Throughout the week British Orienteering will be publishing a series of articles, news stories, snippets, maps, photographs…The idea is that we don’t forget what makes the JK so special to us by sharing memories of the event online.

British Orienteering is working hard to gather interesting content that we have in the archives, past editions of Focus, history and facts…

Here is where you can help!
British Orienteering are asking for members and clubs to think back and send in any content, photos, specific snippets or memories you personally hold dear and want to share with others who love the JK event as much as we do. Maybe you remember the year when your club achieved your best JK result in the Relay? Did you attend the very first JK event? What do you personally remember about it? Have you ever witnessed and been inspired by one of the elite champions? Have you got any old photos / maps, stories? Over the week British Orienteering will publish as many as possible so we can all remember this fantastic event together.

By Clive Allen, Former Chairman of British Orienteering Federation

Well we have to be careful here! 52 held, yes, but 54 planned - the 2001 edition, planned to be in the Forest of Dean, was cancelled because of Foot and Mouth Disease, and of course this year’s in the North-East has fallen by the wayside too.

The first two JKs, both held in Surrey, were single-day individual events with an integral team competition. It was first in 1969 that a relay race was introduced, with the Open class run for the JK Trophy. From that year the JK has always been staged on Easter weekend, in the 1970s with a 4-day programme consisting of a training event (Good Friday), Individual – classic distance (Saturday), Relay (Sunday) and a ‘Run-down event’ on Easter Monday. From 1980 the Individual developed into a 2-day event and the Run-down (re-named Relaxation) event was dropped. The JK Sprint on Good Friday was introduced in 2006 and the weekend programme has remained the same ever since.

JK weekends have been held in all of British Orienteering’s constituent Associations, although only once in East Anglia and in Northern Ireland. Eight JKs have been held on SEOA’s territory and seven on SWOA’s. Sometimes two OAs have combined to stage a JK, and on one occasion (2007) it was organised centrally by British Orienteering Federation.  JK 74 in the South-West was notable as the first event in the UK to attract more than 1,000 competitors.

Association territory breakdown:

SEOA 8, SWOA 7 (+ 2001 cancelled), SCOA 6

NWOA, SOA, WMOA and YHOA 5

NEOA 4 (+ 2020 cancelled)

WOA 3, EMOA 2, EAOA and NIOA 1

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Memories of the JK Online
Have you got any old photos, maps, stories, snippets to share? Over the JK week British Orienteering will publish as many as possible so we can share our experiences and understand more about this fantastic event together. Email to: info@britishorienteering.org.uk

Report by Peter Guillaume CompassSport Cup Coordinator

On Sunday 15 March 2020, at what was a last go at formal orienteering for some time over 1,800 competitors from 67 clubs took part in the CompassSport Cup qualifying rounds. Excluding the cancelled Harlequins event, ten clubs of the twenty six which made the Final did not qualify in 2019, so providing a good turnover.

The largest field of the day was at the East Pennine event at Fixby and Bradley where 496 competitors took part. South Yorkshire continued their run of qualifying for the Final with 74 competitors, with Airienteers taking second place and Derwent Valley third. In the Trophy, home team East Potteries qualified for the Final after missing out in 2019 with Nottingham in second place, qualifying for the first time for since 2011.

North Gloucester hosted the South West round with 389 Competitors competing in the Forest of Dean. Bristol were once gain the Cup winners with Wimborne winning the Trophy round and Southampton in second place also qualifying for the Final.

Two hundred and ninety competitors ran at the event organised by London Orienteering Klub (LOK) on Hampstead Heath, where South London with a good turnout of 59 competitors pipped Southdowns Orienteers (SO) who have qualified in the Cup for the previous four years. Guildford qualified easily in the Trophy competition.

In the Lake District West Cumberland defeated the home club, Lakeland to make the Final with regular Finalists South Ribble winning the Trophy, in both cases by a small margin of only nine points.

In Scotland St. Andrews Glasgow hosted the event at Errochty with regular winners Forth Valley claiming the Cup Final qualification and Edinburgh second, also qualifying. In the Trophy Interlopers were winners and Moravian qualified, the first time since 1989 and Inverness also qualifying, the first time since 1988.

The smallest turnout for the day was at the South Midlands event at Aspley Heath but provided a close finish in the Cup where Leicestershire beat the home team by just 10 points. Essex Stragglers qualified for the Trophy Final. Aspley heath had an entry limit of 250.

Great thanks are due once again to the clubs, officials and club volunteers who gave a great deal of time to hold six successful events and to Harlequins who had everything in place for their event to be thwarted by the weather.

All the clubs from the cancelled round have been given a bye to the Final.

Cup Qualifiers: Octavian Droobers, South Yorkshire Orienteers, Airienteers, Derwent Valley, West Cumberland, Leicestershire , Forth Valley, Edinburgh and South London.

Trophy Qualifiers: Wrekin, Walton Chasers, Potteries, Eryri, City of Birmingham, Harlequins, Potteries, Nottingham, South Ribble, Essex Stragglers, Interlopers, Moravian, Inverness, Wimborne, Southampton and Guilford.

A full set of results can be viewed here.

The planned date for the Final is on Sunday 18 October 2020, organised by Octavian Droobers and City of Birmingham Orienteering Club at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield.

British Orienteering wishes to reassure all competitors, volunteers and spectators that safety of all attending our events is a priority. We are aware of the concerns surrounding the current Coronavirus outbreak and are regularly reviewing our processes and procedures and staying up to date on government advice.

At present (5 March 2020), the British Championships (21 – 22 March) and JK events (10 – 13 April) are due to go ahead.

Please note:  For those who are unable to access the document entitled 'Advice for attending public events' from the COVID 19 Advice PDF please find this document below.

Peter Hart
Chief Executive