ABOUT 200 orienteers congregated at the Army’s training facility at Copehill Down on Salisbury Plain for Sarum Orienteers’ New Years’ Day event.

The deserted village, abandoned military equipment and surrounding countryside were ideal for the challenging Score Competition.

The control sites to be visited were scattered throughout the village and beyond as competitors, from ages four to 80, stuck to the special rules set by planner Andy Snell.

Runners had to visit as many of the 76 controls as they could within 60 minutes but they were required to visit even-numbered controls before switching to the odd-numbered ones.

Adding to the difficulty, the controls were marked on the map and on the ground only by their scoring values, making it easy to miss controls.

Overall winner was Matthew Whipple (M21), of Bristol University, visiting 69 controls in 58.05 minutes and scoring 285 points.

In second place was GB international Nick Barrable (M40; 70 controls, 273 points) and third place went to Tommi Grover (M40), from Finland, (65 controls, 259 points – in exactly 1 hour).

Best-placed Sarum runner was Adam Walker (M21; 58 controls, 235 points). Hazel Cutler (W20) of Sarum had an excellent run (47th; 55 controls, 214 points).