On Sunday 7th July our 50 strong team of juniors travelled to Sandringham, home of the Queen, to compete in the final of the 2019 Yvette Baker Trophy. 

It was an early start from Sheffield but the coach made good time and by 10.30am the team were setting up camp in the assembly field ready for the competition. While the juniors chilled and prepared for the races with nail and face painting, the adults rushed straight to the start to complete their runs prior to the start of the competition. Sandringham is a lovely woodland with very little bramble cover but the heavy rain followed by warm sunshine over the past few weeks has provided very fertile conditions for bracken growth! What would be a very easy control normally is significantly harder when you need to navigate your way through head high bracken and a number of the adults recorded some rather long times! At least we could console ourselves that we were creating elephant tracks for the juniors!

Our first juniors started just after 12.30 and it wasn't long before our yellow runners began streaming confidently into the finish, followed shortly by the first of our orange runners. As time passed we had lots of yellow, orange and even green course finishers but no light green competitors! Eventually though, to our relief, they started to return. The light green course was incredibly challenging in the bracken and early light green runners did not have the elephant tracks that the green competitors had. Towards the latter end of the competition the times speeded up thanks to the early runners forging the trails to the controls!

By 2.30pm all our runners were safely back and there was just time for ice-cream before the start of the prize giving. The Shield competition for smaller clubs was won by SOS with PFO in 2nd and HOC in 3rd. Then it was time for the trophy results......HH were announed 3rd in with 862 points, SO in 2nd with 880 and......for the 3rd year in a row.....SYO were announced as champions with a score of 897 (out of a possible 899)! 

As soon as the prize giving was over we bundled onto the coach for the long journey back to Sheffield. However, the celebrations continued on the coach with lollipops (thanks Dave) and the purchase of a new club mascot - Billie the Bee!

Congratulations to our 9 scorers:

Isabelle H - green girls - 100 points
Imogen - light green girls - 100 points
Freya - orange girls - 100 points
Charlotte - yellow girls - 100 points
James - orange boys - 100 points
Caspar - yellow boys - 100 points
Euan - green boys - 99 points
Anna - orange girls - 99 points
Freddie E - orange boys - 99 points
Ella (yellow girls) and Isaac (yellow boys) also scored 99 points but we did so well their scores weren't needed!

However, a huge well done must go to the whole team because even if they didn't score directly for SYO they helped push down the score of our competitors. Perhaps the most impressive statistic was that we didn't have a single retiral or mispunch and every single junior completed their course! 

Thank you to all the parent supporters and particularly team captain Jacky. Next year's final will be held in the South West on Sunday 5th July 2020.

SYO juniors picked up plenty of silverware at the recent Yorkshire Schools Champs held at Canklow near Rotherham. Congratulations to the medal winning club members:

Y4B - 1st Maxwell, 2nd Lawrence, 3rd Will P
Y5G - 1st Penny, 2nd Alice, 3rd Ellen
Y5B - 1st Oscar, 2nd Oli, 3rd Jake
Y6G - 1st Anna, 2nd Margaux
Y6B - 1st Robbie, 2nd Ben A, 3rd Toby
Y7G - 1st Isabelle, 2nd Ciara, 3rd Ruth
Y7B - 1st Isaac, 2nd James, 3rd John
Y8/9G - 1st Imogen, 2nd Millie, 3rd Alexandra
Y8/9B - 1st Euan, 2nd Matthew, 3rd Conrad
Y10/11G - 1st Isobel, 2nd Naomi
Y10/11B - 1st Max, 2nd Will G, 3rd Sam D
Y12/13B - 1st Dom

The May Day bank holiday weekend saw the British Orienteering Champs visit Yorkshire for 3 days of top quality racing.

The British Mixed Sprint Relays were a new addition to the weekend and kicked racing off to an exciting start. Bradford University offered challenging urban orienteering on surprisingly hilly terrain. SYO’s mixed sprint teams performed incredibly well, particularly in the junior categories as we were missing many of our older juniors at the World Schools Orienteering Champs in Estonia. There were two fabulous wins – our vets team of Andy, Kim & Oli and our under 12s team of Robbie, Anna & James. There was a well-deserved silver for our under 16s team of Matthew, Freya & Will and there was bronze for our 2^nd under 12s team of Oscar, Lawrence & Charlotte, who all still have another couple of years in this category!

Sunday saw proceedings move to the Yorkshire Dales and the limestone pavements of Kilnsey. There were some fabulous performances from our members with a whopping 7 British Champions crowned. Congratulations to Robbie (M12), Tim T (M55), Peter G (M70), Charlotte (W10), Freya (W12), Kim (W40) and Amanda (W45). There were silver medals for James (M12), Ella (W10) and Judy (W65). Well done also to Freddie G who took his first victory on M10B.

The final day of racing was the forest relays at Middleton Park in Leeds. The athletics stadium made a super arena with excellent spectating. Courses were surprisingly challenging with lots of runners getting caught out by the numerous thickets and paths. Relay day also saw the return of our WSOC juniors which bolstered the numbers in the junior classes. With 5 class wins and 4 other podium positions it is safe to say that SYO had a very successful relay day!

Congratulations to:

1^st Women’s Open – Kim, Mary & Cat
1^st M40 – Andy, Nick B and Oli
1^st M50 – Martin, Bill & Tim
1^st W18 – Isabelle, Isobel & Alex E
1^st M14 – Jamie, Olmo & Conrad
2^nd W14 – Imogen, Freya & Alex
2^nd Mini – Robbie, Anna & James
3^rd Mini – Oscar, Ella & Charlotte
3^rd M18 – Dom, Max & Euan
3^rd W40 – Jenny J, Lucy & Amanda

Next year’s BOC will be held in the South East over the weekend of 19^th & 20^th March with both races to be held on a new area names Marley Heights. Get the date in your diary – we need to make sure we retain all those titles we picked up this year!