Nopesport

Ladies winner Helen at the start

The weekend just gone saw the Annual Oxford Cambridge Varsity Match. In its 36th year, the competition was hosted by capable DRONGO members Mark Collis and Blanka Sengerova in Wharncliffe Woods just to the north west of Sheffield. Cambridge decided to play a bit more fairly this year and actually turned up on time, with both teams fielding full teams encompassing a range of athletes from international juniors to newbies who only started orienteering this term. Courses stuck on the scarp slope, the trickiest part of Wharncliffe both technically and physically, and the stony ground underfoot meant times were long and courses gruelling. Both the Men's 8.6km and Women's 6.9km courses had a spectator control just over a kilometre from the end, and when guest runner and first starter Matt Crane came
through in just over 55 or so minutes, it was apparent that the courses were going to test runners to the maximum.

In the Men's race, Great Britain Junior Squad member Joe Mercer had a storming run to finish first Varsity runner in 1.01.46, only 18 seconds down on Matt Crane and 15 seconds down on ex Oxford JOKer Duncan Archer. An awesome result from a junior, and 6 minutes faster than the next Varsity runner, Alan Elder (yes, STILL of Cambridge, rumour has it he's on 7 Varsity Matches now, which is the most you're actually allowed to score at). Chris Williamson also of Cambridge was third Varsity runner a further 7 minutes down on Alan. Joe had an almost clean run, just mixing up the spectator control and the finish both times he came through due to the very similar direction of approach. He said he was running strongly but didn't feel particularly fast, but this obviously paid off. With three runners to count it was all to play for, and the more consistent Cambridge side won the men's course by around 4 minutes if my rubbish maths serves me correctly. In the alumni competition, Duncan Archer was joined by Ed Catmur and two Great Britain Women masquerading as men for the weekend, Pippa Whitehouse and Becky Carlyle in giving DRONGO a good bashing. My maths brain can't be bothered working out the time margin here, but Duncan was beaten by his girlfriend Pippa on the long leg after failing to see the obvious path route (I can't talk, I missed it too).

In the Women's race Oxford were the clear pre race favourites, but not everything went to plan. Old hand Helen Gardner successfully defended her Varsity Match title, 23 seconds clear of ex international guest runner Abi Weeds. Cath Wilson of DRONGO completed the top three just 38 seconds down on Helen. Experienced orienteer Elspeth Ingleby was second Varsity counter, running very well after a switch from rowing to running earlier on in the year, with Ruth

Holmes, first year at Oxford completing the Varsity top three. As always the Cambridge girls packed well, but Oxford just managed to squeeze ahead in the team competition by a meagre 4 seconds. Old hands Anya Crocker and Rosemary Dyer completed the Cambridge team, with rapidly rising American star Kat Orekhova completing the Oxford team. Being a relative newcomer to British terrain Kat struggled a little with adapting to the different style of
navigation needed for the slope, but expect great things from her in the future as her confidence grows.

The evening after the races sees the trophies being dished out, and more importantly the beer race, which is a proper beer race with 8 rowers and a cox (none of this five rowers rubbish). Oxford were the mighty victors here, with the JOK and DRONGO combined forces
crashing out in spectacular style after Ed Catmur attempted his second pint in quick succession. Disappointingly the social was missing social favourites CJ and Cerys, and there was little dancing to be had before people headed to bed in preparation for the relays.

The relays are a less formal affair but still provided a lot of head to head excitement, with the equally matched mixed teams making for some battles. With three legs on the fiendish quarry workings of Loxley Common, a medium, short, then long all run in that order,
and 1 visit to the spectator on the short, two on the medium and three on the long, there was a lot of fun to be had. Eventual victors were Duncan Archer, Helen Winskill and Mo Chapman, after a storming last leg where Duncan overtook Ben Stevens, running with Swedish import Per Forsberg (not THE Mr Forsberg, we hasten to add) and Dave Bowman, freshly returned from Poland. The battle for third place was fierce all round the third leg down to the penultimate control, where Mark Bown outsmarted Becky Carlyle by twenty seconds or so which she was unable to catch on the long run in to the final control.

A fantastic weekend with interesting planning, meticulous organisation and a lot of the usual banter. Cheers Mark and Blanka! Expect results to be linked from [url]www.ouoc.org.uk[/url]
at some point in the near future.

It's true, everyone in Cambridge looks this cool