British Orienteering Championships 2013Surrey Hills, 4/5 May
This year, the British Long and Relay Championships were in the far south of England, and ESOC was represented by a small band of enthusiasts.
The British Orienteering Championships were held near Dorking, in Surrey, with the individual race on Saturday 4 May and relays on Sunday 5 May.
The Individual event was at Winterfold and Pitch Hill, SW of Dorking. Parking and assembly were close together and the starts were near at hand, a pleasant change at a big event. Winterfold is on a hill, mostly deciduous woodland, and the main feature of the terrain was the deep valleys that dissected the area, with some steep hills and complex contour detail in places. Most courses had some long legs, and route choice was important. The terrain was rougher than most expected, with a thick understorey of bilberry as well as brashings in areas of recent forestry work; often a longer path route was the quickest option. The weather was cool with a few heavy showers for earlier starters, then sunny later.
Best ESOC result came from Alistair Hindle, who won the silver medal in M40L, his first ever podium position at a major championships – congratulations!
Other ESOC results were:
M20E (10 competitors) – Andrew Lindsay 5th
M35S (5) – Simon Firth 5th
M55L (102) – Crawford Lindsay 65th
M65L (77) – Roger Scrutton 26th, Ian Pyrah 31st, Brian Yates 70th
W55L (40) – Sally Lindsay 17th
W60L (37) – Janice Nisbet 4th
W65L (34) – Eleanor Pyrah 16th
Full results from the Individual event are available in the British Orienteering Results Archive.
This event was the 9th event in the 2013 UK Orienteering League.
The Relay event was at the adjoining area of Holmbury Hill, and had the same parking area but a long walk up to assembly. This was in a very rough recently-felled area (much appreciated by children, as there were wonderful opportunities for digging holes and plenty of sticks to play with). There were good views over the competition area. Terrain was similar to the previous day, mainly wooded but with more coniferous trees, and again the path option was often fastest. The weather was fine and dry, and everyone was amazed at how clean their shoes were afterwards.
ESOC had 3 teams. In the Men’s Short class, which had 28 competing teams, ESOC Crossbills (Alistair Hindle, Crawford Lindsay & Andrew Lindsay) came 7th.
In the Mixed Ad Hoc class, where there were 60 teams, ESOC Capercaillies (Roger Scrutton, Eleanor Pyrah & Janice Nisbet) came 20th and ESOC Ptarmigans (Sally Lindsay, Ian Pyrah & Brian Yates) came 36th.
As an additional entertainment, Guildford Orienteers had set up a maze course at the relay assembly area – this had 15 controls and was great fun.
The British Trail O Championships took place in the afternoon at Newlands Corner, a short drive from the relay parking. There were 22 controls altogether, 2 of which were timed, and some of the problems were very obscure (much more difficult than the Pre-O at recent SOL events). Sally and Crawford Lindsay had rather optimistically entered the elite class, despite having very little experience, and came 23rd and 34th respectively, out of 48.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports