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The Origins of Orienteering at KHVIII event - all our competitors were well placed, and we also
by Ted Norrish and David Butler won the team event - this was a very successful start for
our club and school.
In the development of the sport of Orienteering, King Henry
VIII pupils have played a major part, locally, nationally, and I asked Geoff Courtois (PE staff) to help me with transport,
internationally. Our local club, Octavian Droobers, started in and as a good sportsman he decided to compete as well;
October 1965, was one of the first five clubs to be founded and later he became a successful competitor. Together we
in the country, and, even more important, ours was the first organised our first small club event in Wappenbury Wood,
school club. where we set an interesting and challenging course.
I invited also several competitors from Coventry and War-
Former member of staff, Ted Norrish, was the inspiration wickshire schools to take part.
and driving force behind this remarkable success, and since
he was Head of Classics, the Club name derives from the Even more, following John Walker's suggestion, we invited
‘VIII’ of the school, coupled with his nickname. Here he tells Peter and Sheila Carey to be our first outside members,
something of the story................ and at the same time I invited my marathon companion, Joe
Cox; many events set and organised by our Club followed.
In September 1965 David Reaves, an
ex-pupil of our school (‘59), suggested After a few years, due to my classics, athletic, mountaineer-
that I might compete in the first major ing and other commitments, I was unable to find time for
event to be held in our country, based setting courses, but I continued to organise our club, to
at the village of Abinger Hammer on coach, and to compete. I was selected to represent GB
the South Downs. I have always en- twice, at Ronneby in Sweden with Robin Harvey and John
joyed maps and map-reading, both in Walker, and in the 20 km mountain ' Fjell-lunken' in north
Britain and on mountain expeditions Norway; this competition gave us all wonderful experience.
abroad; so I took part, and I was de-
lighted to finish a good seventh, In the early seventies our school club had two English
ahead of three Olympic athletes, in- schools champions - Gerald Van Hee (‘63), and Mark Hol-
cluding Gordon Pirie, out of a field of liday (‘65). In the World Championships of 1976 a fine Hen-
more than two hundred. ry's orienteer and fell-runner, Peter Haines (‘65) was select-
ed to represent the GB juniors, and he did extremely well.
After this event I decided that I must
form a club, and introduce Orienteer- Our Club is now acknowledged to be one of the leading
ing to Henry's, and so our school club clubs in Britain, with a reputation for staging well organised
began. first - class Midland and national events, and I am delighted
A few days later, at morning assem- and proud that Henry's pupils have achieved recently won-
Ted Norrish derful international success.
bly, I asked for volunteers, and there
were plenty. Four in particular of that first group achieved
distinction, and later they all became first class orienteers, As Ted says, in more recent years the school
for example: has continued to have great success in orient-
eering. We have been placed in the top three
Robin Harvey (’59) was awarded the OBE for making the schools in the country at the British Champion-
superb maps of the first world Orienteering Championships ships on numerous occasions. Twice in the last
to be held in Britain, at Aviemore in 1976. five years, a team from the school has won the
honour to represent Britain at the World
Richard Haw (’58) after he left school was elected treasurer Schools Championships. All the Hallidays
of the newly formed British Orienteering Federation. (Daniel (‘97), Jessica (‘98), Joanna (‘99) and
Matt (’02)), Nadine Wright (‘98), Sophie Kirk
John Walker (’59) soon left for Australia, and there intro- (’03), Harriet Batten (’03), Aimee Morse (’08)
duced the sport of Orienteering, founding the 'Red Rhoos', and Harrison McCartney (’09) have all had in-
in his home city of Canberra, to be a brother-club to the ternational representation, usually winning
ODs. medals in the process. Special mention should
also go to Mrs Jane Halliday, who from 1995 to
Bob Brandon (’60) has held the ODs together from 1965 to 2008 trained, encouraged and organised
this day - as school competitor, equipment of- KHVIII teams to much of their success, working
ficer, Chairman, map drawer, event organiser, and much also in the Junior School to not only put them
else. The great successes of our pupils today at home and on national podiums, but also to ensure the
at international level would not have been possible without Senior School had good, young orienteers
his determination through all these years. coming through.

I arranged for this first group at the next weekend an intro- Ted will also be remembered by many for his
ductory event in Sutton Park, near Birmingham, where on leadership of KHVIII expeditions in the UK and
the small blue park maps I planned and set a course for beyond (the tales are legendary), his outstand-
beginners, which they all enjoyed. ing achievements with boys’ cross-country
teams, and, of course, as the founder of the
Two weeks later, in November, I entered the boys in their KHVIII Relay Race in 1972 in the War Memori-
first championship - the Midland Championships to be held al Park, still recognised as the national schools’
in Mortimer forest near Ludlow. While filling in the entry relay championship, with more schools attend-
form my colleague, Hugh Alan, and I decided on the club's ing than any other UK race.
name 'Octavian Droobers'. A year later Hugh as a teacher
of English in Washington D.C. introduced the sport of Ori-
enteering to USA. For more information about Octavian Droobers:
http://www.octavian-droobers.org/
At Henry's first championships, John Walker and Greg
Thompson (’59), competing as a pair, won the junior

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