The 'real' 2001 British Champs in Northern Ireland having been postponed to 2002, Andrew Cummings reports on the stand-in event to decide this years titles.

This year's British Championships were held in Newborough Forest on Anglesey. Originally a National Event that had to be postponed because of foot and mouth, the event replaced the original BOC in Northern Ireland which was also postponed because of F&M.

The area is forested sand dunes, generally runnable with areas of complex contours separated by flat areas. All competitors had 1 to 10,000 maps with 2.5 m contours. While the rest of the country was suffering a deluge, Newborough stayed cloudy but dry.

The best club results were Janet Rosen, 2nd in W45L, and Ian Marsden, 3rd in M21S.

I had a generally good run with no major errors, several small errors close to controls and one route choice error. My initial estimate of lost time, without seeing other people's splits, was about 3 minutes, with 1 minute on the route choice. Comparison of splits, see the 'progressograph' on the next page, shows that I lost 2 min 40 sec compared to Steve Templeton and Alan Rosen on that leg, so that, overall, I lost about 5 minutes. This does not include the fact that I was slow over the first few legs, I believe that I start relatively slowly, then speed up a bit and generally maintain that speed. This is supported by the comparison of splits. Finally I was very tired over the last five controls which is also another indictor of a good run.

The 'progressograph' shows time lost against the fastest possible time for the group of runners considered. I've compared my splits (34th) with Steve (23rd), Alan (32nd) and the winner, Vince Joyce. Not surprisingly Vince lost very time against the three of us, 1 min 8 sec.

My graph is generally straight, but steeper in the earlier part. This shows that I am consistent but slow and, as I indicated above, my relative pace picked up from a slow start. The one leg on which I beat everybody, including Vince by 33 seconds, was control 14, a leg of only 250m through fairly complex terrain. I ran for a very large open depression, which was not as open as indicated by the map, and used compass and pacing straight to the control.

Steve's graph shows one large error at control 13, where he was 3 min 14 sec slower than Vince. It also shows that he slowed up over the last four controls.

Alan's graph shows two larger errors at controls 8 (2 min 40 sec) and 14 (2 min 54 sec) and a small error at control 12 (1 min 17 sec). Alan's summary of his run was that he had lost too much time on the fine navigation, the bit he normally does well. On the longest leg, control 4, Alan took a path route to the east, but then lost about a minute close to the control. I took a more direct route, picking up on a ride close to the direct line and then straight into the control. Alan was 37 sec slower, suggesting little difference between the two routes as Alan is running slightly faster than I am at the moment.

Finally, if you missed Newborough this time you may have missed it for the next 20 to 25 years as the forest is due to be felled.