At least for now West Cumberland Orienteering Club’s activities continue as normal and there was a great turnout for the local heat of the national club competition, the Compass Sport Cup.

The competition sees runners of all ages competing to earn points which are calculated to give the club’s overall score.

This heat saw WCOC compete against two other clubs with local rivals Lakeland Orienteering Club and Manchester and District Orienteering Club at Breasty Haw and Bowkerstead, part of Grizedale Forest.

The return of several students bolstered the results in some classes including on the 6.83km brown men’s open course where Alastair Thomas took the win in 56:18, with Dan Spencer second, Steve Birkinshaw fourth and Ian Cumpstey 10th.

Ben Breeze took the win on the 5.56km short brown course with Joe Goodwin fifth, Mike Harrison ninth, Simon Hunter 10th and Steve Breeze 11th.

On the 4.72km blue women’s open course, top club performer was Helen Winskill in fourth, with Niamh Hunter sixth and Caitlin Pearson 11th and on the 4.77km blue men’s course Jamie Rennie took second, Alan Irving fourth, Steve Holmes sixth, Martin Skinner seventh, Andrew Bradley ninth and Graham Watson 11th.

The 3.33km green women’s course saw Lynne Thomas in fourth, Susan Skinner fifth, Ange Jackson ninth, Catherine Wetherfield 11th and Anne Burbidge 12th and on the 3.36km green men’s course best club finisher was Roger Thomas in sixth, with Ian Teasdale seventh, Dave Downes 15th, Jon Eaton 22nd and Bob Dredge 24th.

On the vets short green course, Mike Pearson took second, Bob Barnby third and Tony Duncan 20th and on the super vets course, Liz Elliott took second.

On the junior men’s green course Joe Sunley and Charlie Rennie took first and second, with Jonty Goodwin sixth and Henry Teasdale eighth, and on the junior women’s course there was another club one-two for Caitlin Irving and Isabel Sunley, with Emma Crawford fifth, Carys Thomas sixth and Jess Breeze seventh.

On the orange courses there was a win for Daniel Heppell on the men’s course, with Isaac Hunter fourth, Ash Boothroyd sixth, George Rennie seventh and Toby Heppell eighth and on the women’s course Daisy Rennie took the win with Sophie Crawford fifth and Eva Humphreys eighth.

The impressive results saw WCOC take the win with 2,448, nine ahead of LOC, to earn a place in the national final which is due to take place on October 18 at Sutton Park near Birmingham where they hope to improve on their last year’s fifth-place finish.

The club’s regular Thursday night events continued with an urban sprint at Slatefell Estate in Cockermouth.

On the 3km long course Sam Stead proved he can perform on tarmac as well as the fells and took the win in 19:34.

Rob Stein was second, just over a minute behind, and Jamie Rennie third.

First lady was junior Caitlin Irving in fourth, Ben Goodwin was fifth, Daisy Rennie sixth, Emma Crawford seventh, Alan Irving eighth, Steve Breeze ninth and Matt Stephens 10th. First senior lady was Caitlin Pearson in 12th.

On the 1.9km short course the win went to Charlie Rennie, with Sophie Crawford second, Alex Crawford third, Emma Mitchellhill fourth and George Rennie fifth.

The club’s next events are set to take place in Whitehaven, Scale Hill and Vulcan Park in Workington.

For more information about upcoming events, visit the club's website at www.wcoc.co.uk