Two new maps, two historic seaside towns, two different countries: the ingredients for a great weekend of urban orienteering.
On Saturday (6th June) the venue was Berwick on Tweed, the northernmost town in England, famous for its bastioned town walls built to keep out marauding Scots (which clearly don’t work as more than 50 of them attended).
Courses included a mixture of streets, alleys, castle remains and an area of grass (and stinging nettle) covered hills and depressions, the ruins of Medieval defences. The complexity meant that all competitors used 1:300 maps with some multilevel sections and complicated stairs requiring very careful map reading. Longer courses started south of the river and included a long leg back across the 17th century Old Bridge, 355m long with 15 arches. Some found this a welcome break from intense concentration, others described it as a boring slog into the wind.
Top BL results came from the following (though all of them were ruing the mistakes they made):
Carol, 1st Women 65+
Karen, 3rd Women Open
Keith, 3rd Men 65+
Results and Routegadget are here
Sunday’s event was at Eyemouth in Scotland, just 8 miles north of Berwick. Navigation was generally easier than on Saturday but there were a complex housing estate and the narrow alleys of historic harbour area to catch out the unwary. Unusually for an Urban event, some courses had controls in a small area of (somewhat scratchy) woodland – not to everyone’s taste. Another talking point was a control on the “Widows and Bairns” memorial which honours the families of those lost in a fishing disaster in 1881. It was mapped with a sculpture symbol (black circle with a dot in) , but really it looked like a wall:
Best BL performance of the day came from Judy who won the W75+ course. Carol had another good run to come second in W65+, just 12 seconds behind the winner
Results and Routegadget are here
Border Liners Orienteering Club 