HOC at the British Middle Championships Weekend
Harlequins and our neighbouring club Octavian Droobers overcame a number of challenges to host the British Middle Championships and Midland Championships respectively at Brown Clee on 18th-19th April. Saturday’s British Middles saw five HOC members on the podium including three British Middle Distance champions: Georgina Hudson (1st W12), Alison Sloman (1st W90), Seb Blackmore (1st= M16), Jake Fox (2nd M10) & Andy Hemsted (2nd, M75). Photo credits: David Williams, Edward Lines, David Williams Sunday’s Midland Championships saw further HOC success…
Harlequins at the JK Festival
Over 30 Harlequins made their way up to Perthshire, Scotland for the annual Easter weekend 4 day festival of orienteering. Perth hosted the Day 1 Sprint with a City Centre arena, and courses either visiting North Inch Park, or starting to the east of the city centre across the River Tay. Early starters had the best of the weather with the rain coming down mid-morning making conditions slippery. Top 3 results from HOC members came from Danny Fox (2nd, M10),…
Congratulations to James Thomas …
… who somewhat belatedly received his award for winning M35 category in the 2025 UK Orienteering League at Tullochroisk on JK Relays day. The series provides competition in a variety of terrain types, across the United Kingdom; the British Middles hosted by Harlequins is round 9 of the 2026 season. Photo: Steve Blackmore
2026 HOC League standings after 6 events
The HOC League is designed to provide a chance for all Harlequins to compete in different age groups across all events where Members are representing HOC in a calendar year. Now that we have had 6 out of the 11 events expected to be part of the HOC League this season, the current positions are as follows, with thanks to Paul Hammond.
Juniors qualify for Yvette Baker Shield final
“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…
Sam features in England victory at Interland
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,…
SMApp / NSL Season Overview and League Table 2025/2026
Series co-ordinator John Leeson shares his reflections on the season; scroll down for the final league table.
Winter Evening Event Final Table 2025/2026
Mandy Mackereth and David Williams are the champions of the winter’s six round test of night-time navigation. Congrats to both!
Success for Penny and Brian at British Long Distance & Welsh Champs
(Photos: Robert Lines) The British Long Distance Championships took place last Saturday at Carreg Goch in the Bannau Brycheiniog (formerly known as Brecon Beacons National Park). This wild and quite remote area, blessed with plenty of pits, depressions and rock features provided a suitable challenge and ‘varied weather’, with many competitors having to contend with a sudden hailstorm which punctuated the otherwise benign conditions. This year the event was run in conjunction with the Welsh Orienteering Championships, and we had two…