Harvester Night Orienteering Relays

Ups and Downs for Bristol

The Harvester Tophy is one of those great events that are a little out of the ordinary, and as a consequence a lot more fun. A night orienteering relay is a good combination in my book: night = adventure (and challenge), relay = team vibe, and I'm enjoying getting back into orienteering a bit more regularly after a decade or two off.

Last year's Harvester was just over the bridge in South Wales. This one was a little further afield from Bristol at Eridge Park near Tunbridge Wells. Not in a part of the country that springs to mind for outdoor sports, but it’s actually a great spot. The event was based at a copse on top of a grassy hill top with views all round, and nice wooded valleys with real crags and boulders (yes, they do exist in the SE).

Having left the kids with my Mum and Step-Dad for the night I drove down in the trusty camper, and dropped in on Ifor Powell, to catch up on his stories of dodging scary Greek shepherd dogs (unsuccessfully judging by the scars) on his mountain bike. After a bit the other Bristol OK members rolled in and I went off to get set up for my nominally post-dawn run.

The generally awesome Clive Hallet was leading my team's charge on first leg. Ifor was doing the same for the B team, but had already let the world know he thought he was in the wrong team - no pressure Clive! I hit the sack and woke up to hear that Clive had dropped about 29 minutes on the leader. Which is a lot on a 60 minute leg. But before I'd even been roused from my slumbers Keith the Kiwi and Mark Bown had pulled back a lot of that, and John Hartley was out doing his bit in the dark. I was on the Dawn leg with some running in the dark (tricky), some in the light (easier) but with changing light conditions that can lead to mistakes.

Headtorch on I was ready to go in good time, and wrapped up in my trusty duvet jacket when John came in having pulled up to 4th place and (crucially) right behind second and third. In fact it seemed that I might be in third as one of the teams came up as "retired" on the leader board (actually a glitch sorted out later). Don't blow it Pete. No fancy stuff, I just picked off each control one at a time. Nice and steady, but not carefully enough (it would turn out later).

Gradually the light improved, and by the brutal climb to the spectator control half way round I could drop my headtorch and battery. It was at this point that I caught up one of the other teams and got a bit too keen to over-take. There ensued a running battle of not great navigation combined with lots of physical effort. The end result wasn’t catastrophic, but it didn’t feel too clever. I dropped the other guy on the last climb as I gave it all to hand over to our next runner Matt Franklin who, despite suffering badly with a cold, caught up the lead team Unfortunately his opponent decided to just sit in and follow, secure in the knowledge that he was handing over to World Champs relay gold medalist Graham Gristwood was his last leg. Our Tim Britton did a great job on last leg but had to accept second place.

It was while Tim was out that the results board showed up a problem. One of our team had apparently failed to dib at a control. And that someone was me. I knew that I’d been there, and stuck my SI chip into the receiver box, but if you’re really unlucky you can be too quick for the box…and you never ever leave without hearing the beep and/or seeing the light flash. It had been a long, long time since I’d made a mistake like that, and a true nightmare that it was during a relay (cardinal sin). Really, really sorry guys! So BOK’s best ever turned into a DQ. I hope to have the chance to make up for that one...