There were some great Aire results, not least amongst the juniors where we got at least one top 5 place in every boy's class from M12-M18, plus W14, W18 and W20, including 3 wins!  (See Juniaires)   Neil,Conway, 3rd  M21L and Becky Carlyle 10th W21L also achieved Championship standard.

BNOC was held on 28^th Feb on Crich Chase, a semi wooded area on the east hillside above the Derwent Valley, south of Matlock.  The area provided challenging orienteering in the dark, as could be seen from the constantly changing positions of the leaders on both the Men and Women's Open class. 

Neil Conway came a superb 2^nd on the men's Open against a top class field.  Neomi Cherny, in her penultimate run as an Airienteer before returning to Switzerland, came 7^th, and leading non W21, also against a very high quality field.  Neil gradually hauled himself up into 2^nd place with a consistent run as those around him made errors. Neomi half way round her course held the lead, before one or two errors allowed those behind her to overhaul her.  As for the other Airienteers present, including the author, the best that can be said is that they gave it their all with little success.  A very enjoyable and well attended event however.

I personally had two slight criticisms.  I was unable to understand why we used a 1:7500 map rather than 1:10000.  The area did not appear complex enough to justify this.  Secondly some of the course ran clockwise and some anti-clockwise for some distance around the same (narrow) path network.   This is never great in the daylight.  At night it leads to runners dazzling each other, and being unable to determine which way the approaching runner is dodging.   I experienced several collisions with young men hurtling downhill while I staggered uphill.

Did you notice that the Northern Champs at Cawthorne and Keldy attracted 320 runners, mainly from Yorkshire and the North East, while on the same day the District (i.e. Colour Coded) Event  at Newton Fell in Cumbria attracted 400 runners from the north (mainly North West).

Does this matter?  Part of me (CB)  feels that the Regional Champs should be important and there should not be alternative events in the Region that day.  The best runners in the Region should be competing together. Indeed possibly all regional Champs should be held on the same day.  The other side of me feels none of this really matters.  If people want to run at a Championship and try and win silverware that is their prerogative.  If others want to go to a lesser event which is closer or which they feel is on better quality terrain, that too is their prerogative.  Any views?

This is the final major inter-club competition of the year.  It is a night and day relay for teams of 7 - and my personal favourite. This year it takes place on May 16th at  Pippingford Park, Crowborough, East Sussex.  Apart from being in the far south, the event clashes with our own Bramham West Woods District Event.  As a result I will not take any steps to form a team or teams this year unless people contact me to actively say they wish to participate, in which case I will give it my fullest endeavour.  So far one person has expressed interest.                                           Chris Burden, Club Captain

Chris also sent an enthusiastic report about another unusual event , the JOK Chasing Sprint at Sherwood Pines on 29th February in which your position after an initial 5km race at one minute intervals decided your starting time in a shorter second round chasing the leader from round one. Seven Airienteers competed; Noemi Cerny and Ian Nixon achieved the highest placings.