BRITISH CHAMPS 1999

(originally published in "The Northwestie", May 1999, thanks to

Trevor Johnston, the editor)

ON Friday the 7th of May, at 5:30 a.m. 11 juniors and 5 seniors met atLimavady Grammar, writes Ben Fulton. We drove up to Belfast for the7:30 HSS and picked up Ian, Charlie and Stephen. We now had the complete NWOC team for the 1999 British Orienteering Championships in the Southern Lake District. The HSS arrived in Scotland around 9:30, and a 4.5 hour drive brought us to the training event. This training event was an unpleasant taster of what we were in for.

On Saturday, the day started well with bright sunlight waking us up; however, this sunlight was quickly replaced by heavy rain. We arrived at the Individual Event to find large sections of the parking area underwater. By this stage everyone was looking for reasons not to go out into the rain, but as quickly as it came the rain went, leaving bright sunshine. The area was called Graythwaite. The courses were both long and very technical. The terrain was mixed, there was a lot of fast runnable wooded ground, but there was also some Green areas on the map, including one huge square of Dark Green right in the centre of the map. All courses finished with a spectacular 200-metre downhill sprint across grassland. The best NWOC result was Andrew Mein who won the M20L course.

On Sunday the British Relay Championships were held at Holker. This area consisted of open grassland and fast woodland. The car park, Assembly area and Finish were in the middle of the map, which meant that most runners were seen three times: once when they started and ran through the car park; then between the car park and the Assembly Area; and lastly when they pasted the spectator control 5 minutes from the finish. After the Relays a mad dash was made so as not to be late for the 7:30 HSS, fortunately we just made it. Thanks go to Mr. McGonigle for driving and organising us. Throughout the whole trip, Charlie (Reid) made only two phone calls to his "friend" Rachel. I also feel it is my duty to sadly report that Charlie is losing his sanity. He started making up stories about a Teddy Bear watching him through the Youth Hostel window and he also claimed that this same Teddy climbed into his bed whilst he had his back turned! Who wants to tell Rachel?