Early leaders, and current standings are shown on the SWELL page.

The next event in the league is our HAVOC event at Thorndon North, on October 4th.  Entries open now, here.

All HAVOC members are welcome to attend.  If you would like to, please inform the club secretary, Colin (secretary@orienteering-havoc.co.uk) who will then send you the ZOOM link, and minutes of the 2025 AGM.

The draft agenda for the meeting is:

Date: Monday, October 12, 2026
Venue: ZOOM Video Conference booked 7:30-10:30pm. Meeting starts at 8pm.

1 Apologies
2 Minutes of the last AGM held on Monday, October 6, 2025
3 Matters Arising from minutes of last AGM
4 Chairman’s Report
5 Captain’s Report
6 Treasurer’s Report
7 Membership Report
8 Approval of Club Subscriptions

2026 subscriptions were held at 2025 levels.  These are £5 for Seniors & Families, and £0 (nil) for Juniors.  We do not make a distinction for the BOF membership category of Young Adult.

9 Election of Officers: Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Captain, Other Committee members
10 Other Roles to be allocated as part of BOF affiliation: Safeguarding/Welfare Officers; Fixtures Secretaries; Membership Secretary; Member Communications; Webmaster.

Other Roles:Results / SI Equipment; Equipment Officer; Mapping Officers; SWELL co-ordinator; Street-O; MapRun co-ordinator.
11 Any Other Business / Members’ Questions
12 Date of next Committee meeting - provisionally Mon 9th November, by Zoom

Colin Jackson,
HAVOC Secretary

The Essex Winter Midweek Series will again be run over the winter of 2026/27.  This will consist of 10 night street O events.

Series flyer

Points will be awarded based on finishing times adjusted using an age/gender handicap system.  Best 6 results from the series will count.   On-the-night bonus of 15 points per event for those running on the night, as opposed to MapRun catchup.  Time penalties for Anytime - 10% time penalty for Score events, 7 min time penalty for Line events.  A second run on any particular course will not count for scoring purposes.

Full results will be emailed and published on the SOS and HAVOC websites. 

Entry fees, per event Senior (member) £4, Senior (non-member) £5, junior £2

Golden Ticket (entry to all events in the series) - Senior (member) £30, Senior (non-member) £40,  junior £15

Links to details/results for the events are shown in the table below.

Essex Winter Midweek Series 2026/27

Guidelines for each event:

- Events may be in any format.  We will have a Long and a Short version available.  The short course will have a reduced length for Line events (approx 3.5-4km for Short, and 5.5-6km for Long), and a reduced time limit for score events (40 mins Short, and 60 mins Long). 

- Starts from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, courses close 9pm

- Start location should be a pub or similar

- Events are set up on MapRun to allow for on the night analysis, as well as Anytime Catch up for those not able to attend on the night

- Mainly street based, although can offer off road route choice, if considered safe in the dark

- Usual format of fire hydrants, supplemented by other road furniture, and/or homemade hydrant signs where courses would benefit from not only using hydrants (to increase route choice for example)

Note:  As some events may use scoring rules or other mechanisms that are only available in MapRun, competitive manual scoring is not always offered, although you are still welcome to run under manual timing, and control visits will be checked using a control card.

Defending champions from 2025/26 are:

Short Course

Long Course

Here is the latest issue of the club newsletter - September 2026 with an introduction from club chairman, Graham Batty, a roundup of events and other activities in the last month, and a preview of next month.

Also, the updated version of our Orienteering Spreadsheet with details of our HAVOC and participation leagues, as well as team orienteering results.

Previous editions

July 2026 Newsletter

June 2026 Newsletter

May 2026 Newsletter

April 2026 Newsletter

March 2026 Newsletter

February 2026 Newsletter

January 2026 Newsletter

December 2025 Newsletter

November 2025 Newsletter

October 2025 Newsletter

The fixture list for the SWELL series for 2026/27 has now been finalised, and we have eight events throughout south Essex, hosted by SOS, CHIG and HAVOC.  

The first event is the SOS Baddow Ridge event on 6th September.  Entries, open now, on Racesignup.

Full details of the whole series can be found on the series homepage.

SWELL is the South and West Essex Local League, an individual league which is run by Havering and South Essex (HAVOC) and Chigwell and Epping Forest (CHIG) orienteering clubs with Essex Stragglers Orienteering Society (SOS) hosting one or two events a season as well. There are eight to ten events held on either a Saturday or Sunday between September and June each season. The league is open to everyone. By virtue of taking part in a SWELL event you automatically qualify for the league, you do not need to register for the league. 

As a minimum, White, Yellow, Orange, Light Green, Green and Blue courses are offered and normally a Short Green. At some events a Very Short Green, Brown and even Black may be offered and possibly Short Blue and Short Brown.

Summary of winners since 2005/06

Current standings:
SWELL has 8 events this year, with the best 6 to count, meaning if you miss an event you can still be in contention.  There's also event Planner and Organiser points so as these important volunteers are not disadvantaged.

So, after a quickfire start, the leaders are currently:-

Only one WHITE event so far, and Wilfred Tate won it to lead the standings

We have had two different winners on YELLOW, Teal Rankin & Maks Petrovs, leading the way.

It's Amelie Maule-Lidbury in the ORANGE with two good finishes.

Alys Powell won the only LIGHT GREEN.

Barbara Beckett and Noreen Ives lead SHORT GREEN, both with 2 good placings.

Junior Hugo Maule-Lidbury leads the GREEN category. Who can catch him?

Another Junior, Ethan Radcliffe heads BLUE with 2 good results including a 2nd place.

Mark Ford won the only BROWN event so far.

Top four in the Adult League are the SHORT GREEN, GREEN & BLUE leaders. Very close at this stage.

ORANGE leader Amelie Maule-Lidbury, leads the GIRLS and there is a 3 way tie for the different course winners in the BOYS.

Next up, Thorndon North on 4th October. See you there.

Current standings

League events

SWELL Point Scoring Rules

1. SWELL season runs 01 September to 30 April each year

2. Maximum 8 events, minimum 6 events to be included in a season

3. Best 6 events score

JUNIORS (below M/W21)

4. Score up to 100 points according to finishing position on White, Yellow, Orange and Light Green courses.

5. Courses are White (School Years 3-6), Yellow (Years 7 & 8), Orange (Years 9 & 10) and Light Green (Years 11-13).  

6. Juniors running down a course score 50% points, 2 courses 25% points, 3 courses 10% points.

7. Juniors competing as a pair each score 50% points; juniors score 10 points if with an adult.

8. Disqualified competitors score 10 points.

9. Medals for overall winners on White, Yellow, Orange and Light Green.

10. Trophy for overall highest scoring Girl and Boy.

ADULTS (M/W21 and above)

11. Adults on White to Light Green courses score up to 50 points according to finishing position.

12. Adults on Green, Short Green, Blue, Brown and Black courses score up to 100 points according to finishing position.

13. Disqualified competitors score 10 points.

14. Medals for overall winners on Green, Short Green, Blue, Brown/Black.

15. Trophy for overall highest scoring Female and Male.

16. Organiser and planner for an event receive 100 points each. An individual organiser and planner can only receive this benefit once per season.

Getting started

Orienteering means maps, forests and adventure. You can walk, jog or run and choosing your route to the red and white markers is fun. It does not matter how old, young or fit you are - you go at your own pace. If you like excitement, fresh air and exploring the countryside then Orienteering is the sport for you.

Orienteering can best be described as competitive navigation on foot. You find your way around a course going from point to point using a specially drawn large scale map and a compass. No expensive kit is needed - just sensible outdoor clothes (long trousers are compulsory at most events), a good pair of trainers, a red pen, a clear polythene bag to put the map in and a whistle for safety.

Getting started is easy. Each league event has a minimum of 5 courses. If you are new to the sport, you can start with the beginners courses of about 3 kilometres (white and yellow), and when you get more confident, you can move up to the intermediate courses of about 4 kilometres (orange and light green). In addition, there is a longer course of about 5 kilometres (blue), aimed at experienced orienteers.

Time

All events have registration from 10am until at least 11. 30am. Starts normally will be from 10.30 until 11.30 (Saturdays) and 12.30 (Sundays).

Courses will normally close at 1pm on Saturdays and 2.00pm on Sundays.

Courses

All events will have courses suitable for beginners, improvers and experienced orienteers. 
(A minimum of colour coded standard White, Yellow, Orange, Light Green and Blue courses will be on offer at each event.)
There will be help and advice for beginners at every event. (Please contact the Co-ordinator if you wish to bring a large group so that we can make arrangements to give you extra help with Registration and allocating Courses and Start times)

Cost

Saturday events: Seniors: approximately £8   Juniors: £4 
Sunday events:   Seniors: approximately £10  Juniors: £4

Pre-entry preferred. There may be limited entry on the day.

The events on Sundays are larger events, with a wider range of courses and normally a larger map. 
All events normally use electronic punching (SI). There will be an additional charge of £1 to hire an electronic punching “dibber” if you do not own one.

Car parking

Essex County Council charge a car parking fee for events on their areas.  Other areas' charges vary.

Dogs

Unless otherwise stated dogs are welcome at these events, but must be under strict control at all times, both in the Registration area and in the competition area. 

Contacts

HAVOC’s website is at www.orienteering-havoc.co.uk
CHIG’s website is at www.chig.org.uk
Essex Stragglers (SOS)'s website is at www.stragglers.info

The SWELL coordinator, Dale Bennett, can be contacted via swell@orienteering-havoc.co.uk 

Congratulations to Jackie Sibthorp (Long) and Chris Childs (Short) for their series victories.  A full series commentary can be found here, along with links to results from all races, and maps and instructions for running the events on Anytime.

We will be back in Spetember with the Twilight series.  Details, here.

As we wait for the clocks to go back so we can run the winter series in the dark, we are filling the gap with some additional midweek orienteering events through September and October.

The series this year will consist of three events,

- we revisit the much loved Snooker O from last year, this time in Burnham-on-Crouch

- we try out a Spanish score event in Basildon

- we finish off with a hybrid line/spiral format in Wickford

Full details of the series can be found here.

We have kept entry fees at the same level as last year, so just £4 per event for orienteering club members. Entries to all events are already open on Racesignup.

Defending champions for the Twilight series are:

With a gap between the summer series finishing (July) and the Winter series starting (October), we are again going to run a Twilight series in the intervening months.

The series will consist of three events, each with a specific scoring format, every two weeks from early September.  Terrain will be mostly on streets and footpaths, but may venture into local parks for some route choice.

Series flyer.

Points will be awarded based on scores achieved adjusted using an age/gender handicap system.  On-the-night bonus of 15 points per event for those running on the night, opposed to MapRun catchup.  6 (long)/4 (short) min penalty for Anytime.  A second run will not count for scoring purposes.

Entry fees, per event Senior (member) £4, Senior (non-member) £5, Junior £2

Note:  This series will be using the latest version of the MapRun software, to enable use of features and scoring that have been introduced.  Therefore, if you are not using the latest version of the software, please update to ensure that there are no issues when it comes to the event.  Competitive manual timing is not available for this series.

Links to details/results for the events are shown in the table below.

Essex Midweek Twilight Series 2026

Guidelines for each event:

- Short (40 mins) and Long (60 mins) score courses, using the same map
- Starts from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, courses close 9pm
- Start location in a local pub
- All events are set up on MapRun to allow for on the night analysis, as well as Anytime Catch up for those not able to attend on the night
- Due to some scoring methods, and requirements to know order of controls visited, competitive manual timing is not available for this series.
- Usual format of fire hydrants, supplemented by other road furniture, and/or homemade hydrant signs where courses would benefit from not only using hydrants (to increase route choice for example).

Defending Twilight champions from 2025 are:

Two wins and two seconds from the first four races in the series guaranteed us victory, and we had our victory lap at Beckenham Place Park on Sunday!

Once again, we have shown that our team spirit is possibly the best in London.  We were the smallest competing club, but the only one to get a full team of at least 6 to every event.  We ran the massive HH team close at their own event, we overturned LOK and MV at their home events, and we were close to DFOK in the last two events, when essentially the cup had already been won.  

So, that is it for another year – the new GLOSS trophy is safe in HAVOC hands, and we have another 12 months, as the best orienteering club in London!

Well, done to everyone who ran for us in the series.  We had 22 different runners, 16 of whom scored in one or more events.  We had four different runners top scoring for the club in the five events.  David, Colin, Jenny and Zbig made all five events to form the core of our team each week.  David scored in all five races, as shown in the table below:

We will have basic instruction and training available, and all kit is loaned for free. You can choose the length of your course, and receive your map and printout of your timings.

Full details can be found, here
 

We laid on a series of courses of varying difficulty, and let participants use SI equipment to experience the full orienteering experience.

There was a great turnout, with over 50 children, and accompanying adults, taking on courses of Short, Meduim or Long length, after getting some training, guidance and given some hints and tips.

A great day had by all.  We hope to run another Intro to Orienteering Day at nearby Weald Park, in a few weeks.  More details on the website shortly.

The weather had cooled down significantly since the day before, which made it mostly quite pleasant for running. No chance of rain, and a fair bit of shade with the sun being quite low in the sky. A nice mix this week of urban street running on an OOM map, and country park running on an orienteering map.

A bit of a smaller start field this week, probably due to the far south location, the hot weather, and the popular park race yesterday in central London. But we had a few hardy souls, and some good runs. It was mightily close on the Long course, just four seconds separating the top 2. Chris Prince held on for victory. However, once
handicaps are applied, it was Paul Beckett who took the 100 points this week.

On the short course, which didn’t make it over the motorway, so didn’t get a chance to see the massive tailback caused by the closure of the M25 just south of the river, it was Colin Jackson logging the fastest time, just beating Jaikaar and Rob Tratt into second. Colin lost out on handicap again though, this time to Garry Parmenter running in his first event of the series.

Thanks go to Seb for planning some good courses, allowing us to experience multiple different terrains, two different maps, and a fair bit of route choice, especially in the country park. The run traces show a fair bit of difference this week. He laid on some superb weather as well, although perhaps turn the thermostat down a few more degrees for next time! At least the beer garden finish was lovely in the late evening.
We have reached the hallway point in the series now, and out in front we have Chris Childs and Jackie Sibthorp. Jackie has a commanding 40 point lead, although some of the runners on three events could still catch up. Much closer in the short course, as it turns into a two horse race between Chris and Colin – just 11 points separating
them.

Details of the all the results and future fixtures in the series can be found on the series homepage.

If you missed the event tonight, but want to run it on Anytime catchup, details will be on the series webpage, including maps and instructions, tomorrow.. You will still score points for the league (if you run in the next 2 weeks), subject to an Anytime penalty of 5 mins.

The HAVOC Club Championships took place at the SAX King's Forest regional event on Sunday April 26th.

It was a lovely sunny morning, and the forest looked absolutely stunning with fields of bluebells carpeting much of the forest floor.  It was generally pretty runnable, and the courses made good use of the blocks of forest and earth features.

We lost a few competitors to holidays and the London Marathon taking place on the same day, but we still managed 5 juniors, 8 men and 1 woman.

The women's championship was therefore an uncontested run for Jenny Gebka, who nevertheless put in a good performance round the Green.  It was a close run thing for the Men's championship.  Guy Lidbury won the Blue course outright, but his time per km was just shy of Ted Coday's, so Ted takes the Open Championship, with Guy winning the handicap title.

The junior championship was also tighty contested, with all five juniors running different courses on the day!  Time per km, once adjusted for age saw Charlie Maule-Lidbury just edge out brother Hugo for best boy on the day.  Best girl was awarded to Amelie Maule-Lidbury who had the better time on shared legs with Sienna Muggeridge.  As all juniors (the four mentioned, plus Olivia Muggeridge who ran White) were the top HAVOC runner on their respective courses, they all win medals!

Congratulations to our winners, and to all who ran on the day.

Trophies and medals will be presented at the club dinner later in May.

Full scoring details can be found on this spreadsheet

Take up orienteering now and benefit from:

- free forest or street orienteering at all remaining HAVOC events in 2026

- part year membership from BOF 

Orienteering is an exciting adventure sport that exercises both the mind and the body and is suitable for all ages and fitness levels.  Come and get involved in a sport that the whole family can enjoy together and where your little ones can make new friends, have fun in the fresh air and most importantly, burn off all that excess energy!

So, if you join HAVOC then you will get a code to remove entry fees from Racesignup for all our remaining forest events (3 currently scheduled) in 2026, or all our remaining street events (8 currently planned).

As you may want to try orienteering first, before committing to joining the club, if you subsequently join HAVOC after running in any of our upcoming events, then we will refund your entry fee!  Just contact the membership secretary (membership@orienteering-havoc.co.uk) to take advantage of this offer.

The HAVOC annual dinner was held at The Springhouse, on Saturday 16th May 2026.

We had an excellent turnout, who enjoyed the food and drink, as well as the traditional attractions of a speech from the chair rounding up the year, presentation of club champions and other awards, and a raffle.  

Thanks to the Springhouse for hosting, and to everyone who attended.  By partially subsidising this meal each year, it is one of the ways the club says "Thank You" to all the club activists, volunteers and helpers, without whom the club wouldn't be here.

So, "Thank You!"

The SWELL season for 2025/26 concluded with the HAVOC event at Weald Park.  Several of the categories were still up for grabs before the event, and some tough courses and massive start field made for some exciting competitions.

The final Roll of Honour is as follows :-

WHITE - Olivia Muggeridge (HAVOC) had already secured this title and her 391 points was good enough for 2nd in the overall GIRLS category.  Top boy on the White course was Wilfred Tate (Barnadiston).

YELLOW - Sienna Muggeridge (HAVOC) had also already won the Yellow course title and is a double winner, as she has pipped her Sister to the GIRLS overall title.  Top boy on the Yellow course was Maks Petrovs.

ORANGE - Tunde Farago (HH) took an early lead and won the ORANGE course title.  Top male on the Orange course was Roger Pring (SAX).

As mentioned, Sienna Muggeridge (HAVOC) was the top Girl, and Hugo Maule-Lidbury (HAVOC) won the top Boy's title, running Light Green.

LIGHT GREEN - this was won by Hugo Maule-Lidbury (HAVOC) more than 100 points clear of the next best - Elysia Cowe (WAOC) who was the top girl on the Light Green.

SHORT GREEN - Noreen Ives (WAOC) pipped Francis Ronnau-Bradbeer (DFOK), as her best 6 finishes were slighter better.

GREEN - Just seven points separated the top two on the Green course.  Louise Walker (SUFFOC) just pipping Gavin Avey-Hebditch (WSX) who takes top male.

BLUE - David Dixon's (HH) 100 point run in the last event, saw him overhaul Ian Byford for the Blue course title.  Top female was Kerria Lines (HH).  

BROWN - Antoine Pesenti (DFOK), with a win and 3 other top ten finishes, secured the BROWN category.  Top female was Kezia Studd (SLOW).

OVERALL SWELL - BLUE winner, David Dixon (HH), becomes SWELL Champion with 589 points, 4 individual event wins and the best 6 event total. Antoine Pesenti (DFOK) is the gallant runner-up.

SWELL TOP FEMALE was Noreen Ives (WAOC) with 559 pts and a very creditable 3rd overall.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone for supporting the series.

Full scoring details can be found on the SWELL homepage.

The new season will kick off in the autumn.  

A full series commentary, along with results for each race and the series can be found here.

That's also the place to go for maps and instructions to allow you to run any of the courses on MapRun.  

Once again, SOS and HAVOC are proud to be running a joint Summer series, throughout Essex, over the spring/summer season.  This will consist of 8 races, every couple of weeks, monstly on a Wednesday, from mid April 2026 to mid July 2026 2026.

These will mostly be line events, based on streets, parks, woods and footpaths.  Specific scoring methods may vary based on location, and will be described on the event flyers.

Full details of the series can be found here.

Check out the Marketing Flyer, which will be posted to Facebook here.

Entries to all events, and the Golden Ticket option (for reduced entry fee, and automatic entry into all races in the series) will be open soon on Racesignup.

Defending champions for the Summer series are:

Long Course

Short Course

HAVOC competed in the Compass Sport Trophy qualifying heat at Brandon Country Park, on 22nd February.  

Results didn't go totally our way, and we failed to qualify for the final.  However, we had some excellent runs:

Hugo Maule-Lidbury - 100 points in class 10M

Andrew Welsh - 97 points in class 6

Gillian Edgar - 97 points in class 7

Barbara Beckett - 96 points in class 8

Amelie Maule-Lidbury - 96 points in class 10W

We showed some remarkable club spirit.  We had people running injured (or recovering from injuries).  We had people running who hadn't run for ages but still gave their all for the club.  We had people running harder courses than they should have to, just to ensure we got scorers on all courses needed for the trophy.
We are a small club, and so every runner who can't make it due to injury, or other commitments, makes it more difficult for the team to score well, as we have to have runners running up, and therefore are against people younger than them who are more suited to the courses they are running.  And, of course we lose that person from scoring well on the course they are supposed to run!

Despite this, despite the fact that we had the smallest team of all the competing clubs, despite the fact that we were facing higher ranked runners in all cases, we held our own.  We were 57 points off qualifying for the final.  Sounds a lot, but that is less than 5 places for each of our top 13.  When you look at times, that is only around 5 mins in a lot of cases.

Thanks to all runners who had to run up a class or two - Paul, Jenny, Guy, Mike, Zbig, Colin.  

And, finally, thanks to ALL who ran for the club.