Review of DVO Events in 2024

Dave Nevell looks back at last year’s events …

2023 saw a significant shift from previous years in the breakdown of DVO events, namely the emergence of MapRun as an event in its own right. Its adoption as the vehicle for series of (mainly) night score events on specific dates vastly expanded the event diary, and 2024 carried on with this trend as is evidenced by the table below. 2023 figures are in brackets.

Level A (Major)                         1                      (0)
Level B (National)                      1                      (0)
Level C (Regional)                      5                      (7)
Level D (Local)                          27                    (15)

The total number of events over the year (34) saw activity rise back up to 2017/2018 levels when it was the summer evening series that were making a large contribution. The emphasis has completely changed. No fewer than 21 of 2024’s events can be classified as MapRun and 16 of those were urban-based. Once again I am not including any MapRun activity outside the fixture list – this is activity invisible to these numbers but activity that certainly exists, so there is even more going on than meets the eye. [Remember most of our MapRuns remain available for 2 years after the event date – Ed.]

The proliferation of these urban events makes it increasingly difficult to keep a consistent count of how many different areas have been used and how many new ones can be added to the list. I think Heanor, Spondon, Littleover, Heatherton, Hackwood, Mackworth and Whitemoor can all be regarded as new areas.  Chester Green is more of a grey area. My estimate is that DVO has now used 136 different areas for orienteering, which would have been an unthinkable number at the turn of the century when the number had edged up to 61 with seemingly little scope for many more.

The total number of events has now risen to an estimated 1055 over a period of just exceeding 56 years. It’s interesting to speculate on which DVO member may have attended the most. Or not, as the case may be. But if anybody wants to offer up a personal number…

There were 3726 attendees over the year which was boosted considerably by the JK Relays on Stanton Moor which I have treated as a DVO event. This was the most since 2017 and up by 1081 from 2023.  This has brought the running total up to an estimated 162374.  Excluding the JK, the average attendance was 82, down by 38 from 2023 but this is not a particularly useful metric. It’s more informative to look at the average attendances by event level which do not indicate any significant changes. These were (2023 in brackets):

Level A             1022     (n/a)
Level B             n/a       (n/a)
Level C             244      (274)
Level D             53       (49)

The 1022 attending the JK Relays made this the largest DVO event since the British Middle Champs on the same area in April 2013 and about the 11^th largest ever attendance, although still only about a quarter of the 4000 odd at the 1991 JK. It lifts Stanton above Eyam Moor and Allestree Park into the 5^th most attended DVO area. Excluding Stanton, the Yvette Baker heat at Hardwick Park in May had the highest turnout of the year, 315. The MapRun event with the highest turnout was the October Spondon one, which pulled in 95 entries. Only 18 turned up to Littleover in June, making it the lowest attended. (Mapactive is not included in these numbers). MapRun also once again boosted Thursday events taking their total up to 43, now way ahead of Monday (15) and Tuesday (11) as the lowest occurring weekdays.

Anything else?  Well, Allestree Park staged its 71^st and 72^nd events, keeping it well clear of Cromford Moor as the most used DVO area. Spondon Maprun was estimated to be the 100^th urban event.  And the JK Relays were only the second time DVO has held an event on April Fools Day. The most common day for an event not surprisingly is January 1^st, twenty-four times. In fact up to the end of 2024, DVO has held events on 331 different days of the year, including 29^th February. This includes the 89 days in a row from 5^th May until 31^st July which is then abruptly followed by 5 blanks [traditionally this week is the Scottish 6 days or similar early summer holiday competition – Ed.]. The longest blank period is the 7 days from 21^st-27^th December inclusive. By the time you read this, 11^th Jan will have been filled in for the first time and it looks like 9^th August will also be plugged later in the year. Exciting times! [Editor reaches for Horlicks]