Almost 70 members of West Cumberland Orienteering Club took part in the regional heat of the Compass Sport Cup; a national competition, where qualifying clubs compete in the final in the south of England in October.

WCOC took on AIRE (Yorkshire), MDOC (Manchester) and LOC (Lakeland) on a newly mapped area of Bampton Common. The area provided good running on open fell with extensive marshy areas; intersected with steeper-sided river valleys.

There were some exceptional performances with WCOC taking maximum points on no fewer than eight of the courses through, Lynne Thomas, Simon Hunter, Niamh Hunter, David Spencer, Daisy Rennie, Elizabeth Elliot, Wilfred Teasdale and Joe Sunley.

Others contributing to the final points total were; Mike Billinghurst, Daniel Spencer, Phil Winskill, Caitlin Irving, Charlie Rennie, Alastair Thomas, Myrtle Ashworth, Ben Breeze, Mike Pearson, Dave Downes, Rosie Spencer, Hiroki Holmes, Richard Cummings, Steve Birkinshaw, Jamie Rennie, Ange Jackson and Ann Cummings.

The excellent team performance resulted in WCOC winning the heat with a total of 2450 points; with the AIRE second with 2418 points. The cup is one that WCOC have never won so the club hopes to send a strong team to the final.

This week’s Thursday night event was also on a new area to the club, Moorclose in Workington. The area made for excellent sprint courses with care needed to avoid heading down one of the many dead-ends.

On the 3.7km long course; juniors battled it out for the top places, with Joe Sunley taking the win in a time of 18:09 minutes; with Charlie Rennie only 27 seconds behind in second. Sam Stead was third. First lady was Niamh Hunter in fourth.

On the 2.4km short course, less than a minute separated the first three finishers. The in-form Daisy Rennie won in 18:30; with Emma Crawford second in 18:53 and Bob Barnby third in 18:59.

George Rennie took the win on the novice course, ahead of Katherine Caine and Rob Stein.

In the coming weeks there will be events in Whitehaven, Camerton, Aughertree Fell and Knock Murton.

For information visit www.wcoc.co.uk