A Round-up of QO Tourists' Results Over the Last Month
Holne Moor
Over the last month, QOs have taken part in events across the South West - a league event in Lanhydrock, a city race in Salisbury, the November Classic in New Forest and another league event at Holme Moor in Dartmoor.
On the 24th October it was the Kerno OC SWOL event at Lanhydrock. Despite the horrendous rain on the drive down, conditions were dry in the National Trust park, with a mixture of open parkland and more technical woodland.
Phil Sorrell and Andy Rimes came 6th and 9th on Brown, and Rosie Wych came 15th on Blue. Roger Craddock came 2nd on Short Green, losing out to a younger runner with more puff to get up the final hill.
Alasdair Shaw came in 6th on Green:
“My run went well, picking up every control nicely.... Some lovely splashing through streams and a good mix of terrains. I’d pretty much burnt out by it came to the final two legs up the big hill, though, but judging by everyone’s splits that was the case all around.”
Our young juniors had a good show, with Freya Shaw coming 1st on Yellow a few seconds ahead of Al Hemmings, with Sebastian in 5th.
“Freyja’s run didn’t start too well. They didn’t have any Yellow maps left but they were able to draw one for her on a spare Green. But once she’d actually got going she stormed through.”
Read more discussion and view all the QO results from Lanhydrock
A handful of QOs made the trip to Salisbury on 6th November to stretch their legs before the November Classic the following day on the surprisingly hilly courses to the South of the city centre.
On course 2 - Phil Sorrell came 21st, with Andy Rimes, who was running up, coming in a few minutes later in 34th. Richard Sansbury, unfortunately, pinged an incorrect control.
“However I still enjoyed it, quite hilly, and I liked the inclusion of woodland in an urban area. A shame there weren’t more route choices, but I liked the tricky bit in the south east corner of the map where I nearly made another mistake.”
Brian Pearson came 49th on course 3, Tony Hext came 51st on course 4 (Rosie Wych missed a control towards the end) and Adele Appleby came 24th on course 5.
View all the QO results from Salisbury
17 QOs made the journey to the New Forest to take part in the November Classic on 7th November - a high-quality classic distance event in highly runnable New Forest terrain.
A special shout out to Oliver Lewis - just 12 seconds off coming first on Orange, and Robin Fieldhouse for coming in 7th on Black. Phil Sorrell came 8th on Brown:
“On the 2km hike to the start, it was clear that this was going to be a navigation challenge, with wide expanses of open heather-clad heathland…. The (15.5km) course was a lot of fun and, whilst there are a lot of things I can look to improve on, I am happy with the result.”
Brian Pearson came 51st on Blue:
“it was a challenging course, very scenic and good weather. I couldn’t run to full capacity as my leg was sore … I only had one miss near the circle and was happy with 16 of 19 routes in between, the 3 in question weren’t disastrous so I came away feeling good”
Read more discussion and view all the QO results from November Classic
Finally last weekend, it was the South West Orienteering League event on Holme Moor, Dartmoor in Devon on a glorious autumnal day. 13 QOs came down to experience some of Dartmoor’s finest terrain with open moorland and complex areas of gullies, knolls and depressions from previous tin mining activities.
Andy Rimes showed “the youngsters” how to do it, coming in 7th on Brown ahead of Phil Sorrell (11th) and Pete Shirvington (12th). Roger Craddock was 2nd on Short Green, with Karen Lewis in 4th:
“Absolutely brilliant weather for an event on moorland. This event suited me perfectly apart from wading through the gorse! There were very few features on the ground that you could navigate using. You had to take your bearing and pace it out. I had a really good day and I am pleased with my time. I was just about spot on for each control.”
Annabel Lewis came 4th just ahead of her brother Oliver Lewis in 5th on Short Green:
“Annabelle and Oliver took on light green - not sure that they enjoyed it but they finished. Oliver ... unfortunately, he went wrong at number 4! I met Annabelle at my number 8 and she was doing well. Not sure what went wrong after that. She says that she couldn’t get through the prickles to her number 10! A salted caramel ice cream on the way home and she was a little more cheerful.”
Read more discussion and view all the QO results from Holme Moor
If you are taking part in an event - local or further afield, you can share how you get on by posting at https://chat.quantockorienteers.co.uk or by emailing phil.sorrell@hey.com.