Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2016

UrbanBrickWall0544590One course of TD3 (Orange) standard about 3 – 4km long in streets and parks, using detailed ISSOM standard maps.

Category winners:
JU16                  Sam Griffin GRAMP   &   Olivia/Mia Coman GRAMP
J                         Joe Wright MAROC    &   Josie Gomersall GRAMP
Open                 Angel Iliev AUOC/Gordon Urquart GRAMP   &   Clare Tunaley MAROC
Vets 40+          William Nicolson INVOC   &   Lesley Gomersall GRAMP
Supervets 55+     Sam Gomersall GRAMP   &   Anne Hoy GRAMP/Team FJF IND
Best Newcomer     Kevin Hyland GRAMP   &   Estera Zak IND

Foggieton – 10/8/16 – Results

Hope you all enjoyed this evening’s courses, including the ‘no-paths’ map challenge. Particularly well done to those of you who are less familiar with the woods too. Thanks Anne for great courses and cakes!

I know some of you are anxiously awaiting the latest update on the overall league – it will be coming, but a few updates of last week’s results also needed.

Prelim Results
Prelim Splits
Routegadget

Back o’Bennachie 3/8/16 – Results

Here are simple results from the Back o’ Bennachie Summer Series event.  Well done to everyone who survived the tropical downpour, midges and wall of dripping woodrush.

bennachie030816results

15/8/2016 – Updated results after checking splits (apologies for delay – holidays and computer problems).

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!

IMG_0822 IMG_0824

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

5184Just 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.

Dunnottar – 20/7/16 – Results

Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening! The day’s storms must have frightened most people off, but those who ventured out had a lovely evening with just enough of a breeze in the car park to keep the midges at bay. It was a little slippy under foot, prize for collecting most mud goes to Olivia – spectacular amount all over map and brikke as well as feet, legs and arms! Nice to see some new faces – keep coming (but not next week, we’re having a break. Next event is Back o’Bennachie on 3rd August)!

Thanks to the Caffyns for planning, and to control collectors Rachel, Rob, Genevieve and Joe.

Results
Splits
Routegadget

Summer Series Summary

We are over half way through the Summer Series now, time for a look at the league and attendance awards …

Overall after 8 events
Junior Attendance after 8

Junior Attendance Awards (3= bronze, 6=silver, 9=gold)
Silver Awards for Olivia Coman, Josie Gomersall, Alex and Patrick Lang. Well done – keep coming for Gold.
Bronze Awards for Connor Whitelaw, Murray Robb, Paul Caffyn, Lachlan Kirk, Morven & Kirsty Farquharson. Great work, if you keep coming you can all get Silver and some of you even a Gold!
Lots more bronzes could be earned too.

Summer League Leaders

Course Junior Women Junior Men Senior Women Senior Men
Medium Isobel Anderson Patrick Lang Sheena Farquhar Fergus Archibald
Short Tech Ailsa Anderson Alex Lang Marianne Lang Ondrej Masek
Long Tech Josie Gomersall Paul Caffyn Lesley Gomersall Callum McLeod

Plenty of events left for this all to change …
Congratulations to Bob Daly and Ondrej Masek for 100% attendance record so far!
For the purposes of this league the senior/junior split is roughly M/W18. Good for the younger juniors, but not so good for the older seniors!

Please let me know of any corrections needed.
Helen

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

Cheyne Hill – 06/07/16

Well, nobody got run over and we all survived the man-eating foliage more or less in one piece. Some egos in tatters mind after getting caught out on that really steep slope that runs alongside the river and the use of sniffer dogs might have to be banned except they proved to be more of a disadvantage, diving off recklessly down the steepest bits with worried owners in tow from what I could see.

Incase you checked your splits print out against your control descriptions ….
Last week, control 234 got pinched so this week we disguised control 248 as 234 (because courses are planned and maps printed a week or so in advance [generally!]). This meant that as you went round control 234 looked OK, however all the electronic gismos, splits, routegadget etc knew it as 248. Next week at Glen Dye the technical wizards will come out to play and will re-program another control to fool all the electronic bits too!
Results
Splits
Routegadget

Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon

Several parent-child* pairings from NE Scotland entered this year’s SLMM in Martindale, it’s becoming a bit of a tradition. Congratulations to the following Gramp and Maroc teams:

Lachlan and Dave Kirk, 29th (out of 71 finishers) in Carrock Fell class
Keith and Gareth Yardley, 4th (out of 86 finishers) in Harter Fell class
Alistair and Craig Chapman, 3rd in Bedafell class (out of 43, but out of 120 if you include Wansfell class on same course)
Peter and Nick Collins, 13th in Bedafell class (ditto)

GAC 2016 Final Results

OK it’s official Shearwater have won the much coveted (?) GAC 2016 Bonsai Trophy after a great turnout at Balmedie this week and a misspunch on the Maersk team…

GAC 2016 Final Results

Sums have all been checked … a quick reminder of the scoring:
Top 3 ladies’ and top 3 men’s scores make up the score for the night.  The series result is based on the team’s best 4 events. Individual totals are also based on your best 4 scores. Simple…

Shearwater turned out en masse… even managing a new entry in the last week! Genesis dropped by the wayside much like the poor neglected Bonsai… we hope the newly purchased replacement (thanks Maersk!) will not suffer the same fate in its new home at Shell.

Continue reading “GAC 2016 Final Results”

Balmedie 29/06/16 – Results

The dunes were in great form with lots of people running round pretending to be marmots – or at least that’s how it looked from the one human that pretended to be a control. Lots of technical hitches tonight, but I hope you were all able to enjoy Helen’s courses and the BBQ none-the-less.

It doesn’t often happen, but from time to time we do get helpful passers-by that like to move controls around. Tonight the finish went to join the rabbits under a bush. Fortunately the speedy Coman family alerted us to this early on and we were able to provide a replacement (and then find the original) before most people got round. To this end we have altered the results so the easy course times actually finished at the last control.

We suspect the same helpful individual then went on to remove another control – no. 234 – that was used on the medium and long tech courses. Apologies to those early runners that spent time puzzling over its whereabouts, and the later runners startled by the talking control that took its place. In the results the times for the legs either side of this control have been removed.

Luckily the short tech course (and the final GAC event) was not affected by either of these issues, but fell foul of a crop of technical issues at download – equipment not functioning quite right, paper running out, spreadsheets playing up …. despite all this there are now some results that will be swiftly added to the GAC scores to find this year’s winners … who will it be? Congratulations to you all for being thrown in at the deep end with some pretty technical courses. Remember the summer series continues through the summer and then you can choose which course you’d like to do! Cheyne Hill next week.

Results
Splits
Routegadget (only Short Tech plotted this week)

Helen (the other one!)

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.

Balmedie summer series (including the final race of the GAC) 29.6.16

Registration for Wednesday is in the Southern car parking area.  Turn right at the mini roundabout near the first parking area and carry on until the road runs out!  Hopefully we will get the BBQ cranked up so bring some food along.  If you have some BBQ tools these will come in handy too.

Courses are: Easy – 1.6km, medium 2.5km, short tech 3km and long tech 4.1km.

Please pack a waterproof, it can be quite cold on top of the dunes if the wind and rain gods are working overtime #itmaybetheendofJunebutthisisScotland.

 

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 Crathes

John has shunned his responsibilities as spreadsheet master again this week by remaining stuck offshore…some people will do anything to avoid typing in a few numbers. Anyway in his absence Shearwater have shot into the lead (and managed to get 9 people out last night- good effort!). Victoria and Claire still leading the ladies and Gareth and Jamie leading the men.

GAC results after 5 events

Perseverance prize this week goes to John D. and Alan of Shearwater…..25 mins on point number 3….

Next week is the last GAC (but not the last Summer Series so if you’re hooked, please keep coming!) at Balmedie. BBQ after your run – you finally get to meet your  team and your rivals other than in a bog or a thicket.  Bring some meat to cook, BBQs and coal all provided.
NB Car park at Balmedie is not the main one – turn right at the mini roundabout just before the main car park and drive along the road heading south for about 0.5 km.  Gramp flag should be flying.

Crathes 22/06/16 – Results

An excellent evening, lovely area, courses and weather! Lots of fun had on the easy course by the Torphins Brownies – well done all of you.

Provisional results for your perusal:
Results
Splits
Routegadget

The five weeks of Summer Series events so far should have you all psyched up for this weekend’s orienteering: Saturday at Westhill and Sunday at Glen Fearder. And don’t forget next Wednesday is BBQ* time at Balmedie – the final event of the Grampian Adventure Challenge – will it be Maersk Oil claiming the bonzai again?

*BBQ coals supplied but bring your own food!

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

Tyrebagger 15/6/16 – Results

The overflow problem wasn’t car related, but of the watery kind. Some days it just rains and rains and rains, and this was one of them. A special thanks to Lynn and Jonathan for setting it all up and to everyone who ventured out. One to remember?!

Results
Splits
Routegadget

GAC results after Scolty

Genesis were short of men again this week and surprisingly so were Maersk.
Shell/Shearwater were short of ladies…Maybe they should do a deal?
Some great performances for many on what was a distinctly harder course than Hazlehead or Countesswells.

Here are the overall scores following Scolty  GAC scores

Overall Maersk and Shearwater are neck a neck…all to play for….and you never know Genesis may yet get its act together….

Tyrebagger next week – bigger paths than Scolty and some nice big man made objects to relocate on but still plenty of opportunity to get lost in the woods.

Marianne Lang (pp John who’s “busy cycling Pyrenean cols”)

Scolty 08/06/16 – Results

*** Update 13-Jun-2016: Results and Splits (but not routegadget) updated with Callum and Liz’s runs (long tech and easy courses)***

Thank you Kevin for picking out the better bits of Scolty for tonight and also Gordon and Dennis for helping collect controls (although I suspect it may have been an excuse to keep moving and avoid the midgies back at the car park?)

I’ve managed to download everyone’s results but seem to be missing a download for Callum McLeod and Liz Sloan’s brikke number was a duplicate on the list so I think may have been inadvertently re-used by her or someone else on the Easy course. If you spot a funny looking time for your result please get in touch and I’ll manually assign you the correct time (whatever is shown in between the triple chevrons at the top of your “receipt” printout.)  webmaster@grampoc.com

Quite a few showing as mp which means mis-punch. The timestamps on your brikke is the only proof we have that you visited a control and you must make sure you see the light flash before removing your brikke. Sorry if this seems a bit harsh but that’s the rules of the game – elite competitors have been disqualified in World Ranking Events for not having a full set of timestamps (punches) even though hundreds of people saw them visit a control and it was videoed too, so if you were a mp victim today you’re keeping good company!

Results
Splits
Routegadget

If you’ve not explored RouteGadget yet please do.

To draw your route on: Click on the Draw tab and select Course and your name. The first control circle will be highlighted and you have to draw on your route by clicking your way from the Start to the centre of the circle. The next control circle will be highighted and off you go again until you reach the Finish and Save. You can use the + and – controls top right to zoom and click and drag the map to pan.

To replay your race against your rivals, click on the Results tab, open up the course and select the people you want to see. Click on the play button in the grey controls box that pops up and you can see where you lost and gained the advantage and maybe learn something for next time.

10th (and last) Highlander 2016

The fell-runners of the club were out and about over the weekend taking part in the last Highlander Mountain Marathon in Glen Cannich.

“A great event and amazing weather conditions, with some really tough courses. Didn’t expect the B to be quite the test it was for me, or my right shoe (which had half it’s sole hanging off on the start line of Day 2!!)  Highlander 2016 will live long in the memory!”  Ali Robertson

The Gramps I’ve spotted so far in the results:

A course: 3rd Tim Gomersall (with BASOC’s Johannes Felter)

B course:
5th Gareth Yardley and Ian Hamilton (not bad at all for a last minute substitution? 2nd Vet team too)
8th Ali Robertson (with MAROC’s Andrew McMurtrie)

C course: 32nd Dave and Lachlan Kirk (who get a mention for registering as Grampian Orienteers. Yeay!)

Score: 48th Lynn Smith and Bob Sheridan  (35th Vets too)

Countesswells 01/06/16 – Results

Another lovely evening for running about in the woods, although it got surprisingly chilly by the end. A few boulder controls catching people out – remember to find a good attack point for the trickier controls such as these (and choose the fastest route to the attack point). If only I practiced what I just preached!

Next week we head out to Scolty near Banchory. May be a chance to sneak some points from those still recovering from the Highlander Mountain Marathon this weekend?

Preliminary Results
Preliminary Splits
Routegadget

Hazelhead 25/05/16 – Results

An excellent start to this year’s summer series, helped no end by the delicious range of cakes provided by Team Griffin.

The results are linked below, and will be included in the main summer series post in the Results column Sometimes it takes a little while to get things sorted … keep checking back for updates. The idea is to get ‘preliminary results’ up as fast as possible – possibly just handwritten results of finish times typed up late at night – mistakes do creep in (especially if my handwriting or typing is involved). At some point these will turn into ‘Results’ as typos etc are corrected. If you spot anything amiss – let me know. Points for the league will be generated from these results.

This year I am attempting to get all the events ‘processed’ to provide split times. When you down load at the event you get a little receipt showing the controls you went to and the timings (splits), however at the event there is no check done against which controls you were actually supposed to go to! This is done later using some software that also produces the Splits sheet. This is then loaded with the course info and map to Routegadget. If you have never used it before, do have en explore – it’s a nifty system that lets you relive your event without the leg ache. You can draw your route, upload your GPS route and race everyone with a mass start.

In the GAC looks like Maersk Oil are planning to defend their record?

Results
Splits
Routegadget

Helen R

President’s Medal 2016 goes to Richard Oxlade

MM2016

 

In recognition of his invaluable contribution to the success of Highland 2015, this year the SOA President’s Medal will be going to Richard Oxlade. Read all about it here.

 

Congratulations and thanks once again from the rest of the club to Richard for stepping up to that very challenging role on our behalf. (Just hope that being Medallion Man 2016 doesn’t go to his careful and calm head!)

 

Scottish Championships 2016

Having dismantled the final marquee about 2pm today after the Relays, Richard eventually went off home for a well-earned rest and to apologise to his cat for force feeding it all last week (he needed the box the cat food sachets come in as it had perfectly sized compartments for three rows of neatly folded relay maps.)

Provisional results can be found on the SOA Scottish Champs website  – click here.

Many thanks to both him and Rob Hickling for great jobs organising and computing respectively and I’m sure they in turn would want to say thanks to the rest of the Gramp helpers for another smooth event. We had everyone from W8-ish (Emily R patiently waiting for Dad to finish collecting controls and come home) to W80 (Helen G directing finishers down the right funnel.)

Thanks too to Ali Robertson for taking on the planning (I suspect secretly he enjoyed himself way too much despite protestations of nerves and “doing the swan thing” on Saturday.)

In the Scottish Individual Champs, congratulations to:

Kate Robertson 3rd Light Green
Audrey Wilson-Hay 3rd W65S
Margaret Aust 2nd W65S
Oonagh Grassie 1st W60S
Carolyn McLeod 2nd W50L
Naomi Lang 2nd W16A
Angus Aitken 2nd M85
Neil McLean 2nd M70L
George Esson 2nd M65S
Paul Duley 3rd M60L
Rob Hickling 2nd M60L
Richard Oxlade 3rd M55S
Bob Daley and Evgueni Chepelin joint 2nd M55L
Pete Lawrence 1st M50S
Lachlan Kirk 2nd M16B
Sam Griffin joint 3rd M12A

All runs counted towards the SOL series in lieu of the cancelled SOL 4 so anyone who doesn’t get a mention above can console themselves with some well-earned points.

In the Scottish Relays, well done to:

Sam Gomersall, Carolyn McLeod and Bob Daly (Gramp Grabbers) – 2nd in the Handicap 17+pts class
Paul Caffyn, Josie G and Keith Yardley for an excellent 5th place in the Handicap 11+pts class
Tim Griffin for beating Charlie Adams and coming in first on the first leg of the Handicap 14+pts class
Tim’s team (Gramp Gracefuls (?)) for a terrific 7th place on that course
Gramp Grazers for coming in 10th only 150 seconds behind Gramp Gracefuls
All other runners in Gramp’s teams for running for the club

… and congrats to AUOC for completing the (tough) Men’s Open race – with a lady runner!
… and to Sasha Chepelin for anchoring EUOC to win the Men’s Open, and holding off Mark Nixon in a great head-to-head race.

Great cheesy prizes !

Forest Sprint Series 2016 Final Results

Overall results after 6 events.
Congrats to Jake Chapman and Sarah Dunn on a Maroc double win this year.
Hope you all enjoyed these short courses although I think maybe we need to choose our areas with care for next year as some were not really that sprinty.
And Balmedie wasn’t that foresty either I suppose!

Balmedie Forest Sprint 11th May

Lovely weather, a very twisty-turny course, lots of controls and a double-sided map caught out the unwary … well done to all those that succeeded!

Results Splits Routegadget
Overall after 5 events … all could change …

Forest Sprint Dunnottar Woods 27/4/16 – Results

Thanks to all who came along tonight. The sleet, snow and hail held off for the evening so apart from being a tad slippy underfoot all was well (pity same can’t be said for the afternoon!). Some pretty fast times recorded and some more mature members keeping the young ones off the top slots for once.

Special mention must go to all the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts (and leaders and helpers) who gave their course a go – we hope you all enjoyed it and come back for more (we will be back on 20th July). May be less mud next time!

Results.   Splits
Routegadget
Overall results after 3 events, currently a battle between the Chapmans for top spot. To be continued ….

3 more Forest Sprints, then on to the Summer Series. Download this Summer Series Flyer and spread the word!

Crathes – Level C Event – 24/04/16

Results
Splits
BOF ranking points
RouteGadget

Officials
Planner: Paul Duley
Organiser: Helen Anderson
Controller: Andy Oliver

A fly past by a red kite kicked things off well first thing Sunday morning while the team were setting up the Start and for most folk the day continued well too (unless they were unfortunate enough to try head butting a tree.) Great to see so many new faces eager to try a second course and a few of our old O friends popping up too.

Just a wee reminder to start looking for ticks after forest runs. The mild winter means that there are already some out and about – I got one during the Paisley “urban” race a few weekends ago and only spent about two minutes in a patch of woodland. America has discovered a new strain of Lyme disease BTW, not over here yet as far as is known.

 

 

 

40th Anniversary Photo Competition

1996 11 Person Relay Winners

Richard Oxlade, Rob Hickling, James Esson, Tim Nash, Bob Daly
Gordon Hendry, George Esson
Andrew Lobban, Duncan Grassie, Laura Mackinnon, David Esson

iphonejune2015 025Planner was Neil McLean
Controller was Chris Aust
Organiser was Donald Grassie

The first (and only) response to our wee competition was Neil McLean whose first reaction on seeing the photo was disbelief: “But why wasn’t I in the team?”
He quickly regained his composure sufficiently to correctly identify not only the year, the competition and the team members but also the location as being “the top end of Scolty”.

His composure was shot down in tatters again tonight when presented with his prizes – a legendary GRAMP chocolate coin and a bit of GRAMP memorabilia in the shape of a rather fetching pair of red lycras, not too dissimilar to those sported by Bob in the photo.

11 Person 1996Other members present tonight were heard to mutter something about “not entering any competitions if that’s what you get”. No sense of adventure!

Many thanks to David Esson for supplying the photo and results. Does anyone else have anything stashed away that Rob, our club historian, could borrow to scan in and publish during our anniversary year? (Mr Controller 1996, we’re looking at you for starters…)

Countesswells Forest Sprint 13Apr2016 – Results

A great turn out for the first of the Forest Sprint series, thank-you to all who gave up their maps to be used again and apologies for any waiting around at the start. Future organisers take note!

Results   Splits     Routegadget
Overall points

Next week the event is being run by MAROC at Sluie, see you all there.

 

JK2016 & CompassSport Cup

5 dedicated GRAMPs made the trip down south for this year’s JK held in Yorkshire. Bob Daly and Ian Hamilton took on the Sprint course in brilliant sunshine on Day 1 at Leeds Uni (cracking looking map on RG) and were then joined by Rob and Anne Hickling and Gen Jones for Day 2 at Wass (steep and dark forest with lots of rocky features) and Day 3 Kilnsey Crags (open moorland and rain – lots of folk in waterproofs in ActivNorth’s photos).
If you look at the overall results you can see the attraction of multiday events where you can make up for a mediocre run one day by balancing it out with a good run another – Ian and Bob were 5 or 6 places apart, either ahead or behind each other, on different days but ended up in 17th and 18th place respectively on M55L within 30 seconds of each other! (Long way to go to settle that particular score when they could have waited until Crathes in a couple of weeks’ time!) Rob came 5th M60L, Anne 3rd W60S and Gen 8th W65S.

In case you were wondering, an equally small band of GRAMPs went down to Stirling a few weekends ago to take part in the CompassSport Cup Scottish Qualifying Round and came 5th in the big clubs’ competition. Congratulations to FVO on winning and ESOC who also qualified for the final as FVO are prior winners.
Reknowned for their competitive spirit, I was still a bit surprised to overhear FVO’s team captain in the Ladies loos prior to running openly admitting that she’d already sent out feeler emails to coach companies and accomodation down south for the final in the autumn. Although she did have the grace to say that she realised that might appear a bit presumptuous.

Who are all these skinny/hirsute people?

iphonejune2015 025To celebrate GRAMP’s 40th birthday, I thought we might run a wee competition for some of our long-standing members.

Click on the photo to get a better view if needed, then drop an email to flump@care4free.net with the answers to these questions:

Who are all these skinny/hirsute people?
What year was the photo taken?
What was the event they’d just won?

I’ll give the answers (and lavish prize) at the GRAMP dinner and post them here too on the 22nd.

 

AUOCup Scolty and Final Results

AUOCup finished with two technical courses in Scolty. The long course was 5.3km, but had only 5 controls – a great long distance control practice!
Evgueni was the brave one tackling the course as the only Gramp (to secure his win in the long, non-student category) and beat the course in great time!

Here are the results from Saturday accompanied with the final overall standings.
Congratulations to the winners: Michaela, Evgueni, Eva and Anne HIckling.
Congratulations to the orienteers in second place: Lovisa, Rob, Daniel and Kirsty Farquharson!
As well as a big thank you for everyone who participated in the cup!!

All is left to do now is the prize giving ceremony and a wee quiz evening at Aberdeen University campus on Tuesday, 22nd March from 8pm, details attached. Hope to see many of you there and once again a big thank you from AUOC! 🙂

Janne

Prize giving.pdf
AUOCup Scolty results (2 files merged).pdf

AUOCup Balgownie 13/3/16

A really sunny and warm day in Balgownie awaited for the orienteers to take on the 7th AUOCup event. This time in sprint form and with a length of 2.7km, it was a good break from some forest orienteering. Not particularly tricky controls, but some mud slides in the forest offered possibly the hardest obstacles!
Here are the overall results for the AUOCup and below are the results from Balgownie.

NOTE: The last AUOCup event will be next SATURDAY!! Held in Scolty. More information on the race will be posted later next week.
ALSO: We will have a prize giving ceremony and a small quiz evening at uni, where everyone is welcome. Date is 22nd of March and provisional time is at 8pm. Again, more information will be posted later!

See you next time! 🙂

Janne

AUOCup overall results (2 files merged).pdf

AUOCup Balgownie Sunday 13th

Hello to you all! It is time for an other AUOCup event. It will be the second to last event, held in Balgownie, so it is time to forget the forest orienteering for a while and focus on some fast running and urban sprinting. However, i can say that roughly 40% of the course will be run in the forest/forest tracks. Final details are attached.

The competition is getting intense in some categories. With SOL1 being also part of the AUOCup format, here are the SOL1 results calculated by us.
And here you can see the current situation in the cup before the two last events. It is anyone’s game in the short categories and there is still a good tying chance for Rob in the long non-student category! Lets see what happens! Dont forget to contact me if you would like a map or two.

Hope to see you all there! 🙂

Janne

AUOCup Balgownie.pdf
AUOCup overall results.pdf
AUOCup SOL 1 results.pdf

AUOCup Crathes results and overall scores

The 5th AUOCup event was held yesterday at Crathes. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and maybe because of that, we were not expecting such a great turnout. Hence, we ran out of maps for a few runners, but with a bit of improvisation and drawing out the courses from memory, everyone got out to attack the long and short courses.

Here are the results from the 5th event. And here is the AUOCup overall scoreboard.

It seems like Michaela has taken a clear lead/victory in the long student category. Evgueni is also looking strong in the long non-student category. But remember that the best 3 count towards the end so anyone can still tie with him. Furthermore, don’t forget that the top two will be awarded. The short categories are still very undecided, so it seems like we will have a tight competition in those categories.

Thank you everyone for coming! The next event for the AUOCup is counted from the resuts of SOL1 next Sunday in Elibank. The next event held by us will be in two weeks in Balgownie (urban sprint).
See you later! 🙂

Janne Heikkinen AUOC

Tim Gomersall’s been at it again

Nothing to do with orienteering but he is a Gramp so I feel totally justified in passing on a link to something Ian Searle spotted and flagged up with the comment ‘Simply outstanding!’ Seconded!

Intrigued? Click here.

Tyrebagger 14/2/16

Results and split times are now published on this website – click here to go to the results page

BOF results page – unfortunately not enough Blue and Brown BOF finishers to qualify for ranking points

AUOCup @ Glen Dye Saturday 13th Feb – Results

It was a beautiful, white forest waiting for the 3rd AUOCup event to begin in Glen Dye. All four categories had runners, which means that each category is now fully open, but it is still anyone’s cup to win! Some tight battles for seconds in some categories, and in some the first forest orienteering since summer claimed its victims. Here are the results from today and the overall cup results (below).

Results

We have a two week break due to BUCS, but then we are back with Crathes on 28th Feb! Remember, that the best TWO will be awarded 😉

See you next time! :). Janne.

AUOCup general information

Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us!

vanila-40-th-cake-birthdayGRAMP’s 40th Birthday is this April! We’re now officially Vet class!

Join us for a birthday dinner to celebrate at Raemoir House on evening of Friday the 22nd of April.

Further details to come…

Altogether now – Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us!

Scottish Sprint Champs 2016

Well the wrinklies were either too slow or didn’t chance their way past some very unclear mapping particularly in the old town of South Queensferry, so no Champs to report. But the girls did well – Josie Gomersall was 2nd W16 and Morven and Kirsty took 3rd and 4th respectively in W12.

Scottish Night O Champs 2016

Congratulations to Sam Gomersall on his M50 win on Saturday at Bonaly near Edinburgh. We have another Champion to kick start 2016’s Roll of Honour. (Take note JL.)

Other performances of note were Josie 3rd W16, Gordon Urquart 3rd M35 and Helen Rowlands running up and taking 2nd W45.

Scolty DNC 3 Feb 2016 – Results

A lovely night for a Scolty Scramble (or amble in my case). Many thanks to Dave for taking us round the forest tonight.

Results     Splits
Routegadget

AUOCup: Hillhead results

AUOCup has officially began with a sprint race to warm up our legs also for the Scottish Sprint Champs in Queensferry next Sunday. Evgueni and Ian were tempted out on a lovely sunny, crisp day to take up the AUOC challenge of students vs non-students and didn’t let the Gramp side down. Game on!!

The course stayed up on Hillhead, due to the floods in Seaton Park. Nice control places and even some forest areas accross the road offered a tight race in each category. Unfortunately, we are still missing competitors from the non-student short category, so its anyones game there! 😉

Results

Next AUOCup event is accounted from the Scottish Sprint Champs, and the next AUOC event will be February 13th in Glen Dye! Hope to see you there! 🙂

Janne

Tyrebagger Event (Level C) 14/2/16 – Results

A bright winter’s day in Tyrebagger, with a dusting of snow on the ground but not enough to get in the way, even on the open hillside.  Those who started late were caught in a short but sharp snowstorm, which made the wood very dark all of a sudden! (making it difficult to read the map for old eyes like mine).

Thanks to all the helpers.  Those in the tent enjoyed a micro-climate which was a few degrees warmer than outside!  For once at Tyrebagger, we found a place to put the tent which caught the sun.

results: Click for the event results and split times .

Routegadget  is loaded – please enter your routes online.  Check out your fastest splits and time loss errors at Winsplits here.

courses:
Brown 6.8 km 300 m
Blue 4.5 km 190 m
Green 3.7 km 155 m
Light Green 3.3 km 125 m
Orange 2.3 km 80 m
Yellow 2.1 km 65 m
White 1.6 km 50 m

organiser                  Ian Hamilton   07555 239768
planner                      Gareth Yardley
controller                  Donald Grassie

Forvie Night-O – Results 20/1/2016

Thanks to everyone for participating tonight.  Sorry I couldn’t make the printer work; results are linked below.  Such a good evening I couldn’t resist collecting in the controls.  Crossed the moor in the moonlight with my torch off watching a faint aurora just visible against the moonlight.  Nearly lost myself at one point when I mistook a deer for a control; thought it was odd when it started moving faster than me!  Seal song, geese, eider, curlew, deer, aurora, a bat, mist and frost.

Results
Splits
Routegadget