The first in this winter season’s Night-Os  takes place in Richmond Park. Registration is at The Albert, Kingston Hill, 57 Kingston Hill, Norbiton KT2 7PX from 17:15 to 19:30 with the course open between 18:00 and 19:30.

For those who haven’t done a Night-O before – I’ll try and explain. There are two course a 5k and a 2.5k. You register for whichever course you want to do. You will be given an electric dibber. At the start of the course you will be given a map and it will have points marked on it that you have to locate – once located you have to ‘check-in’ with your dibber. Look on it more as a glorified treasure hunt.

You will ideally need a head torch and whistle, which you can borrow from the host club, and a compass.

All competitors take part at their own risk. You MUST be over 16 to take part in this event, unless you are accompanied by a parent or guardian. This is a condition of the insurance of the event. Entry is £5 per person, Juniors £3 – excellent value for money!

Quite a few juniors have enjoyed it in the past, so if it’s your first time and you are not sure, just ask. You can run in groups and I’m quite happy to take around any first timers who want to do the 5k. I have some previous maps of events that I can bring along and show you what it entails.

Come along and enjoy yourselves. It can be very frustrating when you can’t find a marker – but you can always talk about it over a drink afterwards.

Just let me know if you’re coming or want reassuring bob.reed@post.com or ask Anthony, Olivia or Bex who do these events regularly.

We would like to invite you to our annual AGM of the Sheen Shufflers Junior Athletics.

It would be good to get some input from you, the owners, as to what you think we are doing right or wrong, or anything else you would like to add.

The Hare & Hounds in East Sheen is booked for this event at 7pm on Thursday 19th October.

Thanks for all your encouragement this year.

Sheen Shufflers Juniors will be competing in the Downs Cross-Country League for the first time in the 2017/2018 season. The first fixture takes place on the Sunday following our last Sunday meet of the season. The races are open to all of our juniors, and hopefully we can get a bit of parent participation in marshalling and helping out!

The race dates are:

Sunday 5/11/2017,
Sunday 3/12/2017,
Sunday 18/2/2018,
Sunday 4/3/2018.

All the races will take part on Epsom Downs with the start/finish off the car park at Tattenham Corner Road and Old London Road.

The categories and start times are:

Under 11s (Years 5 & 6) – 2.2k 10:45
Under 13s (Years 7&8) – 2.5k 11:15 est.
Under 15s (Years 9&10) – 2.5k 11:30 est

You will need to wear a club top, which can be purchased on the next few Sundays at athletics (£20), otherwise, we hope to have a few spare tops that you can use on the day.

Please feel free to speak to any of the coaches if you need any advice or send us an email. It would also help if you could let us know if you plan to partcipate. The entry is currently free.

The senior Shufflers do a monthly parkrun at a different venue each month. This month the venue is Osterley Park. The course stays inside the park and is three laps over 5K. It starts and finishes in front of the big house and is a mixture of grass and gravel/tarmac paths. Don’t be put off by the laps, its a really nice course. This is also very convenient for any first time Junior parkrunners as it is a lot easier to drop out if you’ve had enough. All under 11s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. However, if there is no parent or guardian available, let me know bob.reed@post.com and we can try and arrange one for you. I should be running, so can probably help out.

There is a car park in the grounds of the park which is free if you show your barcode. If you don’t have a barcode, you can register for parkrun at:

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/form/ you’ll find Sheen Shufflers in the club download box. Remember to print off your barcode and bring it with you.

It’s probably best to get there early but you should be able to find parking outside the grounds too (allow 5-10 minutes to walk to the start though).

Details below for parkrun course and Osterley Park

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/osterley/course/

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/osterley-park-and-house

A Beginners Course will commence on Wednesday 13th September and will be held at Palewell Common, 10am lasting for approximately 1 hour each week. The course will run for eight weeks and the idea is that the participants will go from not being anywhere near fit and after eights weeks be able do a 5k parkrun to complete the course. It will be run by an England Athletics Qualified Coach, Louise Oldfield (she’s the tall blonde lady at the track who looks after the Juniors) and will cost £40 per person. Please pass the word round and prospective participants should e-mail Louise, louisekoldfield@gmail.com who will be pleased to hear from you or answer any questions you may have.

Bex Slack, Ed’s Mum is organising a Street Orienteering event on behalf of South London Orienteers on the evening of Tuesday 19th September.

The event HQ is the Lillie Langtry pub on Lillie Road SW6 1EU – most people come straight from work and get changed in the loos. Sign on will be on the first floor of the pub. The pub serves food and is doing a special fish and chip promotion that day – £6 only.

You can start any time between 6.30pm and 7.30pm and you have 1 hr to visit as many control points on the map as possible. Electronic timing. After 1 hour has elapsed there are penalty points to be paid. It’s a bit like a treasure hunt – once at a control point you have to answer a question such as “what colour is the front door of Number 43?”. There are higher points to be had for the more difficult locations. You can run in pairs or groups if you’re not confident enough to go it alone – children under 16 MUST be accompanied by a responsible adult (not sure if we have that many “responsible” adults in the club!!!).

If you think you might come along, please let me know, bexslack@yahoo.co.uk , or via the event page on Facebook, so I have an idea of how many maps to print for the occasion! Also, if you’d like to help with sign on or the start/finish, I’d be REALLY grateful of some extra hands. All duties are pub based!

Cost of entry is £4 for big people and £2 for little people! If you’re not sure then please ask Bex or Bob (bob.reed@post.com) who’ll be only too happy to answer any questions you may have. I can assure you that these events are always a fun night out.

Details on the SLOW website here:-http://slow.org.uk/streeto/sep17/

The following age groups can enter:
11 or 12 year old boys and girls on 31st August 2017 can run a maximum of three events, of which the choice seems to be between 100 metres, 200 metres, 800 metres or 1500 metres.

13 or 14 year old boys and girls on 31st August 2017 100 metres, 200 metres, 800 metres or 1500 metres.

Long jump and high jump are open to both catagories.

Note: the minimum age is 11 on 31st August 2017.

The field events are in the morning and the track events in the afternoon, for event timings got to http://smrac.org.uk/open-meeting-2017/ the online entries, which close on 25th August is linked from this site. On the entry form ignore the UKA number.

If you do enter, please let one of the coaches know as we may well come down and support you. One Shuffler Junior is already entered. You will also need to wear a Shufflers top.

Due to the bike ride making the local roads a no-go area and therefore cutting off accessability to Barn Elms Sports Trust, athletics will be cancelled this coming Sunday!

Just a reminder that this Tuesday (25th) sees the first of our Junior Summer Camps. The camps will commence at 10:00am at the Barn Elms Sports track and run for approx 90 to 100 minutes and will be charged at £5 per child per session.

There will be additional camps on the Tuesdays of 1st, 8th and 15th August, same time, same place, same price! You don’t have to pre-book, just turn up!

The next race will be held on Thursday 13th July. The event is being held at the
Hawker Centre in Ham, KT2 5BH

Registration from 7:00pm for a 7:30pm start.

The races are over a roughly 2K distance, and first-timers are give a handicap according to their age.

More details can be found on The Stragglers website:
http://www.stragglers.org/index.php/stragglers-juniors

It will save you time on the night if you download the registration form and take it, or your parkrun barcode, with you.