British Orienteering Championships 2014Northumberland, 31 May/1 June
The British Long and Relay Championships were held closer to Edinburgh this year, but the high cost depressed numbers competing. ESOC nevertheless had some excellent results.
The British Orienteering Championships were held in Northumberland, with the individual race on Saturday 31 May and relays on Sunday 1 June.
The Individual event was at Thrunton Woods and Callaly, near Rothbury. Parking and assembly were close together, but the starts were 900 metres, 2.1 km and 3.9 km away, depending on the class. The short courses were confined to Thrunton Woods, whereas the longer courses were at Callaly as well. The main feature of the areas was the strength-sapping vegetation. Callaly had aggressive blaeberry and heather, whereas Thrunton had blaeberry, excessive brashings and fallen trees. Both areas were steep and rocky, so only the fittest and fastest ran sub-10-minute kilometres. As a result, winning times for many classes were longer than usual. There was a good mixture of short and long legs, and route choice was important as tracks were much quicker than cross country. The weather was quite warm and sunny, and the water on the courses was much appreciated.
Best ESOC results came from Claire Ward, who completed a clean sweep of the major spring events in W21E, and Maggie Scrugham, who won W55L. This was Claire’s first British Long win and she did it in emphatic style being nearly 7 minutes quicker than the second place runner. It was Maggie’s first major win – congratulations to both!
Other ESOC results were:
M20E (14 competitors) – Andrew Lindsay 5th
M40L (20) – Chris Lewis 6th, Alistair Hindle 8th
M40S (1) – Simon Firth 1st
M45L (37) – Terry Johnstone 29th
M55L (48) – Mike Stewart 14th, Crawford Lindsay 27th
M60L (41) – Dave Kershaw 33rd
M60S (5) – Les Dalgleish 3rd
M65L (53) – Roger Scrutton 20th, Alastair Lessells 33rd
M75L (16) – Jim Clark 7th
M45L (37) – Terry Johnstone 29th
W20E (7) – Rona Lindsay 6th
W40L (13) – Heather Thomson 6th
W55L (28) – Sally Lindsay 14th
W60L (24) – Margaret Dalgleish 6th, Anne Thom 22nd
W65L (26) – Anne Stevenson 19th, Katy Lessells 24th
W70L (11) – Eleanor Pyrah 2nd, Janet Clark 3rd
Full results from the Individual event are available in the British Orienteering Results Archive.
The Individual event was the 11th in the 2014 UK Orienteering League.
The Relay event was at Cragg Estate and Chesterhope, near Bellingham. Once again, parking was adjacent to assembly and this was in a scenic field looking north towards the Cheviot Hills. In complete contrast to Saturday, the terrain was mostly very runnable grassland with complex old spoil tips and occasional marshy areas. There were good views over the competition area from assembly. The weather was fine and dry, and unusually, shorts were allowed for running.
ESOC had 7 teams. Of these, there were two great results with the W40 team, the ESOC Exhibitionists (Heather Thomson, Alison Cunningham & Helena Nolan), and the M/W70 team, the ESOC Explorers (Eleanor Pyrah, Janet Clark & Ian Pyrah) both finishing in second place. In the Men’s Short class, the ESOC Extroverts (Chris Lewis, Alistair Hindle, & Chris Lewis again) came in 5th, but were non-competitive. In the M60 class the ESOC Extremists (Dave Kershaw, Roger Scrutton & Alastair Lessells) finished 12th. In the W50 class the ESOC Experts (Maggie Scrugham, Margaret Dalgleish & Sally Lindsay) finished 6th. In the Mixed Ad Hoc class, the ESOC Excuses (Trina Rogerson (ELO), Terry Johnstone & Katy Lessells) finished 27th and ESOC Express (Mike Stewart. Steve Clayton & Crawford Lindsay) finished 14th, but had missed out a control, so were disqualified.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports