Results now available at Provisional Results – White Downs & South Ranmore – 15 Feb 2026 .
Please post your routes to Routegadget.
WinSplits are available here.
The results are posted on the British Orienteering site here.
Apologies we couldn’t live post at the event – no phone signal at the assembly.
Planners’ comments
Our apologies for the weather. It was atrocious out there. Hence a big congratulations to everyone who turned up and ran in the conditions. The worst conditions were earlier on, and course retiral rates were highest for those that started before 11am.
Our apologies also for the printing quality of the map – the ink on the paper from the printers (and to a degree the paper itself) did not cope with the conditions and we are following up with them on this. This appeared to be worse for the later runners – i.e. for whom the maps had been in the wet the longest. The fading of the maps in the rain will also have potentially slowed competitors down (also meaning getting colder too, and increasing retiral rates further…).
A massive thanks to the helper teams that worked hard throughout the foul weather from 7.45am to 5pm. And just as if to say well done, the sun finally shone for a beautiful sunset at 5.15pm. If only we had had the event the day before during the lovely weather!
Feedback was it was tough out there in the forest – and combined with the conditions, many long times and retirees. The area hasn’t been used for 10 years for an event like this, so I didn’t have much recent data to go on for planning. The small amount I had used to guide my planning, from 10 years ago, was (with this event’s finishing times added):
- Brown course in 2016 had height-corrected length of 10.9k, winning time of 56 mins;
(brown course in 2026 had height-corrected length 10% longer at 12.0k, winning time of 91 mins was 63% longer) - Blue course in 2016 had height-corrected length of 7.5k, winning time of 42 mins;
(blue course in 2026 had height-corrected length 5% longer at 7.8k, winning time of 68 mins was 62% longer) - Green course in 2016 had height-corrected length of 4.9k, winning time of 36 mins;
(green course in 2026 had height-corrected length 7% longer at 5.2k, winning time of 58 mins was 61% longer)
I think I conclude from this that the forest has got ~62% tougher in the last decade! I’m sure there are other interpretations!
As a planner I had spent a lot of time walking the area to identify the tougher spots to avoid, and this also put quite some constraints on areas I chose not to use, so all courses for example got routed N and S of the block of woodland between Pickett’s Hole and Ranmore Lodge. The steepest slopes of Pickett’s Hole were entirely ruled out (good decision in hindsight, given the weather). There were also some patches of woodland marked as white on the map which are absolutely clear and super fast running that I was really keen for you to encounter; unfortunately these were later on for the longest courses, so, early retirees on Black / brown for example wouldn’t have reached them. There are also some other patches of woodland which are also marked as white on the map but are less runnable – I appreciate this was tricky for competitors. The courses were in many cases shorter distances (excl. height gain!) than other recent SE league events, and I know of at least one who took that as an tempter to try out a black course – I suspect the individual got his money’s worth.
Feedback I got was that the courses were a welcome challenge compared to some other areas in the south east, requiring strong navigational work to accomplish successfully. And going full circle, that was difficult if the map ink had come off!
Organiser’s comments
My apologies for organising the event on the wrong day of the weekend! The Planner and I enjoyed setting things up in Saturday’s sunshine; what a shame it wasn’t the same weather on the Sunday. Thank you to all those who braved the drop in temperature, the lashing rain, gusty winds and, of course, the mud.
I took a decision to use the school car park to provide adequate hard-standing for over 300 competitors. Not only was it proving difficult to find a suitable field close to the running area, but we would have been faced with supplying vast amounts of track matting and probably, even then, having tractors on hand to drag cars out of mud. The downside was unfortunately a 1.5km trek to Assembly along a bridleway that had already been badly cut up by many horses’ hooves and then turned into a quagmire by the rain. At least we were able to plan the start, finish and download on the nearest edge of the running area adjacent to the National Trust car park.
Thank you for the useful feedback from one or two of you on signage, which I was able to quickly remedy, and I’m sorry that you went a little astray getting to the start.
There are several items of lost property: A black Born Rich jacket, a red medium size 2018 London Marathon jacket, a Lakes 5 Day snood, a black sock, a black woollen glove and a Vapro clear plastic glasses case. Please let me know if any of those are yours and I’ll arrange to get them to you at a coming event.