Northern Championships weekend 2023Birchen Edge/Burbage Moor, 25/26 February
This was a double header weekend in the Peak District, with a middle distance event on Saturday followed by the Northern Championships on Sunday. A handful of ESOC members were there, with some great results.
Derwent Valley Orienteers organised Saturday’s Middle Distance event at Birchen Edge, west of Chesterfield. This is a typical Dark Peak area with gritstone edges, many boulders, and rough open moorland with scattered trees. The start was fairly high, below the crags, and courses snaked along the edge before heading west through vaguer terrain towards another gritstone edge. The longest courses had controls below it, described as “littered with gritstone but very runnable”.
ESOC results:
Brown (106 competitors) – Alison O’Neil 17th
Short Green (81) – Janice Nisbet 6th, Brian Yates 68th
Full results, Routegadget and other details are on the Birchen Edge page on the DVO website. (Note: this page has the wrong date for the event!)
South Yorkshire Orienteers organised the Northern Championships, which was held the next day at Burbage Moor, east of Hathersage. This is another technical area, with many boulders and other complex rock detail, plus steep and intricate contour features. It is mainly open moorland, heather and rough grass, with paths and transient sheep tracks throughout. Most courses had a double-sided map with a very detailed section at 1:2,000 scale.
ESOC results:
M14A (18 competitors) – Calum Robertson 8th
M60L (28) – David Robertson 18th
M75L (21) – Brian Yates 19th
W21E (10) – Alison O’Neil 2nd
W70L (12) – Janice Nisbet 1st
Full results, Routegadget and other details are on the Northern Championships event page on the SYO website.
These events were the 3rd and 4th in the 2023 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the league tables, on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. ESOC is currently lying 48th in the club league, with only 3 counters so far. (Alison didn’t score, because she was running up.) The 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