Race Report: South Yorkshire Orienteers Saturday Series – Limb Valley

Race date: Saturday 4th January

Report by Laura Rangeley

Race distance – various available (we chose the Light Green route, advertised at 3.6km, distance covered 4.8km)

My orienteering debut took place in the beautiful grounds of Whirlowbrook Hall and the surrounding Limb Valley woodland. After completing an FRA navigation course last year, I’d been keen to get some practise in and get to grips with my fledgling skills, but for one reason or another hadn’t quite managed it until my friend Naomi mentioned she’d been looking for a pal to have a go at some of the South Yorkshire Orienteering events with. These are put on pretty regularly in the local area, and are advertised as being suitable for all ages and abilities. The event we chose was one that also forms part of some sort of schools championship, so there were lots of kids zooming round too!

Event day was chilly and followed a lot of wet weather, so the ground was covered in a mixture of mud and frost. We signed up and dithered a little over which route to choose, eventually being persuaded to go for the light green course, with a technical level of 4 (out of 5) and described as suitable for “improvers”. We’d almost gone for the next difficult one, the green course, but with not much specific experience between us were talked down a bit – probably my preference, as I would rather manage capably and boost my confidence than struggle – but Naomi was a bit braver than me and I’m sure she’ll talk me onto the harder course next time! Anyway it was probably for the best as we had to have some of the orienteering specific symbols explained to us on the start line, ha! Map reading fine, tiny illustrations not so much. Whistle stop tutorial complete, we were off!

The course involved finding 14 controls in a specified order. The easier ones were on marked paths, but many of the flags on our course were somewhat more hidden, requiring paying close attention to our environment, contour lines and the compass. The first 4 passed without incident, all on the north side of the valley and with just one steep climb and subsequent descent to deal with. On choosing our direction to the next one, which was down by the water, I fell over whilst standing still but managed to make it all the way down the bank to the 5th control. From this point, the middle section of the course was more challenging, with the flags more carefully hidden and away from the paths, separated by patches of uncrossable marsh which we had to navigate around using features (I’m still not sure what makes a tree “significant”). We were slower over this section, carefully considering every movement and pausing at each control, not yet quite having got the knack of route planning on the move. After a river crossing (brrrrr!) and an explore of the gorgeous Whinfell Quarry Gardens, we were onto the final couple of controls and back on marked paths.

Reaching the finish we were really pleased to have found every control and didn’t feel that we’d got lost either! It did take us three times as long as the winner, but hey. We’re improvers. Working as a pair we still only had to pay one entry fee, so it was a bargain afternoon out at just £5 for the both of us, and I think we worked well as a team, both of us contributing to our decisions. It was really fun and a great mix of sociable yet challenging, I definitely feel like it was a worthwhile test of skills too and I’d be keen to try again at one of the next events and hopefully get better at thinking literally on my feet!

The Light Green race was won by William Preston of Tapton in 27:39 and Martha Hart of South Yorkshire Orienteers in 34:28.

Striders Results:

P Name Cat Time
31 Laura Rangeley N/A 89:05:00

Full results: Here

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