BACUP and Rawtenstall Grammar School and Christ the King RC Primary School in Burnley both medalled at the recent British Schools’ Orienteering Championships at Sherwood Pines Forest Park in Nottinghamshire.

Bacup, coached by teacher Tom Gray, has a proud tradition in the sport, and the school managed to raise a team of 33 to make the trip to Mansfield.

Sophie Horrocks won the individual bronze medal in the Year 10/11 Girls’ competition, scoring 280 points in the hour allowed.

For the Upper Secondary Boys, a combination of Year 10/11s and Year 12s brought them home third in the team standings with Simon Allan, Joseph Wood, Stephen Horrocks, Alex Willis, Liam Taylor and Hassan Shakeel together amassing 1,590 points.

The Upper Secondary Girls narrowly missed a medal finishing fourth of the 11 teams, but the Lower Secondary Girls made amends with another bronze.

Counters for the team were Year 9s Emily Jesson and Lucy Horrocks, Heather Cudworth and Rachel Service from Year 8, and the Year 7s who hunted in pairs, Phoebe Jesson with Z Fayyaz and Emily Snape matched with Iffath Javeed.

Meanwhile, Christ the King, inspired by their teacher Maureen Ashton, won the silver medal in the Primary Boys’ class.

Marcus Preedy was sixth in a field of 29, and was capably backed by Lewis Clare in 11th, Ronan Spencer 15th, and Ryan Grimes in 21st.

Mrs Ashton and Mr Gray are leading lights at our local orienteering club Pendle Forest Orienteers, and the club have now announced the final results for their Autumn Series held on four successive Saturday mornings.

The club managed to build on their success at the Towneley Colliery meeting by attracting more than 80 to Spring Wood in Whalley including around 50 children.

It was a similar story at Thompson Park in Burnley, once again held in good conditions, but attendances were understandably down in the final fixture at Tockholes due to a combination of poor weather and a clash with the British Schools’ competition.

In the ‘Yellow’ class, the series winners were Emily Jesson (BRGS Year 9) and Oskar Hatfield (CTK Year 6).

The best girl and boy in the ‘Orange’ class were Carolyn Hindle (Poynton High Year 7) and Matt Buckley (Blessed Trinity Year 8) while the best over the ‘Technical’ courses was David Wallis, a Year 11 student from Clitheroe Royal Grammar.

* You can find out more about Pendle Forest Orienteers on the club website www.pfo.org.uk.