British Orienteering Championships 2024Mulgrave Woods, 13-14 April
Credit: Wendy Carlyle
ESOC turned mud and brambles into Gold and Silver at the 2024 BOC Individual, anointing Eleanor W80 British Champion and Janice Nisbet W70 runner-up, with prizes awarded by BOF President Steve Cram!
The British Individual Championships were held at Mulgrave Woods. Competitors eventually emerged both scathed and unscathed from woods that featured glades of bountiful brambles and mud slicked river banks. There were some great ESOC results, with W80 JK Sprint Champion Eleanor further earning the title of British Champion, Janice Nisbet taking a Silver in W70, and an additional 9 Top-10 placings. Notably, prizes were awarded by BOF President Steve Cram, who made an appearance at his home region championships.
ESOC results in the top half:
- M60L (46) - Keith Brown 21st
- M65L (49) - Richard Oxlade 9th, Kevin Harding 10th
- M80 (17) - Ian Pyrah 7th
- W16A (29) - Megan Brown 12th
- W21E (25) - Helen Bridle 4th, Alison O’Neil 6th, Rachel Brown 9th
- W55L (32) - Helena Nolan 9th
- W55S (13) - Judith Bell 4th
- W70L (14) - Janice Nisbet 2nd, Margaret Dalgleish 5th
- W80 (7) - Eleanor Pyrah 1st
Full results are available on the MDOC website.
Routegadget is in the BOC routegadget archive.
Photos by Wendy Carlyle.
Credit: CLOK & IOF Specification
When is a ride not a ride?
One interesting element was the use of an unusual symbol, a narrow ride with thicker green line as background. According to the IOF specification, this background line can be used to denote the runnability of the ride, which cannot be presumed! On Sunday, many of the rides had been recently churned up by a digger or were overrun with brambles, making them difficult to negotiate. This led to suboptimal route choices for those who didn’t spot the subtle green highlighting, with rides not offering much of a (free) ride.
Sunday's British Relay Championships were held just south of the Individual, at Hutton Mulgrave and Skelder Woods (this area had already been visited by the longer elite courses in Saturday's individual event). The courses were well-planned, mainly using the runnable eastern part of the wood, with tricksy short legs amongst the rhododendron bushes, which caught out many competitors. We were delighted to have 5 ESOC teams participating, with highlights being strong first legs from "the 2 Helen(a)s" - Helen Bridle ran a spectacular first leg in the Women's Premier relay to come back over 3 minutes in the lead, and Helena Nolan was only 2.5 minutes off the lead in W50 - and a fastest 2nd leg from Margaret Dalgleish in the M/W70 relay.
Unfortunately there is no "I" in team, on this occasion literally. The remaining runs culminated in Alison losing her right eye (sight) to a vicious tree stump which collaborated with a stray bramble to take her out en route to number 1 (the resulting black eye pictured below). However, we are happy to claim a stake in EUOC's awesome victory in the Women's Premier, with Rachel Brown running alongside her uni teammates Fiona Bunn and Isobel Howard.
ESOC team results were as follows:
- Women’s Premier (13) - ESOC Exterminators (Megan Brown, Lucie Hamplova, Sarah McAdam) in 11th, ESOC Extraordinaires (Helen Bridle, Heidi Ross, Alison O'Neil) retired
- M60 (20) - ESOC Express (Keith Brown, Richard Oxlade, Kevin Harding) in 11th
- W50 (10) - ESOC Excursionists (Helena Nolan, Judith Bell, Alison Harding) in 7th
- M/W70 (13) - ESOC Explorers (Les Dalgleish, Margaret Dalgleish, Mike Smithard DEE i.e. non-competitive inter-club team) in 5th
Full results are on the MDOC website.
Routegadget is in the BOC routegadget archive.
Photos by Wendy Carlyle.
Credit: Alison O'Neil
Turf tourism in Whitby
As ever, some of us enjoyed a spot of ancillary turfing and the nearby town of Whitby was a delightful place to do it with our fellow BOC turf tourists! Zones included the Captain Cook memorial statue & Captain Cook Memorial Museum, Whitby Abbey, the twin lighthouses on the East & West piers, Whitby Museum, and other notable spots.
The British Long event was the 8th event in the 2024 UK Orienteering League. With the scores for this event included, ESOC was lying 19th in the club league.
Note that competitors who run outside of their age class (aka Helen Bridle, Alison O'Neil) do not score points according to clause 2.3.3 in the UK Orienteering League Rules which say that "Points will only be awarded to individuals older than M/W14 if they are competing in their age class. (It is not permitted to ‘run up’ and score points)".
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