SOME 45 orienteers braved the cold at a Wessex Night League event in Amesbury.

The event was a score type with a few twists organised by Sarum Orienteers’ Charlotte Thornton.

There were 30 controls to visit in 60 minutes, but there was an added twist that made route-planning decisions more difficult.

To gain the early finish time, bonuses were on offer (10 points for each minute under the hour) then runners had to start by visiting all the controls valued at 10 points, followed by the 20 point controls and finally the 30 point controls, rather than simply finding the shortest routes to visit all the controls. For each minute taken over the hour, there was a 10-point penalty.

Some competitors took on the challenge of trying to gain bonus points, which three managed to do.

Jamie Ranson (Wimbourne) won in 53.48 minutes with 560 points with fellow club member John Oakes second (540 points) and Mike Frizzell (Basingstoke) third with 530 points. Three other runners attempted the bonus challenge but two, Paul Pickering (WIM) and Paul Lane (Sarum) each missed one control. Jeff Butt of Sarum visited all the controls but failed to complete the task in under the hour by two minutes.

Best-placed Sarum runner was Martin Goddard (10th) with 500 points in 48 min but not qualifying for bonus time points as he opted not to take on the sequence challenge.