The Summer Handicap Race took place last night at Peter & Jane Christopher's home as usual. The rain came down as usual, though, thankfully, not as much as last year. The handicap trophy was won in emphatic style by Norman Hall with a big lead over Sam Musters, who just finished ahead of his dad, Mike. The fastest run of the day was by Stodge, fresh from competing in the World MTBO Champs in Portugal.

The results in speed order are as follows:

The 22nd annual Shugborough Relays were held last night in warm and dry conditions. There was a large turn out as usual, though it is difficult to know if there were enough teams to challenge the peak of the 1990's of over 220. Making up for last year's paltry single team, Chasers managed to rustle up enough people to fill 5 teams. Keeping up the tradition of attending every event, Andy Yeates showed that there is still some life in the old dog by beating his 2009 time by 27 seconds. There are no results available as yet, but well done to everyone who turned up, whether to run or to support.

Mark Stodgell has just returned from a World Cup race in Poland with some great results after a shaky start to the season.

Returning to the UK for the British Championships, Stodge tried valiantly to compete with the broken ribs and a subsequent chest infection but finished 8th in the Middle Distance race and was forced to retire from the Long.

After a proper rest and recovery he is now back in form, shown by a great ride in the long distance race at the Polish World Cup this weekend being placed 26th. In Sunday’s relay race he handed over to second leg rider Emily Benham in 8th place after a fantastic ride, mixing it with the best in the world, only a minute down on the leaders. Emily continued with another great ride to pull the team up to 6th before disappointingly their third leg rider was forced to retire.

The Polish event also hosted the World Masters (40 +) Championships where the UK returned with 2 gold’s and a bronze, a fantastic result for British Mountain Bike Orienteering.

With the results in Poland and Hungary have now placed him 50th in the World rankings, Stodge is now concentrating on preparation for the World Champs to be held in Portugal in mid July. His blog at www.stodgell.co.uk is also going from strength to strength with both a UK and international following of over 100 visitors a day on racing weekends when it becomes the place to look for up to date information.

In a closely fought competition, only 1 minute 21 seconds separated the top 3 places in the Women’s Short class. Kerina Lake set off on the first leg for Chasers and returned 4 minutes down on the leader, TVOC, in 10^th place. Julia Ferguson had some work to do the make up the time. MDOC failed to keep up the momentum and were soon overtaken. At the end of the 2^nd leg, Julia ran the 3^rd fastest time and Chasers were now only 2 minutes down on the new leader, MDOC. All now rested on the shoulders of Jo Thompson. Soon the leading team was announced. It was SROC with a clear lead. One minute later SOC appeared on the run in with Jo just 10 seconds behind to take 3^rd place. A fantastic achievement.

Leicestershire Orienteering Club held the Orienteering Midland Championships 2010 at Belvoir Castle last Sunday. The last major event held here was in 1981, so this was a new area for almost all competitors. The estate comprises the Castle grounds of two huge bowls and an escarpment some 5km long, all of which can be extremely steep sided. The recent rain had made the ground a little soft and climbing up or dropping down the steep slopes became quite slippery in places.

Four Walton Chasers took all of this into their stride by becoming Midland Champions in their age class despite fierce competition. They were Norman Hall on M75L, Sophie Thomas on W20L, Kerina Lake on W21L and Beth Clayton on W45L. Many congratulations to them all!

Mountain Bike Orienteering (MBO) specialist Mark Stodgell opened his domestic season for 2010 with a solid 3rd place at the first National League Trailquest MBO score event, held at Sherwood Pines near Mansfield last weekend just behind fellow Great Britain riders Killian Lomas of Sheffield and Liam Corner of Manchester. The forecast 30 mph winds and sleet luckily did not materialise as the 165 riders contended with two map scales navigating the complex tracks and trails of this famous forest.

Stodgell will be riding on home territory in late March when the National League moves to Cannock Chase for the weekend before packing up his bike to head for Sweden where he will train and compete at the European pre-season camp.

On Sunday, 24^th January 2010, Walton Chasers took part in the CompassSport on Worcestershire Beacon, part of the Malvern Hills to try and win a place in the final. Sadly, we, missed out by only 90 points. OD won with HOC second, so both clubs go through to the final as OD were in the final last year. With 90 more points we would have gone through instead of HOC.

Jane Christopher has been selected to represent England in the Interland Competition to be held later this year in Belgium. Congratulations to Jane!

Chasers were lacking strength in depth at the New Years Day score event this year, but two notable performances were Stodge clearing the course in 55.30 in second place and Beth Clayton first woman in 10th overall with 310. Chasers came 4th overall.