British Orienteering Championships 2025Lake District, 10-11 May
Credit: Wendy Carlyle
This year the British Championships weekend was in tough terrain in the northwest of England, and ESOC competitors rose to the challenge, with plenty of good results.
The 2025 British Orienteering Championships were held in the southern Lake District.
The Individual event was at Grizedale.
Alison Harding reported:
“Saturday dawned sunny and clear, very rare in the Lake District. Participants travelling to Grizedale soon found themselves in a queue of cars up the valley and felt pity for the locals attempting to drive in the opposite direction. The car parking was in a dry field close to the Grizedale visitor centre and very close to assembly so everything very convenient. The ESOC flag was next to the Elite run in with a good view of all finishers.
The start for non-elites was 2.5km away from assembly, supposedly 40 minute walk for a fit M66. We allowed an hour to include a stop at the toilets on the way and got to the start with about 15 minutes to spare. On the way we encountered a five vehicle off road driving convoy, motorbikes and mountain bikes plus we walked under the enormous zip-wire - Grizedale is quite a place to go for experiences and the orienteering was no exception.
The forest was thick and in some areas tricky to penetrate without having to break branches or stoop low. Occasionally there were open corridors to link a path to a wall or other line feature. There were plenty of rocky features within wooded areas, not easy to find. So it was physically tough and repaid making sure you had map contact at all times. Winning times were often longer than those published (winning elite men 10% longer).
The first aid tent was kept very busy, mostly with cuts to arms and faces. The ice-cream van had a huge queue but hot dogs not quite as popular. Many thanks to the NWOA and the clubs involved in planning and organising.”
ESOC results in the top half of their age class:
- M14A (23) – William Atkinson 12th
- M21L (11) – Ben Brown 4th
- M50S (2) – Andrew Daley 1st
- M60L (55) – Keith Brown 25th
- M65L (55) – Richard Oxlade 9th, Kevin Harding 13th
- M75L (41) – Les Dalgleish 11th
- W18E (15) – Megan Brown 6th
- W50L (22) – Fran Daley 4th
- W50S (9) – Judy Bell 2nd
- W55L (33) – Helena Nolan 5th
- W65L (24) – Alison Harding 5th
- W70L (19) – Margaret Dalgleish 7th
- W80L (9) – Eleanor Pyrah 4th
The Relays the next day were at Bigland, scene of the 2023 JK Long event.
Emma Anderson reported:
“Another hot day loomed on Sunday as we gathered in a steeply, sloping field on the Bigland Estate at the southern end of Lake Windermere. The views were amazing, with a prominent Old Man of Coniston, and the sky was blue. The ESOC flag was set up in the sunshine in front of the finish line and handover area, with a good view of the start line. ESOC was only fielding 4 teams as some club members left after the individual race to head home for exam revision. First off was William for the Junior Ad Hoc team, with Richard leading the M50 team out in the last start block. The area was mostly runnable forest, but with numerous crags, large boulders and knolls making navigation tricky for all levels of orienteer, many long times were accumulated. For the elite classes, a spectator control provided extra excitement for the watching crowd. The run in was down the steep field and, as we all discovered, very rutted with livestock hoofprints made in wetter times. With the hot temperatures, everyone was happy to see the finish line and the ice cream van.”
ESOC Club Captain, Helena Nolan, added:
“It was a beautiful day for the relays at Bigland. ESOC had 14 competitors running in 6 teams. It was extremely tough terrain with lots of boulders and crags, mapped and unmapped. We were grateful to Rebecca Daley who made a great attempt at the TD5 course and was awarded an ESOC badge for stepping up and allowing us to enter a Junior Ad Hoc team. The best runs were from William Atkinson 4th, Emma Daley 2nd and Fran Daley 4th on their respective legs.”
ESOC had competitors in 6 teams (2 of them with other clubs):
- G – M50 (10 teams)
ESOC Alliance 10th (Richard Oxlade, Terry Johnstone, Kevin Harding) - H – W50 (11 teams)
ESOC Ewoks 8th (Helena Nolan, Fran Daley, Alison Harding) - L – M/W70 (11 teams)
AROS Antiques 9th (Roger Scrutton, Sheila Strain, Robin Strain)
ESOC Rebels mp (Les Dalgleish, Mary Williams, Janice Nisbet) - S – Mixed Ad Hoc (35 teams)
SROCaria 19th (Ian Thomas, Emma Anderson, David Rosen) - T – Junior Ad Hoc (9 teams)|
ESOC Jedi mp (William Atkinson, Rebecca Daley, Emma Daley)
Full results along with links to Routegadget and photos from the weekend are on the British Orienteering Championships 2025 results page.
The Individual event was the 12th event in the 2025 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the updated league tables, on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. With the score for this event included, ESOC is still lying 12th 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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