Kent Night Cup 2024-25

Published: Mon 19 Aug 2024

There's something special about sport in the dark: road running under streetlights; football under floodlights; caving where few will go; and of course, orienteering in the forest.

The Kent Night Cup (KNC) was started many years ago as a weekly training evening, with a slightly competitive edge.    It also serves as a sort of joint Saxons/DFOK club night. And so, on Thursday evenings in the autumn and winter, for those who can attend, we get our orienteering fix on a weekly basis.

As it’s a mass Score start, everybody is gathered at the same time, jabbering away with excitement, optimism, nerves, apprehension, or even a hint of resignation. Once you start, you soon forget it's dark, and that you can't see very far. Your brain kicks into gear, and you saunter off to find the first control. If you've made a good choice, then a stream of lights will be reassuringly going the same way too. And then for the next hour you will come across likeminded souls scurrying in all directions. You might even get to help one of the experienced orienteers if they've lost contact with the map. With a 60 minute limit, people finish at roughly the same time, and after each of us has had a 15 second grumble (to the nearest sympathetic listener) about one's own non-perfect route choice, the fun of the evening is then unravelled and (dark) humour introduced.

We visit a local pub afterwards, which is sometimes rather grandly referred to as Apres-O. One of the regulars is somehow always first to the pub, so he might just have his priorities sorted. It's not a messy drinking session as the term Apres-O might imply. It's more of an informal post-match inquest as we dissect our runs and try to decide who did pick the best routes - even if that person wasn't the fastest or even scored the most points. You might even chat to your secret opponent and discover why they are always one rung above you in the usual results lists. We make sure that the pub can serve meals if you need food after your run. The course planner can announce the results, and we usually have a slightly random prize giving just for those competitors who made it to the pub.

Just to whet your appetites, on Thursday 10th October, we are having a taster session of night orienteering (KNC Prologue, Thu 10 Oct 2024). This is primarily for those who haven't tried (much) night orienteering before, to have a go at a short MapRun street course, and a short forest O course. If you want, you can be accompanied round by one of our coaches or experienced night orienteers to pass on some of their wisdom and reassurance. We'll bring along an assortment of headtorches for you to try out - as working out which to purchase can be a dilemma, so don’t worry if you don’t already own one.

The season for real, will then start the following week on Thursday 17th October – see the events listed out under Kent Night Cup 2024/25. Other information about the Kent Night Cup can be found under Kent Night Cup.