British Night Championships 2013Tankersley Woods, 9 February
A few ESOC members travelled south for this event, and brought home some medals. This was also the first event of the new UK Orienteering League.
Tankersley Woods lie just off the M1 north of Sheffield, and this is a very technical area, with an industrial past that included mining for coal and iron, as well as factories and railways that were bombed during World War 2. The resulting complex terrain has many pits, depressions and small hills in mixed woodland, criss-crossed by small paths. It was very muddy in places, with a lot of low brambles. The parking and assembly area were at a Scout Activity Centre area in the neighbouring Hesley Woods, and there was a long walk to the start – the courses then snaked back through the woods to the finish near the Scout Centre buildings. The map was very long and narrow, measuring about 60cm by 20cm, with the magnetic north lines at a 45 degree angle to the edge! The weather was cool but luckily dry.
Helen Bridle’s headtorch failed on the way to the start, so she had to run with a tiny backup torch, coming 5th in W21L. Andrew Lindsay came 3rd in M20L; Rona Lindsay won W20L (by default, sadly) and Sally Lindsay came 2nd in W55L. Crawford Lindsay had a bad run, confused by the paths, and came 19th in M55L, one of the largest classes.
Results and further details about the event are available on the British Night Championships page of the SYO website.
The next day, there was a Middle Distance event in the same area, giving an opportunity to look again at some of the places that had confused us the night before. It was snowing and very damp, with enough snow lying to make things slippery. The courses were mainly in Hesley Woods, which included some open woodland and open grassy areas, a great contrast to the terrain elsewhere in the area. Longer courses ventured into Tankersley Woods too.
Andrew Lindsay came 26th on Black (4th M20); Rona Lindsay came 29th on the Brown course (2nd W20); Crawford Lindsay came 35th on Blue (13th M55); Sally Lindsay came 10th on Short Green (6th W55). Helen Bridle unfortunately retired from the Brown course.
Results and further details about the event are available on the Tankersley Middle page of the SYO website.
These events were the first two in the new UK Orienteering League – more details about this league, included the league tables, are on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website.
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