British Night Championships 2015Middleton Park, 28 February 2015
A few ESOC members travelled south for this event - congratulations to Claire Ward, who is the 2015 Women’s Champion!
Middleton Park is in Leeds, south of the city centre. This area is mostly deciduous woodland, and has a complicated network of small paths, and many bell pits from old mining activity. The woodland is split by two valleys, with an open area on the hilltop between. Variety is added by a decommissioned golf course in the SW part of the map, reclaimed colliery wasteland in the E, and a sports complex in the NE, beside the Middleton Railway, the world’s oldest working railway.
The Event Centre was in the athletics hall of the John Charles Centre for Sport, and had excellent facilities including showers and changing rooms. The weather was surprisingly mild, with a few showers. Underfoot conditions were quite good, though muddy in places, and there were a lot of low brambles.
Claire Ward won W21L and Rona Lindsay came 7th. Andrew Lindsay came 4th in M21L; Sally Lindsay came 5th in W55L; Crawford Lindsay came 15th in M60L.
Results and further details about the event are available on the British Night Championships results page of the Airienters website.
The next day, there was a Level B event further south at Cawthorne & Deffer, NW of Barnsley. Advertised as "undulating deciduous and coniferous woods, much of which is runnable", Cawthorne was described by most competitors in uncomplimentary terms, as it had a lot of brambles and brashings, and little in the way of interesting features. Only the longest courses ventured into Deffer, which was apparently even more brambley. The weather was fine at first, deteriorating later, with snow in the west making the journey home very interesting for those who opted for that route.
Andrew Lindsay came 12th on Black (9th M21); Claire Ward came 2nd on Brown (1st and only woman); Crawford Lindsay came 23rd on Blue (7th M60).
Results and further details about the event are available on the Cawthorne & Deffer results page of the South Yorkshire Orienteers website.
These events were the third and fourth events of the 2015 UK Orienteering League.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports