Nopesport

The Sunny Finish

It’s only January 2nd, but its already time for the first National Event of 2005. 6 years on and its back to Ash Ranges. The new year orienteers were treated with glorious sunshine, although, as its winter it was particularly cold early in the day, especially in the shade, although fortunately most of the trees had been chopped down and were now burning around control 254.
Situated amongst the plethora of Surrey’s orienteering areas Ash Ranges is mainly open, with some deep heather which hindered even the tallest of legs. The area has lots of spurs and re-entrants coming of the central ridge, and a good path network. Its not as technical as other areas, but it does provide many challenges as quite a few found out on Sunday.

Due to its locality, close to the 2005 World Cup based in Guildford, the race attracted some of Britain’s top orienteers as they begin to hone their techniques ready for May. Despite not having fun, Oli Johnson overcame some confusing mapping of "open with scattered trees" which looked pretty much white, and posted the fastest time on M21L with 79mins for the 13.4km course. Nick Barrable was 2 mins behind in 2nd, with Rob Baker in 3rd place with 83mins. Heather Monro, Helen Winskill and Sarah Rollins, who were 6th in the World Championships relay for GBR also ran M21L. Heather was 10th 95mins, Helen 13th 97mins and Sarah 17th 100mins. Control 17 prehaps provided the biggest challenge, on the map it was a marsh in forest. In real life it was on a pond, amongst massive bonfires, in a recently felled area, surronded by diggers and lazy workmen.

Jenny Whitehead won W21L by 13mins, 9.2km in 70mins. A few mistakes, but for Jenny this is the route to learning and mastery, embracing ones mistakes and learning from them.

The junior classes were contested by some of the countries top juniors, on the World Class Start Programme. Peter Bray, SCOA legend, won M12A by a unsurpassable 4 minn .Robert Gardner of the mighty OD beat Peter Hodkinson of NOC on M14 by just over 1 minute. Adam Bushnell helped himself to a phenomenal 13 minute lead. Wow. Andrew Llewellyn, it sounds Welsh but he’s not, took the M18L course by 4 minutes, despite a small error at #11. Rhys Findlay-Robinson won M20L by some way. My favourite course, W12A, was won by Helen Elkington with a gaping 4 minute victory. On W14A Julia Blomquist beat the long traveling Alice Leake of EBOR by 2 minutes. Emily Benham won by the narrowest of margins, just 5 seconds ahead of Ann Edwards. Tessa Hill has improved greatly since training with the GBR Juniors Squad in Lithuania, now in World Class Start, Tessa won W18L by nearly 2 minutes. Hazel Tant, from East Anglia won W20L.

Clive Hallet won again on M40L. Colin Dickson moved up to M50 this year, taking a 6 minute lead on M50L. Colin beat several of the current GBR team at the OK Nuts Trophy a few weeks ago. Jim Prowting is still on form, winning M55L by 7 minutes. The incredible Mike Murray took 2nd place, 2 minutes behind the faster legs of Jack Hutchinson, SOC superstar. Ivor Noot proved he hasn’t forgotten what to do yet, winning M65L by just over 3 minutes. Whilst Richard Arman managed a comfortable 8 minute victory on M75L. Jackie Hallet won by only 6 minutes on W45L, and on a hotley contested W55L Hilary Palmer came first just 1 minute ahead of Sue Hands and Elizabeth Drew. Pauline Ward took the W60L class by storm, winning by an outstanding 8 minutes.

An easier on the eye results summary:

M10A Martin Thetford TVOC
M12A Peter Bray SN
M14A Robert Gardner OD
M16A Adam Bushnell WCH
M18L Andrew Llewellyn NOC
M20L Rhys Findlay-Robinson DEE
M21L Oliver Johnson SYO
M35L Michael Billinghurst WCOC
M40L Clive Hallett BOK
M45L Kevin Harding HH
M50L Colin Dickson BAOC
M55L Jim Prowting TVOC
M60L Jack Hutchison SOC
M65L Ivor Noot EPOC
M70L Bill Vigar QO
M75L Richard Arman WSX
W10A Harriet Lawson DVO
W12A Helen Elkington OD
W14A Julia Blomquist BAOC
W16A Emily Benham SARUM
W18L Tessa Hill HOC
W20L Hazel Tant SOS
W21L Jenny Whitehead SYO
W35L Julia Jarvis SO
W40L Woo Allen BAOC
W45L Jackie Hallett BOK
W50L Karen Clark EBOR
W55L Hilary Palmer NOC
W60L Pauline Ward DVO
W65L Judith Powell SWOC
W70L Mary Fogo SO
W75L Dorothy Hale SAX

For full results and splits with analysis visit Splits Browser, or the temperamental SN website.