Hogmanay Hangover Handicap – Hazelhead – 02/01/2017

Sudok-O

Congratulations to all who came and managed to find their way round the right 9 controls! Great watching the start as everyone ran off in different directions.

We had 8 teams running around the slightly icy Hazelhead, and all but one managed to collect all 27 controls, getting caught out collecting two 237’s and no 227 (a couple of question marks – did Olivia visit 245 [I think so], and I lost Oonaghs download, but I’m sure she’ll have got the nine the others didn’t). Rachel thought up some great team names, but I am sorry to say I lost the sheet so unless she can remember them …

Many thanks to the McLeods for their hospitatlity having everyone round for soup and for providing prizes for the first three teams!

Some results and the map:
Team Results
Individual Run Results
Individual Splits
Hazelhead SudokO Map

Description

Based on the puzzle Sudoku of a 9×9 square that needs filling with numbers 1 to 9 …
There are 27 controls.
Teams of 3.
Each team of 3 people to visit all 27 controls, each team member to visit 9 controls whose last digit is numbered 1 to 9 (in ANY order).
All runners start at same time (11.00) after 10-15 mins dividing up the controls between team members (a PEN will be useful at this stage!).

Winning team is the one that collects all 27 controls correctly between three people in shortest time (runner times are summed – like a relay – but all running at once).

In more detail … the LAST DIGIT of each control is a number from 1 to 9. For example, controls 224, 234, 244 all count as 4’s. The first two digits of each control number only serve to identify the correct control on the ground. Each runner must visit nine controls collecting one of each number from 1 to 9, but in any order. So one runner might visit controls 235, 221, 246, 229, 222, 233, 244, 228, 227 and their two team mates will collect the other 18 controls between them.

Q   where has the extra H come from?
A   me!    Helen’s Hogmanay Hangover Handicap at Hazelhead

Crathes – DNC – 21/12/16 – Results

Many thanks to Lesley and Jack for another great evening .. last this year!

Some results and routegadget

Simple Results
Splits
Routegadget

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dennis

DNC Glen Dye 7/12/16 – Results

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

Final Results and Split Times

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

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

 

The AUOC 100

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

Here are the results:

Loop Results    Splits

Cumulative Overall Times

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

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

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

100cp Final details.pdf

Duthie Park Permanent Course back up and in business

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

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

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

Gramps on the podium – BTO Urban League 2016

The results have now been published for the 2016 SOUL races, sponsored by BTO Solicitors.

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and especially to the following who finished in the top 10 of their class :-

W12-
2nd   Morven Farquharson
4th   Kirsty Farquharson

W16-
2nd   Josie Gomersall

M Vet 40+
5th   Peter Lawrence

W Vet 40+
7th Rachel Scott

M Vet 55+
7th   Sam Gomersall

Full results can be found here.

 

DNC Balmedie – 23/11/16 – Results

Starry, starry night!  Perfect for star-gazing and not so bad for orinteering, either!  Although cold (+1 deg) there was almost no wind, and conditions were excellent for fast running.  The ground frost actually hardened up the open sandy areas, and made them faster than ever before.

The EMIT equipment worked well despite the cold.  All the brikkes functioned perfectly.  I think that doing the brikke check at registration is something we should always do.  The control units worked fine, although two units (103, and 106) gave numerous low battery warnings – “99 codes”.  However, with one exception, they still registered punches on the brikkes of everyone who visited them.  The exception affected Matthew Gooch, who logged a “99 code” from control 106, but no punch registered there.  As the 99 code is clear evidence that he visited the control, we have happily reinstated Matthew.  Controls 103 and 106 are now going to be retired from active duty (after over 10 years service).

There was very close competition at the top of both courses, though you’ll see from the splits that even the speed merchants still had far from perfect runs and some lost considerable time at certain controls.  Here are the links to:

Results        Splits         Routegadget

Planner/Organiser – Rob Hickling

GMC 2016: Morven 12th/13th November

GMC 2016 logoDay 1  Results  Splits  RouteGadget
Day 2  Results  Splits  Routegadget

Overall results    Organiser’s Report

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

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

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

Congratulations to the overall winners and other prize winners:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More photos from Ian Hamilton here and Yomping Yardleys here

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

Photos from the Langs: “A bit Langcentric, but a few photos from the week end. And proof that John and Naomi even had time for photos on Day 1!”
img_0014_2img_0015_2img_0017_2img_0021_2img_0023img_0024

DNC Cheyne Hill 9/11/16

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

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

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

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

Fourth apology is for apologising so much!

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

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2016 Final Results

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFinal results

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

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

JDC Events and Rules.pdf

 

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

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

Scolty 23/10/16 Level C – Results

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

Here are Results,   and Split Times.

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

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

BOF results with Rankings points  Added 30/10/16

Thanks to our event officials, helpers and control collectors.

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

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

Hazelhead Night O – Wed 26/10/2016 – Results

We had a pleasant starry night for the “come and try it” Night-O at Hazlehead. Some fast times were recorded on Helen’s good courses.  The recent rain has wetted the ground quite a lot.  The grass was pretty squelchy in places (not good for golfers) and the ditches had a lot of water in them.

Did anyone see the Northern Lights after the race?  There was a red-alert … high chance of aurora.

The event was only timed informally, and results do not count for the Deeside Night Cup. But here are the results, and split times for those who are interested.

A couple of quite experienced people failed to punch the Start control (you must wait till it flashes) !! Don’t forget next week !  And sorry to Luke Graham who had a non-working eCard.

Long  5km  – difficulty TD5  (hard)
Medium  3km – difficulty TD5 (hard)
Orange 2.3km – difficulty TD3  (medium)

Urban Sprint Aberdeen Uni 28/9/16 – Results

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

Here are the Results ,  and Split Times

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

JIRC Relay

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

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

Please enter your relay routes on Routegadget

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

Public Races

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

Here are the results and split times.

Urban Sprint Westburn & Victoria Parks 21/9/16

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

Results    Splits   Routegadget

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

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

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

Urban Sprint Duthie Park and Ferryhill 14/9/16

Results  Splits     Routegadget  Overall points

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

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

Autumn Urban Sprint Balgownie 7th Sept

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

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

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

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

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

Best 3 of 5 scores count towards your total.

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

 

One to watch @ Rio 2016 – Karen Darke

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results
Splits
Routegadget

*delete as appropriate

Up-and-coming Gramp Member
‘Up-and-coming’ Gramp!
Rachel - caught on camera at last!
Rachel – caught on camera at last!

Templars Park RetrO Results 24-Aug-16

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

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

2016 Summer Series Finale Templars Park, BBQ and prize giving

A “slight twist” was promised and turned out to be a retrO twist so thanks to Stuart for all his hard work checking punch patterns and calculating times and winners the hard way – far more work for him than us playing spot-the-difference copying courses from master maps.

He spoiled us though:
– a table to do the copying, rather than hunkering down on the ground under a tarpaulin in case it rained
– results within 1/2 an hour of the last finisher, rather than having to bring an SAE* to put into a bucket to get Xerox*-ed results 2 weeks later

(*Younger members will have to hit Google for these terms)

Thanks also to Helen R for being the Summer Series coordinator again, quietly and efficiently keeping us all on track, but most of all for providing Mulloch Muffins for all the planners. Mmmmmmm!

Series Winners:
Medium – Fergus Archibald (S) Sheena Farquhar (S) Patrick Lang (J) Isobel Anderson (J)
Short Tech – Gareth Yardley (S) Clare Tunaley (S) Alex Lang (J) Ailsa Anderson (J)
Long Tech – Joe aunton (S) Lesley Gomersall (S) Lachlam Kirk (J) Josie Gomersall (J)

Results for all the events linked here.

TTFN

Glen Dye – Sunday 21 Aug – Final Results

Here are final results and split times for our level C event at Glen Dye:

Results

Splits

Winsplits

BOF results with Rankings points

Please enter your routes on Routegadget .

Thanks to the officials, and to all our helpers and control collectors.

Officials
Planner: Richard Oxlade
Organiser: Anne Hoy
Controller: Andy Tivendale (MAROC)
Professional Sleepyhead: Rob “Blame the Olympics” Hickling

Courses

Course
White
Yellow
Orange
Light Green
Green
Blue
Brown
Length
1.4km
2.1km
2.7km
3.0km
3.9km
5.5km
8.4km
Climb
30m
40m
85m
100m
150m
205m
325m

More admissions than UCAS?

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

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

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

Mulloch – 17/8/16 – Results

A beautiful evening with stunning views, hope you had a chance to enjoy both! Many thanks to Chris and Margaret for all their work. You may not have noticed, but it involved a fair bit of gardening too.

Results
Splits
Routegadget

Next week at Templars an event with a different format followed by prize giving and BBQ – bring your own food – coals provided.

 

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)