oldglutton6

24/5/17 Hazlehead Summer Series starts and WOD

Beautifully hot evening to kick off the Summer Series and to coincide with World Orienteering Day!

The planner did a runner (John – I hope you had a lovely time down in London), leaving the rest of the Lang team in charge.  It all mostly went  according to plan though a few controls went walkabout at various points during the evening (first 234 and 245 went missing but were found by Rob and later on 139 made a very temporary disappearance or maybe that was just an excuse for not finding the point).  As controls came and went and came again and I don’t have a record of splits, I’m afraid times are as recorded by your brikke and I can’t void any legs, so apologies to those who spent a long time hunting for controls that weren’t there.  But it’s all good practice, it’s the taking part that counts etc etc…well maybe not for all…and you’ve got another 11 events to show us what you can do.

Results

Many thanks to all my helpers: Naomi and Angela for help setting out controls, Alex and Patrick for help at registration and download, Jayne and Anne for helping newcomers (and control replacement), Sasha, Nick and Patrick for collecting the controls and Helen for filling in all those certificates!!  Prize for best use of time goes to Nick for collecting in the northern controls whilst still doing his course and chasing the Finish stake all the way to the car.

Cheers,
Marianne

PS We look forward to seeing everyone at Tyrebagger this Sunday

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

Forest Sprints 2017 final scores

Its taken a few days but here are the final overall scores after the 2017 Forest Sprint series. Let Sam know if you see any big mistakes!
end

2017Forest_SprintSeries final.pdf

WANTED: Fit males to help heart research project

Dr Alice Mezincescu has started coming to our events (when on call duties allow) in order to brush up her navigation skills for an Ultra race later this year she says, but I reckon that secretly she’s also been gauging the orienteering fraternity for suitable subjects to help her research.

She is a British Heart Foundation Research Fellow working for the Medical Sciences Department of Aberdeen University and currently trying to recruit fit males who exercise on regular basis for one of their studies that aims to elucidate how we can reduce cardiovascular risk improve insulin sensitivity with the aid of exercise.

Jon Musgrave has already been through the guinea pig process so if you want to know more catch him at Dess or contact the Cardiology Research Facility on 01224 559573 or email alice.mezincescu@abdn.ac.uk.

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup rankings after 4 events

Rankings after Coull

GJOs in top 3 positions in their age classes: Oli and Emily Robertson, Reuben Cole, Morven and Kirsty Farquharson, Sam Griffin, Patrick Lang and Josie Gomersall are all still up there and now joined by Robert Prince too.
Well done guys!

Next counting event will be Tyrebagger on 28th May. Middle Distance race so good for those of you who enjoy finding lots of controls rather than flat out running and a chance to even the score a bit with those whose legs work faster than their brains sometimes.

Check the main (JD)2C post here for the list of events and also rules and scoring system.

Tyrebagger – Level C – Middle Distance – Sunday 28/5/17

Welcome to Tyrebagger! Middle Distance means courses a little shorter and controls a bit more frequent than you might expect for a Sunday event, so those who like it technical but not epic will be able to hold their own against the long distance merchants. (Well, that’s the theory anyway. Come along and help test it out!)

Details downloadable versions in Word format and pdf

Location
Tyrebagger Woods, west of Dyce   Will be signposted from A96/B979 junction     Streetmap
Nearest Post Code AB21 9TE       Lat,Long 57.190178,-2.253775
Grid ref  NJ847110        what3words atomic.broad.workflow

Registration and Start Times
Registration: 10:30 to 12:30
Starts: 11:00 to 13:00
Courses Close: 14:30 Continue reading →

Dunnottar Forest Sprint 26/4/17 Results

The midges weren’t actually biting, the notorious mudslides of Dunnottar weren’t anywhere near as bad as previous years, Jon beat Ewan by 2 seconds, the injury wasn’t a broken ankle as feared and Rachel and Pete had their chips.
I’d call that an evening full of results.

Dunnottar FS 26-4-17.pdf

Many thanks to Mark Hammonds for getting our injured competitor home after a visit to Stonehaven minor injuries clinic; hope the complications won’t hamper his preparations for an early flight out of Aberdeen at 0530 on Friday morning (ouch!).

Crathes – Level C Event – 9/4/17 – Results

Crathes Event Results

A pleasant mild day at Crathes, perfect conditions and dry underfoot, so some fast times seen especially by the leaders on the Brown (and all the more impressive considering the fastest 4 legs had already done the Clachnaben Hill Race on Sat!) And at the other end of the spectrum, it was great to see so many new faces having a go – hope you enjoyed it and that we’ll see you again some time over the next few months at our Forest Sprint or Summer Series.

Here are Results and Splits.
BO results c/w rankings points.

Routegadget is loaded here, and you can analyse your splits at Winsplits.

Thanks to Planner Helen, control setter-outers Rachel, Pete, Gareth and Helen, Controller Andy and Organiser Paul who were rewarded by a larger than usual entry.

Courses

Officials
Planner: Helen Rowlands
Organiser: Paul Duley
Controller: Andy Tivendale

Compass Sport Cup 2017 – 3rd place for Gramp in the Trophy class!

=-O How did that happen?! As a club with no clear strategy or captain (although we did have a banner which was more than many) we somehow managed to rack up enough points at Tentsmuir to come 3rd in the Trophy class (small clubs) and a mere 6 points behind arch-rivals Maroc. Result!

It’s a team competition so you need strength and depth across a variety of age classes/courses, so potentially anyone’s score could be the deciding factor between placings.
Tentsmuir’s an area well suited to such a broad variety of competitors with a grid of forest blocks, some of which have small patches and ridges of highly complex contour detail for the TD5 courses. The blocks seem ridiculously easy at first glance but lulled one or two of us into a false sense of security and caught us napping.
Thanks to all 31 Gramps who ventured down and particularly to our 13 highest scorers shown in bold below.

Helen & Stuart Anderson; Evgueni Chepelin; Bob Daly; David Esson; Morven, Kirsty & Laura Farquharson;Sam, Lesley & Josie Gomersall; Oonagh Grassie;Sam, Noah & Tim Griffin; Rob & Anne Hickling; Anne Hoy; Pete Lawrence; Alan & Jayne Macgregor; Neil McLean; Iain, Calum & Carolyn McLeod; Richard Oxlade; Ali Robertson; Rachel Scott;
Bob Sheridan; Gordon Urquhart; Duncan Will. For full results check out Robin Strain’s results pages.

This now means that we’ve qualified for the CSC final down in Devon 22/10/17 at the intriguingly named area, Virtuous Lady – fancy an Autumn break anyone? FlyBe will get you to Exeter via Manchester for a mere £180!

New tops for 2017

Is your GRAMP club top getting a bit jaded and battle-weary these days? Fancy a change anyway?

Ali has been tasked with coming up with a new design and has been busy discussing materials and designs with potential customers (“no castles on bums!” was the feedback at the HHH lunch) and suppliers.

So how about this? Click on the image to embiggen it.
Size guide here and there’s a choice of a zip collar top or technical T in different materials. Hunt him down, ask for more details, place an order!

Double win for Lesley Gomersall at Scottish Night and Sprint Champs 2017!

Woohoo! Congratulations to Lesley for sweeping up two trophies a couple of weekends ago (and apologies for not spotting this and posting sooner :-[)
And she wasn’t the only Champ as Gramp mopped up several of the
other Night Trophies too… congrats to Helen, Carolyn, Keith and
Neil too.

Scottish Night Champs
W45L 1st Helen Rowlands
W50L 1st Carolyn McLeod
W55L 1st Lesley Gomersall

M/W Open 1st Keith Yardley

M70L 1st Neil McLean
M55L 3rd Richard Oxlade

Scottish Sprint Champs
W55 1st Lesley Gomersall

M21 2nd Callum McLeod
M55 3rd Sam Gomersall
W50 3rd Carolyn McLeod

Full results and RouteGadget can be found on the MOR website.
What do you make of the courses?

Forest Sprint Series – Wednesdays

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.

April 12th Hazlehead GRAMP    Results
April 19th Glen O’Dee MAROC   Results
April 26th Dunnottar GRAMP    Results
May 3rd  Tilquillie MAROC         Results
May 10th Foggieton GRAMP       Results
May 17th Dess MAROC                 Results

One course TD3 or Orange standard, 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

Overall Results after all 6 events.

.

Technical info for Controllers

To be a Controller you need to be up to speed on all the technical stuff for planners and organisers so there’s not much more help we can give you but here’s a handy checklist courtesy of Hilary Quick/SOA that might help you streamline the process.

Controllers Checklist

North Area Junior Training day on 18th February Culbin

In an exciting new development for 2017, we will be introducing North Area Junior Orienteering training days!

Main aims:
*To provide coached training opportunities outwith club orienteeringfor TD3 (Orange) and above juniors.
*To provide fun and motivational opportunities for juniors in the North of Scotland.
*To provide a stepping stone between club and national squad level.

Who can join in?
The training days will not be selected, however all juniors attending need to be confident at completing an orange (TD3) course independently.
Last chance to sign up for the first North Area Junior Training day on 18th February!
I need to have confirmed numbers by Sunday night (5th February) so that I can ensure we have enough coaches lined up for the day.

We are currently at 24 junior athletes, which is very exciting 🙂
I’m sure there’s lots more who would like to join us! Anyone under 20 who can independently conquer a TD3/orange course is welcome, even if you’re in ScotJOS.

Also, remember to get designing your North Area logos so we can vote on them at Culbin.
More details for the training day will go directly to those who are attending in the week beforehand.

Jess Tullie

(GJOs – if you want to sign up then email Jess directly jjtullie at’ gmail.com)

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2017

Glen O’Dee saw the first round of this year’s (JD)2C and here are the rankings.

Any Junior from Gramp or Maroc is automatically entered into the (JD)2C. You win points by running in any of the 9 nominated local Level C races listed below, with a sliding scale depending on your course and how well you do.

To try and keep things as fair as possible, only half points are awarded to shadowed competitors which is why we ask you to declare this when entering.

8 Jan     MAROC  Glen O’Dee
19 Mar  MAROC   Potarch
9 Apr    GRAMP   Crathes
30 Apr  MAROC  Coull
28 May GRAMP   Tyrebagger
18 Jun   MAROC  Sluie
17 Sep   GRAMP   Scolty
15 Oct   GRAMP   Forvie
5 Nov    GRAMP    Bennachie

• The (JD)2C competition will be run over 10 events with the best 5 scores counting for each runner.
• There will be 5 classes for girls and boys, using the ‘standard’ age classes, i.e.M8, M10, M12, M14, M16, W8, W10, W12, W14, W16
• Within each event, the Gramp/Maroc Junior who is highest placed for each course scores the  maximum course points: White 200, Yellow 300, Orange 400, Light Green 500, Green 600, Blue 700, Brown 800
• Points for subsequent runners are calculated using this formula:
  score = [(winner’s time)/(runner’s time)]*(maximum course points)
• Every effort will be made to provide a White course at each event. However, if this is not possible, the JDC organisers will review how many events will qualify for the M8 and W8 classes.
• If you are being shadowed or running in a pair, please declare this when you register. You will score half points for your run.
• The competition aims to provide competition in each age class. Juniors may choose the course
  appropriate to their ability. More difficult courses earn higher points.

2016 AGM roundup and Roll of Honour

Quick summary of you for those of you who didn’t go to the AGM:

Busy year: Forest Sprints, Summer Series, Level C events, Urban etc.
Scottish Champs in May – run jointly with MAROC
JIRCS in Sept – very successful, Ian coordinated whole w/e
GMC – Dave plus 2 Ians – no issues – might move it to April? No one has yet volunteered to organise the next one…..

Looking at getting new club kit – Ali Robertson will reveal all soon (?!)

Would like to organise more coaching- but need someone to plan it and liaise with coaches. If you’re interested 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.

It’s getting more and more expensive to run events, mainly levies on all events and Forestry Commission permissions on the larger events.  Our aim is to keep the summer events at cost and on the level C events, which often have more costs attached try to make a small profit and help maintain a surplus in the account.  So unfortunately  entry fees have been raised ……..  but we still think we are offer the best deal around.
So, for 2017:
Level D (summer series, urban sprint etc) £4 and £2
Level C £6 and £3

Week end away? Opportunity to do some coaching and go to big event as a club.

Adrian Will thanked all for effort and time over the year

Liz Sloan is our new Social Secretary – anyone got any ideas for club events other than curling this year?

Club Championships Overall Trophy Winners

Class 1st  (Trophy)
Junior Women  Naomi Lang
Junior Men        Paul Caffyn
Senior Women  Kate Robertson
Senior Men        Mark Stockton
Veteran Women    Lesley Gomersall
Veteran Men          Gareth Yardley
Super- Veteran Women (>55)   Oonagh Grassie
Super-Veteran Men (age over 55)  Rob Hickling
John Duncan Cup Medal Winners:

Class
W8        Bronze     Emily Robertson
W10      Silver        Hannah Will
W12      Silver        Morven Farquharson
W14      Silver        Isobel Anderson
W16      Gold          Naomi Lang
M8        Gold          Oli Robertson
M10      Bronze      Robert Prince
Grampian Orienteers Roll of Honour for 2016  

Scottish Elite Development Squad:    Tim Gomersall, Katrina McLeod, Sasha Chepelin, Oleg Chepelin

Scottish Championships:

1st
M50S Individual: Pete Lawrence
W60S Individual:  Oonagh Grassie

2nd
17+ Points Relay Class: Sam Gomersall, Carolyn McLeod and Bob Daly
M16B Lachlan Kirk
M60L  Rob Hickling
M65S  George Esson
M70L  Neil McLean
M85  Angus Aitken
W16L  Naomi Lang
W50L Carolyn McLeod
W65S  Margaret Aust

3rd
M12A Sam Griffin
M55L  Bob Daly
M55S Richard Oxlade
M60L  Paul Duley
W65S Audrey Wilson-Hay

SOL winners
M50S  2nd Pete Lawrence
M55S  1st Richard Oxlade
M60L  1st Rob Hickling
M60L  3rd Paul Duley
M65S  3rd George Esson
W50 L 3rd Lesly Gomersall
W60S  1st Oonagh Grassie

SOUL winners
WYJ  2nd Morven Farquharson
WJ  2nd  Josie Gomersall

Scottish Night Championships
M55 1st Sam Gomersall

SOA Presidents Medal:  Richard Oxlade
Presidents Alarm Clock:  Rob Hickling (Geo referencing all the Maps, and support Mo Farah!)

Chairman’s Awards
Musgrave Trophies:  Carolyn McLeod – Coaching the Juniors.
Iain McLeod – Organising the JIRCS weekend

Chairman’s Quaich: Richard Oxlade – organising Scottish Champs relays

6 Day Accommodation

Did you know that Dave Kirk is the Booking Secretary of the Cairngorm Club Climbing Hut called Muir, near Inverie, near Braemar?
It is free for the week of the 6 Day if anyone wants to book in. People can stay for as many nights as they like. It might be most suitable for the second half of the week when the events are near Braemar. More info can be found on the Cairngorm Club website (Muir section) http://www.cairngormclub.org.uk/muircottage/muircottage.htm.

It’s £12 pppn for adults and £6 pppn for under 16s. Max 22 places available each night, in five separate rooms.
Anyone interested in staying should contact Dave directly dkirk006 ‘at’ btinternet.com.

GRAMP Champs 2016

2016 GRAMP Champs by age class.pdf
2016 GRAMP Champs by category (for trophies).pdf

Congratulations to all our trophy winners!

Juniors: Naomi Lang & Paul Caffyn*
Seniors: Kate Robertson & Mark Stockton*
Veterans: Lesley Gomersall* & Gareth Yardley
Super Veterans: Oonagh Grassie & Rob Hickling*

*these folk retained their 2015 titles but Mark cut it a bit fine in his ding-dong battle with Gordon Urquhart – will 2017 be Gordon’s 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

2016 events were: Glen O’Dee, Tyrebagger, Torphantrick, Crathes, Glen Fearder, Glen Dye, Carlogie, Scolty, Muir of Dinnet.

2017 events will be announced soon 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 2017 events to target for maximum points then contact webmaster@grampoc.com.

Post-AGM Novelty Event @ Countesswells 11/12/16

Results             Map
Pondering over the top words: 2 Juniors came up with “sunshine” compared to the adults’ “rampage” and “dental” – what does that tell you about the different perspective a few extra age classes gives you?!

Prepare to be boggled! This was a score event like no other…

Instead of controls having a points value, each control has a letter allocated.
The aim is to create words by visiting the controls in correct sequence to spell out your words.

1. 45 minute time limit
2. Visit controls only once
3. 2 points per minute penalty after 45 mins

4. For each word created 1 point is awarded for each letter.
5. 5 points bonus for 5 & 6 letter words
6. 10 points bonus for 7 & 8 letter words
7. 15 points bonus for 9 letter words and over
For example: “HAT” = 3 points, “SLOPE” = 5 points + 5 bonus points = 10 points

Well done to all those who turned up to the boggle O score. Rob Hickling had the best tactics and the overall best score for the seniors, with Naomi Laing holding Calum off the top spot for the juniors.  Thanks to Bob, Liz and Helen for their help at registration and collecting controls.

A bit of planning insight to anyone who might be interested…..

The requirement was for something a bit different so after a bit of head scratching the Boggle idea was hatched. I’d picked out about 30 control sites in Countesswells and looking at it I thought it would be easy to get quite a lot in 45 mins (how wrong could I be), but I wasn’t sure how quickly people would manage to work out their words. A quick search on the internet provided lists of the best letters to use that would also provide the maximum possibilities.

I thought people would try to work out words with letters that were close together and confined to 3 different area’s . The first one, the Northern area in the top half of the map, the second area closest to the Rotton o’Gairn car park and the third area close to the start.

If you put the letters I used into a scrabble cheat in google you’ll find that there are literally hundreds of possible words in each area and I did spend quite a bit of time juggling the different possibilities – I wanted to try if at all possible to use letters which would provide orienteering terms, but in the end just made sure that I kept the letters to spell “Grampian” and the rest would have to be a bit of a mix of luck and design.

Judging by the deductions for late returns it would probably have been better to have 1 point per minute deducted and allowed 60 minutes for the course.

Getting all this into Condes was a bit time consuming, but worked out ok in the end. I was pleased that at least some people managed to get “Grampian” and even more pleased when Calum produced “Grampians”.

Dennis

DNC Glen Dye 7/12/16 – Results

As well as a new planner we had some new faces at Glen Dye, enjoying both the good terrain, good weather and the Chillimobile hospitality. Welcome to the DNC “club” guys!

Final Results and Split Times

Apologies from our newbie planner, Bob Sheridan, for control 7 (131) on the Long being in the wrong depression. We’ve voided* the legs on either side.

*Seems Glen Dye has that mind-blowing effect on first time DNC planners (you’ll remember Rachel had to do the same last year?) and it’s hard to know who to ask to double-check for you without making them non-comp as most of the experienced orienteers are DNC regulars.

Date for your Diary: Gramp AGM, 10th December 2016

Where? The Craigiebuckler Scout Hall, accessed from Craigibuckler Drive starting promptly at 7pm. No parking on the grass please!
When? 7pm en punto
What? AGM business followed by prizegiving and food and fun and games and blether

Just a reminder for everyone to bring a dish to share to the AGM and your own choice of beverage. Your dish can be savory or sweet, and perfect if it can be shared.
If you have any special dietary needs, it is assumed you will ensure you bring a sharing dish to suit your needs.
Drinks as per usual is BYOB “Bring Your Own Bottle/Booze/Beverage”. Please remember your own serving spoons and tongs to suit. Cutlery, napkins, cups and plates will be provided.
There will be team games for all following the meal.

Bring your food 5/10 minutes early to allow a prompt start to the AGM at 7pm.

See you all there.

The AUOC 100

The Aberdeen University Orienteering Club organised the first ever (as far as we are aware) 100 control point race around the Aberdeen Uni campus.

Here are the results:

Loop Results    Splits

Cumulative Overall Times

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and well done for those whose concentration meant that they found all the controls in sequence!

We apologise for the mistake at the end of loops 2 and 3 (100 CP course) with the incorrect control codes on 167-240 and 159-248.  Everyone has been reinstated who was affected by these checkpoints.

Mapper, Planner and Organiser (!):   Janne Heikkinen,   AUOC president

100cp Final details.pdf

Out for the Weekend BBC Radio Scotland 14:00 Friday

Listen out for John Lang about 1:33 into the programme talking about orienteering and the new Duthie Park Permanent Courses (you can listen to the rest too of course.)

Duthie Park Permanent Course back up and in business

Following the restoration project at Duthie Park, Aberdeen City Council and Gramp have pooled resources to reinstate the Permanent Orienteering Course there with two versions of the map and a Mobo orienteering course too for those with smartphones and a sense of technological adventure.

Read the ACC press release here and take a look at their leaflets for the Short 1km and Medium 1.9km courses featuring a special map, based on the architect plans for the restoration, and controls on most of the historical features and monuments dotted about the park.

If you want to time yourself and compare your performance against others using your smartphone, the Medium course is available on the MOBO app – http://mobo.osport.ee/
Maroc have got 3 Mobo courses at Dess, Bell Wood and Creag Choinnich.

GMC 2016: Morven 12th/13th November

Day 1  Results  Splits  RouteGadget
Day 2  Results  Splits  Routegadget

Overall results    Organiser’s Report

A big thank you to all who came to pit themselves against the Grampian terrain and each other. We were lucky with the weather in the end after the previous weekend’s foul conditions – sunshine and superb visibility on Saturday and a dry but frosty night at the overnight camp helped make it a day to remember for all the right reasons.

Thanks to those who realised things weren’t going to plan and phoned to let us know they’d bailed or would be late back – another bit of luck as we don’t always get such good mobile reception – and to those who bowed out gracefully on Day 2 and helped to pack up the campsite or lent their Excel expertise – really helps us run the event smoothly.

Bit of rain Sunday afternoon but didn’t seem to cause too much grief on the homeward stretch and well done to those who completed Day 2 and laid a few Grampian demons to rest

Congratulations to the overall winners and other prize winners:

A
1st Overall     Alec Keith MV
1st Pair           Alex McVey & John Ryan M
1st Ladies       Susan Blackwood & Katy Boocock FV  aka Black and Boo
1st Vet             Jonathan Shepherd MV

B
1st Overall     Duncan Coombs & Chloe Haines MIX  aka Auld and Reekie
1st Solo           Gordon Urquhart M
1st Ladies       Bryony and Rebecca Harding F  aka Hard(-ing) as Nails
1st Vet             David Frame MV*

C
1st Overall     John and Naomi Lang MIX  aka The Hare and the Tortoise
1st Mixed       Ben and Clare Stansfield MIX aka The Stoating Stannies
1st Vet            Kenny Milton MV
1st P&P          James & Graeme Ackland M  aka A Clan
1st Solo          Pete Lawrence MV

* corrected 14/11/16 – apologies for getting this wrong on the day (blame Rachel’s mental arithmetic for mis-estimation in our rush to present as many prizes as possible on the day before potential winners left to go home.) Bottle of wine en route to you somehow soon.

We also need to thank numerous folk for help/permissions etc (see Organiser’s Report above too.)

The Factors & Owners of Candecraig, Dinnet & Kinord, and Tillypronie Estates.
The Sporting Tenants on Dinnet & Kinord Estate.
Mr John Anderson.
FCS & SNH.
Tisos – for providing voucher prizes.
Mar Orienteering Club.
Aberdeen Scouts.
Maryculter Scouts.
Dave, Alan & Ross – The Catering Team.
Mike, Donnie & Graham – The Heavy Kit Team and Hill Marshals.
Mid Deeside Community Trust.
The Dinnet Hall committee.
Brandon Hire & Heilan Loos.

And personally, I’d also like to thank Ian S, Ian H, Rachel, Helen, Sam, Tim & Josie G, Iain B, Tim, Ali, Kate, Sean, and all the competitors who also became helpers at some point during the weekend. A final thanks to my wife Liz for putting up with my ‘project’ over the last 18 months, acting as event Base Contact, and managing to come up with a GMC Prize Cup (in chocolate).

Organiser: David Kirk
Planner: Ian Searle
Controller: Ian Hamilton

If anyone took any photos and is willing to share them then send the link to webmaster@grampoc.com please.

More photos from Ian Hamilton here and Yomping Yardleys here

“Many thanks for the race – a great introduction to mountain marathons for my daughter. She’ll now expect all of them to transport bags, have heated tents, controls in the right places, be well catered and have quick results. A few photos from my phone are linked here.  Cheers, Dave Robertson”

Photos from the Langs: “A bit Langcentric, but a few photos from the week end. And proof that John and Naomi even had time for photos on Day 1!”

DNC Cheyne Hill 9/11/16

Results Splits RG     Long course results amended 16/11/16

First big apology goes to Alistair for repeatedly calling him Craig. I do know who you are but was suffering brain fade after a long day and hassle over brikkes not starting.

Second apology goes to all who had trouble getting brikkes to start – lesson learned and we’ll not be using the old ones for DNC in future as it looks like they don’t like the cold any more than we do.
I was keeping our new brikkes aside for GMC this weekend and wasn’t sure how many we had and whether I could cover both events with all new brikkes so decided to use older for last night. Bad move!
You’ll see on the results I’ve massaged the times by either using folks’ watch/GPS time or estimating what they might have taken for the first leg as they mostly have all correct controls logged just not the Start.

Third apology is for not getting results up last night as GMC preparations took precedence and then bed beckoned.

Fourth apology is for apologising so much!

Organiser: Rachel Scott
Long 4.9km 240m climb
Short 3km 165m climb

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2016 Final Results

Final results

Maybe some of the GJOs would like to leave a comment about taking part in the (JD)2C this year? We’d love to find out the good, bad and the amazing bits from a GJO perspective.

The dates and rules for the (JD)2C competition 2016 are linked below.
This competition is for juniors from GRAMP and MAROC up to MW16 and this year the league will consist of 9 level C events plus the Scottish Championships, to be held at Balmoral in May.

JDC Events and Rules.pdf

AUOC events for Movember

AUOC would like to invite everyone along to their events to help raise funds and awareness of mens health for Movember. Here’s the flyer and check their Facebook for details or their Movember campaign page.

Sun 13th November  Foggieton
Tues 15th November  Quiz night
Sun 20th November Duthie Park
Sun 27th November 100 control race Aberdeen campus

Scottish Junior Inter Area Relay @ Culbin 29/10/16

Some of our GJOs did their bit for the North Team in the Scottish Junior Inter Area Relay last weekend – well done Naomi, Hannah & Josie for flying the GRAMP flag. Full results can be found here .

Scolty 23/10/16 Level C – Results

We hope you enjoyed our event at Scolty – with some tough courses.

Here are Results,   and Split Times.

Routegadget is loaded (click here) – Please enter your routes and compare them with others.

Winsplits (split time analysis website) is loaded – click here

BOF results with Rankings points  Added 30/10/16

Thanks to our event officials, helpers and control collectors.

Brown 7.8 Km
Blue 6.9 Km
Green 4.9 Km
Light Green 3.5 Km
Orange 2.9 Km
Yellow 2.7 Km
White 1.8 Km

Officials
Planner: John Lang
Organiser: Alex Maclachlan
Controller: Drew Tivendale

North Area Inter-Club Junior Challenge 2016 – calling all GJOs

Mike Rogers of MOR would like to invite all GJOs to take part in the North Area Inter-Club Junior Challenge 2016. The competition is deliberately kept simple and is aimed at juniors who run Light Green and below – White runners completing their course have been known to sway the final results, so everybody’s result really does help.

It would be great to see all 5 north clubs fielding teams to make it into a truly competitive event (and also a chance to get to know their local peers and team-mates for when North compete against the other Scottish regions.) Somebody from Gramp’s GJO Team may well be about to send an email round to you all but thought I’d better give you the heads up asap.

This year’s North Clubs Junior Challenge will be at the excellent Keppernach on 6th Nov incorporated into INVOC’s Level C event so there will be chances for parents/chauffeurs to compete too.

North Clubs Junior Challenge Format 2016.pdf
North Area Inter-club Junior Challenge 2016.pdf

Deeside Night Cup 2016/17

To try and make best use of the darker nights, the DNC will start and finish a bit earlier again this year. Two courses 3km and 5km at TD5/Green standard as far as possible. No concessions to the dark. There may also be an additional Orange in a couple of our less technical/scary areas for really junior Juniors and beginners to be able to have a go too. Check the details on the DNC blog .

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26/10/2016 GRAMP Hazlehead intro event
02/11/2016 MAROC Cambus O’May
09/11/2016 GRAMP Cheyne Hill, Stonehaven 
16/11/2016 MAROC Dess
23/11/2016 GRAMP Balmedie
30/11/2016 MAROC Muir of Dinnet 1
07/12/2016 GRAMP Glen Dye
14/12/2016 MAROC Bogendreip
21/12/2016 GRAMP Crathes

04/01/2017 MAROC Muir of Dinnet 2
11/01/2017 GRAMP Forvie
18/01/2017 MAROC Coull
25/01/2017 GRAMP Tyrebagger
01/02/2017 MAROC Muir of Dinnet 3
08/02/2017 GRAMP Scolty
15/02/2017 MAROC Glen O’Dee + meal

As this is a shared series, we operate a separate blog with full list of dates, venues, travel maps, final results and chat – DNC Blog.  Once it kicks off in earnest check there rather than here for up to date details like snow reports.

There are lavish prizes for the best M/W Junior and Senior in each Cup and a host of frivolous prizes for things like the Toughest of the Tough for the most gruelling courses and Best/Worst Mistake. Seriously though, this is one of the most competitive leagues around and worth turning out for if only for the challenge of finding your way around areas you thought you knew pretty well until someone turned the lights out!

Urban Sprint Aberdeen Uni 28/9/16 – Results

Last in the series using a newly refurbished map courtesy of Janne Heikkinen of AUOC.  Thanks to the Gomersall family for planning and running the event.

Here are the Results ,  and Split Times

Please enter your routes on Routegadget   so we can see the answer to the most asked question last ight, “Which way did you go 10 to 11?”

(We await the final points totals with bated breath !)
You can breathe again now…  Overall points     Overall points by category

Congrats to the category winners – prizes will be dished out at the AGM.
If you’re not a club member then we’ll have to arrange some other method to hand over the goodies – contact me on webmaster@grampoc.com

Lot of fun had by all – thanks for coming and supporting the series and see you all next year I hope.

Junior Inter Regional Championships 2016 – Results for Relays + public races

Individual – Cambus O’May – Sat 24th September
Relay – Forvie – Sun 25th September

Gramp are proud to be joint hosts with Maroc for this year’s JIRCs which saw squads from all over the UK jetting in to compete and socialise with old friends and rivals alike. Competitors stayed at Cults Academy and buses were laid on to ferry them up Deeside for the Individual day and then north to Forvie for the Relays.

Iain McLeod was the JIRC Coordinator this year heavily involved in organising the accomodation and support side of things, George and David Esson controlled the Individual event and Adrian Will was Organiser for the Relays.

JIRC Relay

Congratulations to all competitors who ran at this challenging relay area.

Race results:    Results by Class,    and  Split times by Course

Please enter your relay routes on Routegadget

For Individual results and overall team scores, see the Maroc website.

Public Races

Helpers and others had a chance to enjoy Forvie, in the breezy but warm sunshine, after the Relays finished.

Here are the results and split times.

Urban Sprint Westburn & Victoria Parks 21/9/16

Here are the results for the 4th in the urban sprint series:

Results    Splits   Routegadget

The split between 12 and 13 (crossing Westburn Road) has been removed when calculating the Results.

Congrats to the joint winners Angel and William. W & V Parks are very flat and direct line running was possible for many legs so it produced some very quick times from the fast folk at the top of the tables.

Overall points after 4 events. Game on for Aberdeen Uni next week!

Urban Sprint Duthie Park and Ferryhill 14/9/16

Results  Splits     Routegadget  Overall points

The Jury decided we should void the leg from 4 to 5 as he control description for 5 didn’t include the vital bit of info as to which side of the uncrossable fence the control was placed and was therefore unfair.
The results have therefore had that leg deducted from your overall time by the magic of OE2010.
You’ll find Routegadget still includes that leg though. I’ll post a quick guide to using RG tomorrow as it’s a very useful way of analysing what went wrong and what went right and worth using.

And here’s a wee heads up – we shall be deliberately employing the same OE2010 magic next week so that the road crossing between Victoria and Westburn Parks isn’t included so no need to risk it sprinting across 3 lanes of heavy traffic. However, there will be an upper time limit on how long you can take to cross so don’t have too long a breather before punching on the other side and carrying on.

Autumn Urban Sprint Balgownie 7th Sept

Thank you Gordon for a much appreciated course judging by the buzz of conversation comparing routes at download and a few “DOH!” head slaps too as folk realised they’d missed a trick.

Quite a few mispunches not least punching 6 instead of 16 in the mad rush to get to the finish although the two very similar numbers in close proximity could easily be confused especially if you had your map tightly folded. It pays to check your numbers especially when they come thick and fast.
Maybe we should start producing separate control descriptions for the Sprint events? What do you think?

Results  Splits
RG sorry but I couldn’t get the georeferenced version of the map to show the course in any shape or form so it’s a bodged version which may not allow you to upload a GPS track and you may have to resort to drawing your course on the old fashioned way (which will at least make you think twice about where you went and wonder why you went in some cases.)

What I have successfully managed to do is calculate some points.

M/WJU16 = Under 16s shadowed
M/WJ = 16 to 20
M/W Open = 21 to 35M/WV = Vets 40+
M/WSV = Supervets 55+
M/WUV = Ultravets 65+

Best 3 of 5 scores count towards your total.

If I’ve mispelled names or clubs or age classes or you want to run up in the Open rather than your designated class then let me know on webmaster@grampoc.com.

One to read

Have you played “Spot the Gramp” in the latest edition of Focus?
Helen Anderson gives the low down on our (slightly serendipitous) World Orienteering Day event at Balmedie in June and Murray Anderson is pictured in action at the Scottish Champs at Balmoral in May.

One to watch @ Rio 2016 – Karen Darke

Karen Darke, para-cycling medal winner and one of our patrons of Scottish Orienteering, will be competing in the Paralympics in Rio next week.

Silver 2012 London Paralympic Games H1-2 time-trial
Silver 2014 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, USA H3 time-trial
Bronze 2014 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, USA H3 road race
….to name a few of her major results but if you read her bio on the Team GB site you’ll see she plays just as hard!

Think it’s all happening on Wed 14th so tune in and cheer her on.

Update: Gold! Missed it live? pic and brief report can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/37363311

Autumn Urban Sprints – Westhill 31/8/16 – Results

Glorious evening for some fast and furious/mellow and meandering* urban orienteering.

Results
Splits
Routegadget

*delete as appropriate

‘Up-and-coming’ Gramp!

Rachel – caught on camera at last!

Templars Park RetrO Results 24-Aug-16

Results from Templars Park.
Don’t forget Urban Sprints starting at Westhill on Wednesday.
Parking in the swimming pool car park, reg from 18:00.
See you there.

Templars RetrO Results 160824.xls
Templars RetrO Results 160824.pdf

JDC results after Glen Dye

Latest update for JDC after Glen Dye.

Lots of blaeberries and lots of sun… what more do you need? And some good performances too:
Noah came first on white, Connor came in fourth on yellow, Isobel was fourth on orange and Naomi came first on green.

In terms of overall positions our youngest Gramp Oliver is still leading the M8s and there are potential medal positions for Robert, Hannah, Morven, Kirsty, Isobel and Naomi.
With only three more events to go it’s time to rake those points in!
Next event on Sunday 4th September.

Marianne

JDC Glen Dye 21_August_2016.pdf

More admissions than UCAS?

One person admitted to oversleeping and not getting to Glen Dye when expected to set up the all important time-keeping system and having to be chased from their bed by a phone call from the Planner at 10-ish. He claimed: “Mo Farah made me do it!”

One person admitted to having inadvertently embezzled club assets while they were still in office as Treasurer and sheepishly handed over the red tunnel tent.

One person admitted to double-handedly (judging by the tell-tale spread of purple stains around their mouth) eat all the blaeberries at Glen Dye. Obviously the new wonder-berry though as he won the White comfortably.

Croeso 2016 – they think it’s all over

And it is now. A veritable mud bath to finish off today, getting stuck down deep slippery sided gullies and skiting down even steeper slopes desperately hoping the folk at the bottom would get out of the way as we certainly weren’t stopping even if we’d wanted too.

Sadly no podium finishes for the Gramps but some very close misses, most notably Bob Daly in 4th, Anne Hickling in 5th and Rob Hickling in 6th in their respective classes. Instead of cheering a Gramp in 1st position we switched our allegiance to Maroc (temporarily) and watched Joe Wright wipe the floor with the other M16As with a set of four 1st places out of the five races to win overall. Well done, Joe!

Croeso 2016 update

Couple of photos for you, courtesy of Lindsey Esson, showing the mixed bag of orienteering/weather we’ve been sampling. First was taken on the training area at  Merthyr Mawr sand dunes and the second was taken at today’s start at Mynydd Llangynidr, limestone moorland dotted with monster depressions, sinkholes and pits and visibility down to a few hundred metres due to drizzly rain and mist. Mmmmm!

We’ve been given a questionnaire to fill in and one of the questions is “Explain why you like orienteering and what makes you do it?” Kind of tough one to answer after today’s experience! What would you put?

Croeso 2016

Just in case you’re wondering what to do with yourselves on Wednesday evening (as there’s no Summer Series), how about checking on the progress of the Gramps down at Croeso this year?

A mixed bag of fortunes on Kenfig Burrows on Days 1 and 2 – a cracking area of vegetated monster dunes a bit like Forvie on steroids.

Some of us helped out organisers NGOC today. Helen fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition to wave a big pointy foam hand at drivers in the car park while Pete tried out his 4×4 skills ferrying helpers through the dunes to the Far Start.

Glen Dye 13/7/16

We had 48 runners this evening – pretty good considering summer holiday season is upon us. Thanks to everyone who made the trip up Deeside to enjoy a soggy* whirl round a little used corner of Glen Dye and novice planner Bob Sheridan for rising to the challenge after having his arm twisted at the first Hack-O-thon. You can give him your feedback next time you see him or leave a comment here as I overhead quite a few remarks and thought “must tell Bob” but can’t remember them now.

Thanks also to Pete, Bob Daly and Helen R for assistance collecting controls and Lesley for first aid duty on a crocked ankle (hope it’s not too damaged, Michaela) and Janne for rescue services plus Arvid and friend who helped raise the alarm and didn’t finish their run as a result.

*If it’s any consolation, I too got drenched but not by bracken, rain or marshes. Remember that excellent ‘canopy’ you were all sheltering under at the back of our car? You’d be surprised at just how much rainwater that recess for the rear number plate can hold and how far it gets flung out when you close it unsuspectingly!

The first control on easy course didn’t seem to be working – so has been removed from splits etc Ignore all that, but first control is missing from splits and RG. Bob – your brikke didn’t seem to work any idea of a time?

Results
Splits
Routegadget

Scottish Vets call up for Bob Daly

If you see Bob Daly going about at one of the Summer Series over the next few weeks congratulate him on his call up to the Scottish Vets Squad for the VHIs in Northern Ireland 3rd/4th September. (If you don’t know him, he’s the one who always runs late and always offers to collect controls.)

Tim Griffin and Paul Duley are also down as reserves and Rob Hickling already had a better offer so although invited had to decline.

bto SOUL 5 Westhill 25/6/16

Bad luck those of you who got caught in one of the downpours. I’ve never appreciated before just how loud the sound of rain stotting off your map can be.

On the plus side, we had possibly the swankiest assembly area ever for a SOUL so far? So nice to be able to come back into the warm and dry and not have to peel off wet O gear in a steamy, cramped car so many thanks to Technip UK Ltd for the loan of their restaurant area.

Results by course
Results by class
Splits
Routegadget (can someone who went to 229 tell me whether it’s really a smiley face on the ground or is it mappers artistic licence?)
BOF results with ranking points
(Results updated with dsq for crossing uncrossable fence/hedge)
SOUL rankings

Thanks too to Adrian Will for organising and swinging it with Technip, Helen Rowlands for stepping in for last minute Controller duties piggy-backing on all the hard work done by Tim Griffin, Pete Lawrence for some audaciously long legs, Keith Roberts of Maroc for Wifi and other computing assistance on the day and last but not least the Gramp helpers, particularly those who didn’t run themselves but volunteered to spend a wet and often boring day helping anyway (Duncan, Bob, Caffyns and Alastair: this means you!)

We got some good feedback on the new map and will be forwarding it to the mapper, Sasha Chepelin. Hope you enjoyed the chance to be guinea pigs with us (or is it more like lab rats?) and have fun tomorrow at Glen Feardar.

Jamie Stevenson 2016

Well done to all our GJOs who’ve been putting in the hours training prior to Summer Series events recently before traveling down to compete in this year’s Jamie Stevenson Trophy at Balkello near Dundee last weekend.

14 clubs attended from all over Scotland and ran Yellow, Orange, Light Green and Green courses with a points system based on finish places for both boys and girls classes so to maximise your team points potential you need a wide range of age and both boys and girls spread over the courses. Not easy to cover all bases if you have a relatively small team but the GJOs gave it their best shots and we came 8th out of the 14 clubs with a stonking 534 points. Our top runners were Maya Reynard, Connor Whitelaw, Josie Gomersall, Paul Caffyn, Morvern Farquharson and Kirsty Farquharson – congratulations guys!

Full results can be found here. Congratulations to our arch-rivals, Maroc, who retained the trophy.

Paul also posted the fastest run in time of 16 seconds and it looks to be about 125m on RouteGadget giving him a ballpark running speed of 28.1km/h. Woohoo!

The whole thing was all kicked off with an opening ceremony and parade as usual but I’m told the team weren’t impressed by the new white banner and had hoped for the BIG RED one? Next year.

GAC results after Tyrebagger

One word: SOGGY

It seems that Shearwater don’t do rain, only John turned up! Maersk and Genesis at least managed 4 people each.
Full marks to Katrine and Sue of Genesis for perseverance! Many thanks to Jonathan for feeding the Lang family emergency Boost bars whilst we waited for their return.

Marianne

2016 GAC results after 4 events.pdf