Nopesport

The Oxford City Race was very nearly the race not meant to be. Three years since its initial (slightly drunken) conception by myself and Ian Webb, the eventual planner, the race was finally staged on Saturday 4th November. 300 orienteers came from all corners of the country to race in the twisting alleyways, complex colleges and pristine lawns of one of Britain's most popular and picturesque tourist cities. Oxford University Orienteering Club had drawn together a vast number of marshals (around 60 of their friends) to ensure controls stayed in the right place, and were a credit to themselves, organising such a large scale event with only around 15-20 active members. Planner Ian Webb began orienteering four years ago with OUOC, having only done a couple of events with scouts beforehand, and co-organiser Stephen Granger-Bevan joined the club as a convert from Cross Country only in the last three years. Old hands Cerys Manning (co-organiser) and Controller Roger Thetford all mucked in the make the event the success it was.

Very early on in the competition it became apparent that despite the numerous additions to the map to make the courses runnable with regards to the huge Out of Bounds restrictions placed by colleges, the map was still open to unexpected interpretation. A series of runners misread a passageway at the back of Wadham College and ended up in the kitchen corridors, surprising a number of staff (the culprits here will be glad to hear that Wadham staff are known to be amongst the most easy going in the university!), while others ran into a loading bay underneath a passable walkway in the Westgate shopping centre. The short legs in Wadham college caught out many an old hand, with Oli Johnson, Tim Tett, and multiple other very experienced orienteers taking wrong turns at every stretch in the chaos of the multiple levels and hidden corridors. Beer drinkers in the Turf Tavern of Inspector Morse fame were surprised to see brightly coloured individuals careering through the usually quiet back passage leading to the pub, whilst photographers got some wonderful shots of people speeding through sunlit gardens and past the architectural delights in the sunshine.

There were no surprises in the Men's Open race, where despite a few highly public wobbles Oli Johnson, Great Britain squad member and South Yorkshire Orienteer took victory over ex Oxford inhabitant and Cleveland Orienteering Club member Duncan Archer, with times of 36.45 and 38.07 respectively. Although the course was billed as just over 6.2km in a straight line, the planner Ian Webb calculated the optimum route to be 9.8km! Tim Tett of South Yorkshire Orienteers completed the top three. In the Women's Course a last minute entry from Swedish International Emma Dahlstedt, returning to work in the Oxford Chemistry Department, put paid to a Johnson double, beating Jenny Johnson in a time of 34.37 to Jenny's 35.47. Amber Tomas of Wallaringa completed the top three, with notable performances from juniors Anne Edwards and Jo Halliday, with 15 seconds separating them in 4th and 5th positions.

In the Veteran Classes Charlie Adams of South Yorkshire took the Men's title, just 15 seconds ahead of James Crawford of Guildford in second. Jackie Butt os SARUM took the Veteran Women's title by the skin of her teeth, with Jane Halliday of Octavian Droobers only 2 seconds behind in second place. Oxford resident David Edwards (Thames Valley) took the Men's Super Vets title, with Liz Godfree of Derwent Valley streets ahead in the Women's category. In the final City Racing Category, the Junior City Race, Alice Butt of SARUM took a twenty second lead over Matt Halliday of Octavian Droobers.

The younger orienteers were kept inside the confines of the University Parks due to safety issues with road crossings, and hence some incredibly fast times were produced! Duncan Birtwistle of CLARO won the Men's 14-16 class convincingly in a time of 15.38, producing one of the few 5 minute per kilometre runs of the day. Laura Parkes of Happy Herts was the clear leader in the Women's class. In the 10-12 category, the first three boys were all within one minute of each other. Craig Thomson of Forth Valley Orienteers came all the way from Scotland to snatch victory from Jack Benham of SARUM and Alexander Lines of South London Orienteers. The winner of the girls race was in a class of her own, Lucy Butt of SARUM being six minutes ahead of the next girl and just as fast as the boys who ran the same course.

A fantastic day of top speed racing, with a huge local profile raising for the sport. OUOC had covered Oxford in orienteering signs, secured spots on the local television news, university and local newspapers, and the buzz on the streets as the locals watched people career round was notable. A wonderful job by a tiny club, raising the bar for races like these in future. Results can be found at EmitUK.