JK Festival of Orienteering 2025South Yorkshire 18th - 21st April
Around 35 ESOC members made the journey south to participate in the annual JK this Easter, some taking part in all 4 days and some just one or two. There were a number of successes, including on the final day of relays when no fewer than 7 ESOC members ended up with medals round their necks!
Credit: Wendy Carlyle
The Friday JK Sprint was held in Sheffield City Centre, a daring departure from the usual university or army campus type of area. Rooms were available in the 19th century Town Hall for enquiries and bag drop but most of the action was centred around the short run-in, just outside in the Peace Gardens, which were decorated with flags of many nations as well as club banners. With over 2000 entries, this area soon became very crowded with excited spectators.
The longer courses presented some complex challenges with multi-level steps and underpasses, a canal basin to negotiate and some roads with heavy traffic. Some courses had a timed-out road crossing. The shorter courses on the other hand were very straightforward and took place mostly in a pedestrianised area with only very light traffic. All the courses were designed to be won in around 12 to 15 minutes, so a true Sprint-style competition.
The main organising club for this day was South Yorkshire Orienteers (SYO). They put on a splendid show which must have stretched their manpower to the limit. Over 100 marshals were deployed out on the courses to ensure the fairness and safety of the race.
The outstanding ESOC performance came from ESOC Captain Helena, who was leading the W55 class for most of the day until passed by local runner, Jenny Peel, who was faster by 4 seconds!
Credit: Wendy Carlyle
Other ESOC runners who finished in the top half of their class at the JK Sprint were:
- M21E (155 competitors) - Ben Brown 53rd
- MOpen (42) - Ewan Crawford 9th
- M60 (110) - Keith Brown 51st
- M65 (81) - Kevin Harding 26th
- M80 (16) - Ian Pyrah 3rd
- W14 (33) - Emma Daley 12th
- W21E (69) - Rachel Brown 3rd (running as EUOC)
- W40 (41) - Sarah McAdam 17th
- W50 (65) - Fran Daley 17th
- W65 (45) - Alison Harding 10th
- W70 (31) - Janice Nisbet 8th
- W80 (11) - Eleanor Pyrah 2nd
Before the prize-giving for the JK Sprints, there were a number of special awards from British Orienteering. The 2024 Spirit of Inclusion Award went to David Robertson of ESOC. Beyond all the tireless work he does for ESOC, David works as a volunteer at East Lothian Outdoor Learning and helps to deliver orienteering to schools and youth groups within the area. He has volunteered to introduce orienteering to many pupils who are struggling academically or have behavioural or physical problems, giving them time outside the classroom in nature to enjoy orienteering. You can read more about David's work here.
The JK Middle Race was held on the following day. This was in Tankersley Woods, about 10km north of Sheffield. It is an area which is small but perfectly formed for orienteering and has been used for CompassSport Cup Finals in 2016 and 2021, as well as numerous other events in recent decades. In the 19th century and before, the area was worked for coal and iron resulting in the infamous "bell-pits", numerous hand-hewn depressions surrounded by spoil heaps. More recently the area contained factories and railways which were heavily bombed during the war. The vegetation that has since spread across the area consists of natural oak woodland with bluebells, brambles and maturing shrubs. There are many paths but they can be quite confusing. All the courses passed through an area of scrubland towards the end, climbing steadily to the last control from which there was a long downhill run-in to the Finish.
Parking was on hard standing in a business park, 2-3 km from the arena. Buses were provided for the oldest and youngest. The main officials for this day were from EBOR, CLARO and HALO, thus giving SYO a rest. A request for additional volunteers had gone out via the website and Robert Wyllie and Rhona Fraser were two from ESOC who had answered the call.
The day was dry and quite sunny and the orienteering was challenging. Winning times were mostly in the expected range of 30-35 minutes but many people took much longer.
Credit: Wendy Carlyle
ESOC runners who finished in the top half of their class at the JK Middle Distance:
- M16A (57) Calum Robertson 27th
- M21L (29) Ben Brown 6th
- M55S (20) Ron Nolan 8th
- M65L (95) Kevin Harding 20th,
Richard Oxlade 22nd - M80L (25) Ian Pyrah 11th
- W14A (31) Emma Daley 7th
- W18E (31) Megan Brown 10th
- W35L (19) Sarah Crawford 5th
- W40L (29) Sarah McAdam 14th
- W50L (57) Fran Daley 19th
- W55L (63) Helena Nolan 4th
- W55S (24) Judy Bell 3rd
- W65L (49) Alison Harding 13th
- W80L (12) Eleanor Pyrah 4th
- Orange (55) Catriona Gillespie 16th
- Yellow (44) Kirsten Tinsley 3rd
Credit: Catriona Gillespie
Early the next morning we got word via WhatsApp that the ESOC Banner was already up at the JK Long area of Wharncliffe! The Tinsley family had volunteered to take the flag as they had split starts. It was 9am, very few people about and they reported it was a "bit chilly". Fortunately, it warmed up later and turned into a lovely day.
The parking for this day was the same as the previous day, Wharncliffe being a similar distance from Sheffield but a little to the south-west of Tankersley. Again, bussing was in operation. This was another day that had been planned, organised and largely staffed by SYO.
Wharncliffe has been used many times for major events; "outstanding and formidable" it said in the programme. There is a rocky escarpment on the west side, cratered with old mine workings and capped by a gritstone edge. To the east is a plateau, the northern part of which is open moorland with a considerable amount of rock, whilst the southern part is covered in old plantations. To the southeast is a contrasting area known as Wheata Woods, featuring an abundance of thickets and a complex path network. The shorter courses started in this part, then led across a steep-sided valley to the wooded plateau. There was some route choice, but unfortunately there didn't seem to be any way of avoiding either the very steep slopes of the valley or the long stretches of pathless woodland beyond, where the green vegetation screen indicated all too well the difficult underfoot conditions. "Rough", "very long" and "draining" were some of the milder adjectives used by returning runners. It was after all the Long Race, the climax of the three days of the Individual part of the competition. The fastest M21E runners were out for over 90 minutes on their 14.5 km course, with 440m of climb, covering all parts of the terrain. Courses for the younger juniors and those aged 65 and over did not visit the western scarp slope.
Despite the hazards and various degrees of exhaustion, it was a fun day which can best be summed up in the words of Matt Tinsley at the end of his first JK, "Amazing! We had a great time and we're looking forward to the JK 2026."
ESOC runners in the top half of the results on the Long Day 3 of the JK:
- M21L (35 competitors) Ben Brown 7th
- M60L (101) Keith Brown 34th
- M65L (80) Richard Oxlade 14th,
Kevin Harding 17th - W35L (11) Sarah Crawford 6th
- W50L (49) Fran Daley 11th
- W55L (56) Helena Nolan 23rd
- W55S (22) Judy Bell 7th
- W65L (41) Alison Harding 7th
- W70L (30) Mary Williams 11th
- W80L (14) Eleanor Pyrah 5th
- Light Green (84) Matt Tinsley 10th
- Orange (49) Catriona Gillespie 17th
- Yellow (31) Kirsten Tinsley 5th=
Credit: Rob Lines
The JK champions are decided from the total times of Days 2 and 3. These were the results therefore that were posted at the end of the day at Wharnclifffe and a prize-giving was held. The overall M21E Champion was Euan Tryner of SYO, after a storming run in the Middle and a 2nd place in the Long. The W21E winner was Megan Mitchell of SBOC, with wins on both days.
The best placed (top10) ESOC runners after the 2 days were Ben Brown (4th M21L), Rachel Brown (9th W21E), Sarah Crawford (5th W35L), Judy Bell (4th W55S), Alison Harding (9th W65L) and Eleanor Pyrah (3rd W80L). Eleanor was therefore the sole ESOC representative on the podium for the JK (Middle and Long).
The Final day of the JK Festival is the Relay Day. This year the Relays were held in Middleton Park, near Leeds, also venue for the British Relay Championships in 2019.
Club Captain, Helena, describes the scene:
"Middleton Park is a small compact area with plenty of pits and depressions. The weather didn't quite hold out for today, but the rain was quite light and didn't dampen ESOC spirits, maybe the cream eggs helped with this! ESOC had entered 5 teams in this event; team classes were a combination of age groups which made making up teams a little easier. There was a long run-through for people to spectate and cheer on their team-mates. This was 2/3 of the way around most courses and ESOC made the most of it by loudly encouraging their team-mates. ESOC were pleased to get 2 podium places: 3rd on Mixed Ad-Hoc with Ben Brown, Emma Daley and Megan Brown, where they were up against teams of 3 x M21 so this was an amazing achievement, and 2nd on W165+ with Fran Daley, Alison Harding and Helena Nolan who all had good runs. Our other teams were: 18th on M165+ with Keith Brown, Kevin Harding and Richard Oxlade, 21st on Mixed Ad-Hoc with Sarah McAdam, Carolyn Dyson and Judy Bell and 26th on Mixed Ad-Hoc with Ron Nolan, Rebecca Daley and Mary Williams."
So those were 6 ESOC relay runners to win JK medals ... the seventh was Rachel Brown running for her University Team, EUOC Legends, who were winners of the premier Women's class, the Women's Trophy, for which Rachel was running 2nd leg.
The Planners for the Relays were from EPOC and the Organisers were from AIRE. All the clubs of the Yorkshire and Humberside Orienteering Association had played their part in what had been an amazing and extremely well-organised JK.
All the results from the JK, including Routegadget, can be found on the Results page of the JK website.
Days 1, 2 and 3 of the JK were all part of the 2025 UK Orienteering League (events 7, 8 and 9). 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 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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