Essex Midweek Twilight Series 2025

16th Jul 25

Series Commentary:

This series fitted in between the summer series finishing (and then the summer holiday period) and the winter series starting once it is dark enough to run the races fairly.

We thought it was worth keeping orienteering opportunities available during this lengthy gap.  However, as entries were fairly low, we may have to consider this for next year.  To be fair, once the races actually happened we had got some decent numbers, despite some unrelated issues, so at least it made the efforts to plan the series and stage the events somewhat worthwhile.

With the winter series moving to a score format this year, and the line format being more difficult to plan on urban streets where it is sometimes difficult to introduce route choice, we decided to go with a score format with tweaks for this twilight series.  It is meant as a low key series to help develop some skills and keep us fit as we head into the autumn and winter, so this year we had a Traditional multi value score course, a Snooker O course, and a Spiral O course.

The first one was a Traditional score in South Ockendon.  Although we had put this as far south as we could to attract runners from over the river, this effort was thwarted when DFOK hosted their own event the night before!  Add to that a tube strike costing us some runners from London, and a low turnout from SOS and MEC, and we struggled with a low attendance.  Those that did run tended to enjoy it though – the flat lands of Essex allowing for some longer runs, and a wide range of different routes were taken on the courses.

It was a Snooker O next in South Woodham Ferrers.  We have staged a couple of events there in the past, and this time took the pub next to the station for a start/finish.  This successfully encouraged at least two runners to venture up by train.  The rules were necessarily complex, but pretty much everyone managed to “pot” the controls in the right order, and from comments after the event, the format was very well received.

Finally, on to Brentwood, and our biggest starting field of the series.  This time a spiral O, and with the big penalties for going over time, we had some very early finishers!  No-one got round the whole spiral (it was deliberately planned to be too long for that), and the roadworks on the high street added a bit of a decision point!

So, I hope you enjoyed the different formats on offer.  If you have a particular favourite, dislike, or just wanted to make any comments or suggestions, then would be great to hear from you.

Jackie Sibthorp took full points in both of the first two races, and looked to have set up victory for the series.  But, she had to miss the final event, and the subsequent loss of bonus points proved critical.  Marc Owen went to all three events and secured high scores at South Ockendon and Brentwood, but couldn’t quite get the score at South Woodham he needed.  Keith Bennett ran the catch up on a Saturday morning in South Ockendon, and even with the anytime penalty of 10% of time, managed over 10km and ran Jackie close for the win.  With a solid score in the snooker O, as he was one of only two runners to get a full break, it was set up for the final run.  Keith got furthest round the spiral, and even after handicaps were applied he scored well enough to take the title for this year, ahead of Marc.

Congratulations Keith!

I combined the results from both courses again into one table.  With the different formats there could have been some tactical running to take advantage of the time limits for each event, but as you couldn’t see the courses beforehand this would have been quite difficult to judge!  I hope you enjoyed the extra stats, including “efficiency” for the first two races!

Overall, we had 45 runners in the end, and of those, 5 came to all three events – thank you!  HAVOC, SOS, MEC, DFOK, CHIG, BOF, SLOW, WSX and HWRC were all represented.  We had just over a third female, and two thirds male runners, ranging from M18 to M75.  With BOF removing their public liability insurance for non-members in the New Year, and reduced fees available for orienteering club members for future series/races, if you are not a member of an orienteering club yet, then you might want to consider it!  Details of how to join HAVOC are here. 

Full results of every race can be found below.  The results of the last event show the final table standings.  

You will (hopefully) have seen a flyer for the Winter series which starts next week in Bocking, Braintree.  All the details can be found here.  We have 10 races (5 HAVOC, 5 SOS) all over Essex, every two weeks on a Wednesday (with a break for Christmas).

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Thanks again for running in the events this Twilight – I sincerely hope you enjoyed them. 

David

2025 Twilight series Roll of Honour

With a gap between the summer series finishing (July) and the Winter series starting (October), we are again going to run a Twilight series in the intervening months.

The series will consist of three score events, each with a specific format, every two weeks from mid September.  Terrain will be mostly on streets and footpaths, but may venture into local parks and woods for some route choice.

Series flyer.

Points will be awarded based on scores achieved adjusted using an age/gender handicap system.  On-the-night bonus of 15 points per event for those running on the night, opposed to MapRun catchup.  6 (long)/4 (short) min penalty for Anytime.  A second run will not count for scoring purposes.

Entry fees, per event Senior (member) £4, Senior (non-member) £5, Junior £2

Note:  This series will be using the latest version of the MapRun software, to enable use of features and scoring that have been introduced.  Therefore, if you are not using the latest version of the software, please update to ensure that there are no issues when it comes to the event.  Competitive manual timing is not available for this series.

Links to details/results for the events are shown in the table below.

Essex Midweek Twilight Series 2025

Guidelines for each event:

- Short (40 mins) and Long (60 mins) score courses, using the same map
- Starts from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, courses close 9pm
- Start location in a local pub
- All events are set up on MapRun to allow for on the night analysis, as well as Anytime Catch up for those not able to attend on the night
- Due to some scoring methods, and requirements to know order of controls visited, competitive manual timing is not available for this series.
- Usual format of fire hydrants, supplemented by other road furniture, and/or homemade hydrant signs where courses would benefit from not only using hydrants (to increase route choice for example).

Defending Twilight champions from 2024 are: