The chasing sprint again attracted a high quality field and produced some thrilling head to head races.
The mens' and womens' prologues were characterised by a tricky first control, beyond which lay a minefield of dodgy map for those who overshot having been pushed east by the terrain. The going never eased up with a devilish combination of low visibility and short legs reducing running speed to seven minutes a km for the best. Jamie Stevenson and Kim Buckley came out ahead, with a few big name (well short names beginning with J actually) casualties and a few surprises (Martin Ward? Helen Bridle?) lurking behind.
Porky then despatched his roving reporter to keep an eye on the leading pack of men in the chase.
There's probably never been a race quite like this in Britain. With a large group of people within a couple of minutes of Jamie Stevenson the possibility of a massive lead pack was realised almost instantly as the leaders hesitated at 2 and 3. Heading into the open Steve Nicholson led the pack of 16 who would stay together until the end. Behind them the forest was silent as a large gap appeared.
Although the leaders had a broad range of ability, they all kept up this pace like a comet tail following Jamie, who led and did the bulk of the mapreading. Once or twice Jamie missed and Steve Nicholson sorted it out, but on a couple of other occasions the whole pack ground to a halt and even the tail-enders took their maps from their pockets until some sharp-eyed hanger-on spotted the flag.
In the end, the cream rose to the top and it was Jamie who pulled clear to win with Steve in second.
Further back, reigning M40 Champion John Rye stepped up to compete with the big boys and showed them a trick or two with the fastest second leg time and a climb of 27 places.
The ladies' holder Jenny James was absent, as was Yvette Hague, and unlike the men the women had a decidedly international feel with Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Sweden, England, Belgium and the USA represented.
For the second year running, the ladies leader was hunted down, Kim falling to US internationalist Kristen Hall in the sprint. Further back Catherine Ashton climbed 15 places to 6th with the best time of the day.
In the Vets classes, Diane Leakey held on to her title with some comfort, while Iain Rochford took the mens' on the back of a crushing first round victory. He even had time to show M18 Champion Nick Taylor a clean pair of heels (I think not) on the run-in. In W18 Laura Daniel preferred water to mud, leaving early for a swimming gala, which left Lucie Moseley a minute clear, a gap which she had stretched to almost four by the close.
Chasing Sprint results will be included in the national event booklet.
Living within 100 miles of Stock Hill (just) made me the second-closest JOK member, so I was a "natural" volunteer to plan the courses.
The Forestry Commission gave us some anxious times as they felled ever more of the beautiful sixty-year-old pines: we wondered just how much of the white forest they would leave! This led to the decision that colour photocopying was the best way to show the changes. Though I heard only positive comments about the quality of the copies, there were two unfortunate consequences.
1. I drew the courses with my trusty red pen, just as I've always drawn master maps throughout my planning lifetime. So my humble apologies to Alastair Buckley, and to anyone else who is red-green colour-blind, for not using purple.
2. From his less-remote location, the controller made a last-minute survey of the extent of the felling and posted me a tracing. I drew the felling by hand, superposing the tracing to check accuracy. There is a potential error of up to a millimetre in each of these steps, and the cumulative error was noticeable in places. Sorry.
A similar problem affects the Stock Hill map itself: surveyor and cartographer are different people, and errors accumulate. Over a quarter of my candidate control sites proved unusable, and the courses had to avoid some small areas completely. You got the best of what was left.
I will treasure two memories of the event. First, sunlight on the steaming forest, as the overnight downpour finally stopped just as I was completing my first control-placing loop. And second, the excited buzz at the finish of the Chase. Generating that excitement is what the Chasing Sprint is all about.
Planner : Roger Thetford JOK, TVOC
Secondly, a big thank you to the weather as we were eventually blessed with a gorgeous sunny day with only the odd rumble of thunder! I was on the area the previous week in the snow and was desperately hoping the weather wasn't going to affect the third selection race in a month.
Thanks must also go to all the JOK members and their associated clubs for travelling down from all over the country and help run the event. The geographical distribution of JOK does cause organisational headaches but thanks to everyone for pulling together, the event ran relatively smoothly. The advantage of having members at various clubs, and thank you to them all, is the relative ease of borrowing equipment; BOK for the area, TVOC for controls, punches and map bags, SWOA for the clocks, and QO for all the rest of the required start & finish equipment.
A best effort of the day award must go to Andy Simpson who due to a mud caked control card was only able to get the first six punches anywhere near the correct box. However after much scrutinising we were unable to locate any sign of a punch mark for No. 19. A similar comment must go to Graeme Ackland who despite being with the leading pack, see report, was unable to produce evidence of visiting No. 17. We tried our best, honest!
Finally thank you to all the competitors who provide the entertainment. The format of the event definitely leads to exciting racing and with continued development of the system, long may it continue. We hope to see you all, and your friends, next year at the 1999 JOK Chasing Sprint.
Jon Skittrall JOK, QO
In early January the controller's nightmare seemed to be unfolding as sizeable chunks of forest were felled and thinning began in earnest, leaving an untouched area too small to use. After making several more visits, however, there seemed some hope that affected areas would be sufficiently runnable, so we kept our fingers crossed. Once the colour photocopying decision had been made the only further problem could be too many new extraction tracks - but with only technically difficult courses to cater for we felt it was just about acceptable. I thought Roger's courses were spot-on and needed very little feedback from me; his organisation was meticulous. I accept most of the criticism for the dodgy area around the men's first control, we spent some time together there trying to reach a better solution, but didn't. It is no defence, but much of the area was mapped with visibility of only 10's of metres at best which is very time consuming and even then features get missed. I hope you enjoyed the better parts of the map. BOK would be pleased to hear from anyone who would like to put their name down for the next re-mapping!
On the technical front, it would seem appropriate for a few BOF (or even JOK) guidelines on chasing 'sprint' races - should Round 1 dsq's be allowed in the chase? We took the view they shouldn't, but what if there had been a protest over the decision and there was insufficient time for the jury to convene? How strictly should you check punching? There wouldn't have been many finishers if every pin mark outside a box had resulted in a DSQ. Bigger boxes, more care or electronic punching?
John Rix BOK
Entries and WWW page Graeme Ackland (JOK/INT)
If you would like your prologue map, or have any queries about the Chasing Sprint results, contact Jon Skittrall. 01823 353868
Time Name Club Time 1 Time 2 Total
1 Jamie Stevenson SYO 19:04 1 26:08 21 45:12
2 Steve Nicholson FVO 19:22 2 25:50 16= 45:12
3 Siggy Gould CLARO 19:58 10 25:19 9 45:17
4 Neil Conway EPOC 19:59 11 25:20 10 45:19
5 Oli Johnson SHUOC 20:19 12 25:02 5 45:21
6 Martin Ward SPOOK 19:37 5 25:46 14= 45:23
7 David Jenkins CLARO 19:35 4 25:50 16= 45:25
8 Anthony Squire INT 20:28 15 24:57 4 45:25
Graeme Ackland JOK 19:41 6 25:48 miss 15
9 Justin Howell WAROC 19:54 9 25:38 13 45:32
10 Duncan Archer OUOC 20:27 14 25:06 6 45:33
11 Rob Baker LSOC 19:50 7= 25:46 14= 45:36
12 Tim Lenton BOK 20:21 13 25:17 8 45:38
13 Gordon Riemersma INT 20:44 19 24:54 3 45:38
14 Will Hensman UNOC 20:31 16 25:10 7 45:41
Andy Simpson EPOC 19:26 3 26:44 miss 19
15 Bill Edwards SYO 19:50 7= 27:25 30= 47:15
16 Ben Chesters WCH 20:40 18 26:42 25 47:22
17 John Rye RMOC 24:01 44 23:24 1 47:25
18 Dave Peel SYO 22:36 36 24:52 2 47:28
19 Clive Hallett BOK 21:29 23 26:01 20 47:30
20 Simon Bourne MDOC 22:03 27 25:29 11 47:32
21 Charlie Adams SYO 20:51 21 26:41 24 47:32
22 Ifor Powell BKO 21:38 25 25:58 19 47:36
23 Andre Leumann CLARO 22:07 29 25:51 18 47:58
24 Simon Ross SO 21:20 22 27:13 28 48:33
25 Mark Saunders BOK 20:35 17 28:21 35 48:56
26 Jeremy Edwards CLARO 23:31 41 26:13 22 49:44
27 Mark Hayman MDOC 24:11 45 25:34 12 49:45
28 Richard Wren EPOC 22:35 35 27:11 27 49:46
29 David Rollins BAOC 22:46 39 27:02 26 49:48
30 Nick BarrableHOC 23:36 42 26:17 23 49:53
31 Ed Nash UNOC 22:34 34 27:25 30= 49:59
32 Colin Eades INT 22:50 40 27:15 29 50:05
33 Caleb Gould OUOC 22:04 28 28:01 33 50:05
34 Jason Inman CLARO 21:31 24 28:36 36 50:07
35 Geoff Ellis SHUOC 22:11 30 28:03 34 50:14
36 Philippe Crefcouer ASUB 22:41 38 27:55 32 50:36
Andrew Middleditch DEE 22:27 32 31:04 W7,8
37 Mark Seddon MDOC 22:14 31 31:40 40 53:54
38 Dave Currie OUOC 22:33 33 31:22 38 53:55
39 Matthias Mahr CHIG 22:39 37 31:35 39 54:14
40 Gerald Souweine ASUB 20:48 20 34:50 53 55:38
41 Alastair Buckley DVO 21:43 26 34:32 50 56:15
Tom Hart CLARO 22:34 W10 33:57 47 56:31
42 Roger Goddard WAROC 24:16 46 34:04 48 58:20
43 Kenny Leitch SO 26:31 54 31:50 41 58:21
44 Alex Rothman BOK 23:55 43 34:36 52 58:31
45 Michael Cranny DEE 24:29 47 34:11 49 58:40
46 Dave Donaldson OUOC 25:17 49 33:27 45 58:44
47 John Duckworth DVO 26:00 53 32:54 44 58:54
48 John Casey FUCCO 25:30 50 35:11 55 60:41
49 Luke McNeill SUOC 26:59 56 33:52 46 60:51
50 Michael Sprot NATO 25:02 48 36:01 58 61:03
51 Adrian Moir SWOC 25:42 52 35:37 56 61:19
52 Sean Cranny DEE 30:48 66 31:12 37 62:00
53 Robert Palmer NOC 29:40 64 32:24 42 62:04
54 Mark Stodgell SPLOT 29:44 65 32:46 43 62:30
55 Ray Hulse DEE 27:39 57 34:57 54 62:36
56 Tom Callery MDOC 28:20 58 34:34 51 62:54
57 Nigel Bunn TVOC 28:41 61 37:06 59 65:47
58 Alistair Hindle CUOC 28:27 59 37:24 60 65:51
59 Pete Huzan SLOW 28:36 60 38:17 63 66:53
60 Paul Nixon EXUOC 29:27 63 37:43 62 67:10
61 Stephen Dunn SUOC 35:43 71 35:43 57 71:26
62 Steve Wilson PFO 34:19 70 37:42 61 72:01
63 Martin Flynn FUCCO 31:29 67 44:19 65 75:48
64 Hedley Proctor OUOC 33:25 68 44:38 66 78:03
65 Ian Marsden HH 39:06 75 43:01 64 82:07
66 Paul Warren JOK 34:07 69 50:54 67 85:01
67 Ronan Cleary LOK 29:24 62 58:04 71 87:28
68 Mark Collis CUOC 36:40 72 58:15 72 94:55
69 Dave Harrison GO 40:29 76 54:55 68 95:24
70 Gary Mills TVOC 38:49 73 57:16 69 96:05
71 Eric Heritage LEI 44:01 77 57:32 70 101:33
72 John Darley GO 38:59 74 85:33 73 124:32
Chris Poole NGOC 25:37 51 Retd
Jon Marsden JOK 26:54 55 No run
Simon Beck SN 23:51 W10 No run
Peter Forrester CUOC 32:25 W10 No run
Carl Jenkins SUOC 63:18 78 No run
Nick Lightfoot SYO Retd. No run
Ladies
1 Kristen Hall LEI 18:45 3 22:08 2 40:53
2 Kim Buckley DVO 17:54 1 23:01 7 40:55
3 Helen Hargreaves SYO 18:22 2 22:43 6 41:05
4 Helen Bridle WIM 18:52 4 22:19 4 41:11
5 Una Creagh LOK 21:20 11 24:24 12 45:44
6 Catherine Ashton CUOC 23:50 21 21:58 1 45:48
7 Linn Nilsson BUOC 22:02 13 23:47 10 45:49
8 Hilary Bloor SYO 21:24 12 24:28 13 45:52
9 Lorna Eades INT 20:06 7 25:48 16 45:54
10 Jo Stevenson SHUOC 22:51 15 23:05 8 45:56
11 Christine Ashton OUOC 20:23 8 25:35 15 45:58
12 Karen Dalton SYO 23:53 22 22:09 3 46:02
13 Alice Bedwell BOK 23:42 19 22:21 5 46:03
14 Helen Palmer NOC 23:00 16 23:05 9 46:05
15 Janine Hensman CLARO 20:59 10 25:17 14 46:16
16 Abi Weeds WAOC 23:49 20 24:09 11 47:58
17 Michelle Spillar WIM 20:40 9 28:23 18 49:03
18 Ruth Hambleton SYO 22:44 14 27:49 17 50:33
19 Amy Willis EBOR 19:51 6 31:09 21 51:00
20 Jaimie Doe CLARO 19:38 5 31:29 22 51:07
21 Julie Cleary LOK 25:49 27 29:33 19 55:22
22 Emilie Dicker ASUB 25:18 26 30:09 20 55:27
23 Nuala Higgins LOK 23:18 17 33:57 26 57:15
24 Jane Ackland JOK 24:53 24 32:40 23 57:33
25 Susan Basire SYO 24:17 23 33:28 24 57:45
26 Jo Smith SHUOC 27:42 29 33:36 25 61:18
27 Helen Cooper CUOC 25:11 25 37:07 28 62:18
28 Angela Hingley GO 26:49 28 36:34 27 63:23
29 Ann-Marie Priston DVO 28:37 30 38:52 31 67:29
30 Philippa Skinner OD 29:47 32 37:49 30 67:36
31 Alison Smith TVOC 43:12 38 37:24 29 80:36
32 Lesley Ward SPOOK 34:05 34 46:33 33 80:38
33 Pauline Sinclair OUOC 43:14 39 39:45 32 82:59
Penny Hicks FVO 35:57 36 47:05 W6
34 Sally Gilliver MDOC 35:06 35 54:38 34 89:44
Jeanette Kendall EBOR 23:35 18 Retd.
Jackie Hallett BOK 29:06 31 No run
Sarah Guyver BAOC 32:32 33 No run
Trish Ball BAOC 38:57 37 No run
Alison Kempson TVOC 43:38 40 No run
Junior/Veteran Men
1 Iain Rochford BOK M40 17:10 1 26:52 13 44:02
2 Nick Taylor MDOC M18 18:59 2 25:04 3 44:03
3 Matthew Palmer BOK M18 19:05 3 26:43 12 45:48
4 Ian Nixon SOC M18 20:03 7 25:49 5 45:52
5 Phil St Leger BOK M18 21:29 11 24:28 2 45:57
6 Adrian Barnes NATO M40 19:37 6 26:21 9 45:58
7 James HargreavesKERNO M18 20:20 9 25:46 4 46:06
8 Alex Ross SO M40 19:35 5 26:33 11 46:08
9 James Furness OD M18 20:10 8 26:12 7 46:22
10 Alan Leakey SLOW M40 20:43 10 25:50 6 46:33
11 Gavin Clegg WSX M40 22:47 13 23:52 1 46:39
12 Stephen Shaw SROC M18 19:06 4 30:04 16 49:10
13 Jeff Powell-Davies SOS M18 23:18 14 26:28 10 49:46
14 Mark Bown KERNO M18 23:42 18 26:13 8 49:55
15 Andy Robinson SLOW M40 21:39 12 31:36 20 53:15
16 John Went QO M18 23:29 15 30:05 17 53:34
17 Steve Buckley DVO M40 23:30 16 30:08 18 53:38
18 Brian Jackson SROC M40 26:44 25 29:46 14 56:30
19 Richard Bown KERNO M40 23:36 17 33:02 23 56:38
20 Tom ChestersDEVON M18 25:18 22 31:30 19 56:48
21 Trevor Bridle WIM M40 25:21 23 32:32 22 57:53
22 Ian Birkinshaw MDOC M40 24:53 21 33:03 24 57:56
23 David Nixon SOC M40 24:53 20 34:34 26 59:27
24 Paul Furness OD M40 26:51 26 34:51 27 61:42
25 Ashley Bown KERNO M18 31:46 33 29:59 15 61:45
26 Daniel Maughan WIM M18 29:51 31 31:57 21 61:48
27 Ned Paul MDDXO M40 24:21 19 38:00 28 62:21
28 Mike Crockett QO M40 28:21 29 34:01 25 62:22
29 Keith Marsden HH M40 32:42 34 42:15 31 74:57
30 Peter Truran CLOK M18 31:44 32 45:50 32 77:34
31 Mike Powell-Davies SOS M40 37:51 38 40:37 30 78:28
32 Richard Moseley LOK M40 42:10 39 38:14 29 80:24
33 Caedmon Gould DEVON M18 32:51 35 48:42 34 81:33
34 Roger Cracknell GO M40 33:40 36 59:54 35 93:34
35 Adam Heath BOK M18 28:14 28 65:27 36 93:41
36 Geoff Newton MV M40 59:21 41 45:54 33 105:15
37 Robbie Heath BOK M18 36:08 37 87:57 38 124:05
38 Andy Hemsted HOC M40 57:10 40 70:02 37 127:12
Brendon Gould DEVON M18 28:00 27 Retd.
Charles Daniel BOK M40 25:56 24 No run
Andy Heath BOK M40 28:34 30 No run
Junior/Vet women
1 Diane Leakey SLOW W40 25:47 2 24:02 1 49:49
2 Lucie Moseley LOK W18 26:28 3 26:02 2 52:30
3 Ruth Forrest BOK W18 27:29 4 28:52 3 56:21
4 Hilary Palmer NOC W40 29:59 8 32:16 5 62:15
5 Ruth King BOK W18 31:04 10 31:20 4 62:24
6 Judy Buckley DVO W40 34:13 12 43:51 9 78:04
7 Martha Taylor MDOC W18 27:38 5 50:33 15 78:11
8 Solena George KERNO W18 30:58 9 47:22 14 78:20
9 Elizabeth Furness OD W40 34:32 13 43:52 10 78:24
10 Emma Horsey WSX W18 35:37 15 46:05 12 81:42
11 Sue Birkinshaw MDOC W40 35:21 14 46:31 13 81:52
12 Janet Taylor MDOC W40 41:49 20 40:49 7 82:38
13 Susan Marsden HH W40 42:10 22 40:37 6 82:47
14 Christine King BOK W40 40:45 19 42:33 8 83:18
15 Nancy Powell-Davies SOS W40 42:35 23 44:46 11 87:21
16 Jeannie Bown DEVON W40 37:51 17 56:31 16 94:22
17 Anna Peirce SARUM W18 36:59 16 62:47 18 99:46
18 Christine Moseley LOK W40 48:32 24 56:48 17 105:20
Laura Daniel BOK W18 25:31 1 No run
Charlotte Daniel BOK W18 28:01 6 No run
Frankie Gould DEVON W18 28:49 7 No run
Alexis Green WIM W18 33:45 11 No run
Holly Daniel BOK W18 40:23 18 No run
Jane Forrest BOK W18 41:50 21 No run
Penny Hemsted HOC W40 115:27 25 No run
Cathy O'Rourke LEI W40 Retd. Retd.
Christine Robinson SLOW W40 Retd. No run
And finally, laugh at the inaccuracies of Porky's preview.
Porky's Chasing Sprint Elite Preview
This year's Chasing Sprint shows a stronger than ever field. The last
three men's champions are in direct opposition for the first time:
World Cup runner and reigning champion Jamie Stevenson will start as
favourite, but with a point to prove 1996 winner Steve Nicholson will
be out to show there's life in the old pig yet. UK cup impresario
and winter 97 winner Dave Peel has a formidable record in this type of
event, but can he reverse his recent dip in form? Top finisher from
the recent JK is Gordon Riemersma, who will also be looking to press his
claim for world cup selection, as are late entrants Neil Conway and Neil
Marston. Add to this mix the in-form Siggy Gould and Jez Edwards, and a
terrific race is in prospect.
In the women's race Jenny James will be hoping to nudge the selectors
with a repeat of last year's win from behind against Karen Dalton.
World Cup bound Kim Buckley will be looking to justify her position,
while a whole bevy of other challengers try to dislodge her from her
perch, including the fastest runner in the race Jo Smith. But the
big question is whether Chasing Sprint neophyte Yvette Hague will be
able to cope with this format and continue her winning ways.