Ok, so I am taking part in the Dark and White trailquest league and round four is in Grindleford this coming Sunday (weather permitting). Anyway, I have a compass but only have got lost once on one round, just have never got my head around using it with the map properly, have had a look online but the wording is just ridiculous most of the time. May sound daft but its just one of those skills I have never learnt, but think I had better! So can someone explain the usage of a compass properly in dumba$$ language please? Cheers!

Have you tried the OS site?
Or the Duke Of Edinburgh's Award site? http://www.theaward.com

To take a bearing:

Line up the baseplate along the line of travel on the map (ie, lay it on the map and connect points A and B). Hold firmly in place.

Turn the circular housing until the big red arrow is parallel to the eastings on the map (the blue lines running N-S).

The bearing is the number at the white line on the top of the scale

To follow a bearing:

Hold the compass level and turn it until the red magnetic needle is lined up with the big red housing arrow. Walk in the direction of the baseplate arrow.

About as simple as I can manage…

Easy peasy map reading

and again

edge of compass along line of where you are and where you want to go, line the parallel lines on the twisty thing up with the n-s lines on the map, line up needle with same lines, follow arrow. I never bother with magnetic variation as it poses the risk of being 8 degrees out if you **** it up.

cheers stuartie_c, makes absolute sense, info on websites make it sound more complex than it is.

Best way to practice is to go somewhere you are familiar with.

Sit down on top of a hill.

Orientate the map.
ie pick out all the visual features you can see and turn the map around so that they line up.

Then try and find where you are on the map

Trailquest? You don't have to follow a bearing in a trailquest (if you're trying to follow a bearing you're doing something wrong), just keep the map the right way round. So simply line up the North lines on the map with the red bit (or whatever colour they paint they North part) on the compass needle.

lay compass on map
line up side of compass against point you currently are at and point you want to go to (compass base plate should be pointing to place you want to go to otherwise your bearing will be 180 degrees out)
swivel the circle thing on the top (Degrees dial) to line up the printed direction arrow (orienting arrow) with the north/south grid lines on the map (again the orienting arrow printed in the circle thing (degrees dial)on top of the compass should be pointing in the direction you want to go)
take the compass off the map
move the compass around so that the magnetic needle lies within the direction arrow (~orienting arrow) printed on the round thing (degrees dial) the red end of the needle should be pointing to the 'N'orth marking on your degrees dial.
now follow the pointing arrow on the front of the compass (direction of travel arrow) keeping the red end of the needle pointing to the 'N'orth marking on the degrees dial.

For your purposes don't bother with the magnetic variation bit.