Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2018

Apologies for the delay (folk working abroad or otherwise engaged) final rankings now calculated:
Rankings incl 5 Wed eve events + SOUL     

Big thanks to all our organisers and everyone who came and ran too. Need both to make a series!
Many folk commented on the friendly nature of our series, despite the intense competition between old rivals again this year, and the addition of cakes and a few more juniors taking part all helped to add to the atmosphere. Hope you enjoyed it and will be back for more on Feb 22nd (spoiler alert – we’re putting on an event in Cove prior to the British Night Champs at Dinnet.)

CONGRATULATIONS TO CATEGORY CHAMPS FOR 2018:

Sam Griffin and Samantha McDonald    JU16 (Under 16 and shadowed)
Josie Gomersall and Lachlan Kirk           J  (16 – 20)
Mark Stockton and Jenny Ricketts        Open
Marianne Lang and Willy Nicolson        V  (40 – 50)
Evgueni Chepelin and Lesley Gomersall SV (55 – 60)
George Esson                                       UV (65+)
Carol Jackson and Rory Halliday            Best Newcomers

Wed 22nd Aug  Duthie Park  Results
Wed 29th Aug Seaton Park  Results
Wed 5th Sept Westburn & Victoria Parks Results
Wed 12th Sept Westhill Results
Sat 15th Sept SOUL Balgownie/Danestone  Results
Wed 19th Sept Aberdeen Uni Kings Campus  Results

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup rankings after Pannanich

Latest (JD)2C Rankings after Pannanich here.

Well done to anyone who braved the hill at Pannanich never mind finished their course! Bit of a toughy unless you have mountain goats for parents?

Take a look at the results and then make sure you come along to Scolty this weekend to top up your points even further as there’s only 2 more chances to do so this year.

Remember that all you have to do is come along to any of the nominated events and you will automatically be entered into the (JD)2C.

Spoiler alert – coming along to events will also earn you Junior Participation Awards and Badges and Eddy Coman is currently tracking you all down to present you with certificates for last year.

We now have a full schedule of events confirmed to round off this year’s competition. Coming up:
Pannanich  16th Sep (with our SOUL in Balgownie/Danestone the day before)
Scolty  14th Oct   Note change of area
Bogendriep 4th Nov

(Message from Scott Reynolds – if you check the standings and find a mistake, especially re shadowing, please let him or Laura Farquharson know. Ta.)

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2018 full rules and points scheme and list of events for you to target (although we’ve still yet to finalise the full list. Like to keep you guessing but hopefully not much longer now.)

Deeside Night Cup 18/19

A wee heads up to test your torches and dust off your night O tactics over the next few weeks as battle recommences on Halloween – come out if you dare!

Every Wed evening from 31/10 to mid-Feb in a wide variety of areas up and down Deeside and a bit beyond (Forvie’s back in the mix this year – yippee!) with two courses of 5km and 3km both TD5 or Green standard.

If you’re a newcomer to night O or only just working up to that standard but fancy having a bash then give us a shout (flump@care4free.net) and we’ll try to find a TD5 standard runner to shadow you for your first couple of goes. Gramp also has a couple of headtorches for hire if you want to try before you buy your own.

Check out the DNC blog for a provisional list of dates and venues: https://dncchat.wordpress.com/

Urban Sprints trophies

Anybody in contact with the following folk? Can you remind them to return their Urban Sprint Trophies please? Get them to eEmail flump@care4free.net to arrange collection at local event or posting.

Petra Hampton, Rachel Salway (MAROC), Claire Tunaley (MAROC), Lachlan Kirk (GRAMP)

bto SOUL 8 Danestone 15/9/18 Results

.
Results by Class
Results by Course            Splits by Course
RouteGadget
bto SOUL points
BOF Ranking Points (will be calculated overnight 17th/18th))

Lovely day to belt round Danestone and we didn’t really need the hall although it made a great spongey football pitch at the end. Good to see all our SOULmates from down south and up north – hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did hosting.

Many thanks to all our helpers: Helen and Stuart Anderson, Rob Hickling, the Gomersall 3, Gordon Urquhart, Alex Maclachlan, Marianne and Patrick Lang, the Farquharson 3, Evgueni Chepelin, the Griffin 3, Jeremy Huthwaite and first and last the Danestone Community Centre jannie.

Planner: Pete Lawrence, Controller: Tim Griffin, Organiser: Rachel Scott

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup rankings after Balfour

Latest (JD)2C Rankings after Balfour here.

Fraser Pain is holding his lead in M8 with Stuart Prince 4th and Jack Pain now 7th
Douglas Walmsley has moved up a place to 2nd in M10. Woohoo!

Noah Griffin retains 5th place in M12 while brother Sam, Patrick Lang and Rory Halliday have all been too busy concentrating on World Schools etc it looks like as Connor Whitelaw has overtaken them all as leading Gramp M14.

Duncan Will and Lewis Smith are lying in 5th and 6th respectively in M16 but again a few more events before the end of the series could see a big leap up.

So how are the girls getting on?
Hannah and Judith Kuhnel still holding onto joint 3rd in W8 although it looks like they might have left the area as they haven’t run since the first.
Hannah Will is holding 5th in W12 bu a few more scores now Dad’s back in town will help.

Morven and Kirsty Farquharson are still battling the Maroc W14s and currently lying 5th and 6th.
They have been getting some great results in the SOUL series and are currently 2nd and 3rd on that leaderboard. Woohoo!
W16 2nd place is currently occupied by Olivia Coman. Again, woohoo!

Remember that all you have to do is come along to any of the nominated events and you will automatically be entered into the (JD)2C.

Spoiler alert – coming along to events will also earn you Junior Participation Awards and Badges and Eddy Coman is currently tracking you all down to present you with certificates for last year.

We now have a full schedule of events confirmed to round off this year’s competition. Coming up:
Pannanich  16th Sep (with our SOUL in Balgownie/Danestone the day before)
Scolty  14th Oct   Note change of area
Bogendriep 4th Nov

(Message from Scott Reynolds – if you check the standings and find a mistake, especially re shadowing, please let him or Laura Farquharson know. Ta.)

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2018 full rules and points scheme and list of events for you to target (although we’ve still yet to finalise the full list. Like to keep you guessing but hopefully not much longer now.)

Urban Series Abz University 19/9/18

Great sprinty course from Sam which kept everyone concentrating right to the end and a fitting finale to this year’s series. Perhaps only to be expected from one of our juniors who is proving to be rather nifty at Urban Sprint races recently coming 2nd at the British Sprint Championships in Bath.

Sam says “Thank you to all those who turned up and braved the weather! Hope everyone enjoyed the course and a big thank you to those who bought cakes and hot drinks. I appreciated the positive feedback and I hope you all agree that it was a good end to another great urban series!”

Hope you all got home safely (was an interesting journey back to Stoney wrestling the hi-top campervan in a straight-ish line.)

Results
Splits

Ranking after 5 Wed events  Ranking after the 5 Wed eve events. SOUL results yet to be added … coming soon hopefully!

GJO success @ World School Orienteering Championships 2018

Three Gramp juniors had an enjoyable day at the Scottish Schools selection races for the World Schools Orienteering Championships which were held on Sunday at Faskally, near Pitlochry. Patrick Lang, Rory Halliday and Sam Griffin were representing Aberdeen Grammar and came a close second to George Watsons School in the team competition placing 9th, 8th and 3rd respectively. Sam’s result ensured him selection into the Scottish Schools select team who will travel to the World Schools Orienteering Championships in Estonia next April. Well done Sam!

Several MAROC juniors have also qualified and Sam is teaming up with them to joint fundraise for their trip. The first fund raising event will be on Sunday at MAROC’s event on Pannanich where they will be selling the usual hot drinks, soup, cakes…. and if there is a big enough entry, chilli (meat and veggie). So if you haven’t got your entry in yet please do so, and bring your pennies, or preferably pounds, on the day.

Urban Series Westhill 12/9/18

Results   Splits

The old 3-controls-in-a-straight-line caught one or two folk out tonight or was it just getting too dark to see the map? Must be autumn – had to put the headlights on to get home.

So how do they orienteer?

According to Space Weather News for Sept. 6, 2018

JUPITER HAS AN EXTRA MAGNETIC POLE: NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered something extraordinary about Jupiter. There is an extra magnetic pole near the giant planet’s equator, dubbed “The Great Blue Spot” by researchers who identified it. Jupiter’s unexpected magnetic morphology is a sign that strange things may be happening deep beneath the cloudtops. Visit today’s edition of Spaceweather.com for the full story.

Strange things, eh? Jupitans going about with triangular compasses?

GMC now fully booked!

Lots of familiar names and we look forward to welcoming you back to contest the Parent/Offspring prize (if only we could think of something a bit catchier to call it – suggestions anyone?) as well as some new faces. Should be very cosy in the big tent.

Dave Kirk is starting to ramp up the preparations and we’ve updated the event details again – take a look at the main GMC post.

Urban Series Westburn and Victoria Parks 5/9/18 Results

In’t technology brilliant?!
Helps us to “void” leg 10 – 11 or in other words, subtract the time it took you to cross the road but throws a real spanner in the works when it decides to die on us mid-event. I’ve guesstimated a split time for all of us affected by 248 keeling over – very arbitrary but at least we now all have times.
Apologies about the printer also deciding to die as otherwise we could at least have sent you away with a provisional printout to look at pending my tweaking. Hope it’s feeling better again by next week.

Results    Splits

I’ve also guesstimated age classes for some of you. Jeremy needs to know this so he can put you into the right urban category as he’ll be producing rankings soon now we have 3 events under our belts. If I’ve got it wrong then please accept my apologies and let me know via webmaster@grampoc.com and I’ll correct them.

Did anyone other than Lyndsey try the Friends of Victoria and Westburn Parks tree trail map ? She said spotting small metal plaques is a lot harder than spotting kites.

Urban Series Seaton Park 29/8/18 Results

Results

Everything went well apart from the control on the Tower going for a bit of a walkabout. Do you get tungsten tie wraps?
And as the sun was setting on Seaton Park the feedback was….Urban hmmm…… hills, mud and nettles!Thanks to all who turned up and special thanks to Ian McLeod for collecting controls.
Dennis

Thanks go to Dennis McDonald for organising and also to the two passersby who rescued and looked after number 13 for us – the one by Wallace’s Tower. If you’re reading this it was much appreciated not only because it gave me a chance to get my breath back and it was nice to meet you and chat for a wee while.

GRAMPs on telly!

If you haven’t already caught the buzz going about and watched The Adventure Show last Sunday then you’ve got a month left to watch it on BBC iPlayer. Why? Big coverage of the British Champs at Balmoral earlier this year with lots of Gramps either cameoing in the background crowd scenes else caught in full action out in the forest and Ian Hamilton has a speaking part.
Some key Gramp members are missing from this episode but will feature in a follow up episode covering the Trail O Champs.

So far I’ve spotted Pete, Carolyn, Janne, Dave Kirk (?), Eddy Coman (?), Oli, Rachel, Neil, Donald, Iain, Ian – anyone else want to claim a bit of fame?

Urban Series kicks off Duthie Park 22/8/18

Many thank to Dave for a great start to this year’s Urban Series …

Results

Come and Try It @ MBC Festival – Saturday 1/9/18

Gramp are hosting a come-and-try–it session at Foggieton Woods on Saturday 1^st September as part of the Milltimber, Bieldside and Cults (MBC) festival. Everybody welcome from young to old, fit to not-so-fit, individuals or groups – all you need is a bit of curiosity and a pair of trainers/trail shoes, we’ll provide the rest.

Starts from from 2-3pm so come along and find us at the Festival from about 1:30pm onwards to register and get someone to talk you through the basics before getting out there and having a go.

Templars Park Summer Series Grand Finale 15/8/18

Results   (BBQ without rain – RESULT!! )

Thanks to Tim for squeezing everything into that poor little car and squeezing some fun courses into Templars’ bijou area. Map memory definitely favours the regulars so well done to those relative newcomers brave enough to take it on.

Thanks to all our 11* organisers during the series – chocs were handed out to those of us there last night and the rest of you may be able to claim yours providing you do it soon as they went back to the Rowlands household to be “looked after”. Aye, right!

*Helen R did two and acted as Summer Series Coordinator so lots of chocs thanks to her.

Thanks to Sarah Wallace for keeping track of our results and organising Summer Series prizes (she got so carried away buying prizes she forgot to get BBQ food for herself apparently!) – many happy smiley folk went home clutching fudge, chocs or cactii. We’ll be publishing the final scores soon.

Also awarded last night were some of the Junior prizes gained over the last few months for attendance and/or performance at various events. Too numerous to remember and list here so ask Eddy Coman at the next few events if your name was on the list to claim your badges and certificates.

Thanks also to Bob, Gareth, Rob and Dave who assisted collecting controls last night and Dave Kirk for taking it all away ready for the first event of our Urban Series next week at Duthie Park.
See you all again there?

Glen Dye Summer Series 8/8/18

Results

What more can you ask than a lovely sunlit forest with some reasonable technicality? Grateful thanks to Fasque Estates for allowing us to use a different car park from the usual on a Wednesday night which gave the Short course a more pleasant run than is possible from the usual car park, and allowed everyone else the chance to run in the pleasant north east part of Glen Dye usually visited only by longer courses. Generally everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, which is the main point.

One apology – I gather the kite on Control 3 on Long Tech had fallen to the ground making the control much harder to spot. Not intended! Thanks also to those who helped collect controls – Bob, Tim, Bill and David

George

[Controllers Conundrum re kites on the ground: as a short person I frequently find that the relative angles of dangle of kite/vegetation/bumps on the ground mean I can’t see them until virtually on top of them anyway so glad to see the score evened a bit! That and the fact that I was one of the last folk through No 3 last night meant I didn’t bother to stop and rehang it to give the Planner a helping hand as I normally would.
But now I’m wondering – should I rehang or will that make it unfairly fairer for any subsequent visitors?  Rachel]

Telegenic volunteers will be required for 2022

The Sprint World Orienteering Championships 2022 has been awarded to Edinburgh. Well done to EventScotland and Edinburgh City Council for working with the BOF/SOA bid team and helping sway the decision in Edinburgh’s favour.

The proposed venue for the Event Centre is the University of Edinburgh’s Pollock Halls of Residence campus. Preferred dates are in the middle of July. The idea is to have the three televised finals in Edinburgh’s iconic locations.

IOF release here

Crathes Summer Series 18/7/18

Results

Nice to see Michaela and Lucie from AUOC, a Belgian family and a few other well-kent runners and occasional visitors to our Summer Series helping to boost the numbers to a very respectable 48 given it’s peak holiday season. Although not wall-to-wall sunshine it was a fine, warm evening but amazingly no midges to bug us – seems like the continuing dry has really hit them for six this year or have I just been lucky?

Thanks to Ian H for organising including a no paths option for the Long Tech (not that that slowed the whizz kids down any.)

Next week we’ll be at Scolty.

Feedback wanted from orienteers in Scotland for tick research project

Have you spotted the SOA website article on reporting ticks for a research project?

Tyrebagger Summer Series 11/7/18

Thanks to Bill and Paul for this week’s Tyrebagger event, and Olivia for supplying the refreshments. Who knew bracken was so drought resistant!

Results

Next week we are at Crathes Castle

World Masters Orienteering Championships 6th – 13th July 2018

We have 3 Gramps running at WMOC 2018 over in Denmark – Oonagh Grassie W60, Rob Hickling M60 and Peter Bellarby M80.
Following the opening ceremony complete with flags, steel band and Indoor Sprint event amongst other things, they got down to business on Saturday with Sprint Qualifiers followed by Sprint Finals today. Tomorrow sees the start of the Forest Qualifications for Middle and Long Finals on Wednesday and Friday respectively.

You must be 35 or over to compete and there are so many folk there that they hold qualifiers for each category with four or five groups with 50, 60 or more competitors in each. This event is massive!
You must finish within a certain percentage of the top of your group in order to qualify for the A Final, i.e. to be within shouting distance of being a Champion. Everyone else still gets to run in B/C/D Finals too, even those who mis-punch in a qualifier.

So how are our guys doing so far?
Rob came in a storming 6th place in his qualifying group so was in the A Sprint Final but unfortunately mispunched. Bad luck!
Oonagh had a couple of steady runs to finish 30th in the C Final and likewise Peter 28th in the B Final. Considering the, literally, world class opposition these are all excellent results and let’s hope they can capitalise on this in the forest events this week.
(Rob/Oonagh/Peter – a wee heads up if you’re reading this: I’ve been told that Danish white forest isn’t necessarily what you’d expect.)

Judging by the photos and videos it’s as hot over there in Copenhagen as it was running round Menzieshill at SOUL 5. You may spot some familiar faces as there are quite a few other Scottish orienteers competing in Denmark, not least Donald and Duncan Grassie, Roger and Trish Coombs, Lynne Walker, Eddie Harwood, Margaret Dearman, Guy and Beryl Seaman, Rhona Fraser and Joan Noble all from Northern clubs or area. Links to live and final results can be found on the WMOC 2018 frontpage if you fancy keeping an eye on the rest of the weeks’ happenings.

GJO news: Sam Griffin selected for Regional Squads’ summer camp

Good news for one of our junior members… Sam Griffin got an email on Friday…. ‘Congratulations on your selection for the Regional Squads’ summer coaching camp at Lagganlia’

He wasn’t on the original list but was top of the reserve list after some strong peformances over the last months and gaining a Championship time at the JK. He joins 23 other M/W14 athletes who have been selected from all regions of the country to attend the camp.

Junior Regional Squad training camps help juniors develop their orienteering skills and also aid personal and social development by making new friends, learning new skills and socialising in different ways.

Congratulations, Sam!

Summer Series 27/6/18 Balmedie + BBQ Results

OK – the weather did its other usual trick. By the time I got there (delayed in the infamous A90 roadworks enlivened by Lesley G hanging out of her car window miming “can I have a cuppa?” at me in the campervan as we trundled slowly along) the haar was rapidly developing into a real pea souper. We should maybe have armed the control collectors with flares so we could keep track of them?

Thanks to John Lang for planning and a host of control collectors/BBQ monitors.

Results

Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2018

One course of TD3 (Orange) standard about 3 – 4km long in streets and parks.

Rankings incl 5 Wed eve events + SOUL     

Big thanks to all our organisers and everyone who came and ran too. (Need both to make a series!)
Final rankings have now been calculated and posted above.

CONGRATULATIONS TO CATEGORY CHAMPS FOR 2018:

Sam Griffin and Samantha McDonald    JU16 (Under 16 and shadowed)
Josie Gomersall and Lachlan Kirk           J  (16 – 20)
Mark Stockton and Jenny Ricketts        Open
Marianne Lang and Willy Nicolson        V  (40 – 50)
Evgueni Chepelin and Lesley Gomersall SV (55 – 60)
George Esson                                       UV (65+)
Carol Jackson and Rory Halliday           Best Newcomers

Wed 22nd Aug  Duthie Park  Results
Wed 29th Aug Seaton Park  Results
Wed 5th Sept Westburn & Victoria Parks Results
Wed 12th Sept Westhill Results
Sat 15th Sept SOUL Balgownie/Danestone  Results
Wed 19th Sept Aberdeen Uni Kings Campus  Results

Crathes – Level C Event – Sun 24 June 2018 Results

Final results and splits
Routegadget – this is where you can see where everyone else went and where the big mistakes were made – if you haven’t played with RG before then there are guides and videos found here

Results with BOF ranking points (will be calculated overnight Tues and incorporated into overall rankings Thursday)

Many thanks to Crathes Castle and Estate for permission and Neil McLean for making the long trip down several times to plan. David Esson provided computing backup to Neil and also covered entries/timing on the day (apologies for not having a results display during the day itself) and Jon Musgrave was our Controller.

Thanks also to the Farquharson Three, Lindsey and George Esson, Jonathan Smith, Jeremy Huthwaite, Lesley and Sam Gomersall, Griffins en masse, Helen Anderson, Pete Lawrence and Bob Daly for assisting with set up, registration, starts, road crossing, control collecting, looking for late finishers and dismantling which made my job very easy and pleasant today with plenty of time to sup coffee and catch up with some old faces. (Also Dennis McDonald, Paul Puley and Ros Evans who also volunteered but weren’t required in the end.)

Jonathan also spotted and reported some smouldering vegetation near one of the controls at the western end and guided the Crathes Rangers to the exact spot so they could extinguish it before it developed too far.

Rachel

GMC 2018: Braemar 10th/11th November update – ONLINE ENTRIES OPEN

Grampian Mountain Challenge  –  Scotland’s Friendly Sociable Winter Mountain Marathon

NEWS: We have the potential to provide Fri night accommodation (sleeping bag on the floor) in Castleton Hall if we get 10 or more takers – email dkirk006@btinternet.com if this is of interest – and there will be Portaloos at the overnight camp.

GMC18 – Information, Rules and Kit List (updated 14 June)
GMC18 – Flyer

*****Online entries via SiEntries now open – click here*****

28 entries so far and Course C Parent/Offspring by far the most popular
Remeber, there are only 100 places available.   HAVE YOU ENTERED YET?

HAVE YOU TOLD ALL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT?
Feel free to download the flyer and send it to friends or display at work or whatever it takes to help spread the word and fill the 100 places available.

Summer Series Perwinnes Moss 20/6/18 Results

Results

Thanks to those who braved the weather and came along tonight – lots of comments about the undergrowth but that’s Perwinnes Moss for you. It’s hard to plan ‘interesting’ courses without having to take you into ‘interesting’ places so my philosophy was to embrace the nettles and gorse and jump in with both feet. If it’s any consolation I had to go to those ‘interesting’ places to to set out the controls and my knees are also stinging still.

Thanks also to Bob Daly, David Esson and Neil McLean who helped me collect everything in again.

Did anyone else see that doe and fawn I told you about?

Rachel

Easy 1.9km
Medium 2.8km
Short Tech 2.6km
Long Tech 4.5km

JST event summary

Congratulations to all the Gramp junior competitors at the Jamie Stevenson Trophy event at Braemar on Sunday. Amidst strong competition, especially from Maroc and Moravian, Gramp juniors made a great effort, gaining four top-ten places including a podium place for Sam Griffin on the boy’s Light Green course.
Many thanks to everyone, especially Zoe, Tim and Laura for helping me (in my first JST experience) and as event helpers.

Eddy

Jamie Stevenson Trophy 2018

Big congratulations all round to the Gramp Team who ran at the JS Trophy today at Morrone Birkwood, Braemar: Mia and Olivia Coman, Morven and Kirsty Farqhuarson, Noah and Sam Griffin, Oli Robertson, Reuben Cole and Connor Whitelaw. Between them they scored 558 points coming 6th overall which is a great result for such a relatively inexperienced team.

Report and photos to follow asap so check back here later.

Congratulations also to the JST hosts, MAROC, who won beating MOR by just one point in the end.

Summer Series Dunnottar Woods 13/6/18 Results

Results

Despite the slightly inclement weather, it was an enjoyable event at Dunnottar, which was improved significantly by the availability of delicious cake and homemade lemonade from Ailsa who is fundraising for a trip to Nepal with Operation Raleigh.
Hopefully more to come in the following weeks!

After such a dry spell, it was a bit unfortunate that the wild garlic* on the hill got a soaking before the event, but no-one seemed to mind too much about the mud and aroma!

Thanks to Phil for helping out and to Phil, Olivia, Rachel and Pete for controls collection.

Eddy

(*The up side to this is that we can rule out vampires in the Risk Assessment.)

Great Schools Orienteering Festival success for Gramps (aka Aberdeen Grammar)

Three junior Gramp members (two ‘old’ hands and one very recent one) competed in the Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival at Pollock Park representing Aberdeen Grammar recently and came away with a first and team Silver in S2 Boys…. can we get more next year?! Read the P&J report here.
Congratulations guys!!

GRAMP Junior Participation awards

Congratulations to our Gramp Juniors on their achievements in the SOA/Gramp Participation and Colour awards. Awards are granted as follows for the period 01 Jan 2017 to 30 Apr 2018:

• Ailsa Anderson (5, Green)
• Paul Caffyn (Green)
• Olivia Coman (10, Orange)
• Josie Gomersall (Green)
• Noah Griffin (5, Yellow)
• Sam Griffin (5, Orange, Light Green)
• Patrick Lang (10)
• Connor Whitelaw (5, Yellow)

Participation awards recognise any run at any Gramp event.
Colour awards are granted for three top-half finishes on courses of a given colour.
For more information see ‘“Courses completed” badges’ and ‘Colour coded badges’ sections of this SOA document:

https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/documents/natcen/incentive_awards.pdf

I will be distributing the above and any newly-earned awards at Gramp events over the summer, primarily at the Summer Series evenings.

Eddy Coman

Scottish Championships 2018

We have more champions in our midst – and some double champions too! Building on last weekend’s successes Ros Evans, Oonagh Grassie and Kevin Reynard all won this weekend and some excellent personal results all round so congrats to all and as with the BOC I’ve listed all results as a measure of how we did overall:

Individual at Achagour
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M14A 7th Sam Griffin
M14B 2nd Connor Whitelaw
M21E 14th Jack Gomersall
M40L 2nd and Scottish Champ Ali Robertson
M50L 6th Tim Griffin, 21st Gareth Yardley
M50S 1st and Scottish Champion Kevin Reynard
M55L 7th Ian Hamilton, 8th Sam Gomersall, 13th Pete Lawrence, 14th Iaiin McLeod
M60L 9th Bob Daly, 10th Paul Duley, 12th Rob Hickling
M65L 14th Dave Armitage
M70S 2nd and Scottish Champion Michael Forsyth
M75L 3rd Neil McLean

W14A 10th Morven Farquharson, 12th Kirsty Farquharson
W18L 2nd Josie Gomersall
W50L 12th Carolyn McLeod, 14th Laura Farquharson, 16th Helen Rowlands, 17th Rachel Scott
W55L 14th Lesley Gomersall
W60L 18th Anne Hickling
W60S 1st and Scottish Champion Oonagh Grassie, 4th Anne Hoy, 5th Jayne MacGregor
W65L 1st and Scottish Champion Ros Evans

Yellow 1st Oli Robertson

Relays at Roseisle
11+
5th GRAMP 1: Tim Griffin/Ali Robertson/Bob Daly
6th GRAMP 2: Sam Gomersall/Gareth Yardley/Robert Hickling

17+
2nd GRAMP 3: Pete Lawrence/Ros Evans/Kevin Reynard
12th GRAMP 5: Sam Griffin/Neil McLean/Rachel Scott
13th GRAMP 6: Lesley Gomersall/Oonagh Grassie/Helen Rowlands (5 secs behind-ooh!)

20+
30th GRAMPy Auld Wifies: Anne Hoy/Jayne MacGregor/Anne Hickling

Many thanks to GRAMP’s own Christian Horner (aka David Esson) who not only got his head around the team age categories but also successfully managed us all up into teams and came back up from Aberdeen to cheer us all out and in on Sunday despite not running himself. All photos were taken by him with his iPhone while standing in the pits trying to keep track of us all.

(JD)2C rankings after Glen Dye

Latest (JD)2C Rankings after Glen Dye here.  (Sorry for the delay.)

Well done to:
Hannah and Judith Kuhnel joint 3rd in W8
Olivia Coman now 2nd W16
Fraser Pain is leading M8 with Stuart Prince in 3rd and Jack Pain not far behind in 4th
Douglas Walmsley now 3rd M10

Remember that all you have to do is come along to any of the nominated events and you will automatically be entered into the (JD)2C.

Spoiler alert – coming along to events will also earn you Junior Participation Awards and Badges and Eddy Coman is currently tracking you all down to present you with certificates for last year.

Next (JD)2C event will be Crathes on 24th June. Details coming soon.

(Message from Scott Reynolds – if you check the standings and find a mistake, especially re shadowing, please let him or Laura Farquharson know. Ta.)

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2018 full rules and points scheme and list of events for you to target (although we’ve still yet to finalise the full list. Like to keep you guessing but hopefully not much longer now.)

Summer Series Hazlehead Wed 23/5/18 Results

Thak you to Jonathan Smith for planning/organising the Summer Series kick off in his ‘back garden’ (and also for agreeing to take over looking after the club kit very soon I’m told.)  As predicted, the Long Tech “got what they deserved” by dint of the bracken starting to really spring up in the last week or so in the wooded areas to the south, obscuring the knolls and depressions quite nicely and so forcing us to get the compass out or risk a long run round the perimeter trying to work out how to attack them.

Results

Short: 1.1km, Medium: 2.5km, Short Tech: 3.7km, Long Tech: 4.7km

Many of you may have spotted Eddy Coman going about the car park with fistfuls of certificates for the Junior Participation Awards – by Friday I hope to be able to post more information on this but for now a big thank you to him as well for playing catch up with over a year’s worth of results to trawl through.

British Orienteering Championships 18th/19th May 2018

Well done to everyone who came, ran, won or just had fun and helped out over the weekend.
Photo links for many of us caught in action (or mid-lick of an icecream) can be found on the SOA website post dedicated to BOC 2018.

It was a mighty big ask of Gramp to be lead club for both Relays and Trail O on the same day and it got pretty squeaky with both Organisers vying for members with the right skills, abilities or personalities to cover the diverse jobs required for each event. We managed but not without the help of you all mucking in and agreeing to jobs you wouldn’t normally choose and quietly getting on with them as well as spotting gaps in our cunning plans and quietly filling those too.
I’m sure I speak for Anne Hickling too when I say a humungous thank you to all our helpers.

In a break from tradition, as it’s not very often we have this many Gramps attending the British Championships with a chance to compete against the best of Britain, I’ve listed all our results:

Individuals at Balmoral
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M14B 4th Connor Whitelaw
M21E 35th Jack Gomersall
M40L 14th Ali Robertson, 21st Gordon Urquhart
M50L 9th Tim Griffin, 51st Dave Kirk
M50S 1st Kevin Reynard
M55L 21st Evgueni Cheplin, 22nd Sam Gomersall, 23rd Iain McLeod
M55S 2nd Ian Searle, 8th Pete Lawrence
M60L 8th Rob Hickling, 25th Paul Duley
M60S 1st Richard Oxlade
M70S 1st Michael Forsyth
M75L 9th Neil McLean

W16B 2nd Olivia Coman
W18L 1st Josie Gomersall
W21E 17th Katrina McLeod
W21S 6th Heather Hale
W50L 16th Laura Farquharson, 18th Rachel Scott, 23rd Carolyn McLeod
W50S 2nd Roz Nicholson
W55L 5th Lesley Gomersall, 29th Sonia Armitage
W60L 27th Anne Hickling
W60S 2nd Oonagh Grassie, 5th Anne Hoy, 8th Jane MacGregor
W65L 13th Ros Evans

Light Green 7th Morven Farquharson, 15th Kirsty Farquharson
Yellow 3rd Oli Robertson

Iain Hamilton was Assistant Planner and Dave Armitage Assistant Controller

Relays at Torphantrick
M50 8th GRAMP 1 Tim Griffin, Dennis McDonald, Bob Daly
Mixed Adhoc
9th GRAMP 4 Ali Robertson, Carolyn McLeod, Oonagh Grassie
14th GRAMP 3 Rosslyn Nicholson, Iain McLeod, Kevin Reynard
21st GRAMP 2 Richard Oxlade, Ros Evans, Hugh Nicholson

Trail O at Crathes
Standard course:  Joint 1st Alan MacGregor, 3rd David Kirk, Joint 6th Angus Aitken
Elite Course 10th (and Unofficial Scottish Trail-O Champion)  Helen Rowlands

Anne Hickling was Planner/Organiser and Rob Hickling was Controller

Rachel and Ian H (almost) on the podium. We were subsequently asked to move off to the side but I think Sheila Strain and friend were doing a much better job of photobombing than us?

Glen Dye – Level C Event – 6th May 2018 Results

Final results and splits
RouteGadget – uses previous version of the map for expediency but not a lot has changed
BOF Ranking Points (will be added to Rankings on Thursday)

Looks like several people didn’t start their brikkes properly, hence the problems with control 1 not registering.
You need to watch for the LED flashing at Start and all controls but not so easy to spot in the sunshine.

Wow! What a lovely day for an outing round Glen Dye – almost too hot for some and I for one welcomed the chance to paddle across a couple of streams and grab a quick swig of water. Thanks to our officials and their helpers for putting on a great event and to all of you for coming along to enjoy the sun and a chance to get in some last minute practice prior to the upcoming British and Scottish Champs.

Officials
Planner: Gareth Yardley
Organiser: Laura Farquharson
Controller: Andy Oliver MAROC

PS Don’t forget to check yourselves for ticks – looks like the sunshine woke them all up too. Sooner you spot and remove them the better (not a good look for the office or school.)

Forest Sprint @ Scolty 25/4/16

Great turn out at Scolty … here are the results. Many thanks to Matt for taking on the planning. Well done!

Results

Relay Teams for British and Scottish Relay Championships

British Relay Championships @ Torphantrick 20th May
The British Relay Championships are being held on the 20th May up at Torphantrick up in Royal Deeside. It is probably one of the most runnable areas in Deeside, and should be a cracking venue for the Relays. If any Gramp member wishes to run at the relays, please let David Esson know asap. Closing date for entries is 4th May but he’ll do the team entries so all you need to do is email him asap with your name, age class, whether you prefer a long or short leg and TD5 or lower.
Doesn’t matter if you are competitive or not, if you fancy it, put your name down for it!

The various Relay courses are the following:

Men’s Premier (20-35)
Women’s Premier (20-35)
M14, W14, M18, W18
M40, W40, M50, W50, M60, W60, M/W70

Mixed Adhoc, Junior Adhoc, Mini Relay

So you can see there is a wide range of courses to suit everyone and if we don’t have enough takers for an age class team then we’ll mix and match you into an adhoc as competitive or fun as you want. Best bit is that the Club pays, so really you get a free run in an awesome area, if you fancy it!

Scottish Relay Championships @Roseisle 27th May

Having had a practice run at Torphantrick, the Scottish Relays are the next week up at Roseisle beside Burghead. Think Balmedie/Forvie but with trees so if Torphantrick is going to be fun, then Roseisle is going to be phenomenal! More details on the relay categories to follow and closing date for this is 13th May.

Let David know if you are interested in running here too! david.esson

(All Gramp members should have already received an email with this info – if you didn’t then it’s time to check we have your email address up to date so please email webmaster to confirm.)

New club kit running tights

In a bid to move away from the red and the castle, which some folk have said they don’t like that much, we’ve been mulling over alternative themes still connected to the Aberdeen coat of arms or other symbols and can now proudly unveil the new club running tights:

• made from ultra industrial rip-stop lycra blended with typhoon proof kevlar for maximum protection
• impregnated with a proven anti-tick chemical based on leopard poo
• guaranteed to incapacitate your rivals with incredulous laughter

We’re looking for volunteers to give these a whirl at the upcoming British and Scottish Champs. Interested?
Email fashionvictim@grampoc.com with your size and we’ll do the rest.

Wot’s WOD?

We’re on the WOD map!

Hazlehead 23rd May is now officially registered as a WOD 2018 event.

Come and be part of the biggest mass participation orienteering event ever.

WOD 2017 saw an amazing 288,007 participants. OK, time to fess up – not all at Hazlehead but at 2,265 locations in 79 countries which is still mindbogglingly large numbers. Come and help us beat that in 2018 and bring some friends.

https://www.facebook.com/Worldorienteeringday/
http://worldorienteeringday.com/

World Sprint Orienteering Championships 2022

Exciting news on the SOA website yesterday confirming that The Scottish Orienteering 6-Day Event Company, along with the bid partners of the Scottish Orienteering Association, EventScotland and the City of Edinburgh Council are submitting a bid on behalf of British Orienteering to stage the World Sprint Orienteering Championships 2022.
Along with the announcement is a map showing 5 embargoed urban sprint areas in and around Edinburgh.

Let’s hope they get it as although it will mean a lot of hard work the buzz from being involved in something as big as this is tremendous and the spin off publicity is great for attracting newcomers – STV and The Adventure Show are bound to film it if nothing else.

2017 AGM roundup and Roll of Honour

Quick summary of you for those of you who didn’t go to the AGM – and it’s very quick as it was a long time ago and I can’t remember much now. Sorry – should have posted much sooner.

Busy year: Forest Sprints, Summer Series, Level C events, Urban etc.
Scottish 6 Days – another successful day planned and co-ordinated by Gramp
Some discussion on map updates and changes required due to IOF introduction of new mapping symbols and control descriptions plus can we put on some Mountain Bike O in 2018?
Emit kit – new controls, whether to invest in more new brikkes soon
Events: are we taking on too much with such a packed calendar now that membership has waned somewhat? what do the members think we should concentrate on in 2018 or happy to carry on at same level?

Subject of training/coaching came up again as not much progress on the good intentions mooted in 2016 AGM.
Would still like to organise more coaching- but need someone to plan it and liaise with coaches – either the few remaining qualified coaches in Gramp or outsourced. If you’re interested in either becoming a coach or doing the coordination thing please get in touch with the committee. You don’t have to be a medal-winning orienteer just enthusiastic and we can get you some training/mentoring.

Confirmation of entry fees for 2018 to stay the same:
Level D (summer series, urban sprint etc) £4 and £2
Level C £6 and £3

Adrian Will thanked all for effort and time over the year
Chairman’s Awards
Musgrave Trophies:  Helen Anderson and John Lang
Chairman’s Quaich: David Esson – planning S6D, organising Forvie SOL and just generally always being first to offer help

Committee update:
Adrian Will           Chairman (really is his last year due to work commitments)
John Lang             Secretary
Ian Hamilton        Treasurer
Stuart Anderson   Mapping
Helen Rowlands   Fixtures Coordinator and Officials
Helen Anderson   Membership

Liz Sloan is no longer Social Secretary due to job down south so any takers to step in?
David Esson has joined the committee as man without portfolio as Sam used to say
Sarah Wallace has taken over Publicity/Social Media from Alex McLachlan (again job commitments abroad)
David Kirk has taken over from Gordon Urquhart gaining permissions to use areas for events
Anyone fancy playing with their smartphone to set up some Permanent Courses and take over from Stuart as POC mannie/wifie?

Club Championships Overall Trophy Winners

Class 1st  (Trophy)
Junior Women  Josie Gomersall
Junior Men        Paul Caffyn
Senior Women  Sarah Wallace
Senior Men        Jack Gomersall
Veteran Women    Rachel Scott (who is still reeling from that bombshell!)
Veteran Men          Gareth Yardley
Super- Veteran Women (>55)   Lesley Gomersall
Super-Veteran Men (age over 55)  Bob Daly

John Duncan Cup Medal Winners:

Class
M8        Gold          Oli Robertson
M14      Silver         Sam Griffin
M10      Bronze      Robert Prince
W16      Silver         Josie Gomersall
W8        Bronze      Emily Robertson
W12      Bronze       Kirsty Farquharson

Grampian Orienteers Roll of Honour for 2016  

Scottish Elite Development Squad:    Tim Gomersall, Sasha Chepelin

Scottish Championships:
1st
W60S Individual:  Jayne Macgregor
3rd
M55S Richard Oxlade

SOL winners:
M50S 1st Pete Lawrence
M70L 2nd Neil McLean
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M55S 3rd Richard Oxlade
M60L 3rd Robert Daly
W40L 3rd Carolyn McLeod

SOUL winners:
WSV 2nd Lesley Gomersall
WYJ 3rd Morven Farquharson

Scottish Night Championships:
W 45L 1st Helen Rowlands
W50L 1st Carolyn McLeod
W55L 1st Lesley Gomersall
M70 2nd Neil McLean
M55L 3rd Richard Oxlade
M/W open 1st Keith Yardley

GRAMP Champs 2017

2017 GRAMP Champs by age class.pdf
2017 GRAMP Champs by category (for trophies).pdf

Congratulations to all our trophy winners!

Juniors: Josie Gomersall & Paul Caffyn*
Seniors: Sarah Wallace & Jack Gomersall
Veterans: Rachel Scott & Gareth Yardley*
Super Veterans: Lesley Gomersall & Bob Daley

*these folk retained their 2016 titles – Lesley retained her winning streak but moved up a category this year

The trophies were presented at the AGM. If you weren’t there and think nobody else might have collected on your behalf then contact John Lang asap.

In case you’re wondering how the points are calculated, these are the Gramp Champs rules:

• You have to be a member of Gramp to qualify.
• The Champs are run over 10 nominated events with the best 5 scores counting for each runner.
• Within each event, the Gramp member who is highest placed for each course scores the maximum course points:
  White 200, Yellow 400, Orange 800, Red 1200, Light Green 1600, Green 2000, Blue 2800, Brown 4000.
• Points for subsequent runners are calculated using this formula: score = [(winner’s time)/(runner’s time)]*(maximum course points)
• Men and Women’s Junior, Senior and Veteran divisions are used to decide Championship positions and individual totals are modified to try and make competition within these divisions as fair as possible:
  M/W10 +100% of total, M/W12 +50%, M/W14 +32%, M/W16 +24%, M/W18 +16%, M/W20 +8%, M/W21to M/W40 +0%, M/W45 +5%, M/W50 +15%, M/W55 +25%, M/W60 +40%, M/W65 +60%, M/W70 +80%, M/W75 and over +100%
• Any questions – contact Iain McLeod

2017 events were: Glen O’Dee, Potarch, Crathes, Tyrebagger, Sluie, Coull, Cambus O’May, Forvie, Scolty.

2018 events have already started happening but full list will be announced soon pending permissions so watch this space…..

Would you like to see the Gramp Champs results published at intervals throughout the year? Would this encourage you to attend more events? If you want the results in Excel format so you can do a bit more analysis and figure out which 2018 events to target for maximum points then contact webmaster@grampoc.com.

Scottish Sprint Championships 2018

Sprint is one of the many different flavours of orienteering that seems to be getting more and more popular. It can be done in forest* or urban settings but in either case involves very short courses with lots of controls and twists and turns to keep your brain, lungs and legs at max capacity for 12 – 15 minutes if you’re at the top of the field or at max fun for much longer if you’re not so speedy but enjoy the opportunity to use your navigation and decision making skills every inch of the way.

Route choice is paramount – which way to go round a large building or lake when at first glance it looks 50:50? which side of an uncrossable hedge is the control? – but don’t spend too long overthinking it as you’ll waste vital seconds. Quite often for big events there will be a prologue race and then the final with combined times counting towards your final position as was the case at this year’s Sprint Champs held at Stirling University 10/3/18. If you want to see what sort of course to expect if you decide to have a go next time then take a look at FVO’s Routegadget.

Well done to our speediest Gramps:
Sam Griffin 4th Junior Men 16- (just 19 seconds off the podium)
Tim Griffin 6th Veteran Men 40+

*And here comes the shameless plug – keep your eye on our website for info on the local GRAMP/MAROC Forest Sprint Series starting 11th April.

CompassSport Cup Qualifier 2018

Thanks to Tim Griffin, Oonagh Grassie and Anne Hickling for flying the Gramp flag at this year’s CSC qualifier at Beecraigs 11/3/18. Between them they scored 280 points – just enough to keep us off the bottom of the table for the small clubs’ CompassSport Trophy.

I know there were several others who entered, or were going to, but couldn’t make it on the day for various reasons.
Even so it looks like Gramps generally aren’t interested in this competition or travelling further afield than Aberdeenshire to compete.  Am I right?

What can the club do to get a few more of you interested?
Training?
A club captain’s call to arms?
More social events to build up the team spirit?

Let the committee members know next time you bump into them (although maybe halfway round a course in the middle of Glen Dye is not the best time or place but you know what I mean.)

Rachel

Summer Series 2018 – Weds 23rd May to 15th Aug

Summer Series Events

Fun, friendly events with something for everyone on Wednesday evenings. All events will have 4 courses making them suitable for beginners and experienced alike:

• easy (all on paths – white/yellow standard – upto 2km)
• medium (partly on paths – orange standard – upto 3km)
• two as-hard-as-we-can-make-it courses of different lengths (generally referred to as short and long tech with as-the-crow-flies distances between 2.5 and 5km).

Starts  6-7pm, courses close 8pm (unless changed for a particular event, please check website for any changes)
Seniors £4, students/juniors £2

If you need to know more please or have any questions, please contact the summer series coordinator using this form.

Junior attendance awards up for grabs again. (That means CHOCOLATE!!)

Links to maps showing the car parking/registration locations will be added nearer the time.

… then Wednesday entertainment will continue with a series of Urban events in Aberdeen (and Westhill), including a multi-course event on Sat 15th Sept in and around Danestone (details coming soon).

Continue reading →

Forest Sprint Series 2018 – Weds 11th April to 16th May

Sprint O is great fun – lots of controls in quick succession in a relatively short distance and fast running alone is no use in this discipline if it’s of the headless chicken variety! You really have to look closely at the map, make snap decisions about route choice, execute them quickly and cleanly while all the time trying to read a jiggling map and watch where your feet are going. Give it a go.

Links to all parking locations will be confirmed soon so check back here nearer the time or on each clubs’ website.

April 11th    Foggieton    GRAMP  Results
April 18th   Tillyfourie   MAROC  Results
April 25th   Scolty           GRAMP  Results
May 2nd      Tilquhillie   MAROC  Results
May 9th       Mulloch       GRAMP  Results
May 16th     Bellwood      MAROC  Results

Overall series results coming soon (Ian H has been very busy as Assistant Planner for the British Orienteering Champs hence the slight delay)

One course TD3 or Orange standard i.e. medium difficulty, about 3km, with lots of controls and route choice in a relatively small area so full on concentration required just as much as fleet feet. Great for developing Juniors too if accompanied by a TD3 standard runner. Best 4 scores out of 6 will count towards the FSS league results.

Registration: 18:00 to 18:50
Starts: 18:30 to 19:15
Fees: £4 Senior, £2.50 Junior/Student

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