#JKMemories : JK 78 – the weather intervenes!

By Clive Allen – JK ’78 Coordinator

Staging a JK requires masses of planning and preparation, a big team of volunteers and a lot of hard work! And in 1978, when the event was held around Sheffield, also a battle with the elements.

Training on Good Friday was in the Rivelin Valley, organised by the still-young club South Yorkshire Orienteers (SYO), with parking adjacent to the delightful Sportsman Inn. A fine day, lovely terrain, everyone relaxed and enjoying themselves. And then getting well settled that evening into the student accommodation at the Event Centre, the floor space at a nearby school or the event campsite at Hesley Wood.

The Individual combined Greno Woods with Wharncliffe, both quite rugged areas – both well used by orienteers over the years. We had found a splendid assembly area with adjacent parking in small grassy fields, between the two forests, enabling the planners to make the best use of the two areas. The downside, it was 300 m above sea level and very open to the west. And Sod’s Law prevailed: increasingly strong westerly winds combined with frequent squally wintry showers as the day progressed. The big results team from the organising club Airienteers (AIRE), working to process more than 2,000 control cards and create results stubs to be pinned to the ‘washing lines’, struggled on in an ever-flappier and colder marquee.

Getting cars into the fields in the morning had been straightforward; getting them out again, with every car required to make 2 right-angle turns on a slippery muddy downhill slope, achieved only with help from 2-3 marshals with every car, was a nightmare of the worst order. I think we got the last one out just as night was falling.

It then snowed overnight. Not a lot, but enough to be a nuisance. The Relay was at Strines, a fine upland forest but accessible only by moorland country lanes. Very fortunately, one of our team had managed to contact the road services, who early on got a snow plough out to clear the main road west from Sheffield and the lane through to Strines. Event saved – but only just; the car park was wholly unusable, and vehicles got parked on road verges in all directions and in Low Bradfield, 3.5 km away. The starts were delayed by an hour, but once underway the event, staffed by East Pennine Orienteering Club (EPOC), ran well.

It all calmed down again for the Relaxation event, organised by Manchester and District Orienteering Club (MDOC) in the (not-all-that-relaxing) steep-sloping Hope Woodlands, with lovely views over Ladybower Reservoir.

As was common in the ’70s, there was an evening social programme – folk music on Saturday (when the City of Sheffield also laid on a lavish Civic Reception in the Cutler’s Hall) and the Prize-giving coupled with a dance on Sunday.

Clive Allen – JK ’78 Coordinator

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