Photo above (right):  Victoria Stevens (Aire)

Niamh Hunter (Edinburgh University) and Laura Robertson (Edinburgh Southern) started next with King (Edinburgh University) and Andersen (Bristol) last. The final pair passed each other on their first-loops even on time but heading onto the second loop Andersen was running away. King pushed on through some downhill mistakes, catching Hunter (who took fifth) and finishing 46s in front of Ockenden. Except Andersen hadn’t merely run away, she had flown away, stopping the clock five minutes before King and clipping a couple of top guys in the process.

In the mens the early lead was set by Rhys Findlay-Robinson before Lakes specialist Tom Fellbaum (Manchester & District) took a minute off and the fastest time down to 31.36. Joe Hudd (West Cumberland) and Will Rigg (Lakeland) failed to live up to the pre-race hype and finishing a couple of minutes adrift.

From the Octavian Droobers pairing on fifth-last start it was Matthew Elkington who finished first, 33s ahead of Fellbaum. Starting next, Graham Gristwood (Forth Valley) and Peter Bray (Southern Navigators) both finished in front with the leading time edging down a full two minutes to 29.03. None of the next four could do it and it was left to last-starters Alastair Thomas (Edinburgh University) and William Gardner (Octavian Droobers).

As they climbed to the common control (#11/22) at the end of the first lap Gardner drifted left, letting Thomas enter the run-through 10s ahead. The pressure was getting to Gardner who contoured when he should have dropped to #14, losing precious seconds. Lapping in the other direction however Thomas’ legs were tiring. On the return to the finish Gardner was ahead of Thomas this time, and ahead of everyone else, taking the win in 28.49, with Thomas 14s back on the exact same time as Gristwood.

Photo above (left):  Fay Walsh (Mid-Wales); Photo above (middle):  Matt Elkington (Octavian Droobers)

The Dark One - Night Middle at Bishops Wood

The lights flicked on and the forest lit-up for Saturday evening’s night race at Bishop Woods, with stronger fields than the British Night champs.

Bishops Woods has hosted the British Relay Champs and the JOK Chasing Sprint so is more than up for testing the country’s best. Deciduous forest in the north gives over to conifer in the south where green plantation has grown into mature white making racing even faster.

You would have been brave to bet against Graham Gristwood in the mens, with seven British Night Champion titles accrued.

Gristwood took the lead on the steep uphill leg to the first control, but Alastair Thomas was the one in first by number 3, a position he commanded for the next fifteen minutes of the race as it looped round the north end of the area via long legs requiring careful map-reading all the way.

The final few controls were easy to lose time on if you didn’t keep your compass when crossing the parallel spurs. They prised Thomas away from the lead and cost Gardner the third that Crickmore was to seize.

Photo above (right):  Laura Robertson (Edinburgh Southern) with Nathan Lawson (Octavian Droobers)

In the womens it was a very close start before legs five and six started to split the times. Helen Ockenden dropped from a 30s lead to sixth in just one control and King from fourth to sixth a checkpoint later where she was caught by Laura Robertson who was running strongly again.

King and Robertson were racing hard and matching the pace of Andersen for most of the course, with King opening a slight gap to Robertson as they approached the finish. Like it did to the guys, the last control caused upset, with Robertson’s lead over Andersen vanishing and King slipping out of third which went to Ockenden.

The Tough One - Classic at Breasty Haws

Another area with little use but many names: Blind Lane, Breasty Haw, Bogle Crag, Bowkerstead. These pockets at the southern end of Grizedale link up a steep slope at the top with a broad craggy hill at the bottom.

Courses started with a loop around the hill and then stepped onto the slope. The women’s course turned back a little sooner but they got to attack all the key long legs. These long legs, plus a couple of shorter ones, decided the race.

#5 - Careful in the green

With a downhill finish over a fairly flat slope, into green, this leg was asking for trouble.

Big time loss here which dropped Bray, Lawson and Gardner out of the fight for third whilst Smithard and Crickmore also missed.

Men #17 / Women #12 - Get to half-way, then you’re on your own

Even to the bottleneck, in the second half do you swing out left for the track or follow one of the broken walls closer to the line?

The round route proved to be faster in both womens and mens with the best executions leaving the track before the quarries to pass near the start on the way to the control.

Men #20 / Women #15 - Getting tired: take on the hill or smash the path?

Gristwood twisted from round to straight for the final long leg, but this was not the fastest route. Bray left #18 at the same time as Gristwood but headed north east to take the track and took a monster 30s out of the rest of the field.

Andersen stuck to her round strategy but King went straight this time and found her 45s deficit getting stretched out to two minutes.

At the finish

Throughout the race Cecilie Andersen and Laura King traded the lead but that final long leg cost King with who finished three minutes down on Andersen’s 56.46. Helen Ockenden added a consistent race to a consistent weekend picking up another third just 8s ahead of Victoria Stevens.

Graham Gristwood caught five competitors through the course of the race on his way to win in 58.14. His two minute man Jonathan Crickmore was a beneficiary of this from half-way but managed to hold on to second even as the elastic snapped at the end. Not known for his tough forest performances, Chris Smithard ran solo to third whilst Alastair Thomas unfortunately finished injured.

So who were the real Lakeland Warriors?

With an incredible win in every race Cecilie Andersen took the women’s with ease. Laura King and Helen Ockenden were second and third with Laura Robertson and Victoria Stevens also getting close.

Photo (middle):  Jonathan Crickmore (Southern Navigators); Photo (right):  Will Gardner (Octavian Droobers) and Cecilie Andersen (Bristol OK).

With a night race and a rough long this was classic Graham Gristwood terrain, who took the overall win. Jonathan Crickmore made his return to elite orienteering for second with William Gardner taking third.

The lead sponsor NVii Str8 UK were in attendance demonstrating their high performance shoes and compasses. NVii and Str8 products are available direct by email at nviistr8.uksales@gmail.com or online from formline.uk.

Big thank you to Warrior OC, Lakeland OC and Masterplan Adventure for staging and assisting. Maps copyright Warrior OC and Lakeland OC.

HH’s first magazine, Pacemaker, started in 1982, followed by the club newsletter which is now up to edition 275, so from that point onwards the club’s progress has been reasonably well documented, but the early days are stored in a couple of large boxes and in the memories of those who can recall orienteering in the sixties and seventies.

So, it seemed like a good idea to mark over half a century of Hertfordshire orienteering by going through the club archives and writing a history which also looks at the development of the sport nationally at the same time. 

Of course, it’s not the dry facts that make history interesting, it’s the unexpected snippets, so to find out the answers to these questions and learn about the club’s evolution, have a look at https://www.herts-orienteering.club/members-section/about/.

• What did the Victorians ever do for orienteers in Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches and Hampstead Heath?
• On which piece of HH land was the original Harry Potter’s Whomping Willow, and what type of tree was it? (hint: not a willow!)
• Which orienteer has an unrivalled record at HH Burnham Beeches events, winning at least twelve times over 48 years?
• Which pieces of HH land have been used for James Bond/Harry Potter/Carry On films?
• Why did Chris Brasher (one of the founders of orienteering in the UK) get in touch with Harold Abrahams (1924 Olympic 100m champion, Chariots of Fire) about orienteering?

There are also lots of extracts of HH maps over the years, from the earliest OS photocopies to the hand-coloured map of Bentley Priory to the many editions of maps of Ashridge, Burnham Beeches and Whippendell.

The history is dedicated to everyone who has contributed to the success of the club over 50+ years, with special thanks to all the club members and those from other clubs who have been invaluable in collating the material. 

The sport today is both very similar and very different to the late sixties’ version but what is unchanged is the commitment and determination of members to put on enjoyable events – and I’m sure that will also apply to the next 50 years!

Clive Allen, British Orienteering Archivist, comments: “Several clubs have researched and written up their histories, but nothing has been published quite like the fascinating publication about the first 15 years of Happy Herts, written by Alan Rosen. Lavishly illustrated with photos, maps, event comments and paper cuttings, the 80-page book covers far more than plain history, documenting in lively detail some of the huge developments in mapping, event procedures and even British orienteering policy from the 60s to the 80s and in some cases to the present. A great read!”

The full report is available to read on the Happy Herts website here.