The ninth and penultimate event of the Poacher Spring Series took place in the beautiful grounds of the Riseholme Campus, with nearly 50 orienteers from HALO and LOG going head-to-head for the Lincs Challenge Shield, along with the usual Spring Series placings up for grabs. Father and son act, Andy and Craig Lucas took charge of the evening’s proceedings, with a fast and furious Prologue followed by a fiendish woodland Chase.
At the halfway stage, LOG had pulled well clear of their HALO rivals and this lead was consolidated across the Chase to see the LCS wrestled back from its place in the northern reaches of the region. The final scores of 1300pts to LOG and 887pts to HALO left no room for doubt!
In the Spring Series, many of the titles are now decided with only one race to go. Paul Murgatroyd, this year’s Long course winner, claimed his seventh win of the series, with club colleagues, Richard Crabb and Kevin Swinbourne taking second and third positions respectively. Kevin has an outside chance of wrestling the Masters’ trophy from David Jolly, but the latter remains in pole position. The Women’s Long course title is now settled, with LOG’s Amanda Roberts having now done enough to take the honours here.
On the Medium, it was a HALO 1-2, with Paulius Malkevicius just pipping his compatriot, Dave Brown, on the evening, with young LOG’er, Michael May, showing his potential with a strong third place. Dave Brown has done enough to be the Medium course champion and whilst Amanda Mylett is currently in pole position for the Women’s Medium course title, there are two or three contenders still lurking to snatch victory away from her next week. The Super Vet’s and Ultra Vet’s titles also remain to be decided, with a number of contenders on both the Long and the Medium in the mix.
Finally, the Short saw Jonny Ogden return to winning ways, as he consolidated his unassailable position at the top of this series, with Geoff Gibbs and Pat Simmons claiming the other podium positions on the night.
Results from the LCS and SS event, and penultimate Series tables, are now up on the respective pages here and here. Next week is the fifth and final HALO event of the series at Kingsway, Scunthorpe and entries are through their website here
