Kilnsey is complicated for other reasons.  We learned at JK 2016 that relying on a field for parking in March/April is not a good idea.  Emergency arrangements were needed just before that event when it was clear that a nicely sloping parking field with top access and a lower exit used for maybe a thousand cars for the Kilnsey Show in the summer would just be too wet in March/April.  Threshfield Quarry is massive and can swallow up lots of cars on hard ground.  But it means a long walk to a start and from a finish.  It was thought that this would put a lot of people off, though in the end it didn’t.  Cars for the event easily fitted into the quarry with hardly any hold ups even though much of the parking near the quarry entrance was initially taken up by Fellsman Hilke competitors returning from their event.

Kilnsey South rises to 450m.  With a north wind and rain it can be a serious concern.  Competitors were warned when the event was first advertised that a waterproof hooded top might be compulsory.  A few days before the event all competitors were informed that such tops would be compulsory.  It was very cold on the day when the start team went off to set up and early starting helpers went off at 10 o’clock.  Later starters were a bit luckier.

The area is used for farming sheep and cattle.  This gives two problems.  There are lots of walls and fences to keep the animals where they should be, and where would the animals be on the day of the event?  To a non-farmer, the latter seems simple, but farmers often don’t know where their animals will have to be, as it depends on the weather, the progress of lambing and so many other jobs that have to be done.

Yorkshire Dales walls and fences are big and they need big stiles to cross them where there are no gates.  Competitors on the longer courses were treated to a variety of ladder stiles, milk crate steps, a crawl through and a specially built step stile near the end capable of taking 700 plus competitors at a rate of 4 or 5 a minute.

The highlights of the day came as the first competitors returned smiling and giving very positive comments about their courses and the arrangements.  At the same time the weather started to improve.  And then when it improved further the ice cream van started doing business and it was warm enough for competitors to be standing around looking at results and discussing their courses.

CLARO is a small club and this was the biggest event the club had ever taken on.  Some much appreciated help came from elsewhere, but members rose to the challenge and did an excellent job on the day.  For the rest of the year the club will revert to hosting evening and family events with regionals in June and September.  This will be a relative rest before helping with the JK in 2025.

Northern Championships 2024 results. 

Kilnsey planner Vicky Bailey's perspective

Planning on Kilnsey was a challenge for all the practical reasons Mike has mentioned, but also because as planners we had two hard acts to follow in the shape of 2016’s epic acts-of-God JK and AIRE’s sunny summer special in 2018. It seemed appropriate then that our event served up something in between; on the day, a moderately grim start melting into a modestly mild finish; in the lead up, a catalogue of every other available weather, never friendly enough for shorts but nothing so hostile that it saw us off the hill. No sun, no hail strikes, but come the day: a sunburst of primroses.

With the assembly area already fixed we were limited with how much we could vary from AIRE’s event, which had used the same quarry for car parking. Early efforts to find a novel start location were quickly abandoned – you didn’t want a longer walk to the start, did you? But for the finish we gambled on a short walk back to assembly for the fun of a combined finish with the White and Yellow courses in the caravan park. This also left us with a little more length in the courses, which meant a better share of Kilnsey proper for the shortest senior courses before the inevitable march off the hill. For the longer courses, Mike and Chris’s efforts with permissions and crossing points opened up access to additional areas not used since the JK – a big help for keeping things fresh. Planning tactics evolved over the thrashing-out process. Our early strategy of avoiding long legs crossing the walls resulted in somewhat bland Middle-style courses that lacked “story”. In the end, using the walls to set up macro route choices provided better structure, and made for some entertaining post-race analysis on Routegadget. Every crossing point was worth it, Mike, honest!

The most memorable part of planning at Kilnsey has been the efforts undertaken by so many volunteers to overcome its challenges. Fathomless feats of endurance and ingenuity! An alphabetised schedule of animal-dependent crossing point logistics. A 60kg sheep-proof control marking solution! Dauntless control collectors taking on longer loops than their original courses and a map layout for every permutation of scale and paper size. The amount of time and care that goes into these events is in equal parts scary and inspiring. My tip for anyone considering taking on something similar is to get yourself a co-planner. Find one who always finds time to be slightly less busy when you are super busy; who has a seemingly exhaustible supply of patience, and a very good recipe for flapjack – then no amount of trans-Pennine weather tantrums and late-night PDF checking can get you down for long!

David Williams, the planner, identified a possible field for the arena, which we had never used previously; the field just to the south of the one we eventually used.   This allowed him to use the best of the area. He structured the courses Jan–March 2023 at the same time coordinating with Tony Thornley producing the completely revised map off new LIDAR data. By this time a year ago to allow review in competition condition the courses were more or less fully planned and controlled. Having had input during April 2023 from David Bowman assistant planner and Mark Garside (WCH) controller. Subsequently courses and map were given constant minor amendments and updates to take account of the storms, wet conditions and middle distance RWT rule changes.

The parking field has become a regular for us over the past 15 years, when we hold Regional events at Danefield.  We knew it was well drained.  It has coped admirably with the cars for all previous events.  We’ve checked it regularly throughout this very wet winter, and never had any doubts about it coping, despite having to accommodate three times the number of vehicles we have previously.  It meant quite a long walk to the arena, but we knew it was 100% reliable.

Last year by March the original assembly field was in prime condition.  This year we did a final check three weeks before the event, just before the map proofs were ready to be printed.  There was a strong chance the field would never drain sufficiently to take vehicles and 900+ pairs of feet.  This was when our brilliant hosts, Sue and Howard Cliff really came into their own.  They suggested we use the paddock and agreed to build us the bridge across the ditch leading to it.  It proved the best of arenas.  The grass didn’t cut up, and it was more compact than the original field which doubtless helped create the splendid atmosphere of the event.

The change of assembly field resulted in a few slight last-minute adjustments to the map, but did not affect the planning of the courses apart from the run-in.

We were able to pull the event off just using Aire members, which made recruitment and organising a good deal simpler than is often the case for a Major event.  From what I saw and heard on the day, all the teams did a pretty seamless job. 

At Danefield we were delighted to hear so many compliments about the courses and the organisation.  The rain held off, although a little more sunshine and a warm wind from the south would have been appreciated. I guess you can’t have everything.

We were pleased to see that both Rob and Lindsey King’s String Course and Maze were well used.

Results from the British Middle Championships 2024. 

Aire’s next large-scale events are the Sprint and Urban events in Leeds on 6–7 July 2024.

And the Dales Weekend in the Malham area on 14–15 September 2024.

All images are credited to Rob Lines and Wendy Carlyle.

Aside of a few unforgiving downpours, the weather held for the majority of the day, giving participants the opportunity to navigate the map area (1:4,000 2.0m contour interval to ISSOM 2007, updated in 2023 by Peter Hornsby).

As the final runners made their way across the course, it was soon time for the awards ceremonies to take place.

First up the WRE flower and award ceremonies took place, after which it was time for the British Orienteering Annual Awards! British Orienteering’s CEO Peter Hart presented the awards to winners of the Club, Coach, Volunteer and Mapping Awards 2023. If you missed out on who won the awards, please visit this link. Next the UK Urban League 2023 Awards took place, followed by the JK Sprint Race medals. Well done to everyone who received an award and was recognised for their efforts over the past year.

Results

The results from Day 1 are available here. Congratulations to the winners of all age categories including:

Trail O PreO results

Access the results from the TrailO PreO course here. Well done to the winners!

Day 2 – Middle Race at Beaudesert

Day’s 2 and 3 of JK 2024 moved to Beaudesert where participants of the Long and Middle Race navigated the forested area with streams and marshes, and intricate contouring and the famous bell-pits (deep holes with raised edges) proliferating.

Glorious blue skies greeted everyone on arrival and throughout the day as everyone embarked on the challenges of Beaudesert. The wet weather of recent months ensured a muddier and wetter challenge than usual in the area, but this didn’t stop over 2,000 people pushing themselves

W21E and M21E courses

There was a couple of controls that were misplaced (as in placed in the wrong place not lost) which impacted W21E and M21E courses.

Following some protests to the organiser and controller a judgement was made in that the W21E course was made VOID and the M21E course results were “truncated”.

Results

The results from Day 2 are available here. Congratulations to the winners!

Day 3 – Long Race at Beaudesert

It was a misty start for participants back at Beaudesert for the Long Race on Day 3 of JK 2024. Orienteers made their way into the forested area, exploring the much wider forest and challenges compared to the previous day.

Results

The results from Day 3 are available here. Congratulations to the winners!

Day 4 – Relay Race at Stanton Moor

The event closed with the Relay Race which headed into the Peak District at Stanton Moor.

As the relay teams battled the elements to win the JK trophy and it was the FVO Flyers who took first place, followed by Interlopers N and Interlopers S in third place.

In the junior relay, it was SYO Buzzy BEEs (SYO) who took the win, with ‘WE Cambridge, we saw, we conquered’ (WOAC) coming in second place, and ‘NOR wreaking HAVOC’ (HAVOC/NOR) finishing in third! Well done to all.

Results

The results from Day 4 are available here. Congratulations to the winners!

A link to overall results from JK 2024 is available here.

Thank you to all involved in this year’s event

Special thanks must go to the army of volunteers who helped put the event together this year. From those manning the general enquiries stalls, to recording the results, tending to the sponsors stalls, and of course our planners, mappers and controllers  especially in the face of unprecedented weather conditions in the lead up to this year's event.

A special thanks must go the clubs that organsied each day:

LEI, WCH and DVO.

We would also like to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to the four fantastic Day sponsors for the JK 2024:

Day 1: Altra / Shokz

Days 2/3: Revive / Instinct Trail

Day 4: Inov8

Whether it was trying the Altra shoes for yourself at the Sprint, testing the Revive supplements which are driving our GB athletes to the WOC, utilising the great trail packs from Instinct for the long JK event or grabbing some fantastic inov8 gear, we hope you enjoyed having them at the event! All competitors will have received an email packed full of discount codes from our sponsors too!

Final word from our CEO Peter Hart

“The Jan Kjellström as always was a large and complex event, was nothing short of spectacular, and it truly exemplified the dedication and passion you all have for our sport.

Every aspect of the event was executed well, and It was evident that meticulous planning and hard work went into making it a memorable experience for all the participants.

Beyond just this event, I want to express our appreciation for the ongoing contribution you make to the sport. Your unwavering commitment to creating opportunities for athletes of all ages and abilities is truly commendable. Events like these not only showcase the talent within the sport but also inspire future generations.”
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Images from the event can be found via Rob Lines or Wendy Carlyle’s Flickr accounts. With huge thanks to them both for volunteering to take photos of the event. You can also read an interview with coordinator of this year's event, Andy Yeates via this link.