Essex Winter Midweek Series 2025/26

31st Jul 25

Series commentary:

Another successful series, with ten events spread over Essex.  Thanks to all the organisers: Lyn West, Simon Fowler, Dean Pepper, Dale Bennett, Tim Hull, Chris Childs, John Allen, Chloe Fowler, Mark Owen, Kevin Machin, Chris Prince, Jackie Sibthorp and Graham Batty, without whom we wouldn't be able to run the series.  Thanks also to SOS co-ordinator, Dean Pepper, for getting organisers and ensuring the SOS events ran smoothly.  It is no trivial task, so thanks for heling to put on the series.

We used MapRun again obviously.  The benefits of this outweigh the monor problems we sometimes face I think.  Being able to instantly compare routes in the pub after your run, the fact that the planner doesn't (normally) have to put out controls and collect them back in again, the fact that results are compiled on the app, all help to make the effort of staging the events a little less onerous.

Originally our aim for the series was to have score events, as the planning of these is sometimes easier in an urban enviroment, as getting adequate route choice and decision points into a line course can sometimes be tricky, especially if we are limiting ourselves to fire hydrant signs.  We ended up with a variety of different event types - standard score, multiple control value score, dumbbell score, and traditional log and short line.  For the score events we had two time limits to cater for those who wanted longer or shorter runs.

The planning guidelines call for these winter series events to make use of lit paths and alleys, as well as streets, and there was the ocassional bit of park or open ground to be visited.  We saw some interesting local sights, including windmills, stone circles, historical buildings and obviously an array of different town signs.

As for previous series, we allowed a catchup for people who were unable to make the run on the night to still score points for the league.  We did give a bonus to those attending on the night though, to help drive attendance and thus reward the planners.  Although attendance was slightly down across the series, compared to previous years, we still managed a reasonably healthy average, and had 40 runners on the short courses, and 62 on the long course.  Of these, Dean Pepper, Keith Bennett and Colin Jackson ran in all 10 races, on the night, to grab the full bonus of 150 points avaiable.  14 runners managed to run in six or more events, so had the best chance of grabbing series honours.

In the short course, Chris Childs had an up and down series, recording two scores of zero after he finished late and lost all his points in penalties.  But with two top scores and an organiser score, he still had a chance to take series honours with a good score in the last event.  But, he couldn't make it to the race, and so finishes in third.

It was a battle for most of the season between Colin Jackson and Rachel Read.  They swapped top spot multiple times.  Colin took a full bonus for on the night runs, and so held the edge there, but Rachel won the head to head between then 6 to 3.  It came down to the final race, and with a win, her third of the series, Rachel took top spot, 16 points clear of Colin in second.

Onto the Long course. Seb Parris was defending champ, but he had to miss most of the season with injury, so a new name would take his place.  Allen Smalls set the early pace, and with three wins out of the first five events could have pushed home his advantage, but he didn't make any of the HAVOC events, and so finished well down the field.  The race for third place went down to the wire, with 20 points separating third from sixth. In the end it was on the night bonuses that clinched thrid place for Dean Pepper - holding on by 3 points from Roy Read in fourth.  It was equally close for the top two positions.  Keith Bennett and Jackie Sibthorp locked in a battle.  Keith won 4 of the first 5 head to heads, but then Jackie hit back with two race wins and an organiser bonus.  It was all to play for.  15 points separated the two at the end - and it was a missing 15 point on the night bonus that eventually cost Jackie!  Congratulations to Keith, who adds the Winter series title to the Twilight title he won in the autumn!

Final leaderboards were:

Short course

Long course 

Thank you all rof running in the series.  Hope to see you for the Summer series, starting in April!

David

Winter Series 2025/26

The Essex Winter Midweek Series will again be run over the winter of 2025/26.  This will consist of 10 night street O events.

Series flyer.

Points will be awarded based on finishing times adjusted using an age/gender handicap system.  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.  7 min penalty for Anytime.  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) £30, Senior (non-member) £40,  junior £15

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

Note that for certain events we will also produce a Line course map, that you can run on Anytime.  This will not count for the league, but will use some of the score course controls.

Essex Winter Midweek Series 2025/26

Guidelines for each event:

- For this year we are using a Score based format.  This will have one map, but two time limits - Short (40 mins), Long (60 mins)

- However, if for a particular area a different format works better (Line, sprint etc) then that is fine

- Starts from 6.30pm to 7.30pm, courses close 9pm

- Start location should be a pub or similar

- Events are set up on MapRun to allow for on the night analysis, as well as Anytime Catch up for thise not able to attend on the night

- Mainly street based, although can offer off road route choice, if considered safe in the dark

- 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).

- In order to retain the ability for competitors to run a line course, it may be practical, for some events, to suggest a suitable line alternative route through the score controls.

Note:  As some events may use scoring rules or other mechanisms that are only available in MapRun, competitive manual scoring is not offered, although you are still welcome to run under manual timing, and control visits will be checked using a control card.

Defending champions from 2024/25 are:

Short Course

Long Course