Robert Hovey, 1923-2012

Sadly, our orienteering friend Robert Hovey died peacefully in Westmorland General Hospital on the 1st March, his 89th birthday.
For many years Robert involved himself in orienteering as a stalwart member of SROC.
He will always be remembered by his Club friends as a passionate promoter of Ski-O.
He worked tirelessly to try to introduce the sport both nationally and in the northwest.
Like many of us of the same generation, he believed that the amazing winters we enjoyed in the late forties and early fifties would go on forever. It was normal to see a decent cornice on Helvellyn into late May.
It was frustrating for Robert in the seventies and early eighties when the snows hardly ever turned up, especially in large enough quantity to organise a good Ski-O event.
When the snow did fall, Robert wasted no time organising and planning an event at short notice in the Lakes-quite often when the appointed day arrived-surprise, surprise- much of the snow had melted.
But Robert always rose to the challenge- last minute changes to the courses or whatever else was needed to provide a pleasant day on the slopes.
Robert served as the Ski-O National Secretary for many years and in 1975 he was to experience what was undoubtedly his most fulfilling moment in Ski-O. At a Precursor Event for what would eventually be the World Championships for Ski-O, held in Finland, three British girls, Frances Stone, Patricia Murphy and Isobel Inglis, won a bronze medal in the Relay Event.
In Finland, Ski-O is virtually a national sport and that bronze medal was the first ever placing by a British Team in any event approaching World Orienteering Championship standard.
Then there was a problem- the Finns had never anticipated that the Brits would win any sort of medal. Consequently, there was no Union Jack.
Eventually, to their eternal credit, one was eventually found. Unfortunately it was so enormous and the podium poles were so short that over half the flag was still on the ground when it had been hoisted to the top. With typical British sense of humour, our girls dissolved into laughter and after a short pause to take in the scene, the Finnish crowd joined in the spirit of the moment.
I remember one brief hour I shared with Robert sometime in the nineteen seventies which revealed both his relaxed attitude and his great joy in being out in the forest.
Several of us were re-surveying Broughton Moor for an update of the map- Broughton Moor in the nineteen seventies was completely different from what we see today. There were no felled areas and in this formidable forest some of the early events there can best be described as ‘’character building’’.
After about three hours of surveying, I was ready for a break. I looked at the map and saw that I was close to a stream with a small, inviting clearing-it was such a beautiful day and I knew that sat by the bank I would be in glorious sunshine, eating my sandwiches.
As I emerged from the forest-there was Robert in the exact spot I had chosen. He was lying in the sun; he may even have been reading a book, his packed lunch and his flask at the ready. He greeted me as always, very warmly, and told me of all the wildlife he had seen-a buzzard perhaps or a rare wild forest flower. There was no mention of an interesting feature he may have mapped or a new depression he had discovered!
The joy he found in the forest and the outdoors was his reason for being there.
His was a broad canvas embracing everything that is wonderful about the great outdoors.
Roy Woodcock