Event Spotlight: Yvette Baker Trophy Shield Final 2023

Written by Jacky Dakin, Joint Event Organiser

On Sunday 9th July 2023 the Yvette Baker Trophy & Shield Final took place in the ancient woodland of Sandall Beat.

The competition provides a great opportunity for both experienced & new orienteers to represent their club, with juniors able to select a course to match their current orienteering ability.

About the event

To quote the competition rules:

The Yvette Baker Trophy and Shield are the premier Junior Inter-Club competition for English and Welsh clubs. The Trophy & Shield (for small clubs) are treated as entirely separate competitions taking place at the same event.

Additionally, the rules require an Open event to be provided for accompanying adults & juniors - but not run at the same time.

This effectively means that the Organiser must:

• Run 2 consecutive events, with different entry arrangements
• Provide a sufficiently attractive & accessible venue to draw teams from across England & Wales
• Identify a sufficiently large Arena, ideally with Spectator control & run-in, with space for club tents.
• Ensure sufficient Forest Marshalls, to compensate for there being no adults on the courses at the same time as junior competitors.
• Have a capable SI team, to be able declare results & hold Prizegiving as soon as possible (ie before teams leave to travel home)

The event could not have happened without the help of volunteers of all ages – pictured above are a few of them from South Yorkshire Orienteers.

Deciding on a location

SYO find that in July, most of our orienteering areas are either off limits (due to nesting birds) or suffering from much undergrowth. So, we settled on Sandall Beat - SYO’s flattest area, an Orienteering map with no contours! By mid-April the planner (Henry Marston) had planned courses & identified a suitable field for the Arena; all looked good.

It would, of course, be foolish to expect everything to go to plan - and it didn’t:

• Network Rail reneged on the promised temporary bridge to replace the one under repair (SSSI considerations) - a second set of courses had to be planned.
• Open event more popular than expected, so earlier starts had to be introduced.
• Key to access gates confirmed with only a week to go.
• Weather forecast very doubtful - thunderstorms & torrential rain predicted.
• SI team working under considerable pressure to produce results.

Most qualifying clubs were able to send a team, although perhaps lacking a few team members as Summer Holidays had already commenced for some schools.

We were particularly delighted to welcome a team from SBOC - I can’t recall the last time that Wales was represented at the Yvette Baker Final. They were well-rewarded for their travels - taking second place in the Shield.

The full teams list (comprising of over 180 Juniors)

Trophy: AIRE, MDOC, NOR, SO, SYO, TVOC, WAOC, WCOC

Shield: HALO,NGOC,PFO,SBOC,SUFFOC

The team parade gets underway! Above L-R: West Cumberland Orienteering Club and Swansea Bay Orienteering Club, followed by South Downs Orienteers and Suffolk Orienteering Club. 

Airienteers Orienteering Club and West Anglian Orienteering Club proudly pose for a group photo opportunity following the parade. 

The Event

We were so fortunate to experience glorious sunshine all day; torrential rain only hit a few hours later. We trialed a Team Parade (copied from the Scottish Jamie Stephenson competition), and included Commentary, Pebble Painting, a Cake Stall & an Ice Cream Van.

Prize-giving was on time, with all teams present, many thanks to all Team Managers.

An event like this also can’t happen without volunteers, and we had in excess of 40, of all ages, helping throughout the day. Many thanks to all!

It was fantastic to see so many taking part in the Competition; many thanks to all the wonderful Juniors & their Team Managers/parents who travelled significant distances.

We hope that everyone enjoyed the day - there are many wonderful photos - and that even more clubs and Juniors will take part in the 2024 Yvette Baker Heats & Final.

The team from Suffolk Orienteering Club proudly hold up the Shield, a junior from South Downs Orienteering Club makes their way through the course and another junior from North Gloucestershire Orienteering Club touches a control point near the finish line. 

Results

Congratulations to South Yorkshire Orienteers who retained the Yvette Baker Trophy and to Suffolk Orienteering Club who retain the Shield! A breakdown of the results is available below or via the South Yorkshire Orienteers website. 

Trophy

Shield

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Images

With special thanks to Wendy Carlyle for providing these images of the event. You can view the full album via her Flickr account.