BKO held the British Night Champs at Hawley and Hornley this evening. We were fortunate to turn up at Gibraltar barracks sufficiently late that we weren’t subjected to the same thorough searches that earlier arrivals had experienced (in fact, we were just waved through the gate).
I started reasonably well and it wasn’t until the fifth control that Nick Barrable caught me a minute. I managed to hang on for a few controls before missing a small knoll and relocating badly off some unmapped vegetation. Nick went on to win so it’s a shame I couldn’t stay with him for longer. Indeed, the results showed that the second placed Tuomas Tala was the other runner to pass me in the dark. Sadly I was probably checking out a horse jump at the time, mistaking it for a hide on the map!
Unfortunately, that wasn’t my last mistake as I then proceeded to thrash around a gorse covered hillside looking for a small re-entrant just two controls further on. Still, I mostly enjoyed myself even if the final results revealed me in fourteenth place and fifteen minutes down. Christine fared better and despite her torch failing towards the end of her course she finished in third place. The evening was rounded off nicely by a hearty JOK meal courtesy of Ali and Gary.
[…] we returned to the scene of last year’s British Night Champs (Hawley and Hornley) for the BKO Concorde Chase. I had a bit of a head cold so wasn’t running […]