oldglutton6

Scotland Vets Selection Policy for VHI Oct 2022 Wales

Scotland Vets Selection Policy for VHI 2022, Trawsfynydd, Snowdonia, Mid Wales 1st/2nd October 2022.

Day 1 Individual. Day 2 Relays

In 2022 the Scottish team for the Veteran Home Internationals will be selected using the results of the following races:
British Champs Saturday 26th March Liphook
JK Wales Day 2 Saturday 16th April
JK Wales Day 3 Sunday 17th April

Scottish Middle-Distance Champs Saturday 14th May
Scottish Champs
Saturday 28th May

As the major UK events were rather far away this year, and some people were uncomfortable travelling, SOL events will also be considered.
If any competitor wishing to be considered for the team has missed one or more races, or has performed poorly due to injury or illness, but considers that they will be back on form by October, that person should contact Janice Nisbet, so that the selectors can take this into account.

Team Manager and Selector: Janice Nisbet (ESOC)        
All enquiries to: janice.veterans@gmail.com

Scottish Champs SiEntries closing date extended to Tues May 17th

Entries via SIEntries   entries now open, closing date is Tuesday 17th May.
You can enter both Individual and Relay Champs via the same link.

Don’t miss out on some great Deeside orienteering! Get those entries in now!!

Scottish Champs SiEntries closing date extended to Tues May 17th

Entries via SIEntries   entries now open, closing date is Tuesday 17th May.
You can enter both Individual and Relay Champs via the same link.

Don’t miss out on some great Deeside orienteering! Get those entries in now!!

PS The individual event details have been updated.

Hazlehead Summer Series Wednesday 18th May

Our first of the Summer Series is this Wednesday at Hazlehead Park.

There are 3 courses on offer –

Easy – 1.3km (all in the park)
Short Tech – 2.3km
Long Tech – 3.8km

Registration between 1800-1900
Courses Close @2000
Entry on the day (contactless preferred)
Cost – Adults £5.00 Juniors/Students £2.50

what3words = ///deck.trick.parks

Entries for Scottish Relays @ Sluie Sunday 29th May

Hi All,

With the Scottish Orienteering Champs being held on the weekend of the 28/29^th May in Deeside, Gramp are organising the Saturday Individual event at Glen Dye. (New Map!) Please contact Ian on treasurer@grampoc.com with offers to help on the day. Lots of varied jobs and you will also be able to run too!

Entry for Individual event @Glendye

MAROC are hosting the Relays on the Sunday at Sluie Woods, by Kincardine o’Neil. Gramp would like to field as many teams as we can. (The Club pays for the entry fees for the Relays)

Register of Interest for run at Scottish relays

It is hoped, similar to when the Relays were held in 2018 at Burghead, that we will field some competitive and also social teams. There is something for everyone.  I have in the link got the options for competitive or non-competitive runs, and also whether you have leg preferen

Course A       Technical Difficulty     Length (km)     Climb (m)
    A                     TD5                                5.6                    165
    B                     TD5                                4.7                    140
    C                     TD5                                3.9                    110
    D                     TD5                                2.9                     75
    LG             Light Green TD4                 3.0                     95
    O                Orange  TD3                      2.5                     70
    Y                 Yellow TD2                       2.4                     70

Official entries close on Sunday 15^th May, so I ask if you could register your interest by Friday 13^th May, this will give me time to work out what relay classes we enter for.

Kind regards

David Team Captain

MTBO Weekend 6 -8 May 22

Highly recommended by Tim Griffin…..

Friday 6 May – Sprint, Nethybridge

Saturday 7 May – Middle, Quarry Wood Elgin

Sunday 8 May – Long, Altyre and Newtyle, Forres.

If you would like to take part please enter the event beforehand as there will be no entries on the day. The last entries will be on Tuesday 3rd May. Details and entries for each day are available on the BMBO website at

https://www.bmbo.org.uk/calendar/

Any enquiries please e-mail drkdawson@aol.com

Thanks

MTBO Weekend Coordinator

Balmedie Wed 27th April Forest(not) Sprint Results

Results RouteGadget

Great evening at Balmedie. Many thanks to Tim for planning and Bob and Sam for helping collect controls and David for results service.

(P.S. Foggieton RouteGadget is up now too.)

Foggieton Forest Sprint 13th April Results

Results RouteGadget

A dry but chilly night saw old and new test their wits on the twists and turns of the many paths and linear features at Foggieton. Many thanks to David for all his IT wizardry, and to Gareth for helping with control collecting (and to those who also offered to help – always welcome!)

Scottish Championships Individual @ Glen Dye Saturday 28/5/22

GRAMP are really looking forward to welcoming you all to Glen Dye in May for the Individual races for this year’s Scottish Championships. Although the area was hit by recent storms enough survives that we’re confident you’ll be able to enjoy the traditional Glen Dye Experience as well as having fun trying out some new areas of mapping while vying for those trophies. Good luck everyone!

Event details (updated 7/5/22)
Entries via SIEntries entries now open, closing date has been extended to Tues 17th May

MAROC will round the weekend off by hosting the Relay Championships on Sun 29th May at Sluie, a little further up Deeside.

Ideas and feedback please

I’m about to try and revamp our website taking into account various points raised in a report by the BOF Newcomer retention Group who reviewed all club websites and ‘marked’ them on various criteria particularly how we signpost beginners towards information, resources and events, clarity, ease of use and things like “Is a sense of adventure, challenge, excitement, enjoyment created?”

Lots to go at and first I want to suss out which parts of the existing website you use regularly, whether you find it easy to navigate on both phone as well as desktop, what do you think of the menu system and do you have ideas for improving user-friendliness in terms of layout? Do you regularly use another website that you think I could pinch some inspiration from? Have you spotted a really good video on YouTube about orienteering that we could link to to cut out some of the wordiness?

I’m interested in feedback from anyone and everyone not just my regular readers and fan club 😉 so if you’ve just visited to try and get info on an event or starting orienteering then please don’t hold back.

Drop me an email please webmaster@grampoc.com.

Ta! Rachel

We have British Champions among us!

Well done to Sam Griffin and Jeremy Huthwaite, M18E and M50S respectively, for wins at Golden Valley & Cognor Wood down in Englandshire.

Click on the image below to link through to our Facebook page (and while you’re there Like it to get news like this as soon as our roving reporter posts.)

Tollohill Wed 30th March Forest Sprint Results

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2022/FSTollohill
RouteGadget

Many thanks to Ros for planning a great wee course and to Hugh, Helen and Gareth for helping collect controls

Loads of events happening on your doorstep soon…

We have finalised our fixtures list for 2022 and there’s something for everyone:

– 6 Forest Sprints starting 30th March (joint venture with Maroc as usual but some forests out of action so mix of forest, urban and beach this year)
– our Summer Series kicks in late May/June
– Autumn Sprints in August (bit earlier this year to avoid late starters running in the dark)
– sprinkled in amongst all those there’s also a SOUL at Banchory, we’re hosting Scottish Champs 2022 in Glen Dye on a new map plus Maroc are taking care of the Scottish Relays the day after, then towards the end of the year we have big events planned at Crathes and Balmedie.

Keep watching the website(s) for separate posts for each event nearer the time with full details.

Wednesday 30^th March – Forest Sprint @Tollohill
Wednesday 13^th April – Forest Sprint @Foggieton
Wednesday 20th April – MAROC Urban Sprint @Gourdon
Wednesday 27^th April – Forest Sprint @Balmedie

Sunday 1^st May – MAROC SOUL – Banchory

Wednesday 4^th May – MAROC Forest Sprint @Bellwood
Wednesday 11^th May – MAROC Forest Sprint @Potarch

Wednesday 18^th May – Summer Series Hazlehead

Saturday 28^th May – Scottish Champs Glen Dye on New Map
Sunday 29^th May – Scottish Relays – MAROC

Wednesday 1^st June – Summer Series Duthie Park& Ferryhill
Wednesday 8^th June – Summer Series Foggieton
Wednesday 15^th June – Summer Series Westburn & Victoria Park
Wednesday 22^nd June – Summer Series & BBQ Balmedie Beach
Wednesday 29^th June – Summer Series Bridge of Don

Wednesday 10^th Aug – Autumn Urban Cove
Wednesday 17^th August – Autumn Urban Westhill
Wednesday 24^th August – Autumn Urban Abz Uni
Wednesday 31^st August – Autumn Urban Seaton Park

Sunday 2^nd October – Full Colour Coded @Crathes (Possibly Middle distance)
Sunday 11^th December – Full Colour Coded @Balmedie

DNC 2021-22 Final Results

Final results
This season’s DNC final event took place at Crathes with award winning courses from Ros who managed to weave everyone between all the wind blow and also scooped First Lady in the Mini DNC in the process.

About 30 other Gramps have been out enjoying the dark side on Wednesdays and three have a fully stamped-up loyalty card – Gary Morrison with 12 runs out of a possible 13, Ian Hamilton 13 and David Esson 14 (?! – incl planner’s points for the Dunnottar event cancelled due to Arwen damage.)
Big thanks go to our all our planners: Dennis McDonald, David Esson (also designated laptop driver), David Kirk, Murray Anderson, John Lang, Ros Nicholson and Julian Robinson (joint Course of the Year winner for Balmedie.)

DNC @ Crathes 16th Feb Results

Results
RouteGadget
(If you think folk took odd routes bear in mind the actual map used on the night was covered in pink crosses indicating felled/windblow patches.)

DNC Tyrebagger/Elrick Hill Wed 2nd Feb Results

Results for tonight’s Night O at Elrick Hill

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2022/Elrick
RouteGadget

Many thanks to Murray for planning it👍

Balmedie Training Event Sun 30th

JUST A WEE REMINDER TO FILL IN THE PRE-ENTRY FORM BELOW FOR THE NEXT TRAINING EVENT NEXT SUNDAY TO GUARANTEE YOURSELF A MAP, PREFERABLY BY TUESDAY LUNCHTIME.
THE AREA LOOKED GREAT TODAY WHILST YOUR COACH WAS SUSSING OUT THE TRAINING EXERCISES/COURSES.

THERE WILL BE AN ORANGE, TWO TECHNICAL LOOPS AND A LINE COURSE ON OFFER. LONG TERM WEATHER FORECAST LOOKING FAVOURABLE 🙂

Training registration form for Balmedie

Training @ Balmedie 30/1/22

Following the successful morning spent at Dunnottar Woods our next training day is going to be at Balmedie on Sunday 30th Jan. Change of terrain, change of skills required.

Please use the pre-entry form below to register for this and let us know what level you’re at or what you’d like to practice and we’ll be able to tailor things so you get maximum benefit from each session.
Training @ Balmedie 30th Jan 2022
10:30 to 12:30 – more details will be sent out to everyone once you’ve completed the entry form

Training is open for both Gramp and AUOC members. Not a member yet? Not a problem as you can join at any time online via the British Orienteering joining portal. If you have any questions about membership, just fire an email to membership@grampoc.com. And feel free to register for the training in the meantime.

GMC 2023 @?????? 7th/8th October

Calling all you loyal GMC fans out there (and the ones who haven’t yet discovered the delights of Scotland’s Friendly Sociable Winter Mountain Marathon but who surely will if you tell everyone about it please).

We can’t reveal where yet but we can reveal when.
Drum rrrrrrrroll….. Ta-da!!

DNC Foggieton Wed 19th Jan Results

Results and splits
Routegadget

Many thanks to John Lang for the dizzying whirl round the woods.

AGM 2021 roundup, Gramp Champs (not) and other successes

For those of you who couldn’t make it to the AGM last December you missed the entertaining sight and sound of David struggling to contain his own bemusement at having to refer to his mum and dad as “Lindsey” and “George” for the purposes of his Chairman’s Report. (I know the feeling having been taught by my own mum a few times at primary school!)

Headlines from the report and AGM in general in no particular order:

• we managed to put on ~30 events once Lockdown was lifted including a SOL in conjunction with the SHI Relays at Balmedie and the ever popular GMC at Lochnagar this time
• after several years of gently decline membership rose by 20% (welcome everyone!)
• we supplied 2 Controllers, 1 Planner and 1 Main Day Organiser for the Scottish 6 Days
• some areas took a real battering in recent storms so we need to take stock – anyone able to note map corrections for area(s) near you? – but still planning to put on the Scottish Champs in Glen Dye May 2022
• we’re looking for volunteers to adopt a Permanent O Course to carry out an annual audit/maintenance of markers/posts and also fill a few more of the vacant positions in those “backroom” roles that help the club function
• Pete Lawrence thanked David Esson for his unstinting enthusiasm and hard work getting various events and series back up and running during a difficult year

Once again the Gramp Champs and (JD)2C was hit by lack of suitable events to make any rankings meaningful so the 2019 winners get to hold on to their trophies for another year. However, we had several success at national events:
SMC 2020 Morven Farquharson got Bronze, Neil McLean Silver and Sam Griffin Gold
SOC 2021 Neil McLean Silver
SSC 2021 George Esson Bronze
SOL 2021
Gold: Morven Farquharson, Lesley Gomersall, Dominykas Kardokas, David Esson and Gary Morrison
Silver: Joanna McDonald, Lachlan Kirk, Julian Robertson, Tim Griffin and Bob Daly
Bronze: Kirsty Farquharson and Sam Gomersall
JHI Relays Sam Griffin was part of the winning team
BNC David Esson

Musgrave Trophies were awarded to Paul Duley for his work as Event Coordinator for several years and 6 Days 2021 Day Organiser and Helen Rowlands for planning effectively two days of the 6 Days

Chairmans Quaich was jointly awarded to the main officials of GMC – Dave Kirk, Ian Hamilton and Sam Gomersall – for pulling off another great event in difficult conditions (just don’t mention the marquee)

GRAMP and AUOC Training Days

Whether you need to brush up rusty O skills or learn new ones we’d love to see you all at any or all of 3 training days being organised by our club coaches:

16/1/22 Dunnottar Woods, Stonehaven
30/1/22 Balmedie
20/2/22 Foggieton Wooods, Cults
(Note changes of venue. Was to have been Scolty but that’s stormtrashed. 😦
10:30 to 12:30 – more details will be sent out to everyone once you’ve completed the entry form
AUOC welcome as well as GRAMP members. Not a member yet? Not to late to join. Email membership@grampc.com and we’ll help you do that.

Parking will be on the road beside Cults Primary School. w3w: quite.riots.liked
Open to Gramp and AUOC members. Training for all levels of abilities available.

Entry form is below.

Foggieton Training Day Entry Form

Balmedie DNC Weds 5th Jan Results

Chilly but fantastic night at Balmedie tonight. Many thanks to Julian for planning, and Julian & David for collecting controls afterwards👍

Results
RouteGadget

Hogmanay Hangover Handicap 1st Jan 2022 @ Hazlehead

Many thanks to Team Esson for planning/’puting and Rachel, Helen and Pete for Control collecting.

Results and splits
Routegadget

Turns out we could have had some sort of social outdoors as it was so warm this morning. Plenty folk spotted picnicking in the park and also bumped into some old ex-Gramp friends, Gordon and Ruth, who confessed to feeling very nostalgic when they’d spotted the controls going out.

Events in the very near future

Wed 22nd DNC at Templars Park has an extra Orange course for anyone fancying a shot at Night O in a small safe area or just a short pre-Christmas blast. Details on the Templars Park post.
NB You must register your interest via the pre-entry form even for the Orange – no obligation to run by doing so and no payment upfront required.

Sat 1st Hogmany Hangover Handicap @ Hazlehead – details here – please note it’s on 1st not 2nd Jan.
(Just typed “Jab”not “Jan” – subliminal messaging!!)

Sun 9th Jan MAROC have managed to reschedule their Cambus O’May colour coded event.
NB Closing date for pre-entries for this one is 2nd Jan so don’t miss it if you’re champing at the bit to get (g)oing again in the New Year.

DNC Templars Park Wed 22nd Dec Results

Results and splits
RouteGadget not quite sure how crazy this is going to look but will be fun playing it back!!

Many thanks to Dave Kirk for the courses and to Lachlan and David E for helping collect controls.

DNC Dunnottar Wed 8th Dec CANCELLED

Another victim of Storm Arwen unfortunately. While Dunnottar is relatively unscathed from the Storm, there are patches of windblow and quite a few “hanging trees” and with a further storm forecast this week with the wind coming from opposite direction, it would be unwise to go ahead with the event.
In addition to this, the middle car park which we were to use is blocked off by the FLS. They aren’t wishing people to go into the woods at this date.

Apologies for this but obviously the safety of the competitors is paramount.

Would not be surprised if this event is rearranged for later in the DNC calendar, as other areas have been much more been affected by the storm and may be out of action for many months.

Crathes Event 12th December – Cancelled

It is with great sadness that we are having to cancel our colour coded event at Crathes Castle on Sunday 12th December.

The Storms that we endured over the weekend has flattened a significant part of the woodland at Crathes Estate. The Estate Office have said that it may well take months to tidy/clear the area before access can be obtained.

Let’s hope that our other areas have fared better, though I have a suspicion that may not be the case! We shall keep you updated on the other events that are due to take place in the next few months.

British Night Champs Winner

Big congrats David Esson on winning M40S down in Englandshire last night, while Hugh Nicholson came 7th in a large M55 field. Looks like it would have been quite magical with a smattering of snow over Cleeve Hill.

DNC Tollohill Wed 24th Nov

Results and splits
RouteGadget

Thanks to David Esson for planning and Drew Tivendale for assistance in collecting afterwards. Looking at the spiders’ webs seems like the “wee tip” re checking numbers was a good one. Good luck to anyone trying to suss out a training run in the area by looking at Strava traces!!
And good luck to Ros and Hugh who are off down south for the British Night Champs in Gloucestershire this weekend.

ELO Orienteering at Vogrie

Vogrie Country Park, Sunday 28th November

All are welcome to participate in orienteering in the delightful Vogrie Country Park on a newly extended map with very varied terrain. In addition to the parkland, woodland and the valley of the River Tyne, the map has been extended to include a former golf course, and for the longer courses, a visit to some very old quarries and now-vegetation-covered spoil heaps.

The event will incorporate the East of Scotland Orienteering Championships

All participants are welcome to enter their preferred course, as an individual, or in a pair or group, but those wishing to compete to be an East of Scotland Champion must enter the appropriate course as an individual. See the website for details of which course to enter.

Full information at

https://www.elo.org.uk/2021-vogrie-sosol/

and the link to enter is at

https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?event_id=9059

ELO look forward to seeing you there.

DNC Hazlehead Wed 10th Nov Results

Fantastic nights orienteering at Hazlehead tonight. Great courses which caught a few people out planned by our W12 junior Samantha McDonald. Well done Samantha👍

Results are now available to view

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

BOF results RouteGadget

Well done, Sam, and the ScotJos Team – JHI 2021 Relay Winners!

Scotland won the Boys JHI Relay by 2 seconds this weekend!
Congrats to James Hammond, Laurence Ward, Sam Griffin running in Team Scotland 1 and all the rest of the ScotJos crew on some other great performances too.
Individual results from the day before

Organisers/planners needed

Did you get an email from Paul Duley recently asking for organisers/planners for DNC and other events coming up soon? Did you respond yet? Please do as without folk stepping up to fill these roles we may be forced to cancel events and we really don’t want to disappoint.
We can offer guidance/mentoring if you’re just getting into planning etc and you can always team up with someone else and share the responsibilities if it makes it easier for you.
If you haven’t already done so please email Fixtures@grampoc.com and Paul will be in touch to confirm what, where and when you can help with.
Ta!!

Abz Uni Urban Sprint 29/9/21 Results

Thank you all for attending tonight’s event. Below is the link to the results.

Many thanks to Dave Kirk for putting on a fun challenging event.

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

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.

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.)