Relays: Hutton Mulgrave and Skelder Woods

Date

Sunday 14th April 2024. Entries close Sunday 24th March 2024.

This will be the 50th running of a full British Relay Championships event, after the first event in 1972, and no events in 2001 (foot & mouth), 2020 or 2021 (covid). See the article on the British Orienteering website for a brief history of the British Relay Champs. Although also see the footnote...

Location

Hutton Mulgrave and Skelder Woods near Whitby, North Yorkshire, in the North East of England.

Parking will be at Skelder Hill Farm, accessed off the A171 road 3 miles west of Whitby, grid reference NZ 849 089, nearest post code YO21 1TN (note this covers quite a large area), what3words ///hears.reservoir.smiles, link to Google maps.

The arena is adjacent to parking.

NOTE: there is a cycling event on the same day, summary details here. It is a road race, starting in Saltburn, and doing 4 laps via Guisborough, with rolling road closures for about 10 minutes ahead of the cyclists. The women's race starts 9am and finishes about 11:45am, so competitors travelling to the relays via A171 around Guisborugh, or A174 around Saltburn, may see delays while roads close and traffic clears again. Please make it your responsibility to leave plenty of time to allow for this in your travel plans. The mens race is 1:15pm to 4pm, so you may see some delays if heading home that way again.

Public transport

• By air – Nearest airports are Durham / Tees Valley (40 miles by road), Newcastle (75 miles by road), Leeds / Bradford (80 miles), Manchester (135 miles).
• By rail – Nearest station is Whitby (4 miles by road). See National Rail for times and tickets.
• By bus – Nearest bus stop is in Aislaby village, 1km walk from parking (although speak to the driver and they are usually happy to stop just over the A171 from the event entrance). The X93 runs every 2 hours on Sundays, to/from Whitby in one direction, and to/from Middlesbrough, Redcar and Saltburn in the other. See X93 - Middlesbrough - Guisborough - Whitby - Scarborough – Arriva North East – bustimes.org for timetable. Please take extreme care crossing the A171.

Terrain

The relay will take place in Hutton Mulgrave & Skelder Woods, as intended for the cancelled JK 2020. See map from most recent 2021 regional event. For all competitors see map of embargoed area. 

Map

TBD scales, 5m contours. Updated in 2023 by Paul Taylor.

Classes

All the standard courses for the British Orienteering Relay classes:

• Men's Premier, Women's Premier
• Men's Short, Women's Short
• Mini Relay (M/W12 or under)
• M14, W14   
• M18, W18
• M40, W40
• M50, W50
• M60, W60
• M/W70 (must contain at least one W70+)
• Junior Ad Hoc (M/W20 or under)
• Mixed Ad Hoc

Timings

• Car park open 8:15am  (not entry after / no exit before 12:30pm)
• Mass starts 10:00 - 11:10am (first call up 9:45am)
• Mini mass start for remaining runners 12:30pm
• Prize giving 1:15pm
• Courses close 2pm
• Car park close 2:30pm

Clothing

British Orienteering require all competitors to wear clothing that fully covers the torso and legs. If the weather is particularly severe there may also be a requirement to carry a hooded waterproof top - if required, there will be notices on the day.

Dogs

Dogs under control and on a lead are allowed in the parking and arena. No dogs allowed on the courses expect for assistance dogs.

Officials

• Organiser: Boris Spence (NN)
• Planner: Francis Shillitoe (NATO)
• Controller: Grahma Nilsen (DEE)

Whitby whale bones and abbey in the distance

Footnote: Strictly speaking there was a British Relay championships in 2021 hosted by FVO, whose efforts to stage it when many clubs were struggling with Covid was commendable. However, it only catered for a limited set of classes (men/women premier, one junior class and an adhoc), and did not attract anyteams from outside Scotland. So this is the 50th British Relay Champs with a full set of classes and attracting a nationwide entry.