Croeso 2024South Wales, 21-27 July

14 ESOC members competed at the Welsh 6 Day event in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons National Park), and thoroughly enjoyed the week.

Croeso (Welsh for welcome) is the name given to the Welsh summer multiday event, which is held every 4 years. This year the event centre was in the town of Brecon, on the north side of the hills. It was a great week of orienteering. Days 1, 3, 4 and 5 were long distance events, and Days 2 and 6 were middle distance. Most days the orienteering was on open hillsides, with some long walks to the start, and the weather was varied. The arenas were all in scenic locations with some wonderful views. Rest day activities included a Sprint race and a Turf event, both in Brecon, and there were other social events through the week.

Day 1 – Sunday 21 July – Merthyr Mawr, near Bridgend
This is a large area of complex dunes on the South Wales coast. The terrain is mostly open, rough grass with a lot of spiky vegetation, and pockets of woodland, patches of sea buckthorn, willow and birch thickets and many paths throughout the area (not all of them mapped). The weather was warm and sunny.

Day 2 – Monday 22 July – Cribarth, SW of Sennybridge
This day involved a remote parking area with buses to the arena, and then a 1km steep walk to the start. The courses started in old quarry workings, and the terrain was a mix of crags, broken limestone pavement, shake holes, and some steep slopes. The weather was quite wet at times, and windy.

Day 3 – Tuesday 23 July – Carreg Goch, SW of Sennybridge
This area is just to the north of Cribarth. The arena, parking and buses were the same as on Day 2, and the walk to the start was around 2.5km. This is a hilly area of open limestone terrain, with shakeholes, boulder fields, crags, bare rock and some marshy areas. The weather was showery.

Day 4 – Thursday 25 July – Pen Rhiw Wen, N of Brynamman
Parking for this day was in Brynamman, with a short bus ride to the arena, and the starts were close by. The terrain featured hundreds of pits and depressions, and some large boulder fields. The area near assembly is dominated by an old limestone quarry with some big rock faces, and the final few controls were in this complex area. It was misty all day, but quite warm.

Day 5 – Friday 26 July – Llangynidr, N of Trefil
This area was previously used for the JK in 2014. It’s high, wild, limestone moorland with no walls and few paths. There are small hills and re-entrants with many depressions and shake holes, rock features and marshes. The weather was cloudy but fine, with some sunny intervals.

Day 6 – Saturday 27 July – Merthyr Common, N of Trefil
This area was also used for the JK in 2014, and lies west of Llangynidr. Like the previous day, it’s high limestone moorland with no walls, few paths, a multitude of pits and depressions and plenty of rock and contour features. The weather was cloudy with a light breeze.

Each competitor’s 4 best results counted towards their overall total.
ESOC overall results:

M50L (43 competitors) – Terry Johnstone 27th
M55S (16) – Ronnie Nolan 3rd, Finlay Ross 6th
M65L (61) – Kevin Harding 13th, Crawford Lindsay 35th
M80L (23) – Brian Yates 18th (only ran 2 days)
W14B (5) – Ursula MacColl 3rd
W50S (11) – Catherine MacColl 5th
W55L (43) – Helena Nolan 9th
W60L (67) – Alison Harding 17th
W65L (40) – Sally Lindsay 13th
W70L(30) – Mary Williams 4th, Rhona Fraser 20th, Janice Nisbet 26th (only ran 2 days)

Full results, Routegadget, photos and other details about the week’s events are available on the Croeso website, and there's a blog on the British Orienteering website with day organiser's comments and a few photos.

Full results and details about the Turf event can be seen on the Turf Brecon event page of the Turf website.

Days 1 and 2 were the 17th and 18th events in the 2024 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 17th 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.

Other entries categorised under: Event Reports