Orienteering’s 42nd annual inter-club competition
In February DVO qualified for a place in the CompassSport Cup Final by narrowly winning our Heat at Sutton Park in NE Birmingham. The Final took place on October 18th, and a team of 38 DVO runners made the trip to Sussex to take part.
There was a middle distance event on an adjacent area (South Ashdown) on the Saturday afternoon, which many of us took part in. Ashdown Forest was the inspiration for AA Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood, hence the hunny pot among the trophies!
DVO as a relatively large club was part of the ‘cup’ competition and there was also a ‘trophy’ competition for the smaller clubs who had made the Final. There’s a traditional Golden Boot award for the fastest man and women on the run-in (no spoilers yet).
The run-in was quite long and slightly up-hill. Our Club tent was positioned right by the Finish … and very handy for the chilli and burger vans!
We agreed that the navigation wasn’t too tricky, but it was easy to get caught out, so not everyone had the elusive clean run. DVO came 7th, with most of our team contributing to our points total (only the scorers with 80+ are shown below). It was a lovely forest, carpeted in autumnal colours and sweet chestnuts, and we all had a nice day. Thanks to the organising club Mole Valley Orienteers and to our Club Captain and tent carriers!
I promised more on the Golden Boot competition, and the women’s boot was won by Rachel Duckworth on her last run for DVO in 34 seconds. The men’s boot was won by Adam Landels (OD) in 31 secs. Originally there had been 3 contenders with that split, and they all had to do the run-in again to decide an outright winner!
Rachel is moving to Bristol Orienteering Klub now that she’s qualified as a physiotherapist, but has orienteered for DVO for as long as she can remember. We wish her continued success with her new club and will say hi at major events!
DVO are hosting our regional CompassSport Cup Heat for 2027 at Stanton Moor on February 7th. We hope that helpers can run too, so please save the date!
PS DVO won the CompassSport Cup Finals back in our salad days in 1986 and 87!
