2014 Scottish Orienteering Champions

Not many Gramps went down for this year’s Scottish Champs but a high percentage of those who did made their mark and either won their age class or got onto the podium for the top three. We even managed to field three relay teams who did well too. Obviously the cream of the Gramp crop this year – well done guys!

W10B 1st Kirsty Farquharson
W10B 2nd Morven Farquharson
W20E 2nd Katrina McLeod (EUOC really but answers to Gramp still)
W50L 3rd Carolyn McLeod
W55S 1st Oonagh Grassie
W55S 3rd Anne Hoy
W65S 1st Margaret Aust
M18E 1st Sasha Chepelin
M35S 1st David Esson
M50S 1st Evgueni Chepelin
M50S 3rd Iain McLeod
M60L 1st Rob Hickling
M70L 1st Neil McLean

(With a couple of obvious exceptions it looks like our metier is the short course.
Maybe we should push for a Middle Championship to test my theory?)

Relays
Men Open Gramp One 4th
Alexander Chepelin/Jack Gomersall/Calum McLeod

Handicap 14+ Gramp Two 6th
Robert Daly/Lesley Gomersall/Adrian Will

Handicap 17+ Gramp Three 2nd
Robert Hickling/Carolyn McLeod/Evgueni Chepelin
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Grampian Mountain Challenge 2014 Glenshee 15th/16th Nov

GMC 2014 logoThanks to everyone for risking hell and high water just to get to the event never mind taking on the challenge of some of the longest and toughest GMC courses we’ve served up to date. Judging by the many “thank you”s as you left most of you seemed to relish it all (even if it was in a hair-shirty, glad-it’s-over kind of way!)

Day 1   Results by course   Splits   Winsplits
Day 2* Results by course   Splits   Winsplits
Overall results (updated 19/11)

Routegadget is now loaded – please enter your routes here!

*The C course on Day 2 suffered a missing control, swept away by the torrents coming off the hillsides on Friday we think, and after much debate we decided to simply remove that control from the course rather than void the long legs on either side which accounted for about 2/3 of the course.
The Stansfields’ brikke gradually stopped working on Day 2 as well but they started and finished very close to their main rivals, the Galloways, so were awarded an overall time which both parties agreed.

disaster on A course

 

Our Facebook page has already attracted comments and photos. Feel free to add to that or leave a comment here. Doesn’t have to be enthusiastic thanks (although we do like that!) as we need to know if anything major is bugging you so we can factor that in next time. If you don’t do Facebook you can send photos or links to webmaster@grampoc.com instead.

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Left: Disaster strikes on the A Course as leading pair discover maggots in their hillfood.

Photos from Ian Hamilton here.

 

Prizes were awarded as follows:
Overall Winners – A Tim Gomersall and Johannes Felter, B Sarah Dunn, C Ben and Dan Standsfield
1st Vet – A Mark Harris, B Grahame Nicoll, C George Patterson
1st Female/Mixed – A Ciara Largey, Sarah ONeil and Andrew Llewellyn, B Harriet Battan and Kirsty Coombs, C Sam Gomersall and Carolyn McLeod

And all Dads and Lads teams got a prize by way of encouraging the younger element of the orienteering and fell running scenes to take part in this kind of event (and maybe something else!) Some winners had already gone – we’ll get them to you somehow.

 

Summer Series 2014

  7th May      Countesswells*          Results
14th May      Tyrebagger*               Results
 21st May      Cheyne Hill                 Results   
28th May      Hazlehead*                 Results
  4th June     Foggieton*                  Results 
11th June     Dunnottar*                  Results
18th June     Crathes*                     Results 
25th June     Balmedie* + BBQ     Results
  2nd July      Kingshill                      Results               
9th July        Glen Dye                     Results
16th July      Haddo House             Results
23rd July      Tollo Hill                      Results
30th July      Scolty                          Results
6th Aug        Mulloch                       Results
13th Aug      Perwinnes Moss         Results
20th Aug       Bennachie                  Results
27th Aug      Templars Park + BBQ   Results   

 

Junior Attendance Awards
The more events you attend, the higher the award you’ll get. 3 for Bronze, 6 for Silver, 10 for Gold.
The scores on the doors so far after Perwinnes Moss…

Bronze
Helena Coman, Jack Gomersall, Alex Lang, Madeleine Oxley, Jennifer Ricketts, Duncan Will, Hannah Will, Joseph Wright

Silver
Ailsa Anderson, Isobel Anderson, Olivia Coman, Patrick Lang, Abigail Mason, Calum McLeod, Keith Yardley

Gold
Paul Caffyn, Josie Gomersall, Lachlan Kirk, Naomi Lang, Katrina McLeod
As we haven’t been counting points at all this year, we decided to give out prizes for various more lighthearted categories.

Most amazing thing found/heard/seen while out on your course:
Bil Caffyn found a legible map in the heather at Cheyne Hill for last year’s course
Most easily distracted: Helen Rowlands for playing on the aerial runway at Haddo
Earliest Bird Award: Phil Campbell – always first to arrive and run
Muddiest: Joel Gooch at Scolty
Most dedicated and determined (aka Value For Money): Sheena Farqhar
Best dressed picnic table: Lynsey and George Esson
Most improved: Paul Caffyn
Most SS 2014 events attended: David Esson

(If your name’s on the list and you weren’t there to collect then ask at the next event you go to and we’ll make arrangements to get it to you.)

 

have you got*This year, the Summer Series incorporated the Grampian Adventure Challenge for teams of 8 at the venues marked by an asterisk.
Check the GAC post for results and comments and contact email.

 

 

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Cheyne Hill Summer Series 21-5-14 Results

Results   If you spot any spelling mistakes then tell webmaster@grampoc.com please.

Congratulations to those who bit the bullet and tried out ‘The Technical Twist’ – a section of the course was printed without any background map so they had to rely on bearings and pacing to get to the next control. Although many pulled wry faces at Registration on being told this, the same faces were beaming with satisfaction at Download and said they enjoyed the challenge. (Maybe just too polite to tell Pete what they really thought?!)

At least we didn’t make you all do logic problems and puzzles on the way round like Team GE were doing. What”s the maximum number of pieces of pizza you can get if you make just 3 straight cuts? Hint – it’s a round pizza and the pieces don’t have to be equally sized and shaped. If you want to know the answer then catch them at Hazlehead next week! (PS Dave, what was the elephant puzzle?)

Lost property: map from last year’s event found up on the moor nestled in the heather.
A great recommendation for waterproof paper as it was still legible, if a bit mucky, but begs the question how did the loser manage to get back to base without it?

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Tyrebagger 14/5/14 Summer Series Results

Well done to all the brave souls who had a go at the Map Memory. It was quite testing, especially the long leg across the valley, and would have been made easier if you were familiar with the area but most of you were not!

We had 66 entries – a few more competitors than Countesswells but still quite low for a beautiful evening. Is there something else more enticing going on in Aberdeen on a Wednesday I wonder?
Or are lots of folk still working up their summer fitness levels before coming along to blast us all out of the water in June after we’ve worn ourselves out early?

Anyway, well done to everyone and especially the Grampian Adventure Challenge contenders as Tyrebagger is definitely a notch up from Countesswells in terms of complexity and hilliness.

Results attached. The GAC points tables will be posted asap.

Tyrebagger SS 14-5-14 results.pdf

Scolty Forest Sprint 9/5/14 Results

Plan a bog standard TD3 course I was told. So I did. And quite successfully judging by the state of many of you but the prize for overall coverage and gloopiness has to go to poor wee Joel Gooch who looked like a giant had picked him up and dunked him in chocolate custard up to his waist. (Maybe Roger can award consolation points? He’s threatening to get round to working out some scores this weekend BTW.)

Several adults were lured into a false sense of security watching Juniors skipping over the mud but discovered that an extra few pounds in weight makes all the difference when they tried to follow suit. But it seems that the WW1 style mud engendered a WW1 sort of camaraderie amongst competitors and David Esson would like to thank Ewan Musgrave for being kind enough to hang around watching him flounder to safety before dashing off.

In my defence, I’d just like to point out that route choice is supposed to be part of the game even at the micro level. And I’ve done my penance by having to run 3 quarantined brikkes under the tap when I got home which produced enough mud to nurture a small tattie plant or two and are now ponging gently in the kitchen.

The laptop battery died on me before I could download all finishers. Now connected to the mains I’ve done so and discovered a couple of typos but I think I’ve managed to match the correct brikke to everyone. If you think your result looks wrong then drop me an email on webmaster@grampoc.com (no trying to blag a few minutes off mind unless you can produce evidence!) Three folk used their own brikkes so I can’t give splits for you guys I’m afraid but I did write down your times so you appear in the overall results.

Congratulations to Dan Gooch for his flyer of a run to win Scolty within the 15 – 20 minute goal. Two more events to go at Sluie and Glen O’Dee – good luck everyone!

Rachel

Scolty Forest Sprint 9-5-2014 Splits.pdf
Scolty Forest Sprint 9-5-2014 Results.pdf

2bogmonstersPatricia Graham sent me this photo of 2 victims of the Scolty Bogmonster. It’s a bit blurry partly due to low light but probably more because she was laughing so much while she was taking it?

 

Overall scores post-Scolty

 

Grampian Adventure Challenge

Well done to all the runners in the three teams who entered the first Grampian Adventure challenge. The winning team were Maersk with Genesis second closely followed by Fugro. For their performance Maersk take home the Grampian Bonsai as a reminder of all those forests they have been running through over the past few weeks. Look after it! The winning male and female were both members of Gramp (they knew what they were doing!) and the first non-orienteers were Craig Burry and Claire Anderson.

IMG_8158mrOver the series we had a total of 27 competitors who ran 98 times. Conditions were mixed with the mist of Balmedie during the training event, the rain, damp and quarry of Foggieton and the nettles of Dunottar. For the last two events at Crathes and Balmedie summer finally arrived.
Genesis team pictured here but sadly we didn’t manage to catch the others – did you? Send us your photos if you have any please.

If you want to continue your orienteering you are welcome to come along to all the events which run every Wednesday through the summer, continue in the Autumn with the urban series and if that’s not enough the night series over the winter. We hope to see you in the woods!

Final results

Cheers

John L.

Email GAC@grampoc.com if you want to contact us.

 

A few Gramps spotted at Run Balmoral

As they will no doubt be too modest to tell you themselves and in case you don’t scrutinise the P&J…

Carolyn McLeod won the Women’s 10k race at Balmoral yesterday (21st overall) and Naomi won the Secondary Schools race and broke the course record by 15 seconds. Woohoo! Well done girls!
Sasha was the second senior male in the 5k (can just see his face over the Yellow Leader’s left shoulder in one of the photos) and Struan Kirk came 18th in the MPH Primary Boys 1.5k.

There may have been more of you but our ace sports reporters, Marianne and Naomi, didn’t spot you so apologies if that’s the case. A few photos attached, the 10k ones were taken by Naomi, and you can you just about spot Carolyn chasing/being chased by a pink tutu!

Thanks to Marianne for sending me the bones of this post and the photos. If anyone has any news on how the Highlander GRAMPs fared then let me know? Ta. R.

3 GRAMPS in podium places at JK2014

Putting her money (feet?) where her coaching mouth is, Anne came 3rd overall W55S at the JK down in Wales over the Easter W/e. Looks like she and Rob were also having a private Pre-O battle which resulted in a draw with one better result apiece. (There’s a rumour that Anne will be signing autographs at the next Training session at Tyrebagger.)

And Carolyn cruised to 3rd in the W50L Sprint (some of you may have seen the photo over on Facebook) and Sasha gained 2nd place in M18E. Congratulations, all!

Both Carolyn and Sasha missed a podium finish by one place in the overall Day 2 and Day 3 results which also deserves mention, as does the intrepid GRAMP One Relay team consisting of Sasha, Bob Daly and Kirsten Strain who had a crack at the JK Trophy and finished half way up the field. Most impressed with the GFI spirit, guys!

Crathes Level C – Sun 18th May Results

Final Results              BOF results incl ranking points
Final Splits                 Winsplits
Routegadget  (all roads lead to RG2 these days – see Nopesport for tips on getting this to work or how to alter the url to get back to RG1)

A big apology to all those who thought they’d EEEed via the form here on the website only to be told that the message hadn’t come through. I’ve discovered your entries quarantined in a spam trap on the website server but can’t figure out why the system should have taken against your particular messages as they contain nothing different from those that did get through.

Anyway, thanks for patiently filling in an EOD stub instead and thanks also to everyone for your patience and understanding when your download was delayed slightly while we tried to catch up with the stub entries. Thanks also to those Juniors who readily donated their Orange maps so that everyone could get a run, much appreciated.

What wasn’t appreciated was the arrogant tosser of a brikke in the general direction of download while stomping past in a huff due to his bad run. Many other folk mispunched or DNFed too but still took the time to wait and tell us and hand in their brikke in a civilised fashion. (Rant over!)

We had 127 entries in the end including some very keen Juniors who went round two courses and would have done more if Registration hadn’t closed. Well done guys! In case you’re wondering, your second runs are shown as nc or non-competitive as you had already been out into the competition area.

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Mulloch Forest Sprint – Friday 25th April

Hope you all enjoyed your run, the haar adding that bit of special Grampian atmosphere (seemed particulary keen on hanging round people’s glasses).

Results      Splits

Balmedie Middle Distance Event – 13 April 2014 Results

Lovely day out at Balmedie with a very good turnout.

I hope the dog enjoyed nicking Paul’s sandwiches!  … hard luck Paul, but some consolation in winning the Green!

Results

Splits

Officials
Planner : Neil McLean
Day Planner : Alex MacLachlan
Controller : Chris Lowe (Maroc)
Organiser : Helen Anderson

 

Tollohill Forest Sprint – 11th April 2014

What a pleasant evening for the first Forest Sprint of the series of 6 races throughout Deeside this year.  The views from the hill over Aberdeen harbour were great.  Here are the results and splits:

Results    Splits

Thanks to David for planning a smashing little course that avoided the nasty stuff in the north!

Crathes DNC – 26th Feb 2014 – Results

Here are the Results and Splits for the last DNC event of 2013/14 season.  Click here for Routegadget.

Congratulations to all those who took part and braved the damp dark forests and heaths (not much if any snow this year, thankfully). 36 of us enjoyed the post-series curry and prize-giving at Derbar’s in Banchory. See you next year.

2014 Forest Sprint Series Fridays

Sprint O is great fun – lots of controls in quick succession in a relatively short distance and fast running alone is no use in this discipline if it’s of the headless chicken variety! You really have to look closely at the map, make snap decisions about route choice, execute them quickly and cleanly while all the time trying to read a jiggling map and watch where your feet are going. Give it a go.

April
11th Tollohill GRAMP  Results Splits
18th No event – too busy eating Hot Cross Buns
25th Mulloch  GRAMP  Results Splits

May
2nd Bogendriep  MAROC  Results
9th Scolty  GRAMP    Results   Splits
16th Sluie  MAROC    Results Splits
23rd Glen O’Dee MAROC  Results

Overall scores post-Glen O’Dee now on the Maroc website.
Big congratulations to wor Alex Maclachlan for taking top spot from many keen and nippy Marocs!

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Scolty Level C Results 23/2/14

You were all obviously thinking it was time to get some spring exercise today, as we had 116 runners at Scolty.  Despite the less than perfect weather late morning….!  Those of you who took a long time on their runs, like me, saw the sun come out later on.

Here are Results  and  Splits  and BOF results showing ranking points.

Routegadget is loaded up here – please put up your routes!

Thanks very much to all our helpers and the officials, namely:

Planner: Gareth Yardley
Organiser: Adrian Will
Controller: John Mason MAROC

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Glen Dye DNC – 12 Feb 2014 – revised results

The weather turned wild and wet about 3pm, and it was raining as we left Aberdeen to drive up the valley. The rain held off for a little while about 6pm but returned an hour or so later, so we all got rather damp…

But Glen Dye is such a cracking area and wonderful to run in at night – as there is very little green veg to get in the way, and hardly any windblow in the part of the area we used.

Control 173 (no 6 on Long) was slightly misplaced into another depression 30m NE.  On reflection, we’ve decided to void leg 5-6 on the Long for DNC points calculation, so revised results are here:

Results and splits.        Routegadget is now set up – load up your routes!

A couple of runners on the short mispunched 173 for their control (174). The two controls were about 40m apart instead of 70m as intended. We’re feeling generous and have reinstated the people affected. But no precedent is being set by this! Please consider yourself reminded that it is very definitely the competitor’s responsibility to check the control code.

Time for a hot bath and mebbe a wee dram to warm the extremities.

Forvie DNC – 29 Jan 2014

A good, dry, night had by all. Everybody who went out came back (always a relief). Results linked below, routegadget to follow …

Helen

Simple Results Splits

Tyrebagger Score Event – Sunday 19th January

Here are the results for the Tyrebagger event held in rather damp conditions (to say the least):

Score Results and Points Calculation

White Course Results    White Course Splits

Congratulations to winners Luke Charles and Hannah Smith (tied on time on the White course), to Alex Maclachlan (SS), Peter Collins (JS solo) and Eilidh and Kirsty Campbell (JS pair).

Here are the chosen routes of the competitors who visited all their Score controls:

Junior Score Routes    Senior Score Routes

Here are possible optimal routes from the Planner:

JS Planners Route    SS Planners Route

Key decision points were:

Junior Score:  After S-105-224, it was tempting to go north to 230 and 103.  However this left the problem of control 139.  It’s best to go to 139 straight away after 224 (easy valley run).

Senior Score:  How best to fit 160 into the circuit?  I think it’s best to go 105-160-225 (or reverse).  It’s a very steep climb up from 223 or 138.  And how best to cover the eastern group of six?  Planner suggests130-222-150-131-140-227 (or reverse) could be quickest, or alternatively 130-131-140-227-150-222.

Special thanks to helpers (who got quite wet!) :-  Paul D., Anne H. and Jayne, and control collectors David E. and Adrian.  And thanks also to Paul and Evgueni for shortening their runs slightly, so that we could start collecting controls a wee bit earlier than planned, due to the heavy rain.

Organiser:  Anne Hickling,    Planner: Rob Hickling.

Balmedie DNC 15 Jan 2014 – Results

Well, the weather was mild (9°C) but there was wetness in the air which dampened the outsides (but not the spirits) of the 40 people who ran at Balmedie.  Tricky courses on a moonless night…  No 154 in particular was hard, and the prizes go to those who persevered (eh, Ali?).

Many thanks to Dennis McD for planning and organising (enjoy your 30 pts!) and control collectors (in the worst of the rain) David E, Simonas and Rob.

Results   Splits    Routegadget

P.S.  We’ve attempted to update Age Classes shown in the results for the new orienteering year.  If we’ve got it wrong, please email the correction to grampoc *at* gmail.com.

HHH 2014 Results

Did anyone’s head actually explode yesterday? Felt like mine was going to on several occasions as Ali’s novelty twist was truly evil (and to add insult to mental injury he seemed truly proud of it!!)

North was still North and South was still down (or was it up?), but East was left sometimes and right others and then the map seemed to fold back round on itself and by the time you’d gone up, left, unWest, down-rightish and run too far South-Up you were back where you started and still in the wrong place. If you tried reading through the back of your map held up against the weak sun or even turning your compass upside-North you stood a vague chance of running in the right direction!! Clear as mud? You had to be there.

HHHThanks to Ali, Adrian (who I noticed was fielding a lot of flak on download that should have gone Ali’s way!), Helen R and family (for soup and warmth afterwards), car pushers and anyone else who helped out.

HHH2014 – Results.pdf

Christmas puzzle

If you get bored over the hols here’s a wee orienteering puzzle to keep you occupied.

Print out the AGM O Starter map which has Start, Finish and 3 controls already marked on it.
Using the info contained in the control descriptions and the given distances between some pairs of controls, see if you can recreate the complete course with a total length of 5km and all the controls in the right places. At the AGM we did this offline with the aid of a ruler to measure distances but you could ‘cheat’ and use Condes (which will take some time to set up and thus keep you occupied for even longer if you’re really, really bored!!)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

AGM O starter map.pdf
AGM O control descriptions and distance info.pdf

AGM O answer map.pdf

Raemoir DNC Results 18/12/13

Here are the confirmed results and splits.

Routegadget is now loaded – admit to your wanderings!

A good turnout of 41 considering the weather. Did anyone else hear ominously loud and alarmingly close thumping noises as large bits dropped off tall trees?

Raemoir DNC 18Dec13 Results     Raemoir DNC 18Dec13 Splits

2013 AGM roundup

For those of you unable to make it to the AGM on 7/12/13, here is a copy of the Chairman’s Report plus the 2013 Roll of Honour and GRAMP Champs final standings.

Helen Rowlands was also collecting names for 2014 events and has emailed you all with the list of events and officials so far. Please don’t be shy in grabbing something you fancy before anyone else does – help and guidance will be freely available for those who need it so don’t think just because you’ve never planned anything bigger than a Summer Series that you won’t be able to make the step up to a colour-coded.

Chairmans report 2013.pdf
GRAMP CHAMPS 2013 by age class.pdf
GRAMP CHAMPS 2013 by category.pdf
2013 Roll of Honour and Prizes.pdf

Balmedie Pre-Xmas O: Sun 8th Dec

Rob provided us with some devilish “Precision-Xmas” courses, with a strong “Pre-O” or “Trail-O” element (but not on any trails…).  Six of the controls on the long course were clusters of controls, and you had to pick the one that you thought was in the exact centre of the circle and fitted the control description most precisely.

A time penalty of 2 minutes was given for each incorrect punch at a clusters.

Control no 6 was vandalised  😦  so everyone’s splits from 5-6-7 have been deleted from the times.  That’s why you’re all faster than you thought.

Here are finalised results.  Well done to class winners Tim (and happy birthday on your 21st!), Ailsa and Stuart.

Balmedie Pre-Xmas-O Results   Balmedie Orange Results

Very well done to everyone for making an excellent try at picking the correct flags.  Overall the average success percentage was 57.6%, but top marks to Rachel for being 100% correct.

Special thanks to those who helped collect controls:  Ian, Gareth, Helen R, Helen A and Stuart.

Here are some notes on the special control clusters, and enlargements of the control sites showing the locations of all the controls in the cluster:

Control Cluster Notes      Site enlargements: Cluster AB  Cluster CD  Cluster EF

Scolty DNC 4th Dec 2013 – Results

Hi to all night-O’ers.  Here are the results for the Scolty DNC event tonight.

Scolty Results   Scolty Splits

Routegadget is set up here – please add your routes.

The event theme was “check your codes”.  There were controls on boulders (over 60m apart – all kosher!) and several people didn’t notice that they punched at the wrong boulder!  It pays to pay attention, folks.

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2013

Final standings for (JD)2C 2013

Well done to Morvern Farquharson who held on to her lead to win the W8 Trophy!
Maroc pipped us at the post for all the other trophies this year but we also had loads of good performances and the following also deserve congratulations for gaining 2nd or 3rd place overall:

W8 2nd Kirsty Farquharson
W10 2nd Isobel Anderson, 3rd Maya Reynard
W12 2nd Ailsa Anderson
W14 3rd Naomi Lang
W16 3rd Kate Wilkinson

M14 3rd Lachlan Kirk
M16 2nd Sasha Chepelin

Trophies and certificates for (JD)2C and GRAMP Champs will be awarded at the AGM on Saturday.
Hope you’ll all be there to receive them? And that you’ve been busy planning something scrummy to bring for the bring-a-dish supper? See you there!

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Forvie Level C 24/11/13 – Results

Here are the provisional results and splits for Grampian Orienteers event at Forvie Sands by Newburgh on Sunday 24th November :-

Forvie 24Nov13 Results  Forvie 24Nov13 Splits

Routegadget and Splitalyzer etc are loaded up on GRAMP’s Routegadget page.  Here is Winsplits.

Our apologies to David Kirk and Jon Musgrave, who had brikkes that didn’t show any signs of life.  Their times have been estimated.  The moral is:  make sure your brikke gives a flash on the Start unit !

Thanks to all our event officials and helpers today.  Special thanks to Marlis for going above and beyond the call of duty, having driven back out to Forvie with the spare set of car keys for Iain, who had managed to lock his set inside his car   🙂   !!!

Courses:
White – 1.4 km 22m – easy (in terms of navigation)
Yellow – 2.5 km 38m – easy
Orange- 2.9 km 74m – medium
Light Green- 3.1 km 94m -medium
Green- 4.3 km 98m – hard
Blue- 6.5 km 144m – hard
Brown- 9.0 km 164m -hard

Organiser: David Esson
Planner: Iain Barraclough
Controller: Donald Grassie

Sasha and other selected ScotJOSers at EYOC

Sasha, along with 5 other ScotJOS colleagues, was rubbing shoulders with future champions at the European Youth O Champs in Portugal recently.

Dominated by Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia and Czech Republic these champs certainly gave our homegrown talent a run for their money but it looks like they relished the challenge – take a look at the write up on the SOA website. Well done guys!

Results etc on http://www.eyoc2013.fpo.pt/ or check out the gossip and pics on EYOC FB.

Tyrebagger Level C 27/10/13

Here are the results from a breezy Tyrebagger on Sunday.

Foot-O:

Tyrebagger 27Oct13 Results

Tyrebagger 27Oct13 Splits

Winsplits Online

Routegadget

Congratulations to Ali for pipping big Jon!
Shame there weren’t a few more Broons tho’ as no ranking points this time – BOF results incl ranking points.

Trail-O:

PreO results

The correct answers were:  1:B   2:D   3:Z   4:C   5:E

Tyrebagger PreO map         Tyrebagger PreO all controls map

Congratulations to Chris Aust and the four anonymous entries who got all five controls correct.

It looks as though some of you may not have realised that a ‘Z’ answer (no kites in the correct place) was possible. I also heard that a few people were leaving the track for a closer look at the control sites. This is not allowed in TrailO – you must stay on the track. Guidance on how to do TrailO was printed on the back of the map; apologies to anyone who did not see this; here is the information again:  How to do TrailO

Look out for more TrailO and PreO at Gramp events next year. If you would like to be involved in planning a PreO course, please get in touch with Anne
.Look out for more TrailO/PreO at Gramp events next year. If you would like to be involved in planning a PreO course, please get in touch with Anne

JIAR Scolty 5/10/13

JIAR 4

Never has that little triangle of wood in Scolty been sooooooooooo noisy! The enthusiastic cheering was deafening at times especially when Daniel Stansfield and Jennifer Ricketts came storming down the final track to clinch first place for their teams West 1 and North 1G in the Open and Girls classes respectively!

Congratulations to the winners of course but also to everyone who took part and gave it their all, especially the many for whom it was their first taste of the buzz of relay racing.

Relay Points: North 68  East 36  West 64
(Individual Points and Overall Points will be published on the Maroc website.)

The basis for the scoring is, in each class, 24 for 1st, 20 for 2nd, 16 for 3rd, 12 for 4th, 8 for 5th and 4 for 6th – but only 2 teams from each of the 3 areas count. So, in the Open it was West 24,4; East 16,8; North 20,12. In the Girls it was North 24,12; West 20,16; East 8,4.

Here are the splits by course and team results after each leg and final results. (We invented a Star class of Orange/Yellow/Yellow so that three spare runners could still get a run and join in the fun.)

JIAR Relay Scolty Split time results.pdf
JIAR Overall Results.pdf
JIAR Relay Results after Leg 3.pdf
JIAR Relay Results after Leg 1.pdf
JIAR Relay Results after Leg 2.pdf

Photos from Marianne Lang – if anyone else has some photos they’d like to share then send them, or a link, to webmaster@grampoc.com.

JIAR 1JIAR 5JIAR 2JIAR 3

Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2013 Final Results

Thanks to all who came out on such a foul night for the last of the Urban Sprints, especially members of the newly reformed AUOC who are probably still wondering what hit them both meterologically, physically and mentally. Please believe us when we tell you it’s not always like that!

I did promise to be there armed with lavish prizes but it really wasn’t the night to be hanging about waiting to see folk and figure out who won in a couple of categories that were still potentially up for grabs.
I will bring prizes to the Street O events (shameless plug!) or you can email me at webmaster@grampoc.com to claim if you can’t make those events.

So – the final results….  I’ve been mulling over whether to award points as usual for Abz Uni or not. Dave’s event was so different from the rest and a bit of bad luck meant a disastrous time for the first leg for many and if anything, I should be awarding extra prizes for determination/pigheadedness to several folk who were hit really badly but still soldiered on.

Luckily, the overall prize winners were unaffected by the rogue results – as in there was no change from those I’d identified as leaders in the results after 4 events – so I’ve decided to include Abz Uni anyway in the Overall Results (but I’ve also added a second page for interest where I’ve awarded points based on adjusted times with the first leg subtracted as that was the real deal breaker for most).

GRAMP contingent at the JIRCs weekend PLUS SHIs

Well done guys – Scotland won all 5 trophies again this year and Sasha, Karen and Calum were there to help the team to victory, putting ScotJOS up at the top of the regional squads!! There’ll be a report on the SOA website soon but in the meantime feast your eyes on these photos from Wendles.

Meanwhile, over in Ireland, Jack Gomersall came 3rd M20 to help Scotland clean up in the Senior Home Internationals too. Wow! What a week for Scottish orienteering!

Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2013

urban44th Sep    Duthie Park/Ferryhill     Results   Splits
11th Sep   Westburn and Victoria Parks    Results   Splits
18th Sep  Balgownie    Results   Splits      ( Individual Splits Printouts )
25th Sep  Seaton and Hillhead     Results   Splits
2nd Oct    Aberdeen University    Results   Splits

Overall Points* best 3 of 5 scores

*As the 5th event at Abz Uni didn’t follow the same format as the rest the points are debatable although it didn’t make any difference to the overall winners. So there are two versions of overall points – one with points as is based on finishing times recorded and a second version with points based on an adjusted time where I’ve subtracted the first leg times from everyone’s total as it was that first leg that was make or break, i.e. if you found the first control first time you were very lucky.

Just for comparison here’s the overall results after the 4 normal sprint events too.

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Congratulations to Evgueni for winning the first urban sprint, with a time just under the 20 minutes for 3.4km.  Nice planning by Mark Stockton took us round the park, a loop into Ferryhill through the narrow alleys, and finally back into Duthie to the finish.  The new map (drawn to ISSOM standard) was great.

Westburn and Vicky Parks were a real eyeballs-out sprint – men’s winning time 14:17 for 3.5km shortest feasible route.  We welcomed Oleg back to Aberdeen and he managed to beat his brother Sasha by 56 seconds.  Sasha was a similar margin ahead of Alex MacLachlan – they’re all running very well.  Fastest lady was Naomi in a tremendously fast 17:34!

Mark Stockton was the star in the reasonably priced map at Balgownie, with a very smart winning time of 17:15, a minute ahead of the chasers.  Fastest lady was new arrival Karen Maxwell, of Roxburgh Reivers, who has just started at RGU – a very big welcome to Karen (who BTW is car-less and would appreciate lifts to future events).  Sorry for the absence of the splits printer – senility on the part of the person supposed to bring it – me!  If you’d like it, you can find yours in the link to Individual Splits Printouts below.

We got all the technology together for Seaton Park and Hillhead urban sprint, so everyone got their splits – hooray.  Very tricky to avoid all the temporary fencing in the halls of residence, which was specially mapped by organisers Pete and Rachel – thanks guys.  Leading lady was hill-runner par excellence Jenny Ricketts in 20:36 ahead of last week’s winner Karen Maxwell (recovering from “fresher’s flu”).  Mark Stockton had some tougher (international) competition this week from Lithuania, Russia and Finland!  He came out on top for max points again, in another sparkling time of 18:05.  Well done Mr. Consistency.

The final sprint of the season was in the pouring rain at Aberdeen University, which made the pavements slippery.  But it didn’t seem to slow the leaders.  A big welcome to all the Aberdeen Uni O-Club folk!!  The novel format was tricky in the rain, as our pens wouldn’t write on the maps – so memorising the order of controls was hard.  I took 16 mins to find no.1 which scuppered my time!  Thanks to David K. for the planning and organising.

Crathes Level C 22/09/13

GRAMP CHAMPS and (JD)2C event

A wonderful warm autumn day (24 degC) meant that most of us were feeling faily drained after running Big Kev’s testing courses.  Results and splits (now final) are below, plus link to Routegadget.

Results
Splits
Routegadget and Splits analysers

Helen A would like to say thanks to all helpers (a few of whom joined Helen for a celebratory meal on Sunday when Helen provided the wine – great idea – now do you wish you too had volunteered?) & Kevin and Andy would like to thank the Dial-a-Buttie service for the much appreciated bacon, egg and tomato rolls for brunch about 10:45 (Jackie – you’re just too kindhearted!)

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Standing on the shoulders of (future) giants

Despite the tough tussocky terrain on the first half of the courses, Team HalfGramp managed 6th place in the 8 Person category of this year’s Interclub Relay but we have to come clean and admit that this was only achieved by cunningly taking up organiser Jess’ offer to hire us some SEDS members to make up the GRAMP shortfall. For an additional contribution to SEDS funds, we secured the services of Alison Campbell to start us off on the Tartan leg to psyche out the opposition with a flying start, Jo Shepherd for one of the Green legs and Ali McLeod for an Orange. I think it was when Ali came in that the other teams began to suspect but so far nobody has lodged a complaint and we’re still listed as competitive!

Thanks and congrats also to David Esson, Oonagh Grassie, Bob Daly, Pete Lawrence and Rachel Scott for being game for a laugh/run and abusing their legs by doing battle with those tussocks in advance of doing battle with the rain and wind at Ardchattan the following day, not to mention the Dementor Bog that sucked the sole out of Rachel’s shoe.

Bob coming down the Finish lane for Team HalfGramp

JHI 2013 – 2nd place for ScotJOS

Sasha and Calum ran for Scotland in this year’s Junior Home International which took place in South Wales, near Merthyr Tidfil over the weekend of 14/15 September. Results were a win for England, with Scotland 2nd helped a lot by Sasha’s 3rd place in M16 no doubt, then Wales 3rd and Ireland 4th. Well done guys!

2013 Summer Series Awards and final overall points

Final overall points now posted. Congratulations to the winners  – we’ll probably be awarding prizes at the AGM.

Congratulations to all the Award winners from this year’s summer series:

Gold:
Paul Caffyn, Josh Dudley, Josie Gomersall, Lachlan Kirk, Naomi Lang, Patrick Lang, Calum McLeod, Katrina McLeod, Maya Reynard,   Keith Yardley

Silver:
Ailsa Anderson, Isobel Anderson, Alistair Chapman, Jake Chapman, Sasha Chepelin, Olivia Coman, Jack Gomersall, Tim Gomersall, Struan Kirk, Alex Lang, Abigail Mason, Cara McMurtrie, Grant McMurtrie, Ross McMurtrie, Morgan Povey, Jennifer Ricketts, Frances Wright, Joseph Wright

Bronze:
Logan Burgess, Graeme Campbell, Abigail Coles, Finlay Cooper, Kirsty Cooper, Dylan Driver, Scott Fong, Angus Fraser, John Getliff, Rosie Getliff, Evelyn Mason, Callum Roberts, Graham Salway, Rachel Salway, Hannah Will

Apologies to Olivia Coman who was given a bronze award when she should have had a silver! Please contact me to arrange to pass on Olivia’s silver certificate and the correct-coloured chocolate medal.

Anyone who was not at Templars last night can also contact me to arrange collection of their awards. I will bring them all to Craig Choinnich on Sunday.

Anne

GRAMP come 6th in Jamie Stevenson Trophy

Katrina McLeod and Sasha Chepelin led the GRAMP challenge by winning their Green courses and there were some good backup performances by many others to contribute to GRAMPs total of 572:

Katrina Mcleod Green Girls 100
Sasha Chepelin Green Boys 100
Calum Mcleod Green Boys 96
Alex Lang Yellow Boys 93
Jack Gomersall Green Boys 93
Paul Caffyn Light Green Boys 90

Sadly not quite enough to knock Maroc off the top spot again this year, with GRAMP finishing in a respectable 6th place, but still a very “Well Done!” (in no particular order) to the whole GJO team: Maya Reynard, Josie Gomersall, Katrina McLeod, Sasha Chepelin, Calum McLeod, Jack Gomersall, Paul Caffyn, Struan Kirk, Lachlan Kirk, Keith Yardley and Alex Lang.

You can see all the results here – both individual and team results and also the run in times for the last control to the finish. (Stats mania!)

There’s a comment on the SOA website about various sponsors for the event, so the burning question is did anyone from GRAMP manage to win a Tunnocks Teacake?

Couple of photos which should enlarge if you click on them – there’s a promise of more if Carolyn remembers to give me a memory stick at Kingshill next week. First one is the traditional JS opening parade but what are they up to in the second?

P1010772P1010777

We have 3 Scottish Champions for 2013

Well done to Sasha, Carolyn and Neil who all won their classes by several minutes at the recent Scottish Champs at Craigengillan Estate. (And well done to Erik for not coming last!!)

Team McGramp take BOC 2013 Mixed Adhoc Relay prize

Team McGramp – aka Carolyn, Calum and Iain McLeod – fought off the opposition down south to romp home to victory in the British Orienteering Relay Mixed Adhoc class by some 2.5 minutes. Probably sweetest of all was beating Maroc 7 (who should surely have been disq’d as there are only 3 runners to a team?? 😉 )

Individually Team McGramp also had good results: 4th W45L, 10th M18E and 6th M50S respectively.
Several other Gramps were in attendance too including the Hicklings, Bob Daly, Paul Duley, the Armitages and at least one Hale and Chepelin that I spotted in the results. Sasha kept up his winning form post-JK by taking top spot for M16A.

Congratulations all round!

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Fantastic result for Sasha at the World Schools

sasha 23rd in the Middle Distance Race

Well done, Sasha!

Here he is in the traditional medal winners’ pose along with Dane Blomquist of the England team. Take a look at the results and pics on the WSC2013 website – if you think it looks hot and sunny in this photo then imagine that run-in along all that loose sand.

Sasha also came 6th in the Long Distance race and teamed up with Jens Van Lommel of Belgium/Flemish team and Xiaojia Ou of China to come 35th out of 148 in the Friendship Relay. I guess a handover is the same whatever language you speak but must have been interesting trying to discuss routes afterwards?

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Orienteers and tree diseases

You’ll all have heard about Ash Dieback by now and seen the round robin from BOF that Ian circulated a while ago with advice on how we can help prevent the spread of this and other tree diseases. Here’s a little reminder of how we as orienteers (who are therefore more likely to visit parts of the woods most others never reach), can help prevent the spread – and it’s really worth paying more attention this time as the spring/summer weather tempts us all out and about and especially as Glen Dye has been confirmed as victim of an outbreak of a similar disease affecting larch.

You can help by following these guidelines whether orienteering or just out for a walk:

  • If possible, thoroughly wash all footwear, paws and bike/buggy tyres before leaving the area – the spores are carried in clods of mud and leaf litter stuck to these – but don’t just dunk your shoes in the nearest stream as this will simply disperse any contamination all the more effectively!
  • Alternatively, wash footwear, paws and tyres when you get home and using a garden fungicide will make this more effective (but not on the paws please)
  • Thoroughly wash and dry any clothing especially if it’s clarted in mud – preferably give it 48 hours before reuse if possible. Spores are wind-bourne before they get into the mud so you may pick some up while running around. (Even if you haven’t, it’s common courtesy to other orienteers down-wind of you at the next event!)

See also the Keep it Clean campaign by the Forestry Commission

If you want more info on tree diseases then here are a few links or you can ask our resident biosecurity expert, Gen.

Juniper Dieback – many of the areas we use have juniper
Phytophthora ramorum – Latin for “the larch one”
Chalara fraxinea – Latin for “the ash one”

Unlike Foot and Mouth, the effects of these diseases aren’t so easy to see so easily forgotten about. Please remember and help orienteering to maintain its good reputation with landowners by doing your bit. Thanks.

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2013 Forest Sprint Series Fridays

 April
19th Dunnottar Woods  GRAMP  Results
26th Shooting Greens  MAROC   Results

May
3rd Scolty  GRAMP   Results   Splits
10th Dess  MAROC    Results
17th Mulloch  GRAMP    Results   Splits
24th Potarch  MAROC   Results

Final results (best 4 of 6 scores count)

Ta muchly to all the planners – another nice wee series of diverse areas and approaches to sprint courses.

7/4/13 Glen Dye Results

Provisional results and splits for you all. RouteGadget also ready and waiting. And Winsplits.
Glen Dye Results 7-4-13.pdf
Glen Dye Splits 7-4-13.pdf

BOF results with ranking points

PreO  Results, Course map, Solutions, Comments

Forgot to say thanks to Maroc in the Final Details for the loan of their controls for all events over the weekend.

Lost Property:
Sat – one child’s black & brown striped glove, one lunch box
Sun – control description holder

If you entered via OEntries but didn’t manage to make it to the events and would like us to post you your map anyway then please email flump@care4free.net.

Scottish Sprint Championships/SOUL 2 6th April Results

Congratulations to all our new Scottish Sprint Champs for 2013!   Medal winners

Hope you all enjoyed today, even if it was in a hair-shirty kind of way when you realised how you’d been caught out and mispunched?!

We had a much larger entry than anticipated but still managed to pull off the Chasing Start with your co-operation, so apologies if you had to queue for a while to get your bib but at least we provided you with a legitimate reason to stare at each other’s chests and make lots of new friends. Wonder what the passing motorists thought was going on? Some sort of multi-coloured, extreme recession soup kitchen maybe?

Comments are open for this post so tell us what you thought, warts and all, and if anyone has any good photos give us a link please.

Rachel

06-04-13-SSC2013-Results (final).pdf
06-04-13-SSC2013-SOUL2-Race1-Prologue-Results.pdf
06-04-13-SSC2013-SOUL2-Race1-Prologue-Splits.pdf
06-04-13-SSC2013-SOUL2-Race2-Chase-Results.pdf
06-04-13-SSC2013-SOUL2-Race2-Chase-Splits.pdf

RouteGadget up and running as well

Race 1 Prologue    Winsplits      BOF results with ranking points
Race 2 Chase        Winsplits      BOF results (no rankings points as Chasing Start)

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Street O maps

These are very basic maps designed for a bit of navigational distraction on a training run maybe or as an intro to simple urban navigation. Unlike Permanent Orienteering Courses, there are no control markers when you get to the control points so you’ll just have to convince yourself you’re in the right place. (You’ll soon find out if you’re not as nothing will fit as you try to navigate away again!)

The maps are named after the start/finish points. In each case, the full course is approx. 6 km long (as the crow flies so actual running distance will be longer) with a suggested subset of controls to make a shorter version approx 4 km long. All distances very approximate and depends on how adventurous you get second guessing likely looking paths and cut throughs not shown on maps.

Map showing start/finish points for all Street O maps listed below.

1   Aberdeen Beach Leisure Centre   shorter version 1 – 7, 13, 14
2   Duthie Park   shorter version 1 – 4, 8 – 10
3   Westburn Park  shorter version 1 – 7, 13, 14
4   St Machar Drive   shorter version 1 – 8, 12
5   RGU Sports Centre   shorter version 1 – 5, 10, 11
6   Johnstone Gardens   shorter version 1 – 5/6
7   Kaimhill Road (Garthdee)  shorter version 1 – 6, 11
8   Aberdeen Beach Leisure Centre  very shorter version 1 – 6
9   Duthie Park  shorter version 1-7, 11
10 Johnstone Gardens  shorter version 1-3, 7-12
11 Ferryhill  shorter version 1-4,9,10
12 Kingswells  shorter version 1-6
13 Stonehaven shorter version 1-4, 9-12

Have fun! Let us know how long you took if you timed yourself and we’ll publish those too so you can see how you compare. If you fancy having a go at making a map for yourself or for next year’s Street O series or to publish here, then have a play on http://oomap.co.uk/, all the brainchild of Oli O’Brien of SLOW.

Summer Series 2013

Many thanks to Naomi and the Langs for a very entertaining (and dizzying) event at Templars Park including multiple loops and 3 visits to some controls including the one at the top of the Scouts’ scramble net!

The Easy course had a jigsaw novelty element to it and the Tech courses got a quiz with really hard questions unless you were an out and out orienteering nerd!! For every correct answer, a minute was knocked off your time so worth a punt for those of us without cheetah legs. (BTW I wish to lodge a protest about the marking of the quiz as I maintain that at least 6 of my answers were technically correct, just not necessarily the one the Langs had in mind!)Templars Park results and quiz answers added below and the final overall points.
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  8th May      Countesswells          Results
15th May      Tyrebagger               Results and Splits      
22nd May     Crathes                     Results   
29th May      Cheyne Hill               Results
  5th June      Foggieton                 Results
12th June     Balmedie + BBQ       Results
19th June     Dunnottar                  Results     
26th June     Kingshill                    Results
  3rd July       Hazlehead                   Results
10th July       Glen Dye                  Results
17th July       Tollo Hill                   Results
24th July       Scolty                        Results
31st July       No event  – all at Moray 2013!
  7th Aug       Mulloch                    Results
14th Aug       Perwinnes Moss     Results
21st Aug       Bennachie                Results
28th Aug       Templars Park + BBQ      Results

Summer Series 2013 Awards
Summer Series 2013 Final Points

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