Today was the Compass Sport Cup Qualifier round over on the Darnley Estate, just off the A2 in Kent. The CSC is a national inter club Orienteering competition, with Regional qualifying rounds and a national final in October for the winning clubs from the qualifiers.

Having gone out with Clare last night for a meal and a couple of drinks and got in late, it wasn't a great start to today ! The Blue womens course was 7.2kms and according to my Forerunner I actually ran 8.5kms.

We were parking at Shorne Country Park, which is an interesting place - they have a wind turbine and lots of solar panels and a lovely, environmentally friendly visitor centre. The start was a 20mins walk from the car park and was right next to the new high speed Eurostar railway line ! It was also very wet and muddy underfoot, after all the rain we had last night. I started off ok, a bit slow and cautious, to make sure I found the first control ok, but soon got into the map and the navigation. The first part of the course was reasonably straightforward, just a fairly large number of brambles to avoid ! Various options for route choice existed too, which was good. There was an area which had been cleared somewhat, which was kind of mapped so didn't throw me as much as cleared areas often do !

 The second distinct area was the parkland around Cobham Hall, which was really nice, I made a bit of a mistake after control 12 on a short leg to 13, where I went a bit too far east and had to track back west to 13, which lost me some time. Otherwise, so far, was a bit slow but the navigation wasn't too bad. It was then back across the railway and the A2 into Shorne. This area was a bit more tricky and technical and with a number of shorter legs, you really had to stay focussed and plan route choices quickly. It was also a nice area, very wet and again some brambles, especially on some of my route choices !!

Overall, not a great run, I took 88 mins and Laura 65, Anna 71, so not too far behind the others, but could have done better I think.

Thanks to Rob Lines for the photo !