I received this email from Rebecca Watson and thought it might appeal to some of you as competitors or marshals. If you are interested please look at their website – address at the foot of this article.

Marie Curie Cancer Care are currently running an event called the Great Escape Challenge which is taking place on the 17th to 19th May this year in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, near Harrogate.

We are looking for approximately 35 volunteer marshals to help make this challenge a real success and wondered if some of your mountain bike orienteers would be interested in volunteering.

This exciting volunteer role is open to anyone that enjoys the great outdoors, maybe has an interest in events, sports, and has a reasonable level of fitness. This is a fun opportunity to meet like-minded people and enjoy an active outdoors event in the Yorkshire Dales.

Volunteers will be working in teams and exact roles will be allocated on the day. The type of activities include: setting up the course base, marshaling the challenges, registering participants and breaking down the event base. Ideally we need volunteers to be there from 08:30 on Friday morning to 19:00 on Saturday as a minimum requirement.

We will provide food and comfortable accommodation over the weekend. Reasonable travel expenses will also be reimbursed, upon request. Volunteers are also invited to join us for the prize giving and celebratory party on the Saturday night and leave on Sunday morning.

I would be greatly appreciative if you could advertise this opportunity amongst your group members. I have attached an information sheet, further outlining what volunteers can expect from the event. I have also attached a volunteer information form, to be completed by willing group members.

Further details about the event can be found on our website http://greatescape.mariecurie.org.uk/

Thanks, Rebecca Watson

Despite a foggy, a rather chilly, start to the morning it was good to see the sun burning through as the morning went on to give us a lovely clear day for the event.

We had a great turnout (which meant Steve printing some extra maps), and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves on the ride whatever route they took. Having planned two previous events in the same area, I tried to “winterise” the controls to allow everyone to get a good ride without being bogged down anywhere – and I think I managed to achieve that whilst ensuring a reasonable mix of on and off-road controls. I tried to make the area smaller than before, but with hindsight I would have made it even smaller. The high value controls on Caulkley Bank made that a popular choice for route choice, with some choosing the road over the bridleway (although it was rideable) between 28 and 22.

Planner’s hindsight means there are a few control switches I could  have made but it seemed to work out ok. I tried to avoid the inevitable “number on telegraph pole ” clues, and chose a mix of ‘ride through’ and ‘stop-and-think’ clues. I had a few comments about the maths involved but I like to test everyone’s skill, including reading historic plaques (control 11).

A couple of early returners couldn’t find control 2 so I thought it may have gone missing but later riders seemed to have found it – everyone got points and I’m sorry if it was harder work to find a 5 pointer!

The Malt Shovel is always a welcoming place and we are grateful for their hospitality. It was great to see so many happy, and mostly muddy, riders returning.

Thanks to everyone for taking part – the results are here (updated Sunday 17th 10:24): Hovingham Results (v3)

Dave

Online entries have now closed with 30 riders. Jens is printing 40 maps so there are 10 places available for entry on the day. The forecast isn’t bad for February so looking forward to an excellent couple of hours in the Howardian Hills

Beckwithshaw Results

Thanks to Tim for an excellent course, the Smiths Arms for the perfect event centre and Yorkshire for having such beautiful countryside. I’m so glad we postponed the event last week and managed to re-arrange it for today.

Beckwithshaw (photo courtesy Al Powell)

If you entered online and couldn’t make it please let me know (if you haven’t done so already) and I will credit your entry for the next event. Martin & Max won overall 53 points ahead of John Rawden (M50/60 winner) in second place. Chris Dodd used local knowledge to win M21/40 with 362 points, Karen Blackburn was first lady again with 290 points.

The winners routes will be posted on the NYMBO site and the next event is in a fortnight at the Malt Shovel, Hovingham on Saturday 16th February. Hope to see you there.
Cheers
Steve