British Championships 2022

Individual competition on Saturday (Golden Valley & Cognor Wood)

14 club members took part in the individual long-distance championships on an unseasonably hot Saturday in an area new for orienteering - Golden Valley & Cognor Wood.

Brian describes the terrain:

This was a new area of very mixed terrain including areas of coppice at various stages of growth and visibility, rhodo thickets, marshes, pine woods, ditches and big contour features - plenty to keep us busy and with hot weather a challenging weekend.

The competitors were:

Hamish Braine-Clarke(M16), Adam Fieldhouse (M21E), Robin Fieldhouse (M21E), Ollie Rant (M21E), Peter Shirvington (M45), Andy Rimes (M55), Brian Pearson (M60), Steve Robertson (M65), Roger Craddock (M80), Sheila Braine (W55), Karen Lewis (W55), Rosie Wyche (W65), Oliver and Annabelle Lewis (Orange).

Ollie describes his experience on M21E:

The M21 elite course was the longest course I have attempted by a considerable margin. I found the navigation to be quite tricky at times, which slowed me down a fair bit, but the slower pace meant that I did not make any significant mistakes.

Everyone managed to complete their courses successfully, with 6 at Silver standard, and 4 at Bronze standard. Adam lead our M21E runners coming in 14th on M21E (and having the fastest leg into the finish), Roger was closest to a medal coming in 4th on M80, and Oliver Lewis came 2nd on Orange.

The weather was wonderful, the event was well organised with central parking, a combined assembly and a finish with event commentary - everyone enjoyed the experience of the big event.

8 people met up in the evening at Wetherspoon’s in Aldershot for a meal and to compare routes.

Relays on Sunday (Iron Hill and Parkgate Rough)

There were 3 QO teams:

• Mens Premier. QO Vadis (Ollie Rant, Adam Fieldhouse, Robin Fieldhouse) - 12th out of 21 teams
• M40. Status QO (Jeff Pakes, Brian Pearson, Pete Shirvington) - 7th out of 8 teams
• Mixed Ad HOC. QOta (Roger Craddock, Hamish Braine-Clarke, Sheila Braine) 21st out of 39 teams

This is (so I am told) the first time QO has had a team made up entirely of M21E, Robin explains how they got on:

Sunday. Was Ollie, Adam then me. Ollie came in 18th/25 then we managed to end up in 12th overall with Adam having a little tow from the champ Graham Gristhwood on their final leg.

In the M40 class, Jeff stepped in last minute to replace Phil Sorrell. From Brian:

For our team Jeff had a good start to hand over in 57’ then my run was a bit more scrappy than Saturday with a few gambles and mistakes but managed to hold our position. I ran 68’ to hand over to Pete who finished in 62’ with the split of the day - 2nd on the run in! We were giving away quite a few years to our M40 class but we held on to 7th out of 8.

Overall it was a most enjoyable weekend with all-around success albeit without any podium places. Now for the JK22!

Thanks for the contributions from Roger, Robin, Ollie and Brian - to read the write-ups in full visit https://chat.quantockorienteer...