BUCS 2025!

This weekend, ShUOC hosted the British University Orienteering Champs (BUCS) in the glorious Peak District! The annual event combines an individual race on Saturday with a relay on Sunday, and of course, a visit to the hosting city’s nightlife. This year, nearly 200 students from 19 universities travelled from across the country to proudly defend their university's honour.
To the surprise of us all, the weather Gods were kind to us this weekend, blessing us with sunshine throughout. This certainly helped make the weekend more enjoyable, as everyone was able to socialise pre and post race to discuss the various mistakes we made. The individual race at Birchen Edge kicked off the weekend - a classic Peak District area with complex boulder fields and vast expanses of tussock grass, which the planner made sure to make us visit in much detail. The competition was fast and furious on all six courses, which offered varying levels of technical and physical difficulties, allowing people of all experience levels to enjoy themselves. Despite some frozen portaloos and the first-aid car getting stuck in the mud, the event ran smoothly! 
After the individual, everybody headed back to their accommodation before descending on Trafalgar Warehouse (strategically located outside of the JK sprint embargo) for the start of the evening's festivities. Each university had a different time period assigned to them for fancy dress and the array of costumes on display was great to see, even if some EUOC members were a little confused about the difference between cavemen and cavers! Once everyone had refueled from the day’s race and had a chance to catch up with old friends, the meal ended with the real main event of the weekend as ShUOC extended their decade-plus winning streak in the annual BUCS beer race in emphatic fashion. The evening then carried on out into the wilds of Sheffield’s nightlife. We’ll leave the rest up to your imagination, but, judging by how worse for wear some of the relay teams looked on Sunday morning, people seemed to have had a good time.
On Sunday, the relays were hosted at Carsington Pastures, a fast area with a vast number of old mining features and multiple compass-confusing giant wind turbines (let us pretend that’s the reason we made mistakes). Edinburgh uni had a very successful day, claiming the win in both the men’s and Women’s relay, whilst also finishing 3rd in the men’s, and 2nd in the women’s. Sheffield weren’t far behind, coming second in the men’s and 3rd in the women's. This gave Edinburgh the overall victory, with Sheffield not far behind in 2nd, and Oxford in 3rd. 
Of course, the event isn’t all about winning. Many people take up orienteering for the first time whilst at uni, some even participated in their first real event at the individual. The effort from the smaller universities to get people to the event and into the sport as a whole is very admirable, and worthy of recognition. Without them the weekend would be much less exciting, so we’re very grateful for all the effort they have put in. BUCS is not only a weekend of catching up and drinking with university students, but also such a positive weekend for orienteering as a whole through spectating and participating in two races against some of the best in the country, whilst also combining a social aspect which is key to making the sport as enjoyable as possible. 
We would also like to express our gratitude to the DVO, SYO, and PFO helpers who planned, organised, controlled, and assisted on SI throughout the entire weekend. Many of them didn’t even get to run. Without the help of these lovely volunteers, the weekend would never have been possible, so we are extremely grateful for all they have done. 
By: The ShUOC Committee Team