SHI 2025 The Senior Home Internationals was held in the Lake District this year over the weekend of 27/28th September.
We had pulled together a full and strong team to take on the other home Nations, with our main goal being to win back to the Celtic Cup from the Irish. Saturday held an epic long distance near Coniston, featuring technical woodland, detailed open fell, and everyone’s fill of bracken. The team were prepared for the distance and, bar a couple of unfortunate missed punches, everyone in our team completed the courses in full which is a huge testament to all. Top Welsh results in each category were Freddie Lake 5th in M20, Ben Mitchell 5th in M21, Anwen Hockley 9th in W20, Megan Mitchell 2nd in W21. Full results can be found here: https://www.lakeland-orienteering.org.uk/results-archive/2025/2025-09-27-torver-back-common-shi-individual/index.html
Overnight Wales were 2 points ahead of Ireland, giving us a small advantage going into the Relay on the Sunday. The Relays were held on Haverigg sand dunes. The first teams off were the Men’s followed by the Women’s relay. After a speedy start and first loop of the Men’s relay, a couple of the Welsh teams seemed to be missing from the field. Then someone spotted Reuben Lawson supporting an injured Freddie Lake in coming back to the arena. Reuben kindly brought Freddie all the way back to the finish and then ran back out and continued on his course, while Freddie was tended to by First Aid. Huge thanks to Reuben for being a great sport! In the end we had only one finishing men’s team after a mispunch. In the Women’s relay, we had some strong runs and all three teams finished. The Irish women were however stronger than us today, with a great show at the front end of the relay! The points table tipped into their favour and Wales finished 4th overall, but we were all in good spirits and happy recipients of Grasmere Gingerbread as momentos from the organisers. Full relay results here: https://www.lakeland-orienteering.org.uk/results-archive/2025/2025-09-28-haverigg-shi-relays/index.html
Thank you to the organisers at Lakeland Orienteering Club for a brilliant weekend of orienteering, and to all of the staff at the accommodation Castle Head Field Studies Centre.
On a side note, we are looking for a new Senior Team Manager for 2026. Please contact me (Megan Mitchell) if you are interested in helping. Many thanks.