Event Details
Club: | Walton Chasers Orienteering Club |
Event Name: | Sherbrook Long Distance (Classic) |
Date: | 13/02/10 |
Format: | MTBO |
Mapping: | Orienteering |
Time Limit: | |
National League: | MTBO 2010 (Round 1 of 12. Best 7 count) |
League: | - |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
MBO League Round 1 – West Sherbrook
The organisers pulled out all the stops to get this race on, having permissions withdrawn for not one, but two areas in the months leading up to the race, the second one with only two weeks to go! To get any sort of race on at all was a miracle, but as usual the terrain of Cannock Chase and the slick organisation of Walton Chasers meant this was a top class MBO event. If you missed it you missed out!
West Sherbrook is one of the steeper parts of Cannock Chase, with more open heath and less forest. It includes the ancient woodland of Brocton Coppice, but sensibly the planner elected to keep our riding in here to a few large tracks to avoid erosion and therefore getting a bad name for the sport.
The area is riddled with bridleways, so much so that it was inevitable that the middle part of all the courses became a score section, what orienteers would call a “Spanish Score” – rather than points awarded you have to get all of the controls just in which ever order you like. On the A course this comprised 9 of the 30 controls, so not an insignificant part and MBO Score (don’t use the T word...) skills came to the fore.
Much of the chat afterwards was of the over the handlebar moments that many of the riders had on approaching the finish, crossing a ditch before a forest road that looked rideable, but turned out it really wasn’t (yes I was one of them...).
Steve Heading was the rider of the day for me, having ridden all the way from Matlock to Cannock Chase he then won the A course then rode home again. Ifor Powell and Andy Windrum both rode well to complete the top three. Matt Jones is definitely one to watch for future, a young XC racer recently coming into MBO coming in 6th place, at his rate of improvement expect to see him featuring at the very top soon. Emily Benham continues her rich vein of form winning the B by over ten minutes; her speed would put her comfortably in the top ten in the men. Another one to watch for future, young Stuart Clayton making his MBO debut came second on the B, Tony Brand-Barker rounding out the top three. Judy Douglas won the C course, and Steve Cope won the novice course which was a 90 minute score.
So if you missed it then get the weekend of the 27/28 March in your diaries. The Saturday brings a Middle Distance MBO race (winning time circa 50 minutes), and Sunday brings an MBO Score event on the north end of Cannock Chase on the excellent 1:30,000 map.
Alan Hartley