Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Scotstown Moor/ Perwinnes Moss is one of the more eclectic maps in Gramp’s portfolio with a little bit of everything – heathland, marsh, woodland and a SSSI.

There are plans being mooted to replace trees in the storm damaged area of woodland in the middle plus extend north and SW from that strip as part of the Council’s Climate Change Plan and will contribute towards a Net Zero and Climate Resilient City.

However, the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Local Group of the Scottish Wildlife Trust have misgivings about this scheme as, although tree planting is good idea in principal, the type of trees proposed and positioning in relation to the moor’s wetlands may impact the very particular biodiversity found there. You can find out more on their website.

If you have views on this project then ACC would like to hear them via a short questionnaire which includes questions on how you use the area as well as maps showing the proposed area affected and a suggestions box for anything else you’d like to see included in the revamp plans.

Click here for the survey. It’s open until Aug 22nd.

– Autumn Sprints in August (bit earlier this year to avoid late starters running in the dark)
– then towards the end of the year we have bigger events planned at Crathes and Balmedie

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

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

For the benefit of new members who keep seeing our posts urging you to enter SOLs and SOULs but aren’t sure what we’re on about….

SOL = Scottish Orienteering League (sponsored by CompassPoint)
– larger events – 350-400 runners on average
– a full range of courses to choose from including Black and Short Green/Blue/Brown
– better quality mapping and organisation with loos and often traders/food stalls
– online entry system and very little Entry On The Day
– your result earns you SOL ranking points and the chance to win trophies by age class

SOUL = Scottish Orienteering Urban League
– all as above but in an urban environment including parks, streets, estates, alleyways, waste ground
– usually 5 or 6 courses all TD3 or Orange standard where route choice is key to a successful run
– the chance to earn ranking points for the SOUL categories where age classes are grouped together

If you’ve not tried a big event yet why not give SOUL 5 at Grantown on Spey 25th Sept and/or SOUL 8 in Perth 18th Sept a go – almost on our doorstep, bound to be some friendly Gramp faces you know, and maybe even the chance to munch on some excellent baking in aid of ScotJOS, the national junior squad.

No Champs this year but some great runs/results including:

1st
Pete Lawrence M55S
Helen Greenwood Yellow

2nd
Duncan Grassie M35L
Gary Morrison M55S
Chris Aust M70S
Neil McLean M75L
Gramp3 Mike Greenwood, Gary Morrison, Dennis McDonald Relay Class: 14+ points

3rd
Matthew Thomson M35L
Kevin Reynard M55S
Bob Daly M65L
Ros Nicholson W55S

4th
Samantha McDonald W12A

Priceless Class
The willing volunteers who not only ran but also helped out at Glen Dye and then still had energy left over to run round Sluie in the Relays too in some cases.
Did you see you all got a big thank you on Scottish Orienteering’s Facebook? #valueingvolunteers

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

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

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

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

More evidence of urban developers having fun at Boca Raton, Florida. Built on top of old waterways so the black bits seen here would have to be mapped as blue and if you could persuade some residents to welcome soggy orienteers popping up at the back of their houses you could make hold (probably) the world’s first Come-and-Tri-It event.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Did I mention the rain?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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