British Night Championships 2017Great Tower Wood, 25 February
A few intrepid ESOC members competed at the British Night Championships in the Lake District, followed by the Northern Championships the next day.
The 2017 British Night Championships event was organised by Lakeland Orienteering Club, in the southern Lake District near Newby Bridge. Great Tower Wood is deciduous woodland on hilly terrain, with intricate contour detail, steep slopes and lots of rock features including large crags. Longer courses included some open ground. The area is a Scout Activity Centre, so there were tracks, paths and buildings near the event centre (in a barn), plus various temporary features such as ropes courses and archery targets. Early starters were hampered by thick mist, which cleared later, and although it was drizzly, the weather was mild, and better than forecast. Underfoot conditions were wet and often muddy. There were some very long times and many retirals.
The best ESOC result came from Janice Nisbet, who was 2nd in W60L.
Andrew Lindsay (M21L) retired injured; Terry Johnstone came 25th in M50L; Crawford Lindsay came 8th in M60L; Rona Lindsay came 10th in W21L; Sally Lindsay came 7th in W60L.
Full results from the event are available in the 2017 LOC Results Archive.
On Sunday 26 February, LOC presented the Northern Championships, a few miles further south at Bigland. This area was used for Day 3 of JK 2015, when the assembly area and starts were fairly high up; this time the assembly area was at the foot of the hill, in the Bigland Caravan Park on the west side of the area. The terrain is varied, most of it being broadleaf woodland on a steep slope, with many knolls, re-entrants, crags and boulders. Above the wooded slope lies an undulating plateau, visited by longer courses, which is divided by numerous walls into enclosures of open and semi-open fell and woodland. These all have intricate contour, rock and marsh detail. The weather was much better than forecast, though it was windy, with some heavy showers, and it was again very wet and muddy underfoot. Like the previous evening, there were some very long times and a lot of retirals.
Terry Johnstone came 39th in M50L; Crawford Lindsay came 15th in M60L; Rona Lindsay retired (injured) from W21E; Janice Nisbet came 6th in W60L; Sally Lindsay came 12th in W60L.
Andrew Lindsay (carrying an injury) ran down on course 9 and achieved the fastest time on the course.
Full results from the event are available in the 2017 LOC Results Archive.
These events were the first and second in the 2017 UK Orienteering League. With just 5 counting scorers, ESOC is lying in 24th position in the club league (equal with Mid Wales Orienteering Club and Southdowns Orienteers). The latest score for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups).
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports