A happy and injury-free 2026 to you all!
The prize giving for 2025 East Midlands Urban League took place before the Matlock Urban Race, which opened the 2026 League. Your best 4 races out of 8 count, so get those 2026 fixtures in your diaries now! Congratulations to the DVO class winners Nerijus Rozkovas (Men’s Open), Imogen Satherly (Womens Junior), Val Johnson (Women Ultravets) and Doug Dickinson (Male Hypervets). Jake Warwick, Sally Calland, Jane Kayley-Burgess and Graham Johnson were all 2nd in their respective classes. Full 2025 results here.
There were 213 runners at Matlock Urban, and the gusts of New Year’s Eve had died down by the time we arrived at County Hall. A nomination for Sports Personality goes to Dai Bedwell, who found Assembly from the sound of John Hurley’s laugh (or should the nomination be for John …?) Nomination 2 is for Steve Kimberley who dropped his compass down the portable toilet (yuk)! Here are some memories of the day.
Control collecting was finished by about 3pm and Val got some photos of the WWII anti-aircraft installations at Bailey’s Tump on her round.
The next EMUL race isn’t until June 7th with NOC’s event at Nottingham University, which us also a UK Urban League fixture. Right now, attention turns to the terrain league, plain ol’ East Midlands League, beginning with LEI’s Cademan this Sunday (Jan 11th). Certificates will be presented to the top 3 men and women in each class at 10:15am. Ursula Williamson (LEI) the League Coordinator says “please come early, applaud your fellow competitors”. 2025 results here, photo and details to follow.
Diary Dates
15 January MapRun is back for fun, free Thursday night training and social. The first of the four events is at Heanor’s William Gregg Leisure Centre and afterwards at the Conservative Club.
15 February East Midlands Championships at Longshaw North. Entries already open!
18 February, 7:30pm Open Meeting, Church in the Peak, Lime Tree Business Park, Matlock DE4 3EJ
Brainstorm: ‘how to do more with less’ i.e. quality events with fewer volunteer hours, as well as some geeking for Sutton Park CSCup Heat (vide infra)
22 February CompassSport Cup Heat at Sutton Park, Birmingham entries through our Captain, Sally Calland. She will need your age class, preferred course (see PDF at link above), dibber and BOF numbers.
Cromford Moor event 23 November
For those wondering why there were 4 event officials, there were 2 controllers, as John D broke his ankle at the November Classic not having a landing plan when leaping across a ditch. Keith Wildig checked the control locations, John having done the screen-work checking the courses with Sally. I broke my wrist on Hampstead Heath in full view of the Start, when my foot went down a dry-weather fissure and my arm went out to break my fall. As John said however, “between us we have 6 good limbs”!
Entering Events on the Startkite (taken from EMEWS)
Just a quick note for those entering events on Startkite. It is much more cost effective for the organising club if you enter using bank transfer, rather than online card payment (at least 20p per entry). This means more money goes to the organising club.
Some orienteers have a concern about bank payments and the security of their account details. First, Lloyds Bank (who process Startkite) do not include the account number in the payment details that Startkite itself receives. Added to this, the bank payment matching is done offline. Details of the payment (account name, sort code, reference) are never stored online on The Start Kite website.
When entering the individual gets a code that is assigned for all future events. So, next time it should simply be a matter of going into your bank account and finding Startkite and the code should already be assigned. You can use one payment to cover multiple events.
Holiday events this year!
Helen has enjoyed the Gran Canaria races over New Year, and you can follow the Euro Cities tour here. The tour comes to Canterbury 22–24 May, with the 23rd being the City Race (also UKUL) and the 24th a double sprint on the univesity campus. Club members are taking part in the Portugal O Meet near Porto in February, and ASOM (Antwerp Sprint Orienteering Meeting) April 10–12.
… closer to home, the Lakes 5 days comes around every 4 years, so put the 2nd–7th August in your diaries and have a look at campsites and cottages. A good many DVO families take part, and it’s always great orienteering!
