheaper than the DVO one, and nearer for most. Hopefully, there will also be awards at the event for the 2017 YHOA Superleague and Urban League.

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6 volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting on January 10th details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

 Date Venue  Organiser
Wed 10 Jan 18 Ripon, Water Rat Allen Banister
Wed 24 Jan 18 S Harrogate Susan Birtwistle
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

 IOF Reflections

Some of you may remember the link to Sandor Talas’s blog about IOF finances last year.  His slightly lighthearted comments that virtual orienteering may be the best chance of Orienteering making the Olympics is here. Oh and if you thought esports was not for the Olympics his follow up is here.

News

CLARO News 3 Jan 18

Happy New Year to all our Readers.

For those looking for some local Orienteering to kick off the new year Aire have two events at Temple Newsam this weekend, a night event on Saturday and a regional event on the Sunday .
Details are on the Aire website www. aire.org.uk

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

Alistair Tinto Memorial

EPOC are hosting the YHOA Middle Distance Championships and a Superleague event on January 28 at Storthes Hall. It will also be a memorial event for Alistair Tinto. Many of you will have known Alistair and also know how much he did over many years for EPOC and YHOA. Obviously all are hoping that the event will be a popular and successful one when we can remember Alistair as well as enjoy our runs.

Unfortunately, there is now a clash with a nearby attractive event. DVO had to cancel a National event on Eyam Moor on 10 Dec and it has had to be rearranged as a Regional event on 28 January. DVO have considered moving it to another date, but they are very restricted and it has to stay on January 28. Pre-entries from 10 Dec have been transferred to the new date and there were many YHOA entries. With the date change and the clashing EPOC memorial event, DVO understand that some people will wish to cancel their entries and get a refund. This is possible up to Jan 2 though there will be small administration charge. Pre-entries to the DVO event should have received an email about this.

Obviously we hope that all YHOA members orienteering on that day will choose to go to the EPOC event. However, we do understand that those who already have an entry for the DVO event and/or find Eyam Moor an attractive alternative, may still wish to go to that event. The clash is unfortunate, but please understand that DVO and EPOC have tried to avoid it.

The EPOC event can be entered via Fabian4. It is cheaper than the DVO one, and nearer for most. Hopefully, there will also be awards at the event for the 2017 YHOA Superleague and Urban League.

CLARO Junior League Event – 27 Jan 18

The number of competitors at the Junior Events is normally between 10-20 and only requires a few helpers to run the events. However, we have been asked if we can accommodate a few army trainees so we will be asking for helpers for this event , more details to follow when they are finalised.

Membership and JK2018

You may wonder why these are linked. In the November edition of the BO e-news there was a reminder that your membership is due for renewal. Please remember to renew as soon as possible, the first price hike for JK 2018 was the 17th December and I think you need to have renewed your membership to enter; you did in previous years. Details are here . The next price hike is Sunday 28th Jan. Save yourselves £6 for the 3 entries by getting your entries in now.

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6 volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting on January 10th details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

 Date Venue  Organiser
Wed 10 Jan 18 Ripon, Water Rat Allen Banister
Wed 24 Jan 18 S Harrogate Susan Birtwistle
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

 IOF Reflections   

Some of you may remember the link to Sandor Talas’s blog about IOF finances last year.  His slightly lighthearted comments that virtual orienteering may be the best chance of Orienteering making the Olympics is here. Oh and if you thought esports was not for the Olympics his follow up is here.

Know your symbols

At upcoming events you may start to see some new map symbols and new control descriptions, see the warning on the Skipwith Common details. Firstly, earlier this year a new specification for orienteering maps know as “ISOM 2017” was published, which replaces the previous “ISOM 2000” standard. Most changes are minor and you may not even notice, but a few you will (such as the marking of boulders, platforms, rides and distinct vegetation features). The full specification can be found here, but Berkshire Orienteers produced a much simpler comparison sheet to help you understand, see here. CLARO have already been updating our maps when we next use them for an event, and other clubs are expected to do likewise. Note these changes only apply to forest/moorland maps. Sprint/urban maps are unaffected (they have a different “ISSOM” standard).

Secondly, the IOF have also just published updated specifications for pictorial control descriptions, see here. The changes you are most likely to notice are moving the “bend” symbol from column G to column F, and new symbols for “trench”, and “out of bounds area” (most likely used for a flower bed in an urban/sprint race – that is what the symbol depicts anyway!). We will start using these as soon as Purple Pen supports them (the course planning software we use).

News

CLARO News 27 Dec

Happy New Year to all our Readers.

Hopefully Santa brought you all you wanted. At least 6 Claros braved the cold on Christmas day and ran in the Harrogate Christmas day park run. Next year’s fixtures list is starting to grow and we have a fixture clash on the 28th January; more details of this are below.

British Orienteering 2017 Incentive awards

Congratulations to all those Claro members who have received BO awards this year. Full details of the scheme are on the BO website here.

Alexander Robinson Racing Challenge: Gold Award ***** 07/12/2017
Racing Challenge: Silver Award ***** 20/11/2017
Eve Whitaker Racing Challenge: Silver Award *** 07/12/2017
Racing Challenge: Bronze Award *** 07/12/2017
Navigation Challenge *** 07/12/2017
Ewan Reid Racing Challenge: Bronze Award *** 29/03/2017
Navigation Challenge *** 29/03/2017
Helen Bowes Racing Challenge: Gold Award **** 03/04/2017
Jonathan Whitaker Racing Challenge: Gold Award ***** 07/12/2017
Katie Gray Racing Challenge: Bronze Award ***** 04/09/2017
Navigation Challenge ***** 04/09/2017
Lois Parker Racing Challenge: Gold Award *** 19/03/2017
Racing Challenge: Silver Award **** 01/05/2017
Peter While Navigation Challenge **** 29/03/2017
Susan Birtwistle Racing Challenge: Gold Award ***** 22/03/2017
Tamsin Ker Racing Challenge: Bronze Award **** 18/09/2017
Navigation Challenge **** 18/09/2017

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

Alistair Tinto Memorial

EPOC are hosting the YHOA Middle Distance Championships and a Superleague event on January 28 at Storthes Hall. It will also be a memorial event for Alistair Tinto. Many of you will have known Alistair and also know how much he did over many years for EPOC and YHOA. Obviously all are hoping that the event will be a popular and successful one when we can remember Alistair as well as enjoy our runs.
Unfortunately, there is now a clash with a nearby attractive event. DVO had to cancel a National event on Eyam Moor on 10 Dec and it has had to be rearranged as a Regional event on 28 January. DVO have considered moving it to another date, but they are very restricted and it has to stay on January 28. Pre-entries from 10 Dec have been transferred to the new date and there were many YHOA entries. With the date change and the clashing EPOC memorial event, DVO understand that some people will wish to cancel their entries and get a refund. This is possible up to Jan 2 though there will be small administration charge. Pre-entries to the DVO event should have received an email about this.
Obviously we hope that all YHOA members orienteering on that day will choose to go to the EPOC event. However, we do understand that those who already have an entry for the DVO event and/or find Eyam Moor an attractive alternative, may still wish to go to that event. The clash is unfortunate, but please understand that DVO and EPOC have tried to avoid it.
The EPOC event can be entered via Fabian4. It is cheaper than the DVO one, and nearer for most. Hopefully, there will also be awards at the event for the 2017 YHOA Superleague and Urban League.

CLARO Junior League Event January 27th 2018

The number of competitors at the Junior Events is normally between 10-20 and only requires a few helpers to run the events. However, we have been asked if we can accommodate a few army trainees so we will be asking for helpers for this event. More details to follow when they are finalised.

Membership and JK2018

You may wonder why these are linked. In the November edition of the BO e-news there was a reminder that your membership is due for renewal. Please remember to renew as soon as possible, the first price hike for JK 2018 was the 17th December and I think you need to have renewed your membership to enter; you did in previous years. Details are here . The next price hike is Sunday 28th Jan. Save yourselves £6 for the 3 entries by getting your entries in now.

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6 volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting on January 10th details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

 Date Venue  Organiser
Wed 10 Jan 18 Ripon, Water Rat Allen Banister
Wed 24 Jan 18 S Harrogate Susan Birtwistle
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

Know your symbols

At upcoming events you may start to see some new map symbols and new control descriptions, see the warning on the Skipwith Common details. Firstly, earlier this year a new specification for orienteering maps know as “ISOM 2017” was published, which replaces the previous “ISOM 2000” standard. Most changes are minor and you may not even notice, but a few you will (such as the marking of boulders, platforms, rides and distinct vegetation features). The full specification can be found here, but Berkshire Orienteers produced a much simpler comparison sheet to help you understand, see here. CLARO have already been updating our maps when we next use them for an event, and other clubs are expected to do likewise. Note these changes only apply to forest/moorland maps. Sprint/urban maps are unaffected (they have a different “ISSOM” standard).

Secondly, the IOF have also just published updated specifications for pictorial control descriptions, see here. The changes you are most likely to notice are moving the “bend” symbol from column G to column F, and new symbols for “trench”, and “out of bounds area” (most likely used for a flower bed in an urban/sprint race – that is what the symbol depicts anyway!). We will start using these as soon as Purple Pen supports them (the course planning software we use).

News

CLARO News 19 Dec 17

Happy Christmas to all our Readers. May Santa bring you  compasses, gaiters, map holders, new running shoes  and some chocolate.

Last week at short notice Richard Kirk arranged a club Christmas meal at the So Bar in Harrogate, Allen Banister kindly provided an Orienteering puzzle.

The picture shows the Youth end of the table looking at the puzzle after it had been solved. Thanks to Richard for  arranging the meal and Allen for the harder than it looked puzzle.

Claro Top 11s

Claro results have been few and far between over the last 2 weeks. David Day was 4th at the Night Event at Beverley Westwood. Mike Cope was 11th on the Green at the Beverely Day event and braving the ice, Duncan Birtwistle was 11th on the blue at Cod Beck.  At the second Winter Trailquest Tim Evans was 3rd overall and 1st Vet.

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

Membership and JK2018

You may wonder why these are linked. In the November edition of the BOF e-news there was a reminder that your membership is due for renewal, please remember to renew as soon as possible,  the first price hike for JK 2018 was  the 17th December and I think you need to have renewed your membership to enter , you did in previous years, details are here . The next price hike is Sunday 28th Jan. Save yourselves £6 for the 3 entries by getting your entries in now.

Winter Blues 2018

Richard Kirk has now found 6  volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter starting on January 10th  details are below and include a new location for what hopefully will be a delightful spring evening for the last of the series.

Date Venue Organiser
Wed 10 Jan 18 Ripon, Water Rat Allen Banister
Wed 24 Jan 18 S Harrogate Susan Birtwistle
Wed 7 Feb 18 Centre/N Harrogate Stephen Fry
Wed 21 Feb 18 Harrogate Ruth Ker
Wed 7 Mar 18 Knaresborough Rochester family
Wed 21 Mar 18 Pateley Bridge Stan Appleton

Know your symbols

At upcoming events you may start to see some new map symbols and new control descriptions.  Firstly, earlier this year a new specification for orienteering maps know as “ISOM 2017” was published, which replaces the previous “ISOM 2000” standard.  Most changes are minor and you may not even notice, but a few you will (such as the marking of boulders, platforms, rides and distinct vegetation features).  The full specification can be found here, but Berkshire Orienteers produced a much simpler comparison sheet to help you understand, see here. CLARO have already been updating our maps when we next use them for an event, and other clubs are expected to do likewise.  Note these changes only apply to forest/moorland maps.  Sprint/urban maps are unaffected (they have a different “ISSOM” standard).

Secondly, the IOF have also just published updated specifications for pictorial control descriptions, see here.  The changes you are most likely to notice are moving the “bend” symbol from column G to column F, and new symbols for “trench”, and “out of bounds area” (most likely used for a flower bed in an urban/sprint race – that is what the symbol depicts anyway!).  We will start using these as soon as Purple Pen supports them (the course planning software we use).

News

Claro News 21 Nov 17

Claro Top 10s

Well done to the Claro Podiums this week. At the Swinsty Event, Luke Parker was a comendable 3rd on the Brown course, Alex Robinson was 1st and Matthew Rochester 2nd on Green, Liz Rochester was 1st on Yellow.

Also well done to the first class teams who put on another seamless event at Swinsty despite some last minute challenges. Full results are here. Better just check if that lost compass isn’t yours.

Coming up

If you are aware of any events I have missed please drop me an e-mail at news@claro-orienteering.org.uk

Membership and JK2018

You may wonder why these are linked. In the November edition of the BOF e-news there was a reminder that your membership is due for renewal. Please remember to renew as soon as possible; the first price hike for JK2018 is the 17th December and I think you need to have renewed your membership to enter.  You did in previous years. Details are here.

Autumn Leaves 2017 and Winter Blues 2018

The last of the current series is on Wednesday 29th November starting from the Tap on Tower Street HG1 1HS for what promises to be a fast and furious event round the town centre and the street to the east of the centre towards Christ Church Stray. Full details are here. Registration is from 6:15pm mass start at 6:30pm. Cost is £2 Senior £1 Junior, HV /reflective clothing must be worn, torch essential along with pen/pencil. Can we beat the last 2 events’ record turnouts?

Richard Kirk is now looking for volunteers for planning the next series of event in the winter. These are ever so easy to plan; Vince has written some excellent instructions on the web and all those who have done before will be happy to provide advice. Richard can be contacted by e-mail at: