Kilnsey is complicated for other reasons.  We learned at JK 2016 that relying on a field for parking in March/April is not a good idea.  Emergency arrangements were needed just before that event when it was clear that a nicely sloping parking field with top access and a lower exit used for maybe a thousand cars for the Kilnsey Show in the summer would just be too wet in March/April.  Threshfield Quarry is massive and can swallow up lots of cars on hard ground.  But it means a long walk to a start and from a finish.  It was thought that this would put a lot of people off, though in the end it didn’t.  Cars for the event easily fitted into the quarry with hardly any hold ups even though much of the parking near the quarry entrance was initially taken up by Fellsman Hilke competitors returning from their event.

Kilnsey South rises to 450m.  With a north wind and rain it can be a serious concern.  Competitors were warned when the event was first advertised that a waterproof hooded top might be compulsory.  A few days before the event all competitors were informed that such tops would be compulsory.  It was very cold on the day when the start team went off to set up and early starting helpers went off at 10 o’clock.  Later starters were a bit luckier.

The area is used for farming sheep and cattle.  This gives two problems.  There are lots of walls and fences to keep the animals where they should be, and where would the animals be on the day of the event?  To a non-farmer, the latter seems simple, but farmers often don’t know where their animals will have to be, as it depends on the weather, the progress of lambing and so many other jobs that have to be done.

Yorkshire Dales walls and fences are big and they need big stiles to cross them where there are no gates.  Competitors on the longer courses were treated to a variety of ladder stiles, milk crate steps, a crawl through and a specially built step stile near the end capable of taking 700 plus competitors at a rate of 4 or 5 a minute.

The highlights of the day came as the first competitors returned smiling and giving very positive comments about their courses and the arrangements.  At the same time the weather started to improve.  And then when it improved further the ice cream van started doing business and it was warm enough for competitors to be standing around looking at results and discussing their courses.

CLARO is a small club and this was the biggest event the club had ever taken on.  Some much appreciated help came from elsewhere, but members rose to the challenge and did an excellent job on the day.  For the rest of the year the club will revert to hosting evening and family events with regionals in June and September.  This will be a relative rest before helping with the JK in 2025.

Northern Championships 2024 results. 

Kilnsey planner Vicky Bailey's perspective

Planning on Kilnsey was a challenge for all the practical reasons Mike has mentioned, but also because as planners we had two hard acts to follow in the shape of 2016’s epic acts-of-God JK and AIRE’s sunny summer special in 2018. It seemed appropriate then that our event served up something in between; on the day, a moderately grim start melting into a modestly mild finish; in the lead up, a catalogue of every other available weather, never friendly enough for shorts but nothing so hostile that it saw us off the hill. No sun, no hail strikes, but come the day: a sunburst of primroses.

With the assembly area already fixed we were limited with how much we could vary from AIRE’s event, which had used the same quarry for car parking. Early efforts to find a novel start location were quickly abandoned – you didn’t want a longer walk to the start, did you? But for the finish we gambled on a short walk back to assembly for the fun of a combined finish with the White and Yellow courses in the caravan park. This also left us with a little more length in the courses, which meant a better share of Kilnsey proper for the shortest senior courses before the inevitable march off the hill. For the longer courses, Mike and Chris’s efforts with permissions and crossing points opened up access to additional areas not used since the JK – a big help for keeping things fresh. Planning tactics evolved over the thrashing-out process. Our early strategy of avoiding long legs crossing the walls resulted in somewhat bland Middle-style courses that lacked “story”. In the end, using the walls to set up macro route choices provided better structure, and made for some entertaining post-race analysis on Routegadget. Every crossing point was worth it, Mike, honest!

The most memorable part of planning at Kilnsey has been the efforts undertaken by so many volunteers to overcome its challenges. Fathomless feats of endurance and ingenuity! An alphabetised schedule of animal-dependent crossing point logistics. A 60kg sheep-proof control marking solution! Dauntless control collectors taking on longer loops than their original courses and a map layout for every permutation of scale and paper size. The amount of time and care that goes into these events is in equal parts scary and inspiring. My tip for anyone considering taking on something similar is to get yourself a co-planner. Find one who always finds time to be slightly less busy when you are super busy; who has a seemingly exhaustible supply of patience, and a very good recipe for flapjack – then no amount of trans-Pennine weather tantrums and late-night PDF checking can get you down for long!

David Williams, the planner, identified a possible field for the arena, which we had never used previously; the field just to the south of the one we eventually used.   This allowed him to use the best of the area. He structured the courses Jan–March 2023 at the same time coordinating with Tony Thornley producing the completely revised map off new LIDAR data. By this time a year ago to allow review in competition condition the courses were more or less fully planned and controlled. Having had input during April 2023 from David Bowman assistant planner and Mark Garside (WCH) controller. Subsequently courses and map were given constant minor amendments and updates to take account of the storms, wet conditions and middle distance RWT rule changes.

The parking field has become a regular for us over the past 15 years, when we hold Regional events at Danefield.  We knew it was well drained.  It has coped admirably with the cars for all previous events.  We’ve checked it regularly throughout this very wet winter, and never had any doubts about it coping, despite having to accommodate three times the number of vehicles we have previously.  It meant quite a long walk to the arena, but we knew it was 100% reliable.

Last year by March the original assembly field was in prime condition.  This year we did a final check three weeks before the event, just before the map proofs were ready to be printed.  There was a strong chance the field would never drain sufficiently to take vehicles and 900+ pairs of feet.  This was when our brilliant hosts, Sue and Howard Cliff really came into their own.  They suggested we use the paddock and agreed to build us the bridge across the ditch leading to it.  It proved the best of arenas.  The grass didn’t cut up, and it was more compact than the original field which doubtless helped create the splendid atmosphere of the event.

The change of assembly field resulted in a few slight last-minute adjustments to the map, but did not affect the planning of the courses apart from the run-in.

We were able to pull the event off just using Aire members, which made recruitment and organising a good deal simpler than is often the case for a Major event.  From what I saw and heard on the day, all the teams did a pretty seamless job. 

At Danefield we were delighted to hear so many compliments about the courses and the organisation.  The rain held off, although a little more sunshine and a warm wind from the south would have been appreciated. I guess you can’t have everything.

We were pleased to see that both Rob and Lindsey King’s String Course and Maze were well used.

Results from the British Middle Championships 2024. 

Aire’s next large-scale events are the Sprint and Urban events in Leeds on 6–7 July 2024.

And the Dales Weekend in the Malham area on 14–15 September 2024.

HERE IS A SNAPSHOT OF MORE ORIENTEERING ACTIVITIES WHICH TOOK PLACE ACROSS THE UK ON WORLD ORIENTEERING DAY.

Inverness College, University of the Highlands and Islands. 

Colin Matheson, Events Manager for the Scottish Orienteering Association, says: 

Above:  Map extract of the Beechwood Campus map (right) and (left) one of many students taking part at the event on the day .  

Below:  Competitors ready to start (right) and (left) the final control point.

With an excellent map, good course planning and electronic timing this was a great introduction to orienteering.

Johannes Petersen, Supply Lecturer, Inverness College, says: 

John Paul Academy and St Andrew's Orienteering Club (Glasgow)

Terry O'Brien  St Andrew's orienteering Club Hon. President and PE Teacher at John Paul Academy, says: 

St Andrew's Orienteering Club also hosted an evening event in Pollok Country Park in the evening.

St Brigid's School and Eryri Orienteering Club

The course was set up by Eryri Orienteering Club's, Jim Wood, a volunteer with the cadet force. 

Jim Wood from Eryri Orienteering Club, says: 

South Yorkshire Orienteers put on an event!

Photos by Katherine Bett, South Yorkshire Orienteers

Bristol Orienteering Klub held an orienteering taster session

Peter Maliphant from Bristol Orienteering Klub and Avon Schools Orienteering (ASO) League, says: 

Avon Schools Orienteering League exists to promote orienteering to young people. 

Bristol Orienteering Klub hopes that some of the schools attending will be tempted to give their ASO Schools Orienteering League a try next season.

Lagan Valley Orienteers

The 4th Lagan Valley Orienteers Wednesday Evening Event of the 2017 series was held on Wednesday 24 May in the grounds of the Stormont Estate, East Belfast. Stormont is a relatively small public park with a mix of long lawns bounded by easy open, deciduous forest and shrubs running up the hill towards Stormont Parliament Buildings. The linear nature of the park combined with good network of paths and the wide main avenue makes large scale navigation very easy for experienced orienteers but, conversely, is well suited for “come and try it” events like the Wednesday Evening Event (WEE) series.

The planner, prepared two courses - Long/Orange 4.1km and Short/Yellow at 2.1km plus a “challenge” event run on the Long course but as map-memory exercise. Challenge runners were given a look at the map at the start and then they had to refer to a number of maps arranged along the central avenue allowing them to divide the course into clusters of between 4 and 7 controls.

The weather on Wednesday evening was warm and sunny and the city location of the park ensured a good turn out from orienteers and new comers alike. The Long course took 79 entrants (including map-memory runners) and the Short attracted 20 people. Almost half of the participants were new or occasional orienteers which made this event a fitting way to mark World Orienteering Day.

As for the competition, times ranged from 30min to 112min on the Long/Orange and 18min to 58min on the Short/Yellow. There was a very good mix of participant age and gender with 19 people under 16 yrs all the way up to 5x 65 year olds. 27% of the group were female. The map-memory challenge was popular with the more experienced orienteers who wanted to make the most of the learning opportunity provided from an otherwise relatively simple Orange course. Some competitors even did it both ways and the c 10 Missed Punches were a reminder that even the seasoned orienteer has something to learn.

Mark Pruzina, Event Organiser, Lagan Valley Orienteers, says: 

Above:  The view from close to the course start and the course finish. 
Credit:  Wilbert Hollinger

Quickly recapping on other World Orienteering Day activities and events which have already been reported on.  These included:

British Orienteering's National Office joined in!

The National Office made the most of glorious World Orienteering Weather to run a fun Xplorer event around the grounds of the Head Office at Scholes Mill in Tansley during lunchtime.

Natalie Weir, Development Officer at British Orienteering, said:

British Army Orienteering Club did World Orienteering Day 2017!

Lt Col Chris Huthwaite, Chairman of the Army Orienteering Association, writes:

The British Army Orienteering Club delivered an individual military training orienteering competition, on World Orienteering Day at Longmoor Training Area.

The orienteering map had been updated and Colin Dickson from British Army Orienteering Club planned three excellent courses. A very technical Blue, at 6.7 km with 225 m of climb; a great Light Green at 4 km with 135 m of climb; and a Long Orange at 4.8 km with 110 m of climb. The courses were part of the Army Inter Unit Orienteering Championships, with a classic cross-country race on Day 1 (Wednesday 24 May 2017 - World orienteering Day and a Harris Competition on Day 2 (Thursday 25 May 2017).

We were blessed with a beautiful day and were fortunate to be kept cool in the glorious foliage of the training areas trees. The controller, Colin Holcombe (British Army Orienteering Club), ably assisted by Kieran Devine (Southamption Orienteering Club) ensured the controls were accurately placed in the very physically demanding and technically challenging driver training area. The organiser, Captain Brett Green arranged a super assembly area, with a covered Registration (Allan Farrington EMIT UK), clothing and accessory from Ultrasport (Ian Kevan BEM); and food from Tom's Burger Van (Tom and Julie Wilkinson).

The start was within 200 m of Registration and the finish, well placed, less than 200 m in the other direction. With 305 competitors Richard and Bobby Baldwin did a sterling job, controlling the eager soldiers and civilian competitors, who took off at speed into the forest. In addition, orienteering training was arranged in the morning by Colin Metcalfe (British Army Orienteering Club), and well over 40 soldiers attended the initial 1 hourr briefing on the map and skills; after which 20 plus young men and women took to the forest for a 'walk & talk' skills session.

The atmosphere in the assembly area was electric, as soldiers and civilians compared, congratulated and commiserated on their runs.

A great team event, relying on a Team Leader to allocate 'Other' controls to his team members. World Orienteering Day has been a huge success, with numerous World Orienteering Day shirts, hats and snoods on display. The British Army looks forward to participating in WOD18..!

See photos from these two events here.
 

British Orienteering would like to take this oportunity to say a big thank you to all the orienteering clubs and schools who took part in World Orienteering and helped to make it the success it was!  

We would love to report on more World Orienteering Day events and activities which have taken place in the UK. 
Please email:  jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk - with the details and photos of what you did to celebrate World Orienteering Day!

To read about other orienteering events and activities which have taken place across the world for World Orienteering Day - click here.

Save the date! 
World Orienteering Day 2018 will be taking place again on the 23 May 2018.