The TVOC Junior Squad has qualified for the National Final of the inter-club Yvette Baker Trophy for the fourth year in a row. This comes as a result of various regional qualifying rounds taking place during March and April 2024. If you want to know how we did it, please read the Explanation paragraphs below that give all the details.
The YBT Final will be hosted by Happy Herts (HH) at Northaw Wood, which is near Potters Bar, just outside the M25 north of London; so not really very far away from TVOC-country. This will be a great opportunity for juniors who have not yet competed in a major national event to have a go and represent TVOC. View initial information about the Final.
So TVOC juniors (and parents!) – please put Sunday 7th July in your diary, because we are going to need as many of you as possible to compete in the Final. The YBT competition will happen from 12noon onwards, with prize giving at about 3.30pm (but there will also be non-YBT courses available for parents/siblings in the late-morning). If you know that you will definitely be available on 7th July (or indeed if you won’t), please let us know.
Big thanks go to all juniors (and their parents) for your support; and thanks to everyone who competed in the qualifying round in Sussex in March – you’ve made this possible. And thanks also to TVOC for the support the club has given the Junior Squad.
Explanation
The TVOC Junior Squad took part in the South-East YBT qualifying round hosted by Southdowns Orienteers (SO) on 17th March in Sussex, in which SO and TVOC were the only teams competing in that round. TVOC were just beaten by SO (see the results; SO with 895 points and TVOC with 893 points, so SO automatically qualified for the YBT Final.
On Sunday 21st April, TVOC hosted the South-Central YBT qualifying round, in which Happy Herts (HH) and Southern Navigators (SN) were the only teams competing in that round. HH beat SN (see the results here); HH with 896 points and SN with 890 points, so HH automatically qualified for the YBT Final.
TVOC and SN are the only two ‘large’ clubs in the South Central Orienteering Association (SCOA), so we are the only SCOA teams who compete in YBT qualifying rounds. Since neither SN nor TVOC automatically qualified for the 2024 YBT Final, paragraph 2.4.4 of the YBT Rules comes into play: “If any association is not represented in the Final then the highest scoring club from that Association from any Round will qualify, as long as they fielded a complete team.” A complete team for the YBT is at least 9 competitors, which both SN and TVOC had in our respective rounds. In April’s YBT qualifying round, SN scored 890 points; but, in the qualifying round in March, TVOC scored 893 points. This means that TVOC qualify for the 2024 YBT Final as the SCOA representatives.