Nopesport

British Night Championships

This year’s BNOC were held on an open moorland above Rochdale on a rather cold but very clear night. The lack of darkness early on meant that the starts were put back 15 minutes so that the early runners weren’t given an advantage by seeing where they were going by natural light.

The courses used a mixture of long and short legs, the M21L having a rather long (1.5km+) leg early on crossing over the massive semi-circular bowl which gave finishers fantastic views of a myriad of lights crossing the area. Despite the large amount of walls on the area, the straight line route was quickest but you had to be sure that you knew exactly where you would end up – not that easy on an open area at night!

Hot soup was a very welcome post-race drink, and the sailing clubhouse provided dry and warm changing rooms as well as a place to discuss how much more difficult orienteering is in the dark! The prizegiving was held very quickly after the winners were known, as some people had very long drives ahead of them, with competitors running for clubs as far afield as KERNO and FVO!

There was not a particularly great turnout, although it can still be said that all trophies went to worthy winners. This year’s British Night Champions are:

M16A Chris Smithard DEE
M18L Oystein Langberg EBOR
M20L Jordan Larne MEROC
M21L Andy Etherden EPOC
M35L James Logue NWOC
M40L Mark Seddon SELOC
M45L Martin Dean FVO
M50L Michael Napier NOC
M55L Peter Gorvett SYO
M60L Barrie Speake EBOR
M65L Arthur Boyt KERNO
M70L Roy Malley NATO

W16A Alison Fryer LOC
M18L Lizzie Britton MDOC
W20L Rosemary Hodkinson NOC
W21L Aislinn Austin EBOR
W35L Catherine Hughes NOC
W40L Susan Skinner SN
W45L Christine Andrews EBOR
W50L Annette Milburn WCOC
W55L Diana McClure LOC
W60L Monika Cooper SYO
W65L Alison Sloman

Full Results