oldglutton6

Looking for events?

I try to keep an up to date list of upcoming events for Gramp and neighbouring clubs* on the right hand side of this webpage but if viewing on a mobile it’s not immediately obvious it’s there. So I’ve left two links in the menu system under ‘Events/Results’ for the SOA Events Calendar and the BOF Event Finder which is searchable by placename or postcode and shows events 1, 2, 3…. weeks away with coloured pins in a map.

*For newcomers it might help to know which club is based where and covers what:
Gramp = Aberdeen and bits of the Shire surrounding
Maroc = Deeside north and south from Banchory to Braemar
Moravian = Moray coast and inland
Basoc = Kingussie to Grantown and areas close to Spey nearby
Invoc = Nairn to Inverness and beyond!

Mobile users – any more suggestions to improve your browsing experience gratefully received by webmaster@grampoc.com please.

Old Aberdeen Urban Sprint 29/9/21

Last in the series is always traditionally around the intricacies of the Kings Campus in Old Aberdeen and why break with tradition? Please note the last starts will be by 18:30 as it’s getting darker earlier. You should still be able to see your map by streetlamps but might want to bring a small torch just in case.

Parking/Reg is in the traditional car park off St Machar Drive
w3w: eagles/belt/coffee for the entrance

Starts: 18:00 – 18:30 Course closes at 19:00
Fees: Seniors £3, Juniors/Students £1.50
Select your start block when entering and pay contactless when you arrive on the night.

Pre-entry only via Entry Form for Old Aberdeen

First Aid kit and sanitiser will be available in the organiser’s car.
Please observe current Covid distancing and group number guidance and beware of blind corners and pedestrians.

ISSOM map and SI Air enabled controls will be used.
ISSOM maps have some special symbols so if you’re new to these please check this guide paying special attention to the out of bounds olive green and uncrossable walls/fences: ISSOM uncrossables

Good luck, Sam!

Congratulations once again and good luck to our Junior member M18 Sam Griffin who will be representing Scotland in the Junior Inter Regional Orienteering Championships in Cleveland 25th/26th Sept and then at the Junior Home Internationals ‘down south’ at the Devil’s Punch Bowl at the beginning of October.

Westburn & Victoria Parks Urban Sprint 22/9/21 Results

Wow! Never seen the Westburn so burny as tonight or the grass so waterlogged. Almost needed a snorkel in parts. Thanks to Sam and Tim for doing the soggy honours tonight.

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2021/WestburnUrbanSprintResults

I also uploaded to RouteGadget to see what it would make of the voided section for the road crossing and seems to cope OK although if you look at the Splits it has dotted lines between 17 & 19 rather than 18.
As expected, those with older dibbers that cut out at 30 controls have dotted lines from 30 to the Finish.
Interestingly, all of us crawl from the last control to the Finish when replaying the race, regardless of dibber vintage. Don’t remember the water being that deep in the car park that we would have been reduced to wading carefully so no idea why!!

Nothing to do with orienteering but… (part 2)

Remember the video with Foss and Erik and other members of the Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra summoning up their inner Picts at Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle?
Well, the ASO Zoomed with a southern counterpart, Phoenix Saxophone Orchestra based in Market Harborough in Leicestershire, for UK Make Music Day on June 21st and recorded ‘Entry of the Gladiators’, by Czech composer Julius Fučík. You’ll recognise it when you hear it as “that circus music” – click here for the video.

‘This collaboration is one positive thing to come out of lockdown – how else would two such geographically distanced orchestras ever get to meet, let alone play together? We’re looking forward to more enterprises with Phoenix, maybe even in the real world, not just the Zoom one!’
Foss Foster, tenor saxophone, Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra

ASO and PSO have been nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society National Inspirations Award for this innovative non-professional musical hook-up, along with 5 other diverse groups from Orkneys down to Bristol. Please go to the RPS website to find out more and don’t forget to vote for ‘oor local SO’ by 11am on 30th Sept.

Westhill Urban Sprint 15/9/21 Results

Thanks to Oonagh and Donald for organising the Westhill leg of the series. Donald is so taken by the ease of making courses and timing etc that he’s going to introduce his DofE group to MapRun.

Results – not sure but I think the folk recorded as mispunches are self-declared rather than just failing to get a ping so I’ve kept their times in the mix for comparison and you can see that the whizz kids are back in town!

Some names don’t appear yet on the MapRun results so I’ve put together a quick guide on uploading results for you if you want to have a go (not compulsory, that’s why Oonagh was recording times manually.)

How to upload Check Sites results manually

SHI Relays and SOL Results Balmedie 4/9/21

Here are the results from todays event at Balmedie Beach.

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2021/SHIRelays2021

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2021/SOL2021Balmedie

Many thanks to all the Gramp helpers and in particular to Zoe Griffin ably assisted by Tim (Planner), Sarah Dunn (Controller), and Sam & Lesley Gomersall. (Organisers)

Routegadget  SOL and SHI Relays
BOF results & points (updated 13/9/21)

Templars 18/8/21 Results

Great night with a lovely BBQ afterwards enjoyed by everyone. Thanks to planner Tim Griffin and Scouts for use of the fire pits.

That wraps up our Summer Series. Great to see such big numbers turning out regularly and welcome to all the newcomers who have joined the club recently as a result.
There’ll now be a short intermission before we start the Urban Sprints at Cove on Wed 8th Sept. See you there?
Easy Splits.pdf
Medium Results.pdf
Easy Results.pdf
Long Tech Splits.pdf
Long Tech Results.pdf
Medium Splits.pdf
Short Tech Results.pdf
Short Tech Splits.pdf

Cove Urban Sprint 8/9/21 Results

Seems like everyone enjoyed themselves this evening even if one or two got fooled by incoming texts or emails making them think they had hit a control when they heard a ping. Others said they couldn’t hear the pings very well at all but we’re reliably informed that bluetoothed ear phones solve that problem – although maybe just the one would be a better idea so you can still hear the traffic?

I have to say that from a (lazy) planners point of view not having to put out and collect controls in an urban environment, cable-tying everything down, makes for a very relaxed evening. Especially when you get to sunbathe in a car park waiting for folk to come back.
I do appreciate though that some folk take it all far more seriously and find the inconsistent GPS reaction times a bit frustrating. I was asked if I’d found out an optimum combo of phone and app? The answer is that I don’t know but no doubt if you sniffed about on a forum like Nopesport you’ll find plenty of folk that think they do.
I have a theory that there is more likely to be an optimum maximum running speed for the tech which is just a tad too slow for the hares. (I think I may be about to find out if flattery will get you everywhere or not!)

Cove coincided very nicely with World Orienteering Day II as many countries were too locked down to take part in WOD I earlier this year so we all got a second bite of the cherry this week. Woohoo!!

S6D/2 Day 5 job done!

Despite steady rain for much of the day, we managed to set off 1000+ people, count them back in and still found time to get a run ourselves, with some good results too with several 1st and 2nd placings. Big thanks to our Day Coordinator, Paul Duley, for keeping us all up to speed with the twists and turns and numerous changes of plan in the run up to the event and calmly and quietly checking up on us all day in the rain.

Also big thanks go to Tim Griffin and Helen Rowlands who inadvertently ended up assistant controlling/planning for both Days 4 & 5 on a very tough area on numerous levels, from physically/mentally challenging terrain to how to squeak in a White and Yellow, and to the jolly band of Start Helpers who carried on smiling regardless of the persistent rain.

But maybe the biggest thanks should go to the folk who helped out even though they’re not regular Gramps/Orienteers – Jackie Reynard, Alison Lovie, George Greenwood and Keith Yardley, here’s to you!

(Did I mention the rain?)

S6D/2 Day 5

Gramp’s day finally rolled round and tomorrow we’ll be manning starts, waking up/collecting controls and hopefully getting some orienteering in too on an area that’s been described as “hard to relocate” – sounds fun!!

S6D/2 Rest Day

Apart from Helen and family plus Tim G who were involved setting up controls for Day 4/5 (3 cheers for them!), most of us have been enjoying the official rest day although some need a few lessons on the definition of ‘rest’ as they seem to have interpreted it as the ‘rest’ of the holiday with mega cycle rides, Munro/Corbett Bagging, long walks, train rides and ski gondola trips to name a few.

Oh, yes – there’s an O competition going on in the background apparently. If you want to see how we’re all doing check S6D Results https://results.scottish6days.com/2021/

Burning question though is who won the Pants award for yesterday’s Middle Distance entertainment on Inverlochy Golf Course and Woods?

Scottish 6 Days off to a great start

If you go down to the woods today…

…take your phone/camera and you can take part in this intriguing project https://www.forestryengland.uk/treeline

Artist Ruth Maclennan is collating video clips of forests by tying them together visually along a horizon, either actual or inferred as a level when panning round a clearing for example. Although commissioned by Forestry England and Film and Video Umbrella it will feature forests from across the world, depicting the unique features of each forest while highlighting the impact of the climate emergency on the world’s forests. The plan is to screen it online coinciding with COP 26.

You don’t need to be a professional to do this, phone footage is fine providing it’s not too wobbly of course. Full details on specs and how to submit are on the Forest England website.

(Thanks once again to Ewen Rennie for spotting this and passing it on.)

Glen Dye Wed 21/7/21 Results

Many thanks to George and David for planning/computing and ace control collectors Bob Daly, Helen Rowlands and Gareth Yardley.

Short (Easy) Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
RouteGadget

Don’t forget to check for ticks and that we now take a break for the Scottish 3+3 Days until
Tyrebagger on 11th Aug TBC
Templars Park on 18th Aug

Mulloch – now that the party’s over

Photo taken at 2110hrs while collecting controls.

Thanks to Eric Lovie for giving us a guided tour of all the boulders tonight in a fast and furious control picking style and David Esson for computing and control collecting.

Mulloch Wed 14/7/21 Results

Easy Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
Routegadget Thanks to Eric Lovie planner and David Esson computing and control collection

“Disgusting, nefarious, sneaky, crafty…” no, not the planner, ticks!!

While you were waiting for the results, did you check yourself for ticks as loads of the wee critters out there tonight? If you’re not sure what you’re looking for take a look at this guide. From the teensiest-weensiest ones through to something a couple of mm across they love to settle in areas like waistbands, tops of socks, nooks and crannies so check thoroughly tonight and then again tomorrow as they have magical powers of invisibility first time around!

If you find one latched onto your skin don’t panic they’re quite easy to remove. Don’t grab the body to pull and try not to squeeze it, instead you’re aiming for a pincer movement around its head with your fingernails, or use a tick remover, and pull gently until it lets go. Some people swear that twisting it slightly helps but it’s not imperative so if it’s in an awkward place for twisting just pull straight.

Check the sites of bites for any rash as that can be an indicator of Lyme Disease which is really not good news. The typical Lyme rash is dark red, circular, often has a bullseye appearance with concentric circles and several cms across but you can get atypical rashes which are more rectangular or blobby. If you think your rash may fit this description get in touch with your GP, send them a photo, explain it was a tick bite and where and request a preventative course of antibiotics. Most GPs in Scotland are clued up about Lyme Disease these days and will give you a prescription without too many questions.

Want to know more about Lyme Disease? 5 Live Science programme on 11/7/21 featured from around 28 mins 30 secs. You can still listen to it here and that’s where the quote at the top comes from. (Thanks to ex-Gramp, Ewen Rennie, for the link.)

Tollohill Wed 7/7/21 Results

Short (Easy) Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
RouteGadget This is going to look a real mess but could provide some good entertainment watching headless chickening going on as many folk admitted to underestimating this small, easy area.

Thanks to Pete for interesting spin around and around and around (infinitely preferable to slogging through chest-high, rain-soaked vegetation on far north side just to get the length though – good call!), David for computing, Rachel and Eric for control collecting.

Aberdeenshire Clubsport £100 grant

We are pleased to have been awarded a grant of £100 from Aberdeenshire Clubsport (https://www.scottishclubsport.co.uk/club/45) to help cover the additional costs of running events with Covid requirements.  We have invested in a contactless payment system and bought all the necessary PPE. 
Good to have some financial support to back up the work our volunteers have been doing to keep events running.
Thank you.

Aberdeenshire Clubsport SCIO website lists the wide variety of sports supported and tells you a bit about their activities: “[It] is managed and run by volunteers from the local sporting community who bring with them a wide range of knowledge, skills and expertise. We work to encourage, develop and promote all sport and physical activity, providing advice, support and assistance to affiliated clubs/organisations and always look for continuous improvement to ensure quality services are always offered. We are keen to support grass root developments and minority sports, as well as the major sports.

ACS SCIO achieved charitable status in 2020 with the support of Buchan Development Partnership and exists to represent member clubs/organisations. It is one of the most progressive and active sports councils in the country.

ACS SCIO currently has a board of 6 Trustees and an Executive Committee with capacity for 18 volunteer representatives, 2 of which are youth representatives, from many different affiliated sports clubs/organisations. We work closely in partnership with the Aberdeenshire Council, Aberdeenshire Disability Sport, Sportscotland, Active Schools, Scottish Clubsport and a range of Scottish Governing Bodies.

We have one of the largest memberships in Scotland, with our membership encompassing an enormous range of sports clubs that vary greatly in size, numbers, abilities and interests, with 50 sports and physical activities represented. However, whether large or small, all share the same need to be well organised forward thinking to ensure strong, successful clubs in years to come.”

3 cheers for Richard and Dave!!

After another month of watching Tiers and C-19 announcements with bated breath we’ve received a flurry of emails from the 6 Days crew outlining Plans L, M and N (at least) to go ahead with the 6 Days in one form or another.

This is all thanks to Richard Oxlade, Dave Kershaw assisted by others on the 6 Days Central Organising Committee and 6 Days Company for doggedly making and remaking plans, canvassing opinions and making some very tough decisions when it would have been oh so easy just to say “You know what? This is getting really messy and complicated and so many unknowns still. Let’s just cancel it.” Thanks guys – much appreciated!

Scolty Wed 30/6/21 Results

Short (Easy) Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
RouteGadget (this version of the map doesn’t show recently felled area to NW of car park)

Thanks to Ian Hamilton for setting us a real challenge tonight certainly towards the start of the Long Tech. Good practice for those of us going to the 6 Days as it’s impossible to recognise anything under all that bracken so definitely bearings and distance judgement came into play followed by some lovely open running in the northern part of the map.

Thanks too to Dennis for braving the bracken twice to collect controls along with Rachel and Pete plus David Esson on keyboard.

GMC 2021 Lochnagar 6th/7th November ENTRIES OPEN 12th JULY

Yippeeeeee!   It’s all systems go here at GMC HQ and we’re just away to start making final preparations.

ENTRIES OPENED 12th JULY
Here’s the link: SiEntries

Pairs £115 or Solo £57.50
Course A ~57k 2300m over 2 days
Course B ~47k 1900m over 2 days
Course C ~37k 1500m over 2 days

Information, Rules and Kit List (as of 21/6/21, watch out for updates)

You’ll see we’ve rebranded ever so slightly to acknowledge the year’s delay but other than that (fingers crossed please people) it’s shaping up for another great weekend of friendly rivalry and fun.

GMC HQ will be based at Crathie Hall on the north side of the River Dee, opposite Balmoral, where we’ll register you early on Saturday morning and take your kit bags for transportation to the overnight campsite while you do the easy bit yomping through some spectacular scenery to join us.
There will definitely be portaloos at the campsite and hopefully marquees if C-19 guidelines allow by that stage.
Then the whole process reverses on Sunday via some different but equally spectacular scenery to get back to Crathie Hall. Although there are prizes up for grabs we probably won’t be allowed to have a prize-giving inside and it’s too much to expect a heatwave that time of year so we’ll have to think of a different way this year – apres-GMC Zoom Party anyone?

GRAMP O TOPS

We have a small stock of Gramp O Tops waiting for some (not-so-careful) owners to snap them up and help them fulfill their role in life to take you for a great run/walk through the woods while keeping you cool and psyching out the opposition with your GRAMPGofaster™ stripes.

Adrian Will is i/c club clothing these days and hopes to bring a selection to some of our Summer Series to give you an idea of the look and feel like without you having to chase down someone wearing one. Cost £25 adults sizes, £20 childrens.
If you’re interested but can’t make it to a Summer Series event at the moment then email Secretary@grampoc.com instead.

Balmedie Wed 23/6/21 Results

Short (Easy) Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
RouteGadget

Thanks to Paul Duley for tonight’s fun in the dunes, David for computing and Adrian, Alex and Ian for collecting.

Scottish Champs 2021 Craig a’Barns

We have a Champion! Congratulations to M40S David Esson!

A few others took on this challenging area too:
Lesley Gomersall 4th W55L
Helen Rowlands 8th W50L
Neil McLean 2nd M75
Sam Gomersall 6th M60
Bob Daly 10th M60
Tim Griffin 4th M55
Gareth Yardley 7th M55

Foggieton Wed 16/6/21 Results

Thanks to Dennis for planning, Paul Duley for helping collect and David Esson on laptop etc.

Easy Results Splits
Orange Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
RouteGadget

British Middle Champs 2021

Our roving reporter, David Esson, is currently down in the Lakes thoroughly enjoying a wee holiday and some fine orienteering areas for the British Middle Distance Champs. Keep an eye on our Facebook site for maps and mentions.

Middle Distance combines shorter classic courses and lots of controls so even the “long” legs still require concentration. Today (5th June) it was in an area called Summer House Knott and it “did not disappoint”. Three other Gramps are also competing – Tim Griffin and Bob Daly both narrowly missed top ten placings in M55 and M60 respectively, but looks like Sam Griffin had to pull out. Hopefully he’ll still be OK to try again tomorrow at High Dam.
Good luck guys!

High Dam update: Sam definitely back up and running and came 13th in M18E, 7th for Bob Daly, 17th for Tim but unfortunately looks like David might have crocked himself very early on in the course and been forced to stop as results show lots of missing controls. (It’s either that or the Newby Bridge Hotel food was just too tempting and he decided to go back for Sunday lunch – either way, hope you’re OK David).

Back o’ Bennachie Wed 9/6/21

Easy Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits

Routegadget

Thanks to Dave Kirk for planning and Dennis McDonald for helping collect controls and David Esson for computing and everyone who took on the hilly challenge of B o’B.

Countesswells Wed 2/6/21 Results

Easy Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits

Routegadget

Many thanks to David Esson for reminding us how Countesswells lulls you into a false sense of security every time.
Hands up who else got caught out at the pits at the far end again! 😦

A few more of the old faces coming out of the woodwork tonight, nice to see you. And plenty of new names I’m starting to recognise but haven’t yet met seem to have caught the bug and keep coming back for more too which is great to see.
Don’t forget that we’re happy to give you a bit of adhoc coaching or a debrief if you think it will help, just ask at registration as there’s always an experienced orienteer or hanging around.
(Equally, if you find you learn best by making your own mistakes then we’re happy to leave you to it!)

Is it mapped?

Another fun wee park for a bit of micro-O maybe?
Little Island, NYC, 2.4 acres manages to pack in 350 species of flowers, trees and shrubs.
Remember the arboreal trail map in Westburn and Victoria Parks? Something similar would work really well here.

Scottish Champs entries open 13/6/21

Scottish Champs (at Craig a’Barns) is open for entries: https://www.sientries.co.uk/list.php?event_id=8389
Details on ESOC’s site https://www.esoc.org.uk/events/craig-a-barns-jun-13-2021

Worth getting in quickly – only 500 entries allowed

Crathes 26/5/21 Results

Thanks to Helen Rowlands for providing tonight’s fun whirl round Crathes and Gareth for assistance with control wrangling and David for ‘puting and entries.

Easy       Results Splits
Medium Results Splits
Short Technical    Results Splits
Long Technical    Results Splits

Routegadget – did you know you can view splits graphically as well as upload/plot your routes on RG?

Hazlehead 19/5/21 Results

Hope you enjoyed the first of the Summer Series and our World Orienteering Day event. We’ll be reporting our numbers very soon to add to the grand total – it’ll be interesting to see what effect Covid 19 has – will it stymy numbers or will it boost numbers this year as lots of people realise that O is a good socially distanced thing as well as being a fun sport anyway?

Easy Results Splits
Short Tech Results Splits
Long Tech Results Splits
RouteGadget tomorrow (fingers crossed as I need to remind myself how first)
Download your WOD 2021 Diploma here to print out and put on your trophy wall

Ta muchly to John Lang for planning, David Esson for computing and Helen Rowlands and Gareth Yardley for helping collect controls ready for next week’s event at Crathes. Details will be posted tomorrow for that.

Scottish Junior Cup Race 30/5/21

Entries are now open for the first Scottish Junior Cup Race at Auchingarrich, Perthshire, on May 30th.
At this stage priority is being given to junior competitors and accompanying adults, but after 19th May entries will be opened to all SOA members until the maximum capacity of 200 is reached.

C’mon GJOs – now’s your chance to get back out there and practice ready for Six Days!
Enter before 19th May to avoid disappointment.

More info on SOA website.
Entries via Sientries

Child Protection / Safeguarding

Helen Anderson has been busy revising the child protection policy, aka Safeguarding, and a copy can be found here.

From 26th April we can attend other clubs’ events and City/Shire boundary officially permeable

So starting with Maroc’s Cambus O’May Forest Sprint Wed 28th April, fill yer boots!
Still need to be member of SOA/BOF or O club though, pre-entry via forms on websites etc etc.

WED 28/4 Cambus O’May (M)
WED 5/5   Dunnottar Woods (G)
WED 12/5 Denlethen Woods (M)

Few more Forest Sprints to go and then GRAMP’s Summer Series kicks in starting at Hazlehead 19th May.
Full list of planned venues is up on the Summer Series page now but please check individual posts nearer the time for updates as we may have to rearrange things on the fly depending on local travel restrictions or other C-19 factors.

Dunnottar Woods 5th May Results

Yellow Results Splits
Forest Sprint Results Splits

Thank you David once again for doing the honours for Dunnottar (although I suspect it may have been a sneaky ulterior motive involving proximity to one of the finest chippers in the NE that may have decided you to volunteer? 😉 )

Some lovely photos of the afternoon and pm on our Facebook page. Good to see so many faces both well kennt and new again. All looking like the Summer Series will be off to a flying start in 2 weeks time so here’s a quick run down on what we’re planning but check here for individual posts for each event with any updates, Covid related or otherwise.

MAY
19 Hazlehead Park  This just happens to fall within the first World Orienteering Week for 2021 so make sure to come along and celebrate with us.
26 Crathes
JUN
2 Countesswells
9 North Bennachie
16 Foggieton
23 Balmedie
30 Scolty
JUL
7 Tollohill
14 Mulloch
21 Glen Dye
28  No event (Six Days week lead up)
AUG
4  No event (Six Days week)
11 Tyrebagger
18 Templars Park

Tollohill Woods Wed 21st April Results

Yellow Results, Forest Sprint Results Splits

Shire’s turn to experience that weird feeling of sort of knowing what you were doing but also knowing you don’t really know at the same time. Took most of us until a couple of controls in before it became second nature again.
Thanks to David for providing us with a great wee sprint course on a great wee area on a peedie wee map – slight scale malfunction freely admitted and apologised profusely for. Apologies accepted. Ian Hamilton found the positive side: “At least there’ll be very little wind resistance running round with a map this size.”

Thanks also to Pete and Rachel for manning registration/download and to the control collectors who must not be named. 😉

Next up Dunnottar Woods in 2 weeks time. Watch out for a post with entry link etc very soon.

Perwinnes Moss Sun 18th April

Lovely day, smiling faces, good to be back!

Results Yellow Splits Short Splits Long Splits

Thanks David for putting in all your time and energy to get these events going again. Much appreciated.

If you couldn’t make it today, here’s a snip of what you missed.

Hazlehead Wed 7th April Results

Real O Events!!!!

YES, they are finally happening!

Here are results from Hazlehead – big thanks to David Esson for cranking the SI controls into BST-mode and persuading them they wanted to go and sit in a wood again after their cushty number sitting in his flat all this time and to Gareth Yardley for wrangling them back in before they had time to decide they actually quite liked it out there and went feral.

Yellow Results Yellow Splits
Forest Spring (LG) Results Forest Sprint Splits

We have other events in Aberdeenshire planned later in April/May:

Sun 18th April – Perwinnes Moss (City) (please note the venue change)

Wed 21st April – Tollohill (Shire)

Wed 5th May – Dunnottar (Shire) but fingers crossed by then we’ll be able to cross the boundary

Watch this space for details and pre-entry forms closer to the dates.

Got a few spare minutes?

Mairi Eades is doing a research project on about why adults in Scotland go orienteering for her uni Sport and Recreation Management degree. Could you spare a few minutes to complete a short questionnaire?

• Participants must be 18 or over, are living in Scotland (or would normally, if it weren’t for Covid) and currently or have previously orienteered.
• All answers will be anonymous, and the results will be observed in topic groups, which will be written up and published to the University and Scottish Orienteering.

Click here for the questionnaire.

DNC 2020/21 Final Results

Final results have been posted on the DNC blog.

We managed to squeeze in half a series this time before Lockdown stopped play so points have been tallied up for best 5 out of 8 events and any would-be planners of cancelled events still get 50 points for volunteering.

Although the DNC Cup was dominated by the Maroc youngsters again, GRAMP have a podium place in the Mini DNC Cup in the shape of Pete Lawrence. Congratulations!

DNC Cup: Dave Kirk, Gareth Yardley and Dennis McDonald all came in the top ten, Lesley Gomersall flew the flag for the ladies coming 14th overall and 2nd lady.

DNC Mini Cup: Pete Lawrence 2nd, Murray Anderson 7th, Julian Robinson just missed out on a top ten position and Helen Rowlands flew the flag for the ladies coming 18th overall and 2nd lady.

Big thanks to all the GRAMPs who planned, or offered to but then had their event cancelled, and to David Esson for doing the computing/SI wizardry for all our events.

GRAMP Gossip and socials

Next Social Thingy involves a quiz on Wed 17th @ 19:00. Check the main post for details.
BTW quiz part not compulsory if you just fancy joining us for a chat. We’d love to see you!

This week I’ll be working on the long threatened swap to a newsletter app for things like GRAMP Gossip rather than emails so watch out for a trial message and please respond so I know I’ve got it right! Rachel

HHH2021 Results

Thankyou to all who attended our annual 2nd January event at Hazlehead.

Results are below –

Long Course –

1. Patrick Lang 25.00
2. Dominykas Kardokas 25.17
3. Tim Griffin 28.10
4. Sam Gomersall 29.32
5. Lesley Gomersall 30.53
6. Julian Robinson 30.58
7. Dennis McDonald 31.33
8. John Lang 32.42
9. Hugh Nicholson 34.10
10. Lynn Smith 34.38
11. Marianne Lang 37.03
12. David Esson 38.35
13. Eric Lovie 39.59

Short Course –

1. David Esson 18.23
2. Ros Nicholson 18.48
3. Samantha McDonald 28.04
4. George Esson 37.00
5. Lindsey Esson 43.18
6. Daisy Cooper 45.44
7. Magnus Huthwaite 53.08
8. Joanna McDonald 55.13
Helen Greenwood -No Time Recorded

DNC 6/1 @ Hazlehead ***CANCELLED***

Well, looks like it’s probably game over for this season’s DNC now that everyone is back in Lockdown and SOA have tweeted that all orienteering activities are to be suspended until further notice which may be March so too late for night O. Hey ho! It was fun while it lasted.

DNC 23/12 @ Templars Park ***POSTPONED***

Annoyingly, Templars Park lies just beyond Aberdeen City boundary – only 300m or so but still technically off limits to city dwellers as per Tier 3 guidance on travel for informal exercise vs organised sports and SOA confirmed yesterday that we shouldn’t be encouraging folk to break the rules by accepting entries from anyone from ‘the other side’.

We haven’t had that many entries to date and as we were expecting the bulk of entries to come from Gramps who live inside city limits, and given that it’s a bit of a novelty event rather than a full-on TD5 DNC, we’ve decided to postpone for a while. Sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it, especially any kids or novices keen to tackle the Orange. We will run it at some point in the New Year as soon as we all get back to Tier 2.

I think for the time being GRAMP and MAROC have agreed to continue running events with entries limited to those who live on the ‘right’ side of the boundary (although there’s a couple of GRAMP ones where we may have to swap planners as they live on the ‘wrong’ side to their area – and when the music stops…!) and we’ll come up with some way of adjusting the league points to discount any events which fall into the Tier 3 trap.

In the meantime, stay safe and have a Happy Local Christmas everyone!

Have you peaked yet?

“The slope of these curves varies by task. For example, in sports that rely heavily on physiological fitness—like sprinting 100 meters—the decline of the fitness curve would be steeper than in a sport like alpine climbing or orienteering, where pure fitness matters less and wisdom gained through experience matters more.”
(Outside Online An Ode to Aging)

Want to move the curve for wisdom? Then look out for news on club training which we hope to recommence next year along with more Come and Try It sessions.

Calling all speccy wearers…

Would you like to help a Loughborough student, William Smith, help you by coming up with a solution to misty specs while out orienteering? Then please take a few minutes to complete this survey to help him get a better insight into the problem (his words not mine!!)

DNC 9/12 @ Foggieton Results

Sorry for the slight delay – a weird side effect of timing we’ve not seen before meant those of us with early starts had negative times before David managed to sort it all out late last night. BTW, thanks David for your help on IT and Starts at all the Gramp DNCs, much appreciated by the Planners and also runners – it’s Wed, it’s dark, there’s David standing in the middle of a wood with a clip board and a welcoming quip – a little bit of consistency while everything is so topsy-turvy still.

Short Results Splits
Long Results Splits
RG

Thanks to Dennis McDonald for succeeding in his mission to catch a lot of us out old hands out in an area we think we should know really well by now. Why is being “lost” in a 100m x 100m patch of terrain so addictive?

Is it mapped?

Dreaming of autumn city O breaks back in the old days…. this looks like it would be fun for a Friday night race to kick off a weekend. It’s in Awaza, a luxury resort in Turkey.