Ranked orienteering events for 2024

Following my return to the British Orienteering rankings after the Hexham Urban event, one of my goals for 2024 is to boost that ranking further by attending more ranked events. A while back, I found what I think is a fixture list giving all such events around the UK for the coming year. At least, if "major fixtures" means "ranked events", that's true. Whatever, it's time to get organized!

DALL-E, Unsplash and Google Images all failed me. Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay.

I'll start by looking for events hosted by my local clubs: NATO (Newcastle and Tyneside Orienteers), NN (Northern Navigators), and CLOK (Cleveland Orienteering Klub). And maybe also BL (Border Liners). I'll probably then whittle that list down by travel time and possibly by event type (forget the team events; too much pressure).

My goal's only to get 2 more ranked events done, but the list has plenty more than 2 options in it. And while I started this post in early January, it's now late-January and I've already done one major event — the Simonside Classic — this last weekend (post coming soon). It would be awesome to set a stretch goal later of getting a full set of 6 events contributing to my ranking, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

<heads off to filter events data in Excel>

OK! So, here's the list of events I'm currently considering for my second ranked event this year:
  • 4th Feb: Regional Classic Distance (CLOK) at Eston Moor
  • 25th Feb: NE Score Championships (NATO) at Dukes House Wood, Hexham
  • 12th May: Washington Urban (NATO) at... well, Washington
  • 9th Jun: Sewingshields Regional (NATO) at Sewingshields, Haydon Bridge
  • 22nd Sep: Regional Urban (CLOK) at Barnard Castle Town Centre
  • 5th–6th Oct: October Odyssey (CLOK), venue TBD
  • 17th Nov: Durham Urban Event (NN) at Durham, obviously
Not sure about the score event, mind; not so much cos it's a score event, but more because I'm not mad on Dukeshouse Woods. Still, at least it's not too far away. I've chopped all of the Border Liners events out of the list of potentials, as they really are a long drive. Maybe the score event will be my next event. And then we can look at setting an early stretch goal. 😀

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