Essex Summer Midweek Series 2026

23rd Feb 26

Series Commentary

With the completion of the Anytime period for the final race in the series we can now officially announce the winners of the 2026 Essex Midweek Summer series.  Before that though, some shoutouts to the race organisers: Dean Pepper, Dale Bennett, Jackie Sibthorp, Seb Parris, Lyn & Colin West, Simon Fowler, Tim Hull & Chris Childs and David Float.  As always, without you guys, there would be no series, and we would all miss out on the opportunity of those midweek runs.  Thanks also to the SOS series co-ordinator – Dean Pepper.  His efforts in getting organisers and planners; sending round flyers and chasers were invaluable in ensuring the success of the series.

The format of using MapRun for these events seems to work well, and we had almost no people running manually this year.  Our learnings of where to site controls, and how to minimise issues with the GPS coverage and software seem to have worked, and we experienced few issues this year.  The benefits of being able to see your route immediately and thus facilitate post race analysis is a definite plus, and the fact that we can utilise scoring features in the software that aren’t available manually is a big bonus.  Not to mention the fact that we don’t need to put controls out in the environment, or manually check answers after runs!

This series was beset with issues out of our control.  The biggest of these being the excessive heat.  A few of our races were right on the edge of BOF guidance for whether we should hold the event or not.  What with that and the continued roadworks affecting Gallows corner and the knock on effect to traffic, there were a few events with participation lower than anticipated.  However, we made it and had a full series of events in varied terrain to enjoy. 

Full hybrid events at Great Notley, Danbury, Aveley, Colchester and Langdon Hills, a “proper” urban map at Chelmsford and a “proper” forest map at Dagnam Park.  We had a couple of different formats as well – mostly line events, but we had a score at Writtle, and a mass start, butterfly loop course for the finale event. 

We had 38 different runners on the Short course, and 74 on the Long.  Some of thise ran in both series, but we still had 103 unique runners – one up from last year!  We continued with the bonus for running on the night, and four people turned out to all the races – Chris Childs, Colin Jackson, David Float and Dean Pepper. 

All the races had an Anytime catch up period of two weeks; allowing runners who couldn’t make the race to still score points in the league.  There is a penalty applied; as runners can see the course and plan their routes before running.  In total; with those Anytime runs included; we had 80 runs on Short and 186 on Long.  This averages 33.25 runs per event.  We had a range of ages; from W14 to M80.  M60 had 14 different runners; and W60 also had 10.  We had 37 women and 66 men running in at least one race.  Racesignup doesn’t show non orienteering clubs, but there were 14 different orienteering clubs competing, 22 SOS members being the most.

Don’t forget that if you are affiliated to BOF (generally through an orienteering club) then you benefit from reduced entry fees; so it is worth considering joining a club.  Also; from Jan 2026; BOF are removing their insurance cover for non-members at events; so non-members will now be personally liable for any claims against them (clubs and members still covered).  More details of how to join HAVOC can be found here. 

For the summer series we take the top six results from the 8 races; and 14 runners over the two courses had at least that number of runs.  No surprises that the podium positions in both leagues come from those runners! 

Short course

The first evet; at Great Notley; was won by Lulu and Roger Gooding, but that was their only score of the Short course series.  Similarly; the winners of Writtle (Miroslav Benes), Aveley (Garry Parmenter), Chelmsford (Phil Hazel) and Dagnam (Gillian Edgar) also only had one run each!  John Allen won two events – Colchester and Langdon Hills, and was only just beaten at Dagnam Park, but as those were his only three runs, once again it wasn’t enough to get him to the top of the leaderboard.  

Clear in third place was Vernonica Machin.  Six events run in, and getting her best score at Chelmsford, a solid effort for third.  The top two both got a full on-the-night bonus set.  Colin Jackson took three of the head to head meetings, and Chris Childs four.  Chris Childs won two event, at Danbury and Langdon Hills though, and with a planners score for Colchester, he runs out series winner this year.

Congratulations Chris!

Long Course

We had four different winners in the eight races.  Luke Bennett won every event he turned up to – but it was only three, so others placed above him in the best six of eight series.  Paul Beckett, the defending champ, was scoring well, and won the event at Aveley, but then got disqualified at Chelmsford, and didn’t make any of the last three races.  Lewis Judge won at Chelmsford, and teamed this with two other good scores, but again, only three scores won’t get you the title this year!

The top four in the league ran in all events (either on-the-night, or on Anytime catchup).  Dean Pepper set the first course and led the league for a while as a result, but finishes just off the podium in fourth.  Setting the last event of the series wasn’t enough to lift David Float any higher than third.  Keith Bennett was going for his third series win in a row, after winning the Twilight and Winter series.  He won the event at Chelmsford, and was close at Langdon Hills.  He had a chance if he could win the finale, but his sons beat him on handicap, and Keith finishes second this time around. 

That leaves Jackie Sibthorp, who despite running a couple of events on Catchup, and therefore foregoing the bonus, used wins at Writtle and Langdon Hills with a planning score at Danbury and near top scores at Chelmsford and Aveley to take the title this year.

Congratulations Jackie!

There is a slight gap now before the winter series gets underway in October.  So, we will again run a Twilight series, of three events, in the meantime.  This series will start in early Sep, and will be three events, each with a different scoring system!  We will revisit the snooker O, that got such positive feedback last year, we will have a Spanish score event and a Line/Spiral hybrid.

Full details, and links to individual events can be found on the series homepage; here: 

If you have any comments on the series then please let me know ().  As mentioned earlier; all of these series cannot run without the efforts of volunteers to organise and plan individual events; so please consider that for the next series.  Let me or Dean know so that we can fit you into the schedule.

Thanks again for running in the events this summer – I sincerely hope you enjoyed them.  I hope you have a good break; and look forward to seeing you all again for the Twilight series in September.

David

The Essex Summer Midweek Series will again be run in 2026.  This will consist of 8 evening O events.  Terrain will be a mixture of urban streets, parks and woodland, footpaths and trails.

Series flyer

Points will be awarded based on finishing times adjusted using an age/gender handicap system.  Each missed or incorrect control will incur a 5 minutes penalty.  Best 6 results from the series will count.   On-the-night bonus of 15 points per event for those running on the night, opposed to MapRun catchup.  5 min penalty for Anytime on a line course, 10% time limit reduction on a score course.  A second run on any particular course will not count for scoring purposes.

Full results will be emailed and published on the SOS and HAVOC websites. 

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

Golden Ticket (entry to all events in the series) - Senior (member) £22, Senior (non-member) £27.5,  Junior £11

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.

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

Essex Summer Midweek Series 2026

Guidelines for each event:

- Short (c3-3.5km straight line) and Long (c5-6km straight line) or another format if it works better for an area (e.g. Short and Long or Combined Score)
- Starts from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, courses close 9pm
- Start location should be a pub or similar
- If possible, 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
- As the events will take place in the light summer evenings, more use of parks, woods, footpaths and trails are anticipated, alongside sections of urban street running.
- 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 champions from 2025 are:

Short Course

Long Course