East Midlands Championships at Stanton Moor

Report and Photos by Sal Chaffey (Derwent Valley Orienteers)

Stanton Moor is home to the Nine Ladies Stone Circle, a protected Bronze Age site, with an out-lying stone known as the King Stone. Allegedly, the nine ladies were turned to stone for dancing on the Sabbath, and the King Stone was the fiddle player. Historic England look after the Stone Circle and the many other archaeological sites on the Moor, which Richard Parkin our Planner (and also mapper) had to be careful to avoid. Catching Features, the online orienteering game popular in lockdown, used the stone circle as the Finish in the Home Internationals in July 2020!

The 2022 event took place on 20 March, rescheduled from February 2021. The area rises to over 300m and can be exposed, but we were blessed with sunny weather. A few months in advance of the event, Richard realised that it would fall on the same weekend as the Vernal Equinox, which meant that there would be illegal campers on the Moor, especially near the Stone Circle. All we could do was warn competitors, and hope for the best. Richard spotted a family tent completely blocking the entrance to one of the old quarry workings – and heaved a sigh of relief he'd not sited a control behind it!

It was great to be able to have traders CompassPoint and Podium Catering, as well as a cake stall run by the East Midlands Junior Squad to refresh the 356 competitors. Soon, the first finishers were coming in, and Richard and our Controller, Peter Gorvett SYO could relax. The area was used for the British Middle Distance Championships in 2013, so many orienteers will know that it offers a great combination of heather moorland dotted with rhododendron, together with wooded former quarry workings. We are excited to have started negotiations to use this fantastic area for the JK Relays in 2024.

The M21 trophy was won once again by Richard Robinson of Nottinghamshire Orienteering Club (M40) who completed the 8.4km 36-control Brown course in just over 64 minutes. The shield has Richard's name on 13 small shields on the front, and probably as many again on the reverse! W21 was won by Rachel Duckworth of Derwent Valley Orienteers who ran 7.2km Short Brown in 77 minutes. Congratulations to the two of them and to the other trophy winners!

M80 Peter Leake of Leicestershire Orienteering Club (LEI) contacted us after the closing date for a late entry as his angiogram result was better than expected ... and went on to become East Midlands Champion!

The trophies were presented by John Woodall, President of the East Midlands Orienteering Association. Thanks to John, to the landowner Stanton Estates, the farmer, and all the Derwent Valley Orienteer club helpers for doing a fantastic job!