It was ideal conditions for this navigation evening as 35 competitors, including a junior, set off to challenge their navigation skills against the dark and the clock, with some running solo and others as teams.

The penalty points for taking more than the allotted hour are quite harsh and most of the runners with previous experience of this event made sure that they were back with time to spare.

It was close between the top five finishers, but once more Mark Nutter showed his mastery of this event and his intimate knowledge of the area to finish first solo runner and overall winner.  This saw him once more add his name to the Badger Trophy as first runner from Clayton.

Close behind Mark was the Chew brothers team who finished second overall and first team winners.  They were chased hard by Sam Wadsworth & Andrew Driver, who finished in joint third position, along with the redoubtable Neil Hardiman, another Claytoner renown for his night time navigational skills and knowledge of the local area.  As if to emphasise that this is Clayton territory, Ralph Baines was the third solo finisher and his club mates Andy Firth & Peter Dugdale were third team.

First solo lady was Jean Brown, who took her young son Christopher with her. 

The harshness of the time penalty points was brought home by the fact that the last four runners and teams ended in negative point territory.  There was a prize of the "Richard Briscoe Wooden Spoon" for the runner or team with the least points.  Richard tried hard to win the spoon bearing his name by losing a battery out of his head torch and returning in the dark, but Chris Barnes was having such an enjoyable time trying to find the check points that he overlooked the price he would pay for being back late and it was he who returned home with his dubious prize.

Full Results

The results are now out for this meeting and make good reading for those who made the long journey to Barrow.  The men's team were second overall out of all four divisions and have once more secured maximum points towards the target of the division three championship.

The ladies' team were 10th overall and secured maximum points in the third division and they are now leading their table.

Individual Results - Ladies

3 Sarah Tipler 20:22
41 Jennifer Hird 24:39
64 Leanne Dinsdale 27:05

Individual Results - Men

7 Stephen Chew 31:16
11 Chris Singleton 31:33
13 Marc Hartley 31:55
31 Ian Livesey 33:16
32 Chris Smale 33:38
50 Dan Taylor 35:25
60 Andrew Carson 35:5
128 Stuart Bryan 40:43
190 Robert Whipp 49:57