British Night Champs Weekend 2025Touch Estate/ Plean Country Park, 8/9 February
Credit: Colin Matheson
The starry evening of Saturday 8th February saw the highly anticipated British Night Championships take place at Touch Estate, near Stirling. This was followed on the Sunday by a Middle Distance race at Plean Country Park. These two events were the openers in the 2025 UK Orienteering League and were superbly organised by Forth Valley Orienteers.
Touch has been used in the past for Scottish Championships and Scottish League events and was well-known as a highly technical challenge even in daylight. However for a number of years it fell into disuse due to the poor condition of parts of the forest. FVO had revisited the possibilities, commissioned a new map by Martin Bagness and given Alasdair MacLeod the task of planning nine Night courses suitable for classes from M/W16 to M/W80+. No novice courses were offered; we had been warned this was to be a challenge unsuitable for anyone inexperienced at Night Orienteering! With some trepidation therefore, about a dozen ESOC members joined around 300 others from across the UK, to test their skills in the dark on this balmy winter's night.
The limit on the size of the useable area was overcome by having double-sided maps for most of the courses, which thus looped back criss-crossing over parts already visited. It was generally agreed that this did not detract at all from the quality of the orienteering, which made the most of intricate contoured terrain dotted with marshes and crags. Most of the area was only lightly wooded, a complex mixture of yellow and white on the map. There was a covering of dead bracken, many fallen tree branches and absolutely no paths, although a couple of ruined walls did provide handrails that proved to be the salvation of some! The fitter folk found the runnability to be good.
The two longest courses had a high start and a few controls on open moorland before they too came down to criss-cross back and forth on the lower intricate slopes. All courses needed to use crossing points through a deer fence before the final controls into the finish.
Apart from the excellence of the map and the orienteering, the big talking point on the night was the route to the near start which was used by all courses except 1 and 2. First there was a wide cold stream to be waded across and then a very steep and extremely muddy hillside to be climbed. The organisers had fixed a rope which was a big help, but even so, ascending into the darkness, without knowing what was in store, led to a certain amount of trepidation. The fears proved groundless as the terrain above was surprisingly free of mud and grot and shoes finished cleaner then when they started!
Forth Valley Orienteers are to be congratulated on their smooth organisation which had to cope with various logistical challenges. Parking was at a Park and Ride on the outskirts of Stirling, from which competitors were taken by bus on a 15 minute ride to the 'Area'; download, toilets and a large marquee for bag drop and chatting were to be found here, whilst another team of volunteers manned enquiries, kit check, bus queueing etc back at the car park. Also at the car park were traders, for last minute O-kit needs, a coffee stall and a pizza company!
ESOC Medal winners:
- Sarah Crawford W35 Bronze
- Helena Nolan W55 Silver
- Janice Nisbet W70 Bronze
- Eleanor Pyrah W80 Gold
- Ian Pyrah M80 Gold
Full results are available on the FVO British Night Champs results page
Plean Country Park, to the southeast of Stirling, is a pleasant area of mixed woodland and open grassland, with a fair-sized stream running through the middle of it. There were many tracks and paths, in contrast to the night before, but some quite tricky shrubby areas and some gentle hills. The south part of the area is a reclaimed "bing" or spoil heap. Those who had orienteered in the area before reported that they found the courses among the best they had known there. The longest course, the Black, was 5.6km as befits a Middle Distance race.
Again, the weather was good, the organisation excellent and the close proximity of start, finish and assembly all made for an enjoyable morning's orienteering.
ESOC members in the top half of the results:
- Brown (56 competitors) Ben Brown 20th
- Blue (44) Megan Brown 13th, Keith Brown 16th
- Green (49) Kevin Harding 9th, Fran Daley 21st=, Emma Anderson 21st=
- Short Green (37) Alison Harding 2nd, David Kershaw 15th, Judy Bell 16th
- Very Short Green (16) Janice Nisbet 1st, Ian Pyrah 5th
- Light Green (12) Emma Daley 3rd
Results for the Plean Middle Race are on the FVO Plean results page
These events were the 1st and 2nd in the 2025 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the league tables, on the UK Orienteering League website. With the scores for these events included, ESOC is lying 5th 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.
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