SOA have launched the long awaited new look website (new behind the scenes too for the geeks amongst you) and looking very inviting with plenty of action pics and intuitive top level menu.
Go explore and see what you think.
We can’t claim any champions this year but we can claim some near misses.
Pete, Rachel, David and Katrina ran at the Night Champs held at the John Muir Country Park just outside Dunbar 2/2/19 – very flat and fast compared to most DNC fare but good fun and an amazingly clear and starry night to enjoy a quick blast through some pines and mini dunes.
Rachel might have managed 1st or 2nd W50 had she not lost her dibber early on (aye right?!), Katrina came 4th in W21, David 5th M40 and Pete 5th M55.
Pete and Rachel then camped out in the van nearby before driving over to Broxburn/Uphall to say hello to the Hicklings, Jayne McG, Richard and Ann trying out their new ESOC personas organising and helping out at the Sprint Champs 3/2/19. The Farquharson 3 and Sam Griffin joined them for 2 races: the first for the Sprint Champ titles and combined times with that and a second race for SOUL 2 results.
Sam came joint 2nd M16 only 8 seconds behind the winner following a bit of operator error with his SIAC dibber at the finish – bit of a dibber theme developing here? – bad luck Sam, I feel your pain! Morven and Kirsty came 4th and 5th W14, Katrina 7th W21, Laura 5th and Rachel 7th W50, Pete 5th M55.
Photos all courtesy of Steve Rush BOK who pops up at urban races all over the world taking photos while his wife and daughter are out racing and who will be doing the honours at GRAMP’s next event, SOUL 3 at Cove. Speaking of which… entry fees go up by £1 tonight and last online entry is 18th Feb if you’re still swithering and haven’t entered yet. Entry via Fabian 4.
Results Splits RG (sorry – georef’d version of the map isn’t playing tonight so you’ll have to adjust your GPS tracks manually)
Thanks to Sam for planning and the family for assisting on reg and anyone else who helped collect the controls as that was the final Gramp offering for this year’s DNC.
Only 2 more to go, where does the time go? Seems like only yesterday we were getting all excited at the prospect of darkness by 4 in the afternoon and wondering whether to upgrade our headtorches this season.
Short course 3.3 10 controls
Long course 4.9 12 controls
Was a great night, even with the computer freezing in the cold. David Esson spent a productive hour later on and reuploaded all the brikkes into the computer in the warmth of the house and it all worked perfectly of course.
(Need to add a hot water bottle to the Planner’s kit list?)
Thanks to Dave K for the fun courses, and to Helen R, Dave K and David E for collecting the controls.
Results and Splits
RouteGadget
Good to see some different faces there tonight – trying to get in some more practice before the upcoming Scottish Night Champs no doubt.
Thanks to Paul Duley for planning, David Esson for computing and David Kirk who helped the other two collect controls afterwards.
Two courses (long 5.3km, short 3.1km)
Note map scale is 1:7500
It’s started already at Glen O’Dee but if you didn’t manage to make it to that event then don’t worry, plenty more over the year.
If you enter any of these events you will automatically be included in the (JD)2C rankings so all you need do is get out there. Good luck everyone!
6/1/19 MAROC Glen O’Dee
24/2/19 GRAMP/MAROC SOL1 Birsemore
24/3/19 GRAMP Glen Dye
28/4/19 MAROC Sluie
30/6/19 MAROC Potarch
7/7/19 GRAMP Balmedie
28/8/19 MAROC Glen Fearder
6/10/19 GRAMP Forvie
10/11/19 MAROC Cambus O’May
Lovely crisp morning, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves out on the courses, and they certainly enjoyed warming up afterwards with the homemade soup back at the Esson’s house.
HHH Hazlehead 2019 Splits.pdf
HHH Hazlehead 2019 Results.pdf
The Minutes of the 2018 AGM have been circulated around the club members by email so for those that missed out or have lost that email, here’s a quick summary of issues discussed, prizes awarded and the 2018 Roll of Honour. Continue reading
2018 GRAMP Champs by category (for trophies).pdf
Congratulations to all our trophy winners!
Juniors: Morven Farquharson & Sam Griffin
Seniors: Katrina McLeod & Mark Stockton
Veterans: Rachel Scott* & Tim Griffin
Super Veterans: Lesley Gomersall* & Bob Daley*
*these folk retained their 2017 titles
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:
2018 events were: Glen O’Dee, Back of Bennachie, Shooting greens, Corsedarder, Glen Dye, Crathes, Balfour, Pannanich, Scolty, Bogendriep.
If you want the results in Excel format so you can do a bit more analysis and figure out which 2019 events to target for maximum points then contact webmaster@grampoc.com.
Another fiendish brain bending scheme has been hatched for the HHH by George Esson so better start reading the details and inwardly digesting now…
Norwegian Master Maps – with a twist
On a Norwegian Master Map course, at the Start and at each subsequent control, the competitor finds a small segment of the map showing his next leg, which he/she then completes from map memory.
The twist? At some controls there will be a multiple choice question with three possible answers, and a map segment corresponding to each answer. If your answer is correct, at the next control you will find a kite, an emit unit to punch, and a map segment(s) for the next leg. If your answer is wrong you will find a kite and a unit (which you may punch if you wish to know how expensive your error has been) but no map segment. You will then either have to go back to the last control and pick another answer, or remember all three control site options and go from one to the next. If you get all the answers right first time the course is 3.0 km.
For this course the rule regarding proximity of controls has been disregarded.
Blank maps will be available for those lacking confidence in their memory.
Map Scale is 1:4000
A 1.2km Yellow course will also be available
Assembly is at the car park adjacent to the gates to the cafe, on the way to the golf club.
what3words party.flag.backed
Entries and Starts 11 a.m. to 12 Noon.
Cost – £4 Seniors, £2 Juniors.
Party afterwards
will be at the Essons, 215 Springfield Road, Aberdeen AB15 8JN (just round the corner – well two or three corners). All welcome.
Bring your own left-overs and drinks; soup and tea/coffee will be provided.
Well Murray certainly made us all think all the way round with a couple of exceptionally difficult courses. Chapeau to those who whizzed round in ridiculously quick times and commiserations to those who really struggled on those fiendish long legs.
Many thanks to Family Griffin for providing the post-AGM orienteering activity to run off all the delicious food from the night before. They even managed to persuade Father Christmas to take time out from seasonal preparations to lend a hand as roving bonus control 129 worth 30 points and a chocolate from his sock.
Slightly more elusive was a decorated Christmas tree (96) not marked on the map but also worth 30 points if you spotted it on your way round.
Thanks to all for coming along and supporting Sam’s fundraising and well done to the Short Score Maestro Patrick Lang who visited all the controls within the 30 minute time limit.
Scores on the doors
And in detail so you can see what controls everyone else bagged and in what order
And thanks to David Esson (new Chairman) and Sarah Wallace (new Secretary) for assisting with computing and control collecting today but more importantly stepping up to take on those roles on the committee. Further AGM news to follow…
Well done to Matt for persevering through wind, rain, sandstorms and 2 waterproofs to get the controls out there for us tonight and the 22 nutters who braved it all – points well earned all round.
I’m told there’s video evidence on Maroc’s Facebook page.
Four GRAMPs made the trip down south to Roxburgh Reiver’s event at Elibank in the Borders (to get in a bit of Score practice priot to the post-AGM event next weekend?) and did very well!
Congratulations to Pete Lawrence and Neil McLean who are this year’s champions for M55 and M75 respectively. Bob Daly came 2nd M60 and Rachel Scott 3rd in the W50 class.
Bogendriep saw the final event in this year’s competition and here are the final rankings. and trophy/medal winners.
Congratulations!
Fraser Pain M8 1st Trophy and Gold Medal
Olivia Coman W16 3rd Bronze medal
And well done to the Maroc winners and everyone else who took part of course!
Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2018 full rules and points scheme and list of events. For individual event results check the Gramp/Maroc websites.
If you spotted Struan Kirk out and about with his camera then there’s a fair chance he spotted you and you’re in the GMC Braemar 2018 gallery.
If you want a high res copy (anywhere between 3 to 8MB) of any of these then email webmaster@grampoc.com with the photo number(s).
More photos here too from Ian Hamilton
A wee heads up that an exciting weekend of orienteering is coming your way in Feb:
Sat 23rd afternoon – Urban Sprint SOUL @ Cove, Aberdeen
BREAKING NEWS – Emit Touch Free Punching will be used courtesy of Emit UK
Prepare for fast and furious Sprint action around the housing estates on a brand new map created for us by Graham Gristwood and Chris Smithard*. Pete’s planning courses right now – details will be released soon – and Rachel’s organising so will be after offers of help as we anticipate a good turnout of folk wanting to warm up and while away the hours waiting for the main attraction…
Sat 23rd night – British Night Orienteering Championships @ Muir of Dinnet
Maroc are busy organising this one. Planner Drew Tivendale says he’s very pleased with his courses (IHHO) and Richard Oxlade is doing his best as Controller to keep Drew’s enthusiasm in check. Should be a fantastic night and a chance for you to compete in a Major event within spitting distance of Aberdeen.
Sun 24th – SOL 1 @ Birsemore
Another chance to take on the challenge of Deeside but in daylight this time at the first SOL of 2019.
Online entries for all three events are now open on Fabian 4.
First closing date is 4/2/19 after which fees go up by £1.
Final closing date is 18/2/19 midnight.
You can enter 1, 2 or all 3 events in one hit by clicking on the Fabian 4 Enter button above.
Get the dates in your diaries and enter now!
*Pete and Rachel’s latest claim to orienteering fame is to have provided B&B, including a fish supper from The Bay, for these GBR athletes. Not every day you get to share tartare sauce with WOC and British Gold medal winners!
Woohoo! Results posted from Tyrebagger car park courtesy of David’s mobile Wifi signal – in’t technology wonderful?
Many thanks to Matt Parkes, Dennis McDonald and David Esson for doing the legwork to collect while I sat and posted.
Long 4.9km, Short 3.1km
Sponsored by BTO Solicitors, this SOUL is also the first event of 3 for the British Night Orienteering Championships Weekend 2019.
Terrain and courses: housing estates on the outskirts of Cove so expect plenty of alleyways, small open areas, paths, corners and wiggly roads. Trainers recommended unless weather suggests otherwise.
All Sprint courses planned with 12 – 15 minute winning times. Course lengths shown below are provisional subject to controlling:
Course | Length/climb | SOUL Class | Non-comp | |
1 | 3.0km 35m | MO | Course 1 Open | |
2 | 2.6km 30m | WO/MV | Course 2 Open | |
3 | 2.0km 25m | WV/MSV | Course 3 Open | |
4 | 1.9km 25m | WSV/MUV | Course 4 Open | |
5 | 1.6km 25m | WUV/WHV/MHV | Course 5 Open | |
6 | 2.5km 30m | WJ/MJ (16-) | Course 6 Open | |
7 | 1.6km 20m | WYJ/MYJ (12-) | Course 7 Open |
Enter by SOUL class according to your age class:
Or enter any of the so-called “Course X Open” classes if you don’t want to be competitive in the SOUL but fancy a run anyway.
Registration/Download and Event Centre: Altens Community Centre
what3words: jukebox.dogs.shuts
Toilets and rooms to leave kit while out racing.
Parking: in far corner of car park of The Aberdeen Altens Hotel
Follow tapes 300m from the car park to the Community Centre.
Many thanks to hotel for giving us permission for this – you might like to book a room there with double rooms from just £43.
Dogs: sorry but no dogs in the Community Centre or on the courses while running.
Timing system: Emit Touch Free – emiTags will be provided FOC.
Many thanks to Emit UK for providing the kit as it gives folk a chance to use it prior to JK2019.
Starts: 13:00 – 15:00
Fees: Seniors £10 (non-BOF/SOA supplement £2), Juniors and Students £5
Cove and Altens locals are also invited to come along and try orienteering – half price £5 for adults, under 16’s free but must be accompanied, come to the Community Centre to register on the day between 13:00 and 14:3. See the Cove Chronicle or the Community Facebooks too for more info on what to expect on the day.
Final details: will be posted in pdf format on 19/2/19. Start times will not be allocated and we will operate a queuing system instead in early/middle/late time bands (to match your preference stated when entering online).
Apres-SOUL: The British Night Championships 2019 will follow on after this event (about 1 hour’s drive up Deeside to Muir of Dinnet) and then there’s the first SOL of 2019 at Birsemore on Sunday 24th which is also a UKOL ranking event.
Online entries for all three events are now open on Fabian 4.
First closing date is 4/2/19 after which fees go up by £1.
Final closing date is 18/2/19 midnight.
You can enter 1, 2 or all 3 events in one hit by clicking on the Fabian 4 Enter button above.
Planner: Pete Lawrence GRAMP
Organiser: Rachel Scott GRAMP Any questions?? Please use this contact form
Controller: Tim Griffin GRAMP
Ta muchly to Dennis and his mate at 243 for a spooky spin round the fairways and greens tonight.
Woooooooooooooooooooooo!
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
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/
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)
.
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
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.)
Ranking after 5 Wed events Ranking after the 5 Wed eve events. SOUL results yet to be added … coming soon hopefully!
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
Many thank to Dave for a great start to this year’s Urban Series …
Gramp are hosting a come-and-try–it session at Foggieton Woods on Saturday 1st 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.
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?
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]
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
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.
Have you spotted the SOA website article on reporting ticks for a research project?
Thanks to Bill and Paul for this week’s Tyrebagger event, and Olivia for supplying the refreshments. Who knew bracken was so drought resistant!
Next week we are at Crathes Castle
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.
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!
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.
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
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
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
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
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.