On Sunday 14th September Border Liners Orienteering Club took park in the national final of the Compass Sport inter-club orienteering competition. The club qualified back in February on the wet and windy moors north of Manchester but the terrain for the final was completely different. This time out it was the complex sand dunes of South Gare near Redcar providing both a technical and surprisingly physical challenge despite the lack of any big hills with the choice between soft sand and spiky marram grass. Border Liners were taking part in the Trophy competition for smaller clubs against 20 other teams from across the UK from Inverness to Swansea to Kent. Points are scored across 12 age classes with courses ranging from 3.0km to 9.0km and a total of 13 scores to count. However the scoring system is such that even if your points don’t count towards your club’s total they can still matter as they reduce other clubs’ scores – something which proved crucial on the day.
Border Liners’ team captain Andy Lewsley had hopes of a good position but results exceeded even his most optimistic expectations. Edinburgh club Interlopers won with a total of 1269 points, but Border Liners came an amazing second on 1193 points just 3 points ahead of 3rd place ESOC (another Edinburgh club) and well ahead of second English club Nottingham OC. Christine Goulding and Stella Lewsley were top scorers for Border Liners winning the Veterans and Super Veterans courses respectively. Other scorers were Owain Rice, James Chapman, Jeff Powell Davies, Isabel Berry, Alan Hartley, Julie Ferris-Worth, Natalie Hawkrigg, Keith Tonkin, Dan Parker, Andy Lewsley and Christine Kiddier.
At the same time (and venue) West Cumberland OC were taking part in the competition for larger clubs and came a fine 3rd, close behind winners South Yorkshire Orienteers and second place Forth Valley Orienteers, but well ahead of 4th place South Ribble OC.
Border Liners Orienteering Club 