How quickly 4 months goes by!  Several hardy souls ran all 5 races and it was particularly pleasing to see several fell runners sticking it out to the end – as one was keen to say upon finishing “I haven’t got a clue where I’ve been but it was thoroughly enjoyable” – which is what it’s all about.  The courses visited several industrial heritage artefacts,  a preserved ‘dig’ beneath a glass slab, the local Tesco, the law courts and a dash through one of Sheffield’s red light areas. Several runners were offered dubious substances, several were cheered on by the public and at least one was warned loudly via a speaker that he had been filmed on CCTV. Urban orienteering offers more than you would care to think!!
At the sharp end, several of the top orienteers in the country fought for the glory of 1st spot with Ralph Street, fresh from his some would say idiotic exploits of 2 weeks earlier leading the national country championships for the first ½ mile, showing the field that perhaps he does indeed have a turn of speed to respect.  Others would say he was just the lucky one to pick the route to 24 which wasn’t blocked by an 8ft fence!  The split times (should be up on the SYO web site soon and also with the map on Routegadget) show the lead changing several times during the race.
One of the problems with planning city races is you never know when building works will come and go – one marked on the map was removed 2 days before the race, one new fence went up in the week before (spotted when hanging controls) and one previously spotted fence was moved to block the obvious route choice – not spotted when hanging the controls.  Luckily it was just a fun event and everyone took it in their stride – a certain Kris Jones climbing two fences to reach the control and Oli Johnson limbo’ing under another.
For at least 4 of the orienteers, this was their first night event – hope you enjoyed it. It’s a relatively safe way to begin with lots of urban glow to help.  Rhys and Karl did well to get round so quickly with no light at all using street lights and map memory when it got quite dark.  Several people failed to punch the finish control for some reason and one missed the penultimate – must have been the rush to get back for the beer and food.  The Fat Cat rewarded us with some excellent home cooking and a fine selection of Real Ale – the event will be repeated next year.
A separate write up of the series will appear in due course.

Tim Tett – series organiser.