That nice welcoming ‘ding’!

The Gramp MapRun Factory (Rachel) has been busy over the last couple of weeks and we now have several more courses uploaded courtesy of Sarah Dunn. From Aberdeen Uni and Perwinnes Moss (4 variations Easy to Tech) down to Stonehaven via Cove. Or a novelty twist based on and Aberdeen Street Art Trail. You pays no money and takes ‘yer choice!

Click on the logo above to go to the MapRun page and scroll to the bottom to see new course maps listed for download

More ideas are being worked on by a couple of other Gramps too and we’re open to suggestions for either areas to use or courses to convert. Ping an email to webmaster@grampoc.com to get your requests/offers in for either MapRun or lowkey trad courses as we start to prepare for travel restrictions being lifted even further.

And the ‘ding’ bit? That’s how Tim Griffin described the noise his phone made at each control when test running Perwinnes Moss.

(JD)2C so far…

Rankings following Birsemore can be found here.

Obviously with the current suspension of all orienteering events until further notice there won’t be any more updates for a while. Next counting event will be advised when orienteering resumes following all relevant guidelines from BOF and UK government.

All orienteering suspended due to Covid 19 coronavirus

Those of you who are British Orienteering members will have received an email this morning (17/3/20) announcing the suspension of all orienteering activities with immediate effect on the advice of PHE, WHO and others.

All bets are off as to when we can recommence but I think you’ll need to find alternatives for your exercise fix for some weeks if not months to come. Cue MapRun! BUT… DO NOT TRAVEL UNNECESSARILY JUST TO DO THIS AND PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL BRITISH ORIENTEERING REGISTERED EVENTS OR ACTIVITIES.

We’ll see about adding some more courses for you to have a go at when restrictions are relaxed but for the moment keep it local, don’t all go at once and respect the 2m rule. Stay safe everyone!

GRAMPIAN MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE 7th/8th NOV: postponed until 2021

CompassSport Cup/Trophy Heats and Scottish Middle Distance Champs 2020

Well done to the 5 Gramps who went down to Errochty over the weekend to fly the flag for the club (metaphorically, don’t think they actually took a banner) in the CompassSport Trophy for smaller clubs. I’ve seen the maps and looks like Sam & Tim Griffin, Sam & Lesley Gomersall and Bob Daly between them covered a mighty lot of contours to earn their points.

INT, MOR and INVOC go through to the Trophy Final and FVO and ESOC to the Cup Final. Good luck everyone!

And double congrats go to Sam Griffin who won M16 at the Middle Distance Champs at Gleneagles where Morven and Kirsty Farquharson came 3rd and 4th W16 and Neil McLean 2nd HyperVet.

There’s no photo to show these podium perchers as prize giving didn’t happen due to measures to limit gatherings/contact. (Kissing trophies has got to be a sure-fire way to catch something even if it’s not Covid-19?)

Johnshaven SOUL

Always thought Johnshaven would make a good place for a SOUL and Maroc proved me right today with Nick Hale exploiting the best bits to full advantage. David Esson was keeping his powder dry for his Birsemore Black Binge tomorrow but wandered around watching the entertainment and took some photos of various Gramps (and 2 ex-Gramps) in action…..

I particularly like the one of Iain with the creels next to the wheelie bins. It’s urban, Jim, but not as many people know it.

New Membership Secretary

Many thanks to Helen Anderson for diligently carrying out Membership Sec duties over the last decade or so – not sure when she started but it certainly feels like a loooooong time ago.

She’s now handed over the files of office to Lesley Gomersall so thanks to Lesley too for taking over.

Anyone else out there wanting to assist us with some of these backroom roles please get in touch as we can always find a suitable slot for your particular skills/preferences.

Right now we could really do with someone (or two someones if you work better as part of a team) to ramp up our Facebook site or help us swap to other platforms you think might help and to come up with some fresh ideas re advertising or otherwise spreading the word to newcomers.

Does this sound like you? Please get in touch with David Esson or one of the other committee members.

Scottish Night Champs 2020

Congratulations to those Gramps who travelled up to take part in the Scottish Night Champs held at Findhorn last weekend.
Looks like an intriguing mix of urban/forest/dunes judging from RouteGadget so it’ll be interesting to hear what they thought of it.
Did it encourage a few more folk to have a go than would do if it were all forest I wonder?

M45 Matthew Parkes 6th
W21 Katrina McLeod 3rd
M55 Sam Gomersall 4th
W50 Helen Rowlands 4th, Ros Nicholson 5th
W55 Lesely Gomersall 3rd
M40 David Esson 1st
M75 Neil McLean 1st

DNC Scolty 19/2/20

I hope you all enjoyed tonight’s runs to a different area of Scolty (for DNC). Fortunately the weather gods were kind again! Did the fairy lights/bunting help add to the sense of occasion?

Thanks to Gareth for control collecting and David E for computing/results. Thanks too for the offers of control collecting help – not needed on this occasion, but much appreciated.

Results

Splits

Routegadget …to follow….

DNC Tyrebagger 5/2/20

Results Splits RouteGadget

Results updated 10/2/20 to show Joel Gooch on Long not Short course.

Neil’s comment says it all. Going to be some very entertaining GPS tracks not least from those who have run or planned at Tyrebagger so often we really ought to be able to do it blindfolded by now!

Thanks to Murray for putting on the event and to Helen R, Ian H and Dave K for helping collect controls while David was enjoying a taxi ride courtesy of the Nicholsons to Aberdeen and back to pick up a spare set of car keys. Doh!

Balmedie 23/2/20 (Regional)

I hope you all enjoyed a fabulous day at Balmedie. Beauty treatment of facial sandblasting thrown in for free.

Final Results
Final Splits
RouteGadget
Unfortunately Olivia Coman’s brikke failed and although we had a good idea of her overall time as there was no other way to prove she completed the course we’re obliged by the rules to show her as DSQ. Sorry Olivia!

(Any mistakes – names mis-typed etc – please get in touch
webmaster@grampoc.com)

  • Spot the control anyone?
More pics taken on the day by Lesley

Many thanks to Sam and Lesley Gomersall for Planning and Organising, Andy Oliver from Maroc Controller, and all the other Gramp helpers on the day not least David Esson who demonstrated yet another of his many talents as Chief Tent Wrangler.

SOA Gift Aid declaration

Just before Christmas SOA’s Finance Director, Ben Hartman, sent round an email asking any tax-paying members to complete a Gift Aid declaration.
As the SOA is a registered charity, Gift Aid allows it to claim extra funds from HMRC on any donations made – including our membership fees – as long as we’ve completed a declaration that we’re a UK taxpayer.

SOA has claimed £3K so far which all goes to help run and develop orienteering in Scotland. Needless to say every little helps so if you lost the email, didn’t get it in the first place because your email has changed or simply haven’t got round to it yet then please do it now.

http://bit.ly/SOAGiftAid2019

There’s a paper-based version if you prefer – just shout out to webmaster@grampoc.com and I’ll forward a copy.

DNC Crathes 8/1/20

Thanks to Sam and Lesley and the fearless Panda for tonight’s twirl round Crathes. Great start to the 2020 half of the series.

Results
Splits
Routegadget

If your New Year Resolution was to try Night O this year then see our DNC blog for full list of events to come and get in touch if you want a bit of back up or advice choosing a good area to start with: webmaster@grampoc.com

MapRun

Sarah Dunn of Scottish Orienteering is championing this mobile based version of orienteering using your phone’s GPS capabilities to track and time yourself while running one of our MapRun courses. Upload to Strava too so you can challenge your Stravamates.

Visit the MapRun page for more info, instructions and downloads for the MapRun app and pdf course files.

Christmas Brain Teaser

Anne Pearson of Tay to thank for this Christmas Brain Teaser.
There are 51 points available. 1 point for getting the IOF symbol correct, if there is a + sign you get an extra point for then converting O speak into a word/ phrase that makes sense in the letter. One point for each Christmas symbol. Have fun!

Hogmany Hangover Handicap 2/1/2020 @ Hazlehead Park

Great to see so many enthusiastic juniors charging round the Yellow (with more than a touch of sibling rivalry going on) and some old regulars coming out of the woodwork for some fresh air and a different challenge on the Score. First time I’ve been thanked for making someone’s brain ache – because “it took my mind off my other injuries”.

Results (as normal score)
Splits

Starter for 10 overall scores
I’ve adjusted a few people’s control/points tally following a couple of controls not registering but eye-witnessed or similar proof and/or my mental arithmetic going a bit wrong in the heat of the moment at download.

Well, those who read the Starter for 10 rules and inwardly digested certainly reaped the rewards, most notably Neil McLean who leapt up 10 places after calmly picking off 11 consecutive pairs. Also interesting how the “perfect” target score (which was actually wrong!) did seem to stick in people’s minds.

Congratulations to Duncan Grassie for seeing through my ploys and whizzing round all 25 controls well within time to win.

Thanks to Pete for helping set up (hence NC and a self-confessed DSQ in results), David for wrangling the Score software, George and Lindsey for the warm welcome/soup/fire after and Pete, Neil and David for helping collect controls.

AGM 2019 roundup, Gramp Champs and other successes

TLC for the download unit at Duthie Park Post-AGM Novelty event

The hot news from the AGM is the unanimous decision to swap from Emit to SI Air. Our old Emit kit has served us well over the years but is getting tired and outdated and needing more and more TLC (see above) so time for an upgrade. The future is definitely contactless punching and although Emit do have a TouchFree version we would be the only club in Scotland using it as Maroc have also decided to switch, so it makes more sense to join the SI Air club.

Gramp Champs 2019 by class and by category for trophies.
Congratulations to this year’s winners:
Morven Farquarson, Katrina McLeod, Ros Nicholson & Carolyn Mcleod
Sam Griffin, Mark Stockton, Tim Griffin & Bob Daly

The Griffin Trophy Stash
Getting down to the really serious business of eating prior to another fiendish quiz from Helen And Stuart Anderson

David Esson summarised this year’s goings on:

Numerous Colour Coded Events
3* Forest Sprints
5* Autumn Sprints
6* DNC’s
HHH + AWPR3
Summer Series – emphasis on Training
2 specific training days at KS and Crathes
SOUL * Cove part of BNC weekend
Day 6 of S6D Strathearn and 2 controllers for Day 1+3
JIAR @Scolty

Gramp Juniors attended 2 North area junior training days at GoD and Loch Vaa

SOA Accreditation – only needs 1st Aid Certificate to gain Bronze
Any offers?
SOA Funding issues = AGM – Possible Levy increases

Controllers Course in Morayshire in 2020 – any takers?

Bennachie Visitor centre contacted us concerning using the area for something to help celebrate their anniversary (can’t remember the number but it’s a biggie!)

Scottish 6 Days
1st Ali Robertson M40S

Scottish Score
1st Katrina McLeod W21

Scottish Champs
1st Sam Griffin M16A
1st Neil McLean M75L
3rd David Esson M40S
2nd 11+ Relays (Sam/Bob/Tim)

JK Sprint
2nd Sam Griffin

BNC
1ST Rachel Scott W50S
3rd Lesley Gomersall W55L Bronze
3rd Gordon Urquhart M40L Bronze
1st David Esson M40S
2nd Neil Mclean M75L Silver

Scottish Sprint
2nd Sam Griffin M16

JHI
3RD Sam Griffin

  • Musgrave Trophies
  • Rachel Scott: Webmaster/IT problem solver/Organiser of SOUL + planner of numerous events including AWPR3
  • Pete Lawrence: Planner of SOUL/Day 6 of Strathearn + AWPR3 +
    Controlling duties + recycling second hand maps to reduce our footprint
  • Chairmans Quaich
    Helen Anderson: for many years service on Committee serving as
    Membership Secretary, also being Day Organiser of Highland ’15 and Deeside ’17 and organiser of Junior Inter Area Relays @ Scolty

Post-AGM Treas-O-re Hunt 8/12/19 Results

Thanks to Dave Kirk for spending a lot of time tramping round Duthie Park and Ferryhill noting down numbers and details on various objects for us to collect on today’s Treas-O-re Hunt. (Presumably he must have worn his best puffa jacket so as not to look too dodgy as no reports in the P&J about suspect looking characters spotted in the area staring intently at burglar alarms.)

Other than Start and Finish no controls out but instead a list of questions related to controls on the map with multiple choice answers which we had to mark with a pin. Only one injury reported and that was with the non-pointy end apparently. (?!) 

Duthie Park and Ferryhill (59 points up for grabs)
Pete 53 points.    No penalties.      49.39 mins     Total 53
Hugh 45 points.    1 minute penalty.  51.12 mins     Total 43
Rachel 40 points.  No penalties.      47.45 mins.    Total 40
Dennis 41 points.  2 minutes penalty. 52.57 mins.    Total 37
Roz 34 points.     No penalties.      42.14 mins.    Total 34
Kirsty 50 points.  8 minutes penalty. 58.06 mins.    Total 34
Oonagh 32 points.  No penalties.      47.21 mins     Total 32
Morven 44 points.  7 minutes penalty. 57.59 mins     Total 30
Helen 29 points.   No penalties.      47.16 mins     Total 29
Laura 42 points.   8 minutes penalty. 58.19.         Total 26
David   Did the course quietly while everyone else was in the cafe - result unknown.

Duthie Park only (15 points up for grabs)
Samantha 15 points  No penalties   31.18 minutes Total 15
All questions correctly answered so today's ultimate winner! 

I have a good number of maps and question sheets if anyone else
fancies having a run round the course at a time that suits them
as a pre-Christmas blast. Let me know and I can post them out
or arrange collection - dkirk006@btinternet.com.

Scottish Junior Inter Areas 2019

North Area were the overall winners of this years Junior Inter-Area Champs and Sam Griffin looks very pleased with the trophy and remarkably relaxed unlike the poor frozen runner photobombing in the background!

It was a very crisp couple of days at Scolty and Cambus O’May for Relays and Individuals where over 100 Juniors competed against each other.
North Area comprises Gramp and our neighbours BASOC, INVOC, MAROC and Moravian. West is CLYDE, FVO and AYROC and the East is the smallest squad with ESOC, ELO, INT, RR, KFO and TAY.

 NorthWestEast
Relays684436
Individual Boys362725
Individual Girls451921
Overall Total1499082

Full write up and another photo of the now infamous Esson pram can be found on the SOA website.

Student and Junior Relays Scolty 9/11/19

We hope everyone enjoyed the relays today, it was great to see so many enthusiaistic runners out and about. Thank-you all for joining in.

Scolty Relays Overall Results

Scolty Relays Splits

The winners of the Girls Relay on Katja Neumann’s inspired woodland podium.

And here are a couple of shots of the grand procession that left the carpark Saturday morning en route to set everything up and the start of the Student competition.

Student start

Many thanks also to all our officials – Planner: Ali Robertson, Organisr: Helen Anderson and Controller: Andy Oliver (Maroc) – and the trolley mules, minibus driver, time keepers, map-disher-outers, emergency delivery bikers, start/finish line watchers….. Gareth, Pete, Rachel, Ian, Tim, Sarah, David, Oonagh, Carolyn, Iain, Helen, Marianne, John, George, Kirsty, Morven, Laura, Neil, Stuart & Judith.

DNC Hazlehead 13/11/19 Results

Results
Splits
RG (sorry, bit iffy in places as all on an old 1:10,000 map and some of the controls don’t sit quite right but close enough and the Splitsbrowser bit still works fine)

Lovely crisp night last night and you could follow footsteps in the frost across the grassy bits. No such easy ride in the forest though and the deceptively easy looking control picking section caught me out big time. Lesson (re)learned – be less ambitious at night.

Good to see AUOC out in force and having fun.

Thanks to Dennis McDonald for planning, David Esson for ‘puting and anyone who helped collect in controls.

Rachel ha ganado tercero W50 en El Trofeo de Las Pueblos Blancos

Three events of very different natures, in or close to 3 of the typical Pueblos Blancos in Andalucia, go to make up the competition. Typical Spanish organisation which means very relaxed but it all comes together in the nick of time even if it means some nifty improvisation like using oranges straight off a tree to weigh down the maps at the Start if windy.

Sadly, prizes will have to be left behind again as bottles of olive oil and sherry vinegar made with Pedro Ximenes are bigger than 100ml and we’re hand luggage only. Had we won the whole jamon top prize in the race number draw we would definitely have bought a suitcase and checked it in!

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2019 Final Results

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADue to potential conflicting Junior age class course designations at the Maroc Cambus O’May event on 10th November it has been decided to exclude the event from the JD2 Cup for this year.

The event is being used for the Scottish Junior Inter Areas Championships 2019 Individual and all Juniors are encouraged to enter their age class course which isn’t the same way that the (JD)2C system works, hence the conflict. So the 2019 (JD)2C standings have been calculated from the 8 events completed to date, ending with GRAMP’s Forvie event on 6th Oct.

(JD)2C 2019 Final Rankings

Well done to all GJO’s who took part and especially to:

Joanna McDonald W8 1st
Emily Robertson W8 2nd
Thea McRae W8 3rd
Samantha McDonald W10 3rd
Morven Farquharson W14 1st
Kirsty Farquharson W14 1st
Isobel Anderson W16 2nd
Oli Robertson M10 2nd
Sam Griffin M16 1st

And good luck to all our North East Juniors at Cambus O’May!

Forvie 6/10/19 Regional Results

Final Results
Splits
RouteGadget
BOF points (calculated overnight)
Any mis-spellings or other errors please contact webmaster@grampoc.com.

Apologies for the lack of results display screen today – a slight oversight in the extension cable department. Good to see some tourists from quite far intrigued to give Forvie a go for the first time and seems like you relished the navigational challenges if not the weather and later runners definitely saw the best side of the area in the sun.

Big thank you to our officials today: Planner Murray Anderson, Organiser Ian Hamilton (so relaxed he went for a run round the Green to join the fun) and Controller Andy Tivendale.
Also all our helpers: Gen Jones, Kate Anderson, Langs x3, Lindsey Esson, Langs, Helen Greenwood, Farquharsons x3, Pete Lawrence, Nigel Robinson, George Esson, Bob Daly, Griffins x4, David Esson, Dennis McDonald, Rachel Scott and Willow the campervan plus reserves Gomersalls x2 and Neil McLean.

Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2019 Final Results

UrbanBrickWall0544590

Final points and here by category    

Big thanks to all our organisers and everyone who came and ran too. Need both to make a series!

.

CONGRATULATIONS TO CATEGORY CHAMPS FOR 2019:

Samantha McDonald    JU16 (Under 16 and shadowed)
Olivia Coman and Sam Griffin           J  (16 – 20)
James Ball AUOC and Katrina McLeod        Open
Ros Nicholson and Tim Griffin        V  (40 – 50)
Dennis McDonald and Lesley Gomersall SV (55 – 60)
Sheena Farquhar MAROC and George Esson   UV (65+)
James Ball AUOC and  Marie Bernard        Best Newcomers

4th Sep Westburn Park   (Griffins)
11th Sep Westhill (David Esson)
18th Sep Duthie Park (John Lang)
25th Sep Cove (Ros Nicholson)
2nd Oct  Aberdeen Uni (Dennis McDonald)

GJO news and congrats

Firstly, congratulations to three GJOs who have just achieved milestone awards (or should that be kilometrestone in Ospeak?):
Olivia Coman – 50 events
Lachlan Kirk – 25 events
Isobel Anderson – 10 events

And congratulations to Jeremy and Pamela who have a new born son, Magnus.
“Not long before he’ll be running in events! Time flies….” says Dad.

Finally, congratulations to all the young Scots who were victorious in the Junior Inter Regional Championships in Yorkshire last weekend.

Urban Sprints 2/10/19 Aberdeen Uni

Final points and here by category Results and Splits
These are the right set of results and splits not the Cove ones which I somehow managed to copy across last week. Oops! But nobody said anything so maybe I should have just kept quiet?

Thanks to Dennis for leading us round some of the trickier corners of the area and playing mind games with some of us who think we know it well enough to agonise over route choices rather than just picking one and going for it. For example, 13 to 14 I was sorely tempted to go off piste and run round the roads to the west just to test my memory.
Thanks also to David for computing and the control collectors who went round in the dark tidying up.

Final Urban Series 2019 points –  and by category

********************************************************************
Sam Griffin, Josie Gomersall, Lachlan Kirk, Marianne Lang, Lesley Gomersall, Carol Jackson and Rory Halliday
Please bring your 2018 trophies to the meal or Forvie or contact me on webmaster@grampoc.com to arrange drop off/posting
Ta!
*********************************************************************

Urban Sprints 25/9/19 Cove

Results and Splits

What a pea souper! I did have a photo emailed to me by Adrian N but doesn’t seem to have made it through the fog for me to show you – very atmospheric with a halo round the street lamp and a crowd of orienteers huddled by the banner – for safety no doubt. You never know what or who might be lurking in those conditions as one startled dog found out after chasing us all around and getting further and further from its owner when Adrian W decided to pick it up and return it, but for a moment it must have wondered whether it was about to have a Cruella de Vil moment under cover of the fog.

Thanks to Ros, Hugh, Hazel, David, Pete and Dennis for planning/assisting/computing/control collecting.

Urban Series points after 3 events
*********2018 winners please bring your trophies back over the next two weeks or let me know and we’ll arrange drop off/posting*******

 Fog’s gone and photo through now.

Urban Sprints 18/9/19 Duthie Park and Ferryhill

Results and Splits

Urban Series points after 3 events
Good to see so many AUOC runners earlier in the series again this year so you can get 3 counting events. Welcome to Aberdeen!  I’ve lumped you all into the Men/Women Open categories but technically you might be in the Junior categories if still under 21? If you spot any mistakes or want me to move you into a different category then let me know via webmaster@grampoc.com.

*********2018 winners please bring your trophies back over the next two weeks or let me know and we’ll arrange drop off/posting*******

GJO Awards

Eddy Coman has been hunting down GJOs to hand over certificates for various awards:

  • Ailsa Anderson – 10 events
  • Paul Caffyn – Green
  • Morven Farquharson – Light Green
  • Rory Halliday – 10 events
  • Patrick Lang – Orange, Green
  • Robert Prince – 5 events
  • Emily Robertson – 5 events, Yellow
  • Oli Robertson – 5 and 10 events, Yellow
  • Connor Whitelaw – 10 events, Orange
  • Duncan Will – 5 and 10 events
  • Hannah Will – 5 events

If he hasn’t caught up with you yet, or you want to find out more about what it takes to gain the colour awards, then hunt him down at the Urban Sprints or our Forvie event coming up in October.

Urban Sprints 4/9/19 Westburn and Victoria Parks

Results and Splits

Looks like a good turnout, hopefully the rain held off for you all or maybe you like the water cooling while sprinting flat out? 

Resident (in every sense of the word) Sprint Champ, Sam Griffin, is off to a flying start in this year’s competition with Katrina McLeod now back in town leading the ladies. Good to see lots of other Junior names and families joining in the fun too.   

Summer Series 28/8/19 Templars Park

Results

Thanks to Stuart Anderson for rounding off this year’s Summer Series with a trip down memory lane hurriedly trying to glean just enough info from the master map to get us round. Next time you pick up a pre-printed map and just go you’ll be much more appreciative!

Eddy Coman was handing out Junior Awards and will be in touch with those who weren’t present to collect in person and we couldn’t manage to find an obliging clubmate who lives nearby to pass it on to you. Congratulations to you all and we’ll publish the list of names as soon as Eddy gets them over to me.

Tunnocks Tea Cakes also doled out to the planners – mmmmmm! – now if that’s not sufficient incentive for anyone to offer to plan something next year I don’t know what is.

Finally, thanks to the control collectors tonight especially Amber Graham who is not only Maroc but ran both Short and Long Techs as well as collecting. Great stuff!

Finally, finally, don’t forget that our Urban Sprint Series kicks off straight away next week at Westburn and Victoria Parks on the Griffs doorstep.
Overview of the series with timings and rules re Juniors can be found on the Urban Sprints page and details on each event will be posted each week as we’ve done for the Summer Series.

Summer Series 21/8/19 Raemoir

Results

The feedback was that the area is pretty rough underfoot so probably not the best for careering downhill, but no injuries and everyone managed to get back to the start. Apologies to Amber Graham who was the only one the end who I didn’t manage to get a time for as the Brikke reader was playing up.

Thanks to Pete Lawrence, Rachel Scott and David Esson for helping collect controls and Mrs Alexander at Cluny Crighton Farm for giving us permission to use the steading yard for parking.

Also thanks to everyone who bought a flapjack/muffin – another £10 raised for Antibiotic Research UK (ANTRUK), the world’s first charity to tackle antibiotic resistance. Their mission is to 1) develop new antibiotic therapies 2) educate the public and professionals about antibiotic resistance and 3) to provide patient support. They need to raise £0.5 million in the next year to do this.
Fiona will be running the Great Aberdeen Half Marathon this weekend with a team of colleagues from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to raise money for ANTRUK. If you’d like to make any further donations or find out about the charity please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/runbatemanrun 
Dennis

(Think of it as personal insurance against needing effective antibiotics to treat Lyme Disease!  Rachel)

Summer Series 14/8/19 Mulloch

Results

I haven’t distinguished between map memory and the regular course, partly because I think there was some peeking going on, partly because a few people seem to know the area very well*. That said, my hat goes off to the handful of brave souls who went out there without a map for backup! 

Apologies to Paul Duley, whose brikke malfunctioned, and thanks to David Esson, who is valiantly trying to interrogate it. Many thanks to everyone who helped and/or collected in controls including: Hugh Nicholson, Adrian Will, Bob Daley, Dennis MacDonald, and Adrian Northcott.                        Ros

*Knowing the area didn’t help much as I got blase and accidentally started looking at the Short Tech map memory slices half way round the Long and then just made it up to finish thinking I knew what I was looking for but it’s all changed** so dramatically in the last 2 years it took me ages to convince myself I was on the so-called ‘ride’ leading to the last control.

**Definitely time for an update which is the perfect timing for me to mention our plans to get some extra hands on board to help Stuart Anderson break the back of the backlog of tweaks to be made to our maps. Anyone out there interested in a training session on how to operate Ocad or equivalent and get some tips on what to include and what to leave out etc?  Let myself or David Esson know and we’ll try to arrange something to suit a bit later in the year.    Rachel

  

 

SiEntries now provide enhanced event searching.

SiEntries and SPORTident have been working on an enhanced orienteering events list. They have combined the search functions available from the SiEntries website with the events list published by British Orienteering. The new list can be used to see all orienteering events in the UK and to filter the list by club, association, event date, level and location. The events list can be searched on PC, tablet and mobile.

The full list of events can be accessed at http://www.sientries.co.uk/orienteering

There are links to Gramp and SOA events:

http://www.sientries.co.uk/orienteering/GRAMP

http://www.sientries.co.uk/orienteering

What are you waiting for, your next orienteering fix is just a click away!

Strathearn 2019 Scottish 6 Days

Good morning, Grandtully! This was the peaceful, misty scene snapped by Pete as he was waking controls up at 7 on Saturday morning for Gramp’s big day. A few hours later there were heffalump tracks everywhere and folk milling about all over trying to keep track of subtle vegetation changes while helter-skeltering downhill, gravity assisted. Great area and a great challenge to end the week.

Thanks to everyone who helped out on Day 6 and dutifully plugged away all day at the various tasks thrown at you, not least our GJOs Maya, Hannah, Duncan, Kirsty and Morven who worked like the proverbials and even accompanied me (fairly) uncomplainingly up that hill one last time to help collect tapes.
Crash courses on data entry, providing the smiling front-of-house at Information, herding 3000+ runners through the Starts and String Course, providing sympathy to the unsuccessful at Download, pasting results, setting out and collecting in enough stakes and tapes to reach to the moon (OK I made that stat up), fetching coffees, filling foot baths, directing traffic, emergency loo roll delivery… you name it, we did it and so smoothly that both Sam and Lesley Gomersall got a run too. Big thanks to them for Day Organising and also to joint Planners, Zoe Griffin and Pete Lawrence, for all heading up Team Gramp.

Continue reading “Strathearn 2019 Scottish 6 Days”

Summer Series 7/8/19 Perwinnes Moss

Results

Many thanks to Zoe and Tim (Maitre de Loops) for a fresh take on Perwinnes Moss in its newly denuded form in the old quarry. Both Technical courses had an option to complete up to 4 memory map mini loops of 2 controls each which went down well with everyone who tried them. Much discussion over tea and cake about how hard it is to remember 2 control locations compared to one for some reason and what works for some folk but not others. Amazing how the human brain works – or doesn’t!      

  • easy (all on paths – white/yellow standard – up to 2km)
  • medium (partly on paths – orange standard – up to 3km)
  • two as-hard-as-we-can-make-it courses of different lengths (generally referred to as short and long techwith as-the-crow-flies distances between 2.5 and 5km)
  • Technical training twist: map memory to help you simplify

The AWPR Three 24/8/19

20190824_143545By the time we had a control stolen in Westhill and David bought 2 bottles of wine for AWPR3 Trophies on an impulse, we may not have made much money today but boy did we have a load of fun and a very relaxed and sociable time sunbathing in Westhill Industrial Estate or BBQing at Balmedie. And we ate a lot of cake and drank a lot of tea throughout the day courtesy of Zoe revelling in her new found vocation as GRAMP Tea Lady.

Many thanks to our guinea pigs from GRAMP, WCOC, ESOC, AUOC, MOR and MAROC for helping us trial the AWPR3 format. Feedback was so positive that we’re already pondering whether to make it an annual thing but using Cove or Countesswells to mix it up a bit. Maybe Saturdays aren’t best for most though? Watch this space.

Dunnottar results
Westhill results
Balmedie results
Overall results – congrats to Sam Gomersall and Michaela Kolistanikova

Many thanks to David Esson, Peter Lawrence and Rachel Scott for planning/organising/computing, Carol Jackson for helping tidy up after the cake locusts had moved on, and Tim and Sam Griffin, Bob Daly and Hugh Nicholson for control collecting.

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Summer Series Glen Dye 24/7/19

Results

From comments at download and earwigging conversations it seems most folk who took on the contour only map challenge for Long and Short Tech enjoyed the novelty factor and surprised themselves by managing to get their head around all the squiggles more easily than they thought they would and Katrina said she actually enjoyed the lack of distracting paths as she saved time by not deliberating distracting alternatives before choosing her routes.

In fact, if anything, the penultimate control on the gully proved the most problematic where all those helpful squiggles suddenly disappeared and counting contours and keeping tabs on height gained, or not, became key.
Some folk approached it by creeping up – hill to the left, boulder, boulder, bearing.
Some aimed deliberately high or low for the right sort of distance then turned 90 degrees and trawled down or up to it.
Some had prior knowledge of the area and went looking for the earth banks that run either side as they are quite large and noticeable even at a distance.

Thanks to my control collectors – Bob, Tim, Zoe, David, Carol and Norman – and to Ros for picking me a lovely big pot of blaeberries. (Pudding Night tonight in the Scott-Lawrence household!)

 

 

 

Summer Series Dunnottar Woods 17/7/19

Results    Apologies for the delay. Work getting in the way as usual.

“Wow! That was fun! Just think – some folk pay £50 for the Banchory Beast when they could come to Dunnottar for £4!!”

One family said they wanted to give orienteering a try after seeing the Adventure Show coverage of the JOK Chasing Sprints – not quite like on the telly as a truly luxurious growth of nettles this year combined with a fair bit of rain for double dose of mud made for pretty adventurous conditions tonight so well done to those who gritted teeth and braved the stingers to complete and also those who sensibly decided to go the long way round or just wave at some of the controls long distance.

Thanks to Bob Daly, Dennis McDonald, David Esson, Pete Lawrence and Rachel Scott for control collecting and Helen Rowlands for going back out to keep an eye on beginners.

Summer Series Tyrebagger 10/7/19

Results

Apologies for the control in the wrong place. Clearly those who read the warning note on the board were less likely to waste time but that is no excuse for my mistake, sorry.
Thanks to David, Hugh, Jeremy and Bob for taking in controls as well as to Matthew Thompson an ex-Grampian Junior who had come simply for a run without knowing we had an event.

Neil

(PS last weeks results updated to show Yann Newey and Katja Neumann on the correct course – Short Tech not Short.)

Balmedie 7/7/19

Results
Splits
Routegadget
BOF ranking points   will be calculated overnight Tues – need 10 BOF/SOA members finished to trigger points so no points for Brown certainly 😦

Thanks to Matt for planning today’s challenges in the dunes – apart from one slightly misplaced control and the rain showers the only ‘complaint’ I heard was an early runner on the Brown realising that his footprints in the sandy bits in the north would be a dead giveaway to anyone following.

Provisional results and splits posted above and RouteGadget for you to upload your GPS route or draw your own as Matt will be keen to get feedback to develop his planning skills further. RG user guides can be found here.
Please email webmaster@grampoc.com if you spot any errors like spelling or age classes or anything else.

Planner: Matt Parkes
Organiser: Adrian Will
Controller: David Esson
Volunteers: Hannah and Duncan Will, Helen and Stuart Anderson, Neil McLean, Pete Lawrence, Hugh and Ros Nicholson, Nigel Robison, Bob Daly, Ed Stronach, Rachel Scott.

Summer Series Balmedie 19/6/19 – Results

Here are results from Balmedie. Uncharacteristically fine summer weather for the barbecue afterwards. Thanks to Murray for organising the orienteering – and collecting the controls in while the rest of us were enjoying the barbecue. Thanks to David for organising the barbecue.

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Summer Series Scolty 3/7/19

the-sun

Results
Revised for Yann Newey running his first Short Tech.

Sorry, we ran out of Short Technical maps so some people did a shortened version of the Long Technical course, very similar to Short Technical

Haven’t distinguished between those who did the Map Memory version of Long Tech as seems most had prior knowledge of the area and control sites or admitted to sensibly ‘cheating’ in order to beat the clock and be back by 8pm (much appreciated.)

Balmedie on Sunday!Balmedie on Sunday!Are you enjoying the challenge of the training elements? Do you think it’s making a difference? You’ll find out at Balmedie on Sunday! EEE by Saturday tea time please.