British Night Championships 2022Ilkley Moor, Saturday 19 February
Less than 3 months after the 2021 event, the 2022 British Night Championships was held at the traditional time of year. Once again, only a handful of ESOC members were competing, in wintry conditions.
The 2022 British Night Championships were organised by Airienteers. Ilkley is in Wharfedale, and the moor rises to the south of the town. The pre-event information described Ilkley Moor as a gritstone escarpment with a wealth of rock and contour detail, areas of steep woodland and an extensive path network, with much dead bracken to hinder progress, and added that the lower slopes include a maze of mapped tracks and paths, together with many unmapped seasonal paths and animal trails.
As it was a high, open moor, there were more safety requirements than usual, with mandatory kit checks before starting. The start was a 15-minute walk uphill from the event centre, and there was an amazing view on the way there, of torches all over the moor. Following the recent storms, the whole area was covered in snow, but luckily the weather during the event was fine – clear and calm lower down, with a little mist on the higher parts. The navigation was tricky, and although there were plenty of footprints in the snow, they were very little help as they led in all directions! There were two finishes, and the longer courses went through a wooded section at the end, where the navigation was quite different from the open hill. The event centre was in a warm church hall, much appreciated by all.
ESOC results:
M75L (11 competitors) – Brian Yates 6th
W21L (15) – Chloe Haines 3rd, Rona Lindsay 7th
W65L (7) – Janice Nisbet 6th
Full results, Routegadget and other information about the event are available on the British Night Championships event page of the Airienteers website.
Wendy Carlyle's photos from the event are here.
On Sunday 20th February, AIRE hosted a regional event at Burley & Ilkley Moors, which overlapped with the area used for the night championships. There was a major thaw overnight, leading to flooding and travel problems on the Sunday. Combined with strong winds and rain, this made for very challenging conditions. The Short Green and Very Short Green courses had to be altered at short notice, to take account of an unsafe stream crossing.
On the Short Green course, Janice Nisbet came 3rd (out of 37); Brian Yates came 29th.
Full results, Routegadget and other details about the event (the Planner's comments are interesting) are on the Burley & Ilkley Moors event page of the Airienteers website.
These events were the 7th and 8th in the 2022 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the league tables, on the UK Orienteering League website. Once the scores for these events were included, ESOC was lying 21st in the club league. The latest score for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups) - so the club members whose scores are included may change as the year goes on and more events are included.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports