My Wessex Night league 3rd place 2015 – Jason Falconer Orienteering and Mapping

Just a short addition to the Orienteering Posts here- happy to have got a 3rd from 66 competitors overall . We all love the Night Racing in the winter- its an October – March season for dedicated winter runners, true grassroots sports

Wessex Night League 2014-2015 – Final Results

Congratulations to the winners: Charlotte Thornton of Sarum, Chris Branford of WIM and Dale Paget of WSX.

Its been another exciting night season. Charlotte has won for the second time in three years, just shows that the cream will rise to the top. Same for the men with Chris winning in the handicap and Dale the non-handicap, both for the second year running. Last year I wrote “….we introduced the ‘non-handicap’ league to give the M21’s something to aim for. The winner this year being M50 Dale Paget! Tim Morgan would probably have won if he had attended enough events”. So no change there then

Participation is up again with a 15% increase in the number of competitors listed on the results. I haven’t analysed it, but I get the impression more people turned up for more events this year as well. The 16 race format with about half Urban and half Forest seems to work well. The 2105/16 league is taking shape as I write this.

Female: 1^st Charlotte Thornton SARUM

2^nd Carolyn Dent SARUM

3^rd Kirsty Staunton WIM

Male: 1^st Chris Branford WIM

2^nd Dale Paget WSX

3^rd Ian Sayer WSX

Non Handicap: 1^st Dale Paget WSX

2^nd Andy Snell Sarum

3^rd Jason Falconer WSX

Words by League Co-ordinator Gavin Clegg:-

What a great series of events it’s been. Right from the off at Kings Park back at the beginning if October the competition has been fierce but friendly. Carolyn Dent to her surprise, took the league lead at the second race at Sherborne and to her chagrin held that lead right up till a week from the end of the series. Had she been able to get to the penultimate event at Brownsea then it may have been a different story. But then isn’t that what Orienteering is always about: the ‘if only’ syndrome? Charlotte Thornton is this years winner with Chris Branford in second just two points ahead of Carolyn. That’s the equivalent of a few seconds out of 960. We had a magnificent 16 races this winter, with no cancellations due to bad weather unlike last season. 7 urban, 7 forest and a couple of hybrids. Salisbury City had an amazing 53 competitors. Including the Southern Night Championships and the Brighton City race seemed to be welcomed. Lots of people could have won the league Julie, Kirsty, Jane, Mary, Dale, Ian etc etc, again it’s all down to ‘if only’.

In the non handicap league Dale won an unprecedented 11 races. His only real worry being Tim Morgan. Tim didn’t manage to get to enough races this year, maybe next year Tim? Competition for the minor places was fascinating with Andy Snell always favourite for second, but third was up for grabs right to the last race. Jason became very competitive when he realised he was in contention and ended up a deserved third for his endeavours. The Wessex Night League is intended as a low key bit of fun during the winter months and although it has guidelines for the races there is scope for some lateral thinking to get the most out of some unlikely areas. Wessex in this case refers to the area of Wessex as opposed to being a WSX preserve. Most of the races are put on with the minimum of manpower and just because someone has put out a few of the controls, I have never seen why they still can’t compete if they want. The organisers points (two people per race) have played a major part this year, with a number of people doing well on the back of helping out. My sincere thanks go to the small band of dedicated people who have put on the events this season, my thanks also to the clubs: WSX, WIM, Sarum and SOC for their support.

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