On Saturday, 10 boys travelled to Yorkshire for the British Schools Orienteering Championships. With 2 previous medallists in the team, we had reason to travel in hope, but we couldn't have imagined what a successful day it would turn out to be.

Top billing must go to William Blyth Bartram, who repeated his success of last year by coming second in the year 9 boys’ race, by the skin of his teeth. William's total of 21 checkpoints in a time of 45:59, gave him a total of 205 points. If he had taken 1 more second, he would have been given another 5 point penalty, which would have seen him drop to 5th place. Such are the fine margins between joy and despair.

Our biggest individual score of the day was the 240 points amassed by team captain Steven Denby. This was enough to secure Steven 3rd place on the 6th form course, beating his arch rival from the Perse to win his 3rd national medal in 6 attempts.

So we went to the presentation knowing we had won 2 medals, but not knowing the results in the team competition. With our best 6 scores to count, we knew we had a good set of results in the senior boys category, but so did several other schools. It was a long 45 minutes before the result was announced. By another very small margin, we had snuck into 3rd place (ahead of the Perse), which meant that everyone would be going home with a medal. The full team was Steven Denby (L6N), William Blyth Bartram (L5S), Charlie Austin (L6P), Louis Cann (L6V), George Clements (U6V), James Thistlewood (U5B), James Price (M5C), Josh Kohler (M5V) and Patrick Thomas (M5E).

Congratulations to all of the team in what was the school’s most successful day yet at an orienteering national championships and with just one Upper 6 in the squad the team can look forward to further success.