JK2017 Website

This weekend we had the JK International in the South of England. 
Friday was the Sprint Event at Brunel University and our top results were Keith Henderson M75, Harry Bratcher-Howard M10 and Grace French W10 who were all 2nd in their age groups.

Saturday - middle distance and Sunday - long distance results were combined to decide the JK champions.  We had two - Harry Bratcher-Howard in M10A and Michelle Spillar in W35L.  Other podium positions - Grace French 4th in W10A.

In the relays we had three teams. Results were
M/W 210+ 4th Chris Branford, Sue Hands, Brian Johnson.
Womens Short 7th Sarah Horsler, Elizabeth Horsler, Tamsin Horsler (an excellent results for the girls as this was their first major relay championships in a very competitive class).
Mens Short Simon Branford, Lynn Branford, John Warren (unfortunately Simon injured his ankle and hobbled in but the team completed the rest and thoroughly enjoyed their day).

Well done to them and everyone else who took part.

Thanks to our non-travelling team captain Becca Ellis for sorting out the teams.

Chris Branford

Photographs by Chris & Simon Branford

We are also grateful to Rob Lines and Wendy Carlyle for use of some of their photographs below

Sprint - Brunel University

Wealden Wanders – Impressions of JK 2017 by John Warren

What a fabulous weekend! The weather was amazing, being mostly sunny with a chilly breeze that did not stop assembly area and car parks taking on an almost ‘Garden Party atmosphere. Time to circulate, time to chat, time to cheer and now WIM has not one but TWO JK Champions to celebrate!

Good Friday saw the Sprint race at Brunel University Campus on the west fringes of   London. As usual it was a dazzling array of people and colour with a cosmopolitan atmosphere. The competition area was contained within a perimeter road comprising a mix of university buildings, well manicured parkland and a sizeable OOB stream just to make you think! I had the benefit of priority parking which meant the car was parked directly on the route to the start opposite Toms catering trailers, and as soon as I opened the car door I was surrounded by an animated atmosphere with competitors of many nationalities all heading for the start.

Success in sprint O requires total concentration, steady non stop running at your optimum speed and to prepare for the mad sprint from the final control to hold onto your position where literally every second counts. After download the social scene dominates and this year results were displayed on four huge television screens which constantly scrolled down so there was not the usual fight to see who was doing what on your course. Car parks were fairly widely distributed round the campus but with good weather the food sales area became the post O social venue. WIM had a good day with Chris Branford, Harry Bratcher-Howard, Grace French Sue Hands, Keith Henderson and even the author in the top 10 places in their class!

    

Brunel University Sprint - Course 14

Middle Distance - Ambersham Common

John Warren: After the Sprint race the entire JK moved about 60 miles SE via the M25 to the Sussex Weald, an undulating patchwork of fields and ancient woodland which in spring is carpeted with Bluebells.

Day 2 Middle Race was at Ambersham Common near Midhurst. An undulating mix of deciduous, conifers and patches of semi open heath finishing with a spectacular downhill run into the finish. I joined the Start Team for a very cold 3 hour shift but met a lot of people that I hadn’t seen for some time and enjoyed the course even if the main reason for running was to get warm!

Sitting outside Toms Burger van it became clear that WIM were having a very good day with Harry leading the M10A class and Michelle the W35s. Things kept on getting better with Grace French, Andrew Howard and Brian Johnson all within the top 10 placings.

A useful feature of Days 2,3 and 4 was a huge white marquee which housed all event administration and provided a social area round the results display. Of course it got less use because of the fine weather, but was a potentially invaluable venue if the weather had been less kind.

Ambersham Common - part of Course 13

Mike Kite writes: A fast M70L course requiring unbroken concentration. The very first control was a bit unnerving - the description was SW end of gully but it was tucked in by the dark green and not apparent until you were right on it. 1-2-3 was straightforward and 3 to 4 looked quite easy - bear off from the distinct veg boundary and Bob's your uncle (there was even a little rhodo navigation beacon off to the side). So what went wrong? The description was S edge of marsh... but the marsh wasn't evident: it had dried up! Relying on it as a sole collecting feature was costly. Splitsbrowser revealed others had difficulty too but the error was avoidable. The rest of the course was fine though I made a pig's ear of 13. It wasn't a great run but it was testing & enjoyable - good fun!

Long Distance - Holmbush

John Warren: Day 3 saw us efficiently parked in another huge field at Holmbush near Horsham. Today JK 2017 had formal yellow traffic signs with a temporary 40mph limit on a major dual carriageway. I wonder how many passing motorists realised what was happening!

The venue was a more familiar forest ,moderately hilly with a mix of open woodland, rhododendrons and some significant marshes. It was also used for ‘paint balling’ and one of the special map symbols was a helicopter!! Walks to the start varied from a moderate 800m to a shattering 3k for the long courses who then were faced with up to 17k courses!

The finish was a gentle downhill smooth field which encouraged your legs to that extra effort as you passed the line of tents and banners.

What about the final combined results of the Middle and Long Distance races? I believe that this is probably the best set of results that WIM has ever achieved and I hope that you have all seen the photos on the web site. Harry Bratcher Howard is the JK M10A JK champion. Michelle Spillar is the JK W35 Champion!  We also have several top 10 placings : Chris Branford 7/49 in M70L, Grace French 4/8 in W10A, Keith Henderson 4/25 in M75, Andrew Howard 5/10 M40S and Brian Johnson 6/51 in M65.

Holmbush - part of Course 21

Mike Kite writes: A very varied, interesting M70S testing the whole range of navigation skills. I especially enjoyed the 800m leg from 3 to 4 with its many route choices and final zigzag through dark green. The approach to 7 seemed rather odd. The rhodos appeared to be more extensive than mapped, or perhaps the footbridge was wrong - I don't know. Anyway, a thoroughly enjoyable course with lots of decisions to keep the brain active!

    

Well done to Harry (M10A) and Michelle (W35L) who are JK champions!

        

TrailO - Brunel and Owlbeech

Whilst the rest of the club members at the JK were running the Sprint event at Brunel, your TrailO correspondent was competing (and not very successfully) on the excellent TempO course, planned by Kerno’s Scott Collier, and controlled by Charles Bromley-Garner (Sarum). There were six TempO stations, with five problems at each, all of which had to be answered within a time limit. The event was wn by one of our Norwegian visitors, followed by Tom Dobra of BOK, although the performance of the day was probably 14 year old Anna Harris who made only two errors but was just a little too slow in giving her answers to make the podium.

I was the Controller for the PreO competition at Owlbeech, near Horsham, on Easter Sunday, an area about 5k down the road from the Day 3 , so the rest of the weekend was spent checking that the planner Pete Huzan had laid out the flags exactly where we we had agreed them, putting out viewing points and taping routes to the start from parking, and then ensuring that everything ran smoothly, a task not helped by the sciatica which I had begun to suffer from the previous week.

This event was always existing on a wing and a prayer. We didn’t get the final version of the map until March and consequently the courses were only only agreed finally and controlled two weeks before the event, only just in time to meet the map printing deadlines. At this point, co-planner Ian Ditchfield left the country en route to New Zealand and the World Masters.

We had minimal helpers available, but on the day the weather was wonderful and the event ran more or less like clockwork. I was able to rest the sciatica by manning the Start, which enabled me to slump in a chair for three hours.

The course winner was Sarah-Jane Barrable (SLOW) who beat Kenny Leitch (SO) on time faults, both having 16 correct controls out of the 18.

The area was heavily used by dog walkers throughout the day, but the only vandalism we suffered was when someone helpfully tidied up or moved some of the red and white tape marking the route back out of the forest from the Finish, and some baffled early finishers emerged from the woods in the wrong place.

Some of the dog walkers cheerily greeted those competing and tried to engage them in conversation, usually met by stony silence by competitors deep in concentration. “You Trail Orienteers are a miserable lot” said one lady as she passed us at the Start. “I’ve spoken to half a dozen people and nobody has replied to me yet.”. We pointed out that she was disturbing people taking part in an international competition which takes place in silence.

Dick Keighley

Part of the PreO course at Owlbeech

Relays - Pippingford Park

John Warren: After all the excitement of days 2 and 3 many WIMs who had commuted from Dorset for the individual chose not to come to Pippingford Park, a high area on the top of Ashdown Forest . The terrain which has been used for a previous JK is a high open heathland, split by a valley with steep re-entrants and about 30% covered in deciduous woodland. The spectator controls were memorable, one a pink cow and the other provided you had good eyesight on a heather covered moorland slope about 1 k away from assembly. The two WIM teams enjoyed themselves particularly the ego boosting downhill run-in which recorded some incredibly quick times!

From all reports this was a very successful JK and it certainly was for WIM. Next year all events are on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire with our recent Army member Sally Calland in charge of the Sprint race, so put it in your diary and I hope to see you all there!!

    

    

 

Background photograph - Holmbush House from Day 3 parking area