CompassSport Cup Final 2025 draws in 1,000 orienteers from clubs across the country

Caroline and Alastair Mackenzie, Organisers (CLOK)

First of all, we'd like to express our huge appreciation for everyone in our amazing CLOK team who helped us host such a challenging and unusual event.  The hard work and creativity were inspiring.  Everyone just got on with things and sorted out issues as they arose.  It's a pleasure to be part of such a hugely helpful and cheerful team.  We ended up with just under 70 CLOK members helping out on the day, which is not that far short of the total club membership!

Working out the logistics of using this amazing sand dunes area for such a large event posed a few challenges.  In particular, where could we find parking spaces for so many vehicles? Where could we put an Assembly Area and/or a Finish Arena?  We found solutions, though, and then the experienced and hardworking CLOK team enabled the event to run very smoothly on the day.  Our thanks to:

• All the CLOK volunteers, some of whom ended up spending more time 'on duty' than the original schedule envisaged.
• The Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team.
• Our Planner, Rob Bailey, and our Controller, Duncan Archer.
• Computer guru Eddie Speak for managing the on-the-day results processing, trouble-shooting, etc.
• Mike Edwards for providing the commentary.
• Redcar Council, who were very helpful with allowing us to use the Majuba Road car park for our 'base camp'.
• The South Tees Development Corporation (STDC), which owns most of the competition area, and Redcar Council and Cleveland Links Golf Club, which own / control the rest.
• Natural England, which gave us permission to hold the event in an area registered as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
• Cleveland Links Golf Club and Tingdene caravan park, who were very helpful with getting access to the Start and the Finish Arena.  (Have you ever tried carrying all the start kit and over 1,000 maps along a soft, sandy beach?  No?  Well, fortunately, neither have we!)
• Redcar Racecourse, which accommodated the main car park for the event.

The other innovation for this event was a new, customised online entry system.  The aim was to make things easier for both the Club Captains and whoever was going to have to draw togther all the entries data for importing into the SI Timing event management software.  The feedback we've received suggests that the new system was appreciated, and it also gave us much better visibility of how entries were coming in, which helped us to judge how many maps to get printed.  (The shortage of Course 9A/9B maps wasn't caused by the online entry system.  It knew how many maps were needed!)

Possibly the most important thing that the Organiser is responsible for is, of course, the weather.  During the final run-up to the event, the weather forecast was looking decidedly iffy – we're talking strong winds and possible heavy rain.  But, wow!, we got lucky.  The bad weather held off for a crucial few hours, and we were fully packed up and leaving the Majuba Road car park just as the first drops of rain starting landing on our windscreens.

Our apologies to those juniors affected by the shortage of Course 9A/9B maps.  The person placing the printing order had looked at the number of entries for Course 9A (Orange Men) but neglected to add on the number of entries for Course 9B (Orange Women).  We've used punching start times rather than allocated start times for the competitors who had to wait for maps to be recycled from the Finish, and we hope that the delay didn't affect your concentration.

If any juniors would like a Course 9A/9B map to replace one that was 'requisitioned', please contact Caroline (caroline.mackenzie7@gmail.com) and we'll get one printed and posted out to you.

By the way, for those who like round numbers, we had 996 pre-entries via the online entry system and 4 entries on the day for the Light Green and Yellow courses, so we achieved that magic 1,000 entries figure.

And, finally, thank you to all the competitors for coming along.  We hope you enjoyed your visit to the north-east coast and your runs / jogs / wanders through the South Gare sand dunes!

All images credited to David & Rebecca Aspin.

Rob Bailey, Planner (CLOK)

When Caroline asked me to plan, I had no idea of the challenge that some of the constraints would present.  Rather naively, I agreed a finish area, and a start, and then started to plan draft courses.  It was only after adding all the different classes that it was clear that, in such a small band of dunes approaching the Finish, I would run out of features towards the end of each course.  As a consequence, it was tricky to find a safe walk to the Start – avoiding the danger of flying golf balls – while ensuring that competitors walking to the Start wouldn't be able to see the finishing controls!  This resulted in the walk to the Start being a little more challenging than expected, but hopefully it did not cause too many issues.

After some iterations, we arrived at what we hoped were fair controls.  Some of these were closer together than I would have liked, but I hope you can allow us a bit of leeway in this regard.

Most of all, I'd like to thank everyone for for your kind remarks about the day, the area, and the courses.  It was especially good to hear from competitors who were caught out by the complex terrain but still enjoyed their runs, even if their navigation wasn't as clean as they'd hoped.

On the day, the sand conditions made the run-in more of a slog than expected, but in years to come it will probably be remembered as the most memorable 'finish sprint'!

Duncan Archer, Controller (LOC)

Thanks to everyone who came to South Gare.  With over 1,000 entries, many travelling miles across the country, it showed that inter-club competition is still keenly contested, and with only a few points separating some of the podium positions!

South Gare is a great detailed area, and somewhat unusual terrain for the north east!  I hope you found the courses a suitable challenge for a major event.  The planning was somewhat constrained by the logistics of finding a finish arena not too far from the parking and bus drop off, and the long thin nature of the area, but Rob's courses managed to get everyone into the technical dunes, with a mix of longer and shorter legs, and sustained interest even through the last few controls.  And the dunes and beach provided a wonderful setting for the Arena.

We had quite a bit of discussion over the map legibility.  It had successfully been used for a previous JIRCs ..... but with all maps at 1:7,500 and younger eyes!  After much to and fro, we settled on digital printing (modern versions of which seem as clear as offset litho), Teslin waterproof paper (as recommended by IOF and less grainy than Pretex), some legibility and simplification updates to the map (thanks to mapper Paul Taylor), larger map scales for courses with older ages, and making rough open dunes white (rather than light yellow, which makes small brown contours harder to read).

Regarding a couple of organisational issues that may have affected people's runs:

• We ran out of course 9A&9B maps, due to some confusion in printing numbers.  We recycled maps from early finishers and gave punching starts to those who were held up.  Apologies for any upset this delay may have caused to the young children on this course.  If any early starters didn't find their map in their club bag (because we recycled it), and would like a map, please email the Organiser with your name and address and we'll print some more and post them out.
• Control 177 was vandalised between checking and first starts.  The kite remained at the control site on the ground next to the tag with the control number on it, but the stake and box went for a walk.  They were replaced before 11 a.m. and we haven't heard that it created any significant confusion or time loss for anyone (but apologies if it did).  We reinstated anyone who didn't punch this control when it was missing.  Thanks to the early competitors that reported it.
• Control #2 on Course 7 (Veterans) was obscuring the obvious sculpture feature on the map, which some may have wanted to use for navigation.  Apologies.

On behalf of all the competitors, I will offer thanks to all the CLOK volunteers for putting on the event, with particular thanks to Rob as Planner and Caroline and Alastair as organisers – it was a pleasure to work with such experienced and competent officials and nice to be alongside lots of ex club mates from CLOK again!

Results

1. South Yorkshire Orienteers

2. Forth Valley Orienteers

3. West Cumberland Orienteering Club

Inter-club results

SiEntries results