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.

Photo above shows Alasdair introducing a video on how to use Google Maps to collect control coordinates in the field to then use that to set up a MapRun.  

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Judy and Roger Craddock, President and Membership Secretary at Quantock Orienteers, say:

Soon after becoming a member of Quantock Orienteers:

• Alasdair used his own initiative to download an open-source map which we used in our Street Series.
• Although he was a relative newcomer we were so impressed with his abilities and positive attitude we asked him to become chairman of Quantock Orienteers in September 2019, and in the absence of any other offers from the existing Committee he was proposed and elected.
• He immediately became a positive force in the club not just verbally supporting old and new initiatives but offering practical help in many areas.
• QO have always had an excellent website but when our webmaster had personal problems, Alasdair immediately stepped in and has become actively involved.
• He has developed and taken responsibility for a very active presence on Facebook and Twitter which has had a good effect on the attendance and membership.
• He re-structured the Junior Orienteering Group system. He standardised and put registration forms and other information on the website.
• At the start of the COVID period in 2020, he used his IT skills to keep QO orienteering going by encouraging the use of the MapRun software for rural orienteering (we had only used this in urban settings previously).
• Alasdair then created a 5- and 3-hour score event - The Quantock Challenge, accessing the whole of the Quantocks Hills and using virtual controls. This was available for all outdoor enthusiasts and was COVID compliant.
• In the Autumn term to keep the weekly JOG programme running, Alasdair put a series of videos on the website demonstrating how to convert conventional courses to MapRun. He offered further support where needed and, in his role as MapRun administrator, he put the courses on the MapRun app. We were then able to provide COVID compliant JOG courses for families and training each week throughout the second lockdown period. As a result of this initiative instead of only being open for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon our JOG courses were open first for a weekend and then for a week.
• In addition to the JOG programme Alasdair created a set of 4 urban courses around the Taunton area for the SE Orienteering Urban League in November/December 2020.
• In his enthusiasm to encourage families and individuals to keep active locally many of the JOG courses created have been listed as virtual permanent orienteering courses (VPOC), so allowing people to revisit areas and perhaps do other courses in their own time.  

Judy and Roger Craddock continue on why they feel Alasdair deserves recognition: 

Alasdair Shaw:

• Stepped up in the absence of other volunteers to become Chair of Quantock Orienteers in 2019 and 2020. His ‘modus operandi’ is to lead by example, leading from the front.
• Immediately became pro-active in promoting, planning, and improving the successful Junior Orienteering Group (JOG) before COVID.
• Kept all our activities going by restructuring the JOG programme to enable it to continue in a COVID compliant way in the Autumn. He addressed the problems of social distancing, sanitising, yet still providing Orienteering challenges for families and individuals.
• Willingly took over the role as webmaster for Quantock Orienteers when the previous holder became unavailable.
• Helped to keep Quantock Orienteers members involved by updating, extending, and improving the current website.
• Used his expertise in IT and outdoor pursuits to provide maps, courses, You-tube guidance. He created novel formats using Virtual software, i.e., Evening Street series, Urban events, Long distance score events, a multicourse Urban event for SE Urban ‘O’ League and a raft of Virtual and Permanent Orienteering Courses in Somerset.
• Encouraged wider use of our present PCs by using the latest version of MapRun and adding QR codes to some of the existing Virtual and Permanent Orienteering Courses, making them more flexible.
• Alasdair has a “can do” attitude and all the above has been done whilst Alasdair is a full-time teacher at a local secondary school preparing on-line materials and assisting with his children’s home schooling. His is also a prolific author of Sci-fi novels and Physics textbooks and revision guides and has a world-wide social media following!
• Alasdair has been an inspiration to us all, he seems to have an abundance of energy and vision, has shown dynamic leadership and kept us all motivated.

Alasdair is there anything you are particularly proud of that you would like British Orienteering to shine a spotlight on?

Alasdair, comments:

"Keeping up activity and sense of belonging amongst club members during Lockdowns – virtual courses and events where allowed, virtual LEJOG, Missing Maps Project.

Increasing the club's social media presence, revamping the website, and introducing an email service for newsletters and other information.

Updating the policies and procedures (unglamorous but essential).

Developing a range of resources to help planners, organisers and controllers – instructional videos, online junior planners course.

Experimenting with new pathways into orienteering and new ways of orienteering – events aimed at attracting trail runners, GPS and QR activities."

Your volunteering journey and motivations.  We know there is so much more to each volunteer than the things that they have done, how did you get in to volunteering and why aree you stay involved as a volunteer?

Alasdair, says:  "I find it rewarding being part of a team working to provide opportunities for people to go orienteering.  

I also enjoy introducing new people to the sport."

British Orienteering would like to take this opportunity to thank you Alasdair for all you do within your club and for the sport of orienteering.

British Orienteering would like to take this opportunity to say a big "THANK YOU" to all volunteers within our sportand for for what you do; committee members, coaches, planners, controllers, tea-makers, car-parking stewards, mappers, organisers, volunteers who put out controls, volunteers who collect back in the controls after an event......the list goes on! 

You are the lifeblood of our sport.  You are at the heart and soul of orienteering - and make it happen week after week.  There so many roles which are all important.  However you contribute to our sport of orienteering, British Orienteering wants to take this opportunity during National Volunteers' Week to say Thank You!  

#VolunteersWeek
Join in the celebrations!  Who are you going to personally say thank you to in your club or further afield?

Don't forget to include British Orienteering in all of your club or personal social media posts:
https://twitter.com/gbrorienteering
https://www.facebook.com/britishorienteering

#VolunteersWeek 

#Orienteering