Frank Kew, Aire's Publicity Officer, has been honing his journalistic skills by keeping the readers of Wharfedale's newspapers abreast of the many achievements of club members.  We reprint (with thanks to Frank) extracts from some recent stories.

Frank also asks "Can you write a short piece encouraging members to send me any newsworthy items to include in my weekly 'bulletin' to the papers.  It has to be
material of general (orienteering) rather than 'Aire-specific' interest".

Yateholme  EPOC Regional event 1st February
"….the recent snow and rain turned some of the peat hags into quagmire and a stiff westerly wind made the going tough.  Good navigation was essential during the long legs on the moorland.  In the senior long races there were wins for Peter Haines M45  and Ruth Jones W45. There were wins in the junior races for Beth Woodley, Sam Brown and Florence Haines.  Ian Marshall had an excellent run to finish 2nd in M40 whilst Maurice Calvert was 4th in M45, Frank Kew 3rd M55 and Diana Gorton 4th W50

(In the Yateholme results, I thought it interesting that there were 28 competitors on M55, Frank's course but only 6 on M35 and one of those was Rod Shaw, an EPOC M65.  In the W21L top 4 were Karen Parker,  Liz Campbell and Sarah Haines,  all eligible to compete in W40+  ed.)

'Airienteers Win at the Northern Championships'.   Ebor Regional event 22 Feb

"Airienteers were out in force at the Northern Championships which were held in the North Yorks Moors at Cawthorne, four miles north of Pickering last Sunday.  The event involved runners from Yorkshire and Humberside, Lancashire, Northumberland, Durham, and Cumbria who navigated the well-planned courses in the energy-sapping and challenging forested area on the southern slopes of the Moor.

The most memorable result was posted by the Haines family of Ilkley.  Father Peter won the highly competitive M50 class whilst mother Sarah won the W40 class.  Not to be outdone, son Hector was an easy winner by over six minutes in the M16 race,  his sister Florence won the W10 event, whilst Chloe came in third in the W14 class.  A significant achievement for just one family.  Here we have a dynasty to rival the Williams sisters in Tennis although the financial rewards will be somewhat different!!
Other Airienteers winners included Sam Brown (M14), Jonathan Smith (M35), and Jack Soper (M70) so that the club can boast seven Northern Champions this year.

Airienteers have strength in depth and other excellent results were recorded by the following :
M14 Ben Gill (3^rd),
M16 Jack Wood (2^nd) George Stevens (3^rd) - M14 running out of his age group