Harlequins Orienteering Club

Congratulations to Harlequins’ Samuel Hudson, who has been selected for the England team in October’s Ward Junior Home Internationals. The event takes place on the weekend of 10th-11th October 2026 in Lochearnhead and Aberfoyle, Scotland, hosted by Forth Valley Orienteers. The format features teams in age categories M/W14, M/W16 and M/W18 from England, Ireland (all four provinces), Scotland and Wales in individual and relay races. Photo: Orienteering England

Saturday 4th July saw HOC’s Juniors take an excellent second place in the Yvette Baker Shield final organised by Swansea Bay Orienteering Club. HOC were narrowly pipped to the top spot by Norfolk Orienteering Club in the final at Penllergaer Valley Woods. Detailed results are on SBOC’s website. The achievement matches 2025’s second place. The Yvette Baker Trophy & Shield are the premier Junior Inter-Club competitions for English and Welsh clubs. Photo: Steve Blackmore

Harlequins’ trio of junior runners shone at the British Sprint Championships, held at Bristol University and University of the West of England sites on 27th-28th June. At Saturday’s relays, there was no suitable Junior class available for HOC’s line-up of Samuel Hudson, Georgina Hudson and Craig Thompson. So they entered the Ad Hoc category open to all comers – and won it! The HOC 1 team of Kin Wai Lee, Ka Man Leung and Alex Hudson came a creditable fourth…

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“Our juniors travelled to Stoke on Sunday (many laden down with cakes for the WMJS stall) optimistic that they could qualify for the Yvette Baker finals weekend again. They were relatively relaxed despite being light on numbers (thanks to some poorly timed jet-setting from the younger Blackmores), and DEE deciding to enter our qualifier and bringing good numbers. That confidence was well placed – four wins (Craig, Sam, Joey and Danny) and three second places (Peter, Gina and Jake) meant…

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Photo credit: Orienteering England England have retained the Interland Cup after a weekend of orienteering in Northern France on 14th-15th March. The six way competition pits teams from England, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, as well as French (FRSO) and Dutch (OV) speaking teams from Belgium against one another. Sunday’s race followed training activities on the Saturday, with a very close battle for top spot between England and OV. While the Belgian team had the biggest points haul in the Senior categories,…

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HOC’s Sam Hudson will be heading to Northern France with the England team to compete in Interland, the annual six-way event featuring teams from France, Wallonia and Flanders regions of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This year’s race takes place on March 16th. Sam’s strong performances late last year at the Midland Championships, the JIRCS 2025 event in the Lakes, and the Interland qualification race at Crabtree Hill in November secured his selection. Congratulations Sam! Photo : Wendy Carlyle

Harlequins’ Seb Blackmore represented England at the Ward Junior Home Internationals weekend, 11th & 12th October. Thanks to Steve Blackmore for his report and photos: “Seb made his home debut for England this weekend at the WJHIs hosted by SWOC.   The individual races took place at Merthyr Common on Saturday. With treacherous cliffs and pits, all competitors were required to carry phones but the England team took this in their stride and secured a commanding lead over Scotland.  In a…

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Seb Blackmore has been selected to represent England in October’s Ward Junior Home Internationals. The annual event is contested by teams of orienteers in the M/W14, M/W16 and M/W18 categories from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, with this year’s individual and relay races taking place on the weekend of 11th and 12th October in South Wales. Qualification was based on Seb’s performance compared to his fellow English M14’s across a series of events earlier this year – he gained his…

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HOC Juniors took 2nd place in the Yvette Baker Shield final last Sunday. Steve Blackmore reports: A hardy team of 8 juniors led by junior captain Craig made the long journey down to Capite Wood, East Sussex for the Yvette Baker Shield final.  Seb (junior club statistician) had crunched the numbers and was confident of a podium finish… Capite Wood was a good venue for the final – mostly runnable woods with the bracken well marked (especially the 8 foot…

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There was success for a number of Harlequins’ Juniors at the West Midlands Schools Championships. Thanks to Steve Blackmore for details and photos: “Under the guises of their various schools, our HOC juniors enjoyed a successful outing at this year’s WM schools event. Held by POTOC at Apedale, the courses were fast and so the morning cloud was welcomed by the runners (less so by the attending parents!)” Results: Y5 girls: Georgina Hudson 1st Y5 boys: Danny Fox 1st; Jake…

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