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.

South Yorkshire Orienteers

South Yorkshire Orienteers celebrated World Orienteering Day with a lovely sunny evening event on Wednesday 15^th May. 176 people enjoyed the stunning views across Sheffield from Bole Hills and The Rivelin valley. There were 6 different courses, all expertly planned by the Lightfoot family, catering to the wide range of participants on the night including toddlers, brownies, schools children, super vets, students, runners and experienced club members. After the event, many club members adjourned to the local pub to enjoy a special World Orienteering Day Menu!

Mar Orienteering Club

"It was a busy World Orienteering Week in Maroc Land in northeast Scotland, with five different activities on offer on various days, organised and run by a range of different groups.

First off, the club held one of their Forest Sprint events at Deeside Activity Park and Dess woods to celebrate World Orienteering Day itself, on a gloriously sunny Wednesday evening. There was a good turn out of 41 runners and the kind weather encouraged everyone to linger and socialise.
On Thursday it was the turn of the 18 pupils in class P4-7 at Braemar school to try orienteering in their playground, with courses which had been planned and set up by class teacher Mrs Wood. Braemar school enjoyed participating in orienteering as part of the 2016-18 Cairngorm Leader COPE project and it is fantastic to see a legacy of the development work continuing in this way.

Later in the day, 13 enthusiastic members of the Aboyne cluster after-school club tackled some special WOW themed courses in Castle Woods. The biggest challenge of the session proved to be trying to solve the puzzle of the WOW link!

On Friday, orienteering was one of the activities on offer at Mearns Academy as part of their festival of sport. The Academy recently commissioned an orienteering map of their grounds and this was one of the first opportunities to try it out. With instruction from club member Andy Oliver, six S3 girls enjoyed the new experience and challenge.

Finally, on Tuesday it was the turn of Upper Deeside schools to get together for a festival in the woods adjacent to Crathie school. The festival was organised by the local Active Schools Co-ordinators with course planning and support from Maroc members. 31 pupils from four small schools- Tarland, Logie Coldstone, Strathdon and Crathie - all had a great time finding their way around the most scenic extended playground in the UK. There were some really impressive scores recorded, again demonstrating legacy from development work undertaken through the COPE project.

All in all a successful World Orienteering Week which offered a taster of the sport to a wide range of different people."

Potteries Orienteering Club

Potteries Orienteering Club held 3 activities in Central Forest Park to mark World Orienteering Week.

We held 3 activities over three days based on our permanent orienteering course.  This is our latest permanent orienteering course and was designed with easier controls only.

DAY 1: Wednesday 15 May. 
We ran a SCORE course which was intended to cater for the Urban Activities regulars.  10 extra controls were added using the bright numbered stickers on lamp posts, as per the Urban Activities.

• 10 members took part on this course.
• Peter Munn and 3 of his outdoor group members tackled the basic course.
• 9  Girl Guides  + 4 adults went on specific courses designed by Marian.
• Mark Clews and Jonathan Whilock visited all 26 in about 33 mins.... Lil Bales  - all in about 43 min. Everyone else returned in the allotted 45 mins.

The next 2 days catered for groups and non-orienteers.

DAY 2:  Thursday 16 May.
It was clear from the lack of bookings that no one was expected on this day. However, I still felt I needed to be prepared, but no one came. I  hold the record for the planner of an event with the lowest attendance ...2 at Forest Park about 20 years ago. Can I claim to have beaten this with an Activity?

DAY 3:  Friday 17 May. 
A contrast. 42 Brownies or Guides + 12 adults turned up to tackle Marian's special courses.   

Day 3, along with the Guide groups on Day 1, used the permanent orienteering course posts in a series of short loops in order to spread out the participants.

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Army Orienteering Association

As part of WOD 2019, the Army Orienteering Association (AOA) hosted the Army Inter Unit Team Championships at Longmoor, Hampshire, over the period 15-16 May 19. The Championships were organised by the Royal Army Physical Training Corps (RAPTC) and the Army Air Corps (AAC).

Day 1 was based on four Spanish Score courses (Long, Medium and 2 x Short variants). There were 5 categories: Open, Masters, Women’s, Under 25 and Guests. Dependent on the category entered, teams comprised of four or three competitors. Team times from 1 rolled forward to Day 2.

Day 2 used the Team Harris format with a long variant for teams of four and a short variant for teams of three. Times from Day 2 were added to times from Day 1 to determine overall category winners.

In total, 182 participants took part over the 2-day event.

We even introduced a new discipline....moo-rienteering!

How did you, your club or school take part in World Orienteering Day & Week?

Email:  jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk and be included in the next snapshot to celebrate our sport globally!