On Friday 14th March 2008 we welcomed 6 local primary schools to Leamore Park in Blakenhall to participate in an Orienteering Mile (well, more like 2 miles to be honest!) to raise funds for Sport Relief. The event was the brainchild of Leamore Park Development Officer Davinder Singh who is employed by Walsall's New Deal for Communities to promote the park, provide opportunities within it and create  positive relationships within the local community - including the local schools. Davinder teamed up with Ian Lockett and Philippa Napper from Shelfield Sports Partnership and Andy Carry from Willenhall Sports Partnership to turn his idea into reality.

The weather forecast leading up to this day had looked poor with rain predicted, so it was great to arrive at 8.30am to set up with clear skies. Next problem was our milk bottle controls which disappeared within minutes of being placed - picked up by toddlers accompanying their big brothers and sisters to one of the three schools that border the park. Thankfully these were discarded near to where they were taken and we could get cracking with the event.

Schools arrived with 60 children at hour intervals and had around 45minutes to complete the course which zigzagged backwards and forwards around the park.

• Leamore Primary
• Harden Primary
• Edgar Stammers
• Blakenhall Juniors
• North Walsall Primary
• St James' Primary

First up were Leamore Primary at 9am who were completely new to orienteering. After 15minutes of handing out maps, control cards and explaining how the activity works the children were off charging around the park in the quest to complete all 20 controls in the fastest time. First pair back were Aaran Bailey and Mitchell Morris who did fantastically well and got all their controls correct - no easy feat for a first time. All in all the children did brilliantly for their first time and there were many smiling faces - from both staff and pupils.

After Leamore were Harden Primary who have participated in a few family orienteering festivals as part of the SSCo programme. They brought Years 5 and 6 and were well up for the event. Following a very brief briefing the Harden kids were off and away, leaving Mr Harrison to entertain the staff for 45mins!

It was nice to see the girls leading from the front. Well done to Molly Vaughan and Lauren Tolley who came in first.

After Harden were Mr Wake's crack commando Orienteering Squad from Edgar Stammers - Year 6 plus his orienteering club members from Year 5. They meet every week after school, set up their own courses and are preparing to travel to places like Sutton Park to take their skills to the next level. This was serious!

No briefing required for Stammers - hand out the equipment and off we go.

First back - Shaun and Liam

The staff had a 30minute lunch break and were back into action with Blakenhall Juniors whose school building backs onto the park. Blakenhall have not done orienteering before but took it like ducks to water with some fast times to go with the energetic performance and smiley faces - always nice to see!

Last session of the day was a double header of North Walsall Primary and St James' Primary - both small schools who brought their Year 6's to compete at the same time. St James have started to introduce orienteering into their school at lunchtimes as an extra-curricular session. North Walsall have had pre-school sessions and also take part in family orienteering festivals through the SSCo programme.

This last session saw the fastest time of the day from Nathan Helsdon and Kieran Addis of North Walsall - well done to both of them. Fastest pair from St James' were Connor Nelson and Josh Poxon.

And so it was the end of the day. We had raised at least £300 for Sport Relief and with many of the children getting sponsored for well over £1 the figure could easily be double that. I would like to thank all the people who gave up their time - Ian Lockett, Saul Wallis, Andy Carry, Gail Downing, Davinder Singh, Adam Beirns the Park Warden, Lisa Robotham the Community Warden, Youth Worker Asad Ali, John Jones for coming down to say hello, and of course, possibly most importantly the Friends of Leamore Park for providing us with hot drinks all morning - Thank You!