Nopesport

Ed Catmur receives the coveted Nopesport Urban League trophy

This season the Nopesport Urban League has gone from strength to strength, with 12 races stretching from Edinburgh in January to Warwick in October, via old favourites such as York, Sheffield, Lincoln and London, and newly mapped towns such as Carlisle, Pickering and St Andrews. With it, urban orienteering is booming. Its importance can be seen by the numbers competing (in the league there has been around 1400 runners clocking up 2500 scoring runs between them), the number of new urban races cropping up outwith the league, and urban racing being recognised by British Orienteering as a unique type of event with some good (event guidelines), and some bad (insurance), consequences.  

Roger Thetford who kindly (and very swiftly) manages the league scoring gives his rundown of the results below, with the top three in each category listed below, and final results here: women, men.

Juniors
Simon Bradbury picked up his fourth win, and his sixth scoring run took him past big brother Adam. Although Michael Adams won the under-16s race round the park, eight finishers on the Urban course (which ranks first) meant that he could only improve by two points so Alex McCann hangs onto third. Elizabeth Parkinson and Amy Kimberley both improved their Junior Women scores slightly, but the order didn't change.

Junior Men (M18-)                   races best6 
Simon Bradbury            SYO     M16   6  586  
Adam Bradbury             SYO     M18   7  567  
Alex McCann               MDOC    M16   6  550  

Junior Women
Elizabeth Parkinson       NOC     W18   7  592  
Amy Kimberley             DVO     W16   8  550  
Karen Maxwell             RR      W16   5  465 

Open
Liam Harrington and Ollie O'Brien both improved but Ed Catmur was safe in first place despite not having won a race all season. Jenny Johnson had already won the women's competition but Charlotte Ward won the Warwick race impressively and moved up to second.

Open Men
Edward Catmur             SLOW    M21   8  563  
Liam Harrington           LOG     M21   8  540  
Oliver O'Brien            SLOW    M21   7  495  

Open Women
Jenny Johnson             SYO     W21   7  585  
Charlotte Ward            HALO    W18   6  576  
Blanka Collis             DRONGO  W21   6  537

Veterans
Martin Ward managed to blag a late entry, having turned down selection for the Veteran Home Internationals in an effort to retain his brick. But to no avail: despite being at the VHIs Charlie Adams (just!) had a good enough lead, and clung on by a single point. With Liz Phillips controlling the Warwick race, Delia Kingsbury was safe to take the women's title.

Veteran Men
Charlie Adams             SYO     M45   7  585  
Martin Ward               SYO     M40   9  584  
Roger Thetford            TVOC    M45   6  545  

Veteran Women
Delia Kingsbury           WRE     W45  10  568  
Liz Phillips              OD      W45   9  560  
Carol Edwards             TVOC    W50   6  536.5 

Superveterans
Bill Hanley confirmed his victory with a second place on the day ahead of Doug Henderson. Mike Hampton's 8th was just enough to put him into a tie for third with Tony Carlyle. Having led the W55+ course in Warwick all the way round, Lynden Hartmann lost time in the park at the end of the race and was two seconds down at the last control, before a tremendous sprint gave her a win by one second. This put her one point ahead of Glenys Ferguson's overnight total, but second place for Glenys improved her score by six and she took the trophy.

Superveteran Men
Bill Hanley               SYO     M55   9  585  
Douglas Henderson         RR      M55  10  571  
Tony Carlyle              AIRE    M55   8  550  
Mike Hampton              OD      M60   8  550  

Superveteran Women
Glenys Ferguson           SROC    W60   8  562  
Lynden Hartmann           HOC     W55  10  557  
Susan Findlay-Robinson    WCH     W55   8  531  


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Congratulations to all the winners, and to everyone who took part. Thanks must go to all the clubs who have organised events this season and especially to Roger for his efforts on the scoring. We'll have more on the 2011 series soon, for now you can discuss the 2010 series in the forums.