British Orienteering and SportsShoes band together to host inaugural Quid Games event

Together with Ben Mounsey (SportsShoes) and Chris Barnes (Podium 5k)– Quid Games was born, of which, the inaugural event ‘The Dark Edition’, was held on Saturday 18^th January at the prestigious and sprawling Broughton Hall estate which covers East Lancashire and North Yorkshire.

The event pitched together participants from across the adventure world including, the best GB Orienteers, GB Fell and Trail and Club runners from across the UK and even multi-Olympian Alistair Brownlee got stuck in!

The concept? To blend trail, fell and orienteering together and create an event which would be memorable, rewarding and nothing like has been seen before. 10 controls (Score Course), 1 hour and 7 controls laden with prizes for the first male/female to get there and grab the sponsor’s medal, or grab a spot prize number for the draws at the end. Adding to the jeopardy that it was in the dark, participants didn’t even have a map at the start. Showcasing sponsor, Silva’s new 10,000 lumen Spectra Headtorch’s capabilities – at 6pm, a headtorch was pointed up in the sky in the distance where everyone needed to head to find their map! Once found, it was then for them to decide to head for the prize checkpoints first or play the tactical long game and go for the overall win, by accumulating the most points in the quickest time.

Thankfully (for the sport) the orienteers mostly came out on top, allowing us to showcase how elite our athletes are, with many of our GB athletes taking away prizes from the range of sponsors at the event. However, more crucial than the prizes on offer, was the opportunity to introduce the sport to many new people from the trail and fell running world, many of them influential ambassadors in their own fields. Social media stats and talk about the sport following the event show this has been a resounding success. You can see a short reel of the event here.

Kay Hawke – Partnership Manager

‘We wanted to break from the ordinary with the Quid Games event and not only throw together the best of the best into a simplified orienteering environment but also create an event where everybody could enjoy the festival feel and go home talking about afterwards! We welcomed sponsors, Silva, Scarpa, Rab and OTE Nutrition to be part of the event village offering demo kit for people to try at the event and free giveaways alongside fire pits, a pizza van and live commentary from the experienced Ben Mounsey. Not only were SportsShoes instrumental in introducing the sponsors, providing equipment, advice, and support to the event, as well as generous sponsorship of their own, they provided accommodation and supplies for our GB athletes to attend, and are wholeheartedly committed to putting the sport on the map. The athlete accommodation was kitted out with sponsor giveaways and individual  social media content was captured here before the event for further use by British Orienteering in future promotional material such as team announcements for example. This all began with just an idea by myself and Ben to ‘do something different’, and it resulted in something even better than we hoped, we’re already analysing what we can do further, and better to put the sport at the forefront of the trail and adventure worlds minds. The support of all the sponsors and SportsShoes enabled us to take a leap into the unknown and the learnings and positive reactions from the event will help the sport, our clubs and our members on a much wider scale than just this event. Plans are already afoot for Quid Games Part 2 in late Spring, with a whole new format, but as always – you can expect the unexpected!’.

You can see further content, results and a summary of the event here. Or visit the Quid Games Instagram account.

Image credits: Nathan Phua and Jamie Rutherford.