A weekend of orienteering in the Forest of Dean
After days of torrential rain the clouds lifted to give a delightful (reasonably) sunny weekend of day and night orienteering organised by NGOC, BOK and BAOC and Sarum runners competed in all three events. The events were originally scheduled for earlier in the year but access problems resulted in them being moved. They were no less enjoyable for that and very well organised by the various clubs.

NGOC’s middle distance race at Mallards Pike on Saturday was extremely wet underfoot. The area is renowned for its ditch system and there seem to be many more on the map than there used to be and most seemed to be full on this occasion. Only a small Sarum contingent (4) took part and Peter Hambleton ended up winning the very short green course, probably because he walks round at the moment and running was not an easy option for everyone else.
There was a slightly bigger Sarum turnout that evening for the Southern Night-O Championships race organised by BAOC at Caerwent. Being the Army Inter Corps Night Championships many of our Army members took part. Rob Ashton was at the top of his form winning the Men’s Blue course by a mere 19 seconds from Ed Dickens and Kerrie Larsen taking second place in the Short Green Course. Ian Peirce continued his current good form becoming the M75L Southern Night-O Champion and Charlotte Thornton added to her long record of success by taking the W70 title.

On the following day the Mike Nelson BOK Trot at Cannop Ponds and Churchill Enclosure was the host event for the Southern Championships. The area was The Forest of Dean at its best, highly contoured, lots of runnable ground and looking splendid in the sun, despite a chilling wind. The area was a fair distance from the event centre at Speech House but a transfer in well heated buses had been laid on courtesy of event organiser, (Howard) Thomas the Coach.
Rob Ashton and Ian Peirce both continued their great form of the weekend with Rob winning the Army Brown Course and Ian taking the M75L Championship title. Kerrie Larsen was 4th in the Army Blue Women’s race. Ian Tait won M65S, Joan Hambleton took 3rd place in the W75 class, Andrew Graham 3rd in M60S and Peter Hambleton 3rd in M75S.
Click on the following event links to see full results: Mallards Pike, Caerwent, Churchill Enclosure and Cannop Ponds.