BL’s final event of 2025 took place in Penrith on Sunday. There were more than 100 competitors, maybe partly because of the event’s status as the final counter in the NW Urban League. The Conservative Club in Penrith proved an excellent event centre, with plenty of space and comfortable seats creating a sociable atmosphere. The start was literally outside the door, something much appreciated by those who started after the rain set in.
Tricia, the planner created some excellent and very varied courses – a mixture of tricky navigation through alleyways, and longer route choice legs. Course 1 included a leg of about a kilometre (straight line) and Routegadget shows that at least 6 different routes were taken.
The nature of the area, with many roads to cross, meant that all under 16s had to be accompanied by an adult (a British Orienteering rule). This is probably why numbers on Junior Men/Junior Women (age 13 to 16) course were quite low, but it was good to see that there were still plenty of competitors on the Younger Junior Course (12 and under).
Brian, the organiser, did an excellent job, both on the day and coping with copious form filling and bureaucracy in advance. It’s an unfortunate fact about event organisation that the better the job is done, the less competitors notice it.
See here for Results and Routegadget
Final results of the NW Urban League are here. The series had 8 races, with the best 4 to count. The focus of the series was towards the south of the region, so no BL members attended enough events to achieve good overall positions.
Here is Dan’s report of the event for the local paper.
Border Liners Orienteering Club 