Dave Nevell looks back on the club’s events
We left things at the end of 2022 on a cliff-hanger. The running total of DVO events, according to the deeply researched but possibly fallible event database, stood at 999. As pointed out last time, the up and coming 1000th event on 2nd January 2023 at Dronfield was not going to be at a traditional DVO venue at all. Not only was it right on the edge of the normal geographical event envelope for the club and a cool (as in cold, not fashionable) spot for DVO membership, it was also going to be used for the first time. But as it turned out, it delivered the goods. The turnout of 263 was the second highest of all the urban events of the modern era held since 2012 (25 in all), only bettered by Belper in 2017. And so what had been delayed by over a year by Covid, finally came to pass 54 years and 47 days since the very first event at Shining Cliff which was attended by 96 people.
There was a bit more going on in 2023 compared to 2022. In all, 22 events. If you are wondering where all those events suddenly came from, I made the decision that the recent MapRun events staged at a specific time should count as proper events, just like any other night score event in the past would have been counted. The 29 other MapRun challenges that have been set up over the last three years do not count as events as they are more akin to inviting people to race around a permanent course at any time they wish, for example.
I have summarised the year’s activity as follows (2022 figures in brackets):
18 different areas were used. One MapRun event advertised as Chester Green was in fact Darley Park masquerading under another name and so counted as such. Another advertised as Chaddesden Park (which had been used earlier in the year as a venue in its own right) was to all intents a Chaddesden urban event. Even so, 4 areas I think can rightfully count as new areas, including the somewhat unusual Arboretum and Normanton Parks map.
There were 2645 attendees over the year, 534 more than in 2022 and this brought the running total up to an estimated 158648. The average attendance was 120, 72 down on 2022 due to the 12 extra level D events.
The average attendances by event level were (2022 in brackets):
The turnout of 474 at Birchen Edge in February (the year’s highest) was one of the highest DVO attendances in the last 15 years, only exceeded by a couple of British Middle Championships, a CompassSport Cup Final, a National Schools Championships and a couple of other events at Shining Cliff and Longshaw. The lowest turnout was just 14 at the final MapRun event (which had peaked at 48 earlier), putting it in the all-time bottom 15 [a muddy but fun night at Markeaton Park – Ed.].
More events were held on a Thursday than any other day due to MapRun. The average rate before 2023 had been about one every 3 years so they were occurring about 25 times quicker in 2023.
On a final note, a statistic that I don’t think I have thrown up before – which areas have seen the most runners over the last 50 years. Here is the top 20. Some artistic licence has been involved in estimating missing numbers and also carving up the Shining Cliff/Crich Chase Championship events but this will give a general idea. There is no doubt that Shining Cliff is in the lead, however you cut it. Allestree and Cromford are up there on sheer weight of events. Watch out for Stanton Moor getting a boost from the JK this year.
