Orienteering England

The 2024 Interland match on 24 March was hosted by Belgium at Habay-la-Neuve in the Ardennes. England won by a small margin with Belgian Orienteering Vlaanderen (OV) second and Belgian Fédération Régionale des Sports d’Orientation (FRSO, our hosts) third. England also won the embedded Junior Trophy (based on aggregated under 20 scores). The experience for the junior element of the England team will stand them in good stead for their future international orienteering endeavours.

Habay-la-Neuve offered typical Ardennes terrain: several steep-sided valleys bisecting plateaus with many point features, some more distinct than others; mainly (85%) deciduous forest with generally good visibility but variable runnability: see the vignettes below.

England competes annually in this six-sided match against the two Belgian teams (the Flemish OV and Walloons of FRSO), the Netherlands (Nederlandse Oriënteringsloop Bond – NOLB), the French Ligue des Hauts de France de Course d’Orientation (LHFCO), and for the first time Luxembourg. Whilst the competition is a team effort, spanning age groups from 14 to 60+, so teams of 42, individual wins were recorded by: Bethan Buckley (W14), Lucy Walker (W21), Jane Morgan (W60), Vince Nagy-Kovacs (M17), Nick Barrable (M50) and Quentin Harding (M60). Podia spots were earned by: Hannah Chapman (W14), Jackie Hallett (W60), Oscar peel (M17), Andy Simpson (M50), Jocie Hilton (W20), Christine Goulding (W60), Maxwell Groom (M14), Alex Wetherill (M21) and Clive Hallett (M60). Notable class results (and thus maximum points) were a 1-2-3 by the W60s, and 1-2s by the W14s, the M17s and the M50s. The individual results are at https://helga-o.com/webres/index.php?lauf=5154. The team results are shown in the table below.

The England team assembled near Egham, Surrey and travelled by coach, crossing on the Dover-Dunkirk ferry and stopping in Oostduinkerke (YH) Friday night. On the Saturday, after a short stop en route to admire the medieval city of Namur and its dominating citadel, there was the opportunity to train in La Vallée du Rabais near Virton, terrain and mapping similar to the competition area. Several Interland teams stayed at the ADEPS Chiny Sports Centre: very comfortable with good food; and plenty of it. It was a pleasure to present 11 new English internationals with their England badges, and celebrate four birthday girls with cakes. After Interland we retraced to Dunkirk (via a chocolate shop) and thence by ferry to Dover and via Egham, to points north and west, getting home well into Monday morning.

I’d like to record the team’s thanks to our hosts FRSO; to Mel Elkington for sorting out all the clothing; to Harriet Lawson for paying the bills; to Barry Elkington for acting as assistant team manager; to the athletes who drove and gave lifts; and to those parents, both orienteers and not, who supported team members by helping with travel, some from a long way away, and to De Vere Beaumont Estate hotel for allowing parking.

The 2025 Interland Cup is to be hosted by the Dutch in the Drenthe region of the Netherlands (south west of Assen) on 2 March.