British Orienteering Championships 2011

I attended my first British Championships in 2008 when they were held at Culbin. They are hosted by a different association each year and this time it was the turn of Yorkshire and Humberside (YHOA) with the event taking place to the north of Sheffield.

Towards the end of March I asked around to see who else was going. I didn’t want to make the long journey south if there wasn’t going to be a relay team too. Alan and Andy both confirmed that they were attending so if I went that would give the three needed for the relay. Andy kindly offered me accommodation with his parents in Leeds. Great, that was the weekend organised. Nothing to do until the 13th May, except maybe get a bit fitter and hone a few techniques!

The Long Distance Championship was at Wharncliffe and Greno on Saturday 14th. Luckily, Andy, Marieke and I all had latish starts so a much needed lie in was had after the drive down the day before. The day started bright and sunny but clouded over a bit later on with the occasional shower. It was also extremely windy, with the club banners all straining at an angle of 45 degrees. I think we need a bit more practise at attaching the flag to the pole. It wasn’t until someone came to return it that we realised that it had gone sailing over the run in!
The banner does help to get the club noticed though. Someone from British Orienteering came over to ask us were the club is based, receiving the reply “Argyll, aren’t you coming to the 6 Days?”

I ran W40S which meant a 1:15,000 map scale. I think age is catching up with me – I am finding it harder to read the detail!
The course was 4.6km with 180m of climb and 12 controls.
The first part of the course was on lovely wooded slope with lots of thickets. Unlike Argyll, these were not rhododendrons but holly bushes. I took things quite steady to begin with, not necessarily choosing the most direct route but one where I was confident of getting the correct thicket first time. This seemed to work. The leg from 3 to 4 was a long one. Again, the most direct route wasn’t going to give the quickest time so I headed off along the tracks. A small mistake at controls 4 and 5 didn’t cost me too much time.

Controls 6 and 7 were on a slope where any mistake was going to be costly. Some careful navigation on bearings got these two without any difficulty. Control 8 was another long leg with a cut through some mature woodland then a path run. The only big mistake of the day came at control 9. It was a relatively short leg but I managed to veer off course and ended up in the wrong clearing. Relocation was quite straight forward but this cost me about 3 minutes.

Control 10 was the last long leg. Again, I decided to opt for the longer track route. Controls 11 and 12 were straightforward leaving only the run in to do. Unfortunately for me, this was rather long and uphill! Great from the spectators point of view with lots of opportunity to cheer your club mates home – except that Alan and Irene missed me. They said I had got round much quicker than they had expected! For once, I didn’t mind the bit at the bottom of the splits printout telling you where you were placed.

The results for the day were:
M40L Andy Dale 9th out of 43
M60L Alan Partridge 54th out of 96
W21V Marieke Steuben 3rd out of 5
W40S Carol Burnapp 2nd out of 14

A very pleasant evening was had in Leeds with the Dales and Marieke, eating out at a Greek restaurant.

On Sunday was the relay competition at Tankersley Woods. “ECK Of a muddle” was entered on the Men’s Short course. We eventually decided on a running order of Andy, then Alan with me bringing up the rear. Today was going to be very different – 3.5km and 21 controls in quite a small area. Very intense. There was a spectator control too. I’m not particularly keen on these but I got a rousing cheer of encouragement and managed not to fall over in the tussocky grass. That’s not to say that I didn’t fall over elsewhere. A tumble in a patch of wild garlic gave me quite a nice aroma followed further on tripping over brambles and landing hands down in a nettle patch. The competitor that jumped over me did enquire if I was all right! Not too many mistakes on a rather technical area with another evil uphill run in, but great fun.

After dropping Andy back in Leeds, I had the long drive home, eventually getting back about 9pm. The drive was rather uncomfortable with hands and wrists tingling from nettle stings! But it was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed two very contrasting days. Right where are we going next year? The Lakes! Great!

Editor: Alan took photos of people at the event - but was unable to get one of Carol as she was too speedy and he only has photos of her receding into the distance! He mentions “The least said about my efforts the better”. Andy wrote “BOC was fun. Sat was a bit rough, but Sunday was a great little area. We had rather mixed results, with Carol far and away the best at the individual but Alan and I both had runs to forget.“

Photo of author Posted on 21st May 11
by Carol Burnapp - Cowal Area rep