The Yvette Baker competition is an annual national team event for juniors open to all British orienteering clubs. It consists of two sections - the 'Trophy' for clubs with large numbers of junior members and the 'Shield' for clubs with a smaller number. Berkshire Orienteers comes within the 'Shield' section. Regional heats were staged in May with the BKO Juniors winning a place in this year's Final as the South Central representatives. Our Club Captain, Martin Wilson, has provided the following report:
Our BKO junior squad competed on Sunday at the Yvette Baker Final at Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury. We were in the Shield competition for smaller clubs, competing against SOS (representing East Anglia), WIM (representing the South West), DFOK (representing the South East), and CLOK (representing the North East). SOS and CLOK were both former winners of the Shield, and DFOK brought a strong team. This was our first attempt at this competition. Teams had to count their best 5 scores across eight classes, 100pts for a winner, 99 for 2nd, 98 for 3rd etc. The high scores but small fields mean results are always close, a tie-break would involve counting teams 6th score.
We’re delighted to announce that our BKO team have won the Shield competition.
The final scores were:
- BKO 497
- DFOK 495
- CLOK 494
- SOS 493
- WIM 392
Our team responded brilliantly to the challenge. We do have a strong squad, but many relatively new runners in the Yellow and Orange classes. The courses were quite difficult, and the mix of large trees and gaps, multiple paths and rides of different shapes and sizes tested younger runners to the limit. But in the end our mature runners pulled us through with some excellent results.
- Boys Green: Adam Methven (100 pts)
- Girls Green: Amelia Wing (100)
- Boys Lt Green: Luca Zurek (100)
- Girls Lt Green: Sophia Oqvist, Immy Woodcock (98)
- Boys Orange: Zak Vaughan
- Girls Orange: Eleanor Prescott (99), Maddie Woodcock, Natalie Wing
- Boys Yellow: Aidan Williams, James Prescott, Elliot Vaughan
I hope all this team, and more newcomers, will continue to enjoy these competitions. My special Hot ROD (Run of the Day) Award goes to Eleanor Prescott, still very new to the sport, whose excellent 2nd place on Orange brought us a vital counting 99 points. Well done to everyone for their great efforts! Thanks too to the many parents who attended. The full TEAM BKO, including both two and four-legged supporters, is shown below.
