Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2018

UrbanBrickWall0544590One course of TD3 (Orange) standard about 3 – 4km long in streets and parks.

Rankings incl 5 Wed eve events + SOUL     

Big thanks to all our organisers and everyone who came and ran too. (Need both to make a series!)
Final rankings have now been calculated and posted above.

CONGRATULATIONS TO CATEGORY CHAMPS FOR 2018:

Sam Griffin and Samantha McDonald    JU16 (Under 16 and shadowed)
Josie Gomersall and Lachlan Kirk           J  (16 – 20)
Mark Stockton and Jenny Ricketts        Open
Marianne Lang and Willy Nicolson        V  (40 – 50)
Evgueni Chepelin and Lesley Gomersall SV (55 – 60)
George Esson                                       UV (65+)
Carol Jackson and Rory Halliday           Best Newcomers

Wed 22nd Aug  Duthie Park  Results
Wed 29th Aug Seaton Park  Results
Wed 5th Sept Westburn & Victoria Parks Results
Wed 12th Sept Westhill Results
Sat 15th Sept SOUL Balgownie/Danestone  Results
Wed 19th Sept Aberdeen Uni Kings Campus  Results

 

Crathes – Level C Event – Sun 24 June 2018 Results

Final results and splits
Routegadget – this is where you can see where everyone else went and where the big mistakes were made – if you haven’t played with RG before then there are guides and videos found here

Results with BOF ranking points (will be calculated overnight Tues and incorporated into overall rankings Thursday)

Many thanks to Crathes Castle and Estate for permission and Neil McLean for making the long trip down several times to plan. David Esson provided computing backup to Neil and also covered entries/timing on the day (apologies for not having a results display during the day itself) and Jon Musgrave was our Controller.

Thanks also to the Farquharson Three, Lindsey and George Esson, Jonathan Smith, Jeremy Huthwaite, Lesley and Sam Gomersall, Griffins en masse, Helen Anderson, Pete Lawrence and Bob Daly for assisting with set up, registration, starts, road crossing, control collecting, looking for late finishers and dismantling which made my job very easy and pleasant today with plenty of time to sup coffee and catch up with some old faces. (Also Dennis McDonald, Paul Puley and Ros Evans who also volunteered but weren’t required in the end.)

Jonathan also spotted and reported some smouldering vegetation near one of the controls at the western end and guided the Crathes Rangers to the exact spot so they could extinguish it before it developed too far.

Rachel

Course
White
Yellow
Orange
Light Green
Green
Blue
Brown
Length
1.6 km
2.2 km
2.5 km
3.5 km
4.0 km
5.3 km
7.0 km
Climb
40 m
40 m
45 m
70 m
135 m
155 m
215 m
Planner: Neil McLean (and David Esson asst)
Organiser: Rachel Scott
Controller: Jon Musgrave (Maroc)
.
PS WHAT3WORDS
Some of you may have noticed on the details that as well as grid ref, postcode and map links I’ve been having a bit of fun with WHAT3WORDS as well. This uses 3 words separated by fullstops to identify a location down to a 3m x 3m square when you plug that combination into their website to search.
This is not only very accurate but also quite fun as the three words often chime spookily close with the characteristics of either the location or organiser of events. For example, see where drops.download.parkland gets you.
Anyway my playing around has been noticed – Gramp gets a mention on the WHAT3WORDS website as an example of organisations using it! Woohoo! Fame at last!

 

 

Summer Series Perwinnes Moss 20/6/18 Results

Results

Thanks to those who braved the weather and came along tonight – lots of comments about the undergrowth but that’s Perwinnes Moss for you. It’s hard to plan ‘interesting’ courses without having to take you into ‘interesting’ places so my philosophy was to embrace the nettles and gorse and jump in with both feet. If it’s any consolation I had to go to those ‘interesting’ places to to set out the controls and my knees are also stinging still.

Thanks also to Bob Daly, David Esson and Neil McLean who helped me collect everything in again.

Did anyone else see that doe and fawn I told you about?

Rachel

Easy 1.9km
Medium 2.8km
Short Tech 2.6km
Long Tech 4.5km

 

JST event summary

Congratulations to all the Gramp junior competitors at the Jamie Stevenson Trophy event at Braemar on Sunday. Amidst strong competition, especially from Maroc and Moravian, Gramp juniors made a great effort, gaining four top-ten places including a podium place for Sam Griffin on the boy’s Light Green course.
Many thanks to everyone, especially Zoe, Tim and Laura for helping me (in my first JST experience) and as event helpers.

Eddy

Jamie Stevenson Trophy 2018

Big congratulations all round to the Gramp Team who ran at the JS Trophy today at Morrone Birkwood, Braemar: Mia and Olivia Coman, Morven and Kirsty Farqhuarson, Noah and Sam Griffin, Oli Robertson, Reuben Cole and Connor Whitelaw. Between them they scored 558 points coming 6th overall which is a great result for such a relatively inexperienced team.

Report and photos to follow asap so check back here later.

Congratulations also to the JST hosts, MAROC, who won beating MOR by just one point in the end.

Summer Series Dunnottar Woods 13/6/18 Results

Results

Despite the slightly inclement weather, it was an enjoyable event at Dunnottar, which was improved significantly by the availability of delicious cake and homemade lemonade from Ailsa who is fundraising for a trip to Nepal with Operation Raleigh.
Hopefully more to come in the following weeks!

After such a dry spell, it was a bit unfortunate that the wild garlic* on the hill got a soaking before the event, but no-one seemed to mind too much about the mud and aroma!

Thanks to Phil for helping out and to Phil, Olivia, Rachel and Pete for controls collection.

Eddy

(*The up side to this is that we can rule out vampires in the Risk Assessment.)

Great Schools Orienteering Festival success for Gramps (aka Aberdeen Grammar)

Three junior Gramp members (two ‘old’ hands and one very recent one) competed in the Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival at Pollock Park representing Aberdeen Grammar recently and came away with a first and team Silver in S2 Boys…. can we get more next year?! Read the P&J report here.
Congratulations guys!!

GRAMP Junior Participation awards

Congratulations to our Gramp Juniors on their achievements in the SOA/Gramp Participation and Colour awards. Awards are granted as follows for the period 01 Jan 2017 to 30 Apr 2018:

  • Ailsa Anderson (5, Green)
  • Paul Caffyn (Green)
  • Olivia Coman (10, Orange)
  • Josie Gomersall (Green)
  • Noah Griffin (5, Yellow)
  • Sam Griffin (5, Orange, Light Green)
  • Patrick Lang (10)
  • Connor Whitelaw (5, Yellow)

Participation awards recognise any run at any Gramp event.
Colour awards are granted for three top-half finishes on courses of a given colour.
For more information see ‘“Courses completed” badges’ and ‘Colour coded badges’ sections of this SOA document:

https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/documents/natcen/incentive_awards.pdf

I will be distributing the above and any newly-earned awards at Gramp events over the summer, primarily at the Summer Series evenings.

Eddy Coman

Summer Series Foggieton 6/6/18 Results

Results

Sorry about the delay – Harris and the rest of the Hebrides were just too beautiful to tear ourselves away from in time to find WiFi connection to post last week. Although I’m told that Foggieton was equally sunny so fingers crossed the weather repeats itself for the rest of the Summer Series.

 

Gramps at LAMM 2018

Congratulations to all those who high-tailed it to Harris for the last ever Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM) this past weekend. Special mention to Sam and Jack Gomersall – FIRST – on the C course. Whoopee! Well done! Great photos on the LAMM site (and links to full results).

Other Gramps and associates spotted in the listings below, apologies to anyone I’ve missed – there’s no club listing …

 

Elite 5th Tom Gomersall + Tim Gomersall
B class 32nd Michael Bott + Arron Baxter
C class 33rd Ian Hamilton + Colin Larmour
D class 20th David Kirk + Struan Kirk
Score 59th Marianne Lang + Angela Conroy
Score 61st Pete Lawrence + Rachel Scott (too much wine?)
C Class 30th Estera Zak and Scott Leibnitz
Score 19st Fiona MacDonald and Katy Bookock
Score 26th Lynn Smith and Caroline Watt
D class 11th Laura Barraclough and Jenny Blackwood

Summer Series – Countesswells – Wed 28/5/18

Thanks to all who came along to Countesswells on Wednesday.  We enjoyed a short break from the recent heat wave and even had a few spots of rain!  This first-time organiser would like to pass on a massive thanks to all of the club members who helped pull this event together, and especially to David Esson for huge assistance in the run up and on the day, I really couldn’t have done it would you!  There will be a Summer Series League this year for Gramp members, calculated on best out of 4 in each course.  Current standing will be announced after the fourth event.  See you all next week!

Results

Next week (6th June is at Foggieton).

Scottish Championships 2018

We have more champions in our midst – and some double champions too! Building on last weekend’s successes Ros Evans, Oonagh Grassie and Kevin Reynard all won this weekend and some excellent personal results all round so congrats to all and as with the BOC I’ve listed all results as a measure of how we did overall:

Individual at Achagour
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M14A 7th Sam Griffin
M14B 2nd Connor Whitelaw
M21E 14th Jack Gomersall
M40L 2nd and Scottish Champ Ali Robertson
M50L 6th Tim Griffin, 21st Gareth Yardley
M50S 1st and Scottish Champion Kevin Reynard
M55L 7th Ian Hamilton, 8th Sam Gomersall, 13th Pete Lawrence, 14th Iaiin McLeod
M60L 9th Bob Daly, 10th Paul Duley, 12th Rob Hickling
M65L 14th Dave Armitage
M70S 2nd and Scottish Champion Michael Forsyth
M75L 3rd Neil McLean

W14A 10th Morven Farquharson, 12th Kirsty Farquharson
W18L 2nd Josie Gomersall
W50L 12th Carolyn McLeod, 14th Laura Farquharson, 16th Helen Rowlands, 17th Rachel Scott
W55L 14th Lesley Gomersall
W60L 18th Anne Hickling
W60S 1st and Scottish Champion Oonagh Grassie, 4th Anne Hoy, 5th Jayne MacGregor
W65L 1st and Scottish Champion Ros Evans

Yellow 1st Oli Robertson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relays at Roseisle
11+
5th GRAMP 1: Tim Griffin/Ali Robertson/Bob Daly
6th GRAMP 2: Sam Gomersall/Gareth Yardley/Robert Hickling

17+
2nd GRAMP 3: Pete Lawrence/Ros Evans/Kevin Reynard
12th GRAMP 5: Sam Griffin/Neil McLean/Rachel Scott
13th GRAMP 6: Lesley Gomersall/Oonagh Grassie/Helen Rowlands (5 secs behind-ooh!)

20+
30th GRAMPy Auld Wifies: Anne Hoy/Jayne MacGregor/Anne Hickling

Many thanks to GRAMP’s own Christian Horner (aka David Esson) who not only got his head around the team age categories but also successfully managed us all up into teams and came back up from Aberdeen to cheer us all out and in on Sunday despite not running himself. All photos were taken by him with his iPhone while standing in the pits trying to keep track of us all.

Forest Sprint Series 2018 – Final Results

Here’s the final points table for the series.  Best four results count towards the final score.  Well done Tim Griffin (2nd) and Sam Griffin (6th).

FSS Results 2018_Final

Summer Series Hazlehead Wed 23/5/18 Results

Thak you to Jonathan Smith for planning/organising the Summer Series kick off in his ‘back garden’ (and also for agreeing to take over looking after the club kit very soon I’m told.)  As predicted, the Long Tech “got what they deserved” by dint of the bracken starting to really spring up in the last week or so in the wooded areas to the south, obscuring the knolls and depressions quite nicely and so forcing us to get the compass out or risk a long run round the perimeter trying to work out how to attack them.

Results

Short: 1.1km, Medium: 2.5km, Short Tech: 3.7km, Long Tech: 4.7km

Many of you may have spotted Eddy Coman going about the car park with fistfuls of certificates for the Junior Participation Awards – by Friday I hope to be able to post more information on this but for now a big thank you to him as well for playing catch up with over a year’s worth of results to trawl through.

British Orienteering Championships 18th/19th May 2018

Well done to everyone who came, ran, won or just had fun and helped out over the weekend.
Photo links for many of us caught in action (or mid-lick of an icecream) can be found on the SOA website post dedicated to BOC 2018.

It was a mighty big ask of Gramp to be lead club for both Relays and Trail O on the same day and it got pretty squeaky with both Organisers vying for members with the right skills, abilities or personalities to cover the diverse jobs required for each event. We managed but not without the help of you all mucking in and agreeing to jobs you wouldn’t normally choose and quietly getting on with them as well as spotting gaps in our cunning plans and quietly filling those too.
I’m sure I speak for Anne Hickling too when I say a humungous thank you to all our helpers.

In a break from tradition, as it’s not very often we have this many Gramps attending the British Championships with a chance to compete against the best of Britain, I’ve listed all our results:

Individuals at Balmoral
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M14B 4th Connor Whitelaw
M21E 35th Jack Gomersall
M40L 14th Ali Robertson, 21st Gordon Urquhart
M50L 9th Tim Griffin, 51st Dave Kirk
M50S 1st Kevin Reynard
M55L 21st Evgueni Cheplin, 22nd Sam Gomersall, 23rd Iain McLeod
M55S 2nd Ian Searle, 8th Pete Lawrence
M60L 8th Rob Hickling, 25th Paul Duley
M60S 1st Richard Oxlade
M70S 1st Michael Forsyth
M75L 9th Neil McLean

W16B 2nd Olivia Coman
W18L 1st Josie Gomersall
W21E 17th Katrina McLeod
W21S 6th Heather Hale
W50L 16th Laura Farquharson, 18th Rachel Scott, 23rd Carolyn McLeod
W50S 2nd Roz Nicholson
W55L 5th Lesley Gomersall, 29th Sonia Armitage
W60L 27th Anne Hickling
W60S 2nd Oonagh Grassie, 5th Anne Hoy, 8th Jane MacGregor
W65L 13th Ros Evans

Light Green 7th Morven Farquharson, 15th Kirsty Farquharson
Yellow 3rd Oli Robertson

Iain Hamilton was Assistant Planner and Dave Armitage Assistant Controller

Relays at Torphantrick
M50 8th GRAMP 1 Tim Griffin, Dennis McDonald, Bob Daly
Mixed Adhoc
9th GRAMP 4 Ali Robertson, Carolyn McLeod, Oonagh Grassie
14th GRAMP 3 Rosslyn Nicholson, Iain McLeod, Kevin Reynard
21st GRAMP 2 Richard Oxlade, Ros Evans, Hugh Nicholson

Trail O at Crathes
Standard course:  Joint 1st Alan MacGregor, 3rd David Kirk, Joint 6th Angus Aitken
Elite Course 10th (and Unofficial Scottish Trail-O Champion)  Helen Rowlands

Anne Hickling was Planner/Organiser and Rob Hickling was Controller

Rachel and Ian H (almost) on the podium. We were subsequently asked to move off to the side but I think Sheila Strain and friend were doing a much better job of photobombing than us?

 

Forest Sprint @ Mulloch 9/5/18

Many thanks to all those who made it to Mulloch tonight, especially considering the not-quite-perfect weather conditions. Thanks also to Gareth, Bob and Zoe for help control collecting.

Results

Well done to those who recognised the photo locations, may be we should put on some photo-O too!

Note on forest rides. Mapped rides are the wider gaps through the mature trees and may be obscured at ground level by younger tree growth – look up! There are old and new extraction lanes running parallel to the mapped rides that are may look like rides, can be good route choices but are not shown on the map. Some examples below. I hope this helps.

Mapped ride (bit soggy underfoot!)
Mapped ride (bit soggy underfoot)
Recent extraction lane
Recent extraction lane
Mapped ride with younger trees. Crossed in foreground by recent extraction lane.
Mapped ride with younger trees. Crossed in foreground by recent extraction lane.
Mapped ride
Mapped ride
Extraction lane
Extraction lane

 

Glen Dye – Level C Event – 6th May 2018 Results

Final results and splits
RouteGadget – uses previous version of the map for expediency but not a lot has changed
BOF Ranking Points (will be added to Rankings on Thursday)

Looks like several people didn’t start their brikkes properly, hence the problems with control 1 not registering.
You need to watch for the LED flashing at Start and all controls but not so easy to spot in the sunshine.

Wow! What a lovely day for an outing round Glen Dye – almost too hot for some and I for one welcomed the chance to paddle across a couple of streams and grab a quick swig of water. Thanks to our officials and their helpers for putting on a great event and to all of you for coming along to enjoy the sun and a chance to get in some last minute practice prior to the upcoming British and Scottish Champs.

Course
White
Yellow
Orange
Light Green
Green
Blue
Brown
Length
1.5km
2.2
2.8
3.5
3.9
5.4
7.4
Climb
15m
25
55
80
80
140
315

Officials
Planner: Gareth Yardley
Organiser: Laura Farquharson
Controller: Andy Oliver MAROC

PS Don’t forget to check yourselves for ticks – looks like the sunshine woke them all up too. Sooner you spot and remove them the better (not a good look for the office or school.)

Results from Foggieton Forest Sprint

The snow has all gone now, leaving the undergrowth nicely flattened.  Much more runnable than Foggieton in the summer.  Results here:

Forest_Sprint_Foggieton_Results

Thanks to Helen Rowlands for helping clear up, and Bob Daly for collecting the controls.

New club kit running tights

club kit new leggingsIn a bid to move away from the red and the castle, which some folk have said they don’t like that much, we’ve been mulling over alternative themes still connected to the Aberdeen coat of arms or other symbols and can now proudly unveil the new club running tights:

  • made from ultra industrial rip-stop lycra blended with typhoon proof kevlar for maximum protection
  • impregnated with a proven anti-tick chemical based on leopard poo
  • guaranteed to incapacitate your rivals with incredulous laughter

We’re looking for volunteers to give these a whirl at the upcoming British and Scottish Champs. Interested?
Email fashionvictim@grampoc.com with your size and we’ll do the rest.

Wot’s WOD?

We’re on the WOD map!

Hazlehead 23rd May is now officially registered as a WOD 2018 event.

 

Come and be part of the biggest mass participation orienteering event ever.

WOD 2017 saw an amazing 288,007 participants. OK, time to fess up – not all at Hazlehead but at 2,265 locations in 79 countries which is still mindbogglingly large numbers. Come and help us beat that in 2018 and bring some friends.

https://www.facebook.com/Worldorienteeringday/
http://worldorienteeringday.com/

2017 AGM roundup and Roll of Honour

Quick summary of you for those of you who didn’t go to the AGM – and it’s very quick as it was a long time ago and I can’t remember much now. Sorry – should have posted much sooner.

Busy year: Forest Sprints, Summer Series, Level C events, Urban etc.
Scottish 6 Days – another successful day planned and co-ordinated by Gramp
Some discussion on map updates and changes required due to IOF introduction of new mapping symbols and control descriptions plus can we put on some Mountain Bike O in 2018?
Emit kit – new controls, whether to invest in more new brikkes soon
Events: are we taking on too much with such a packed calendar now that membership has waned somewhat? what do the members think we should concentrate on in 2018 or happy to carry on at same level?

Subject of training/coaching came up again as not much progress on the good intentions mooted in 2016 AGM.
Would still like to organise more coaching- but need someone to plan it and liaise with coaches – either the few remaining qualified coaches in Gramp or outsourced. If you’re interested in either becoming a coach or doing the coordination thing please get in touch with the committee. You don’t have to be a medal-winning orienteer just enthusiastic and we can get you some training/mentoring.

Confirmation of entry fees for 2018 to stay the same:
Level D (summer series, urban sprint etc) £4 and £2
Level C £6 and £3

Adrian Will thanked all for effort and time over the year
Chairman’s Awards
Musgrave Trophies:  Helen Anderson and John Lang
Chairman’s Quaich: David Esson – planning S6D, organising Forvie SOL and just generally always being first to offer help

Committee update:
Adrian Will           Chairman (really is his last year due to work commitments)
John Lang             Secretary
Ian Hamilton        Treasurer
Stuart Anderson   Mapping
Helen Rowlands   Fixtures Coordinator and Officials
Helen Anderson   Membership

Liz Sloan is no longer Social Secretary due to job down south so any takers to step in?
David Esson has joined the committee as man without portfolio as Sam used to say
Sarah Wallace has taken over Publicity/Social Media from Alex McLachlan (again job commitments abroad)
David Kirk has taken over from Gordon Urquhart gaining permissions to use areas for events
Anyone fancy playing with their smartphone to set up some Permanent Courses and take over from Stuart as POC mannie/wifie?

Club Championships Overall Trophy Winners

Class 1st  (Trophy)
Junior Women  Josie Gomersall
Junior Men        Paul Caffyn
Senior Women  Sarah Wallace
Senior Men        Jack Gomersall
Veteran Women    Rachel Scott (who is still reeling from that bombshell!)
Veteran Men          Gareth Yardley
Super- Veteran Women (>55)   Lesley Gomersall
Super-Veteran Men (age over 55)  Bob Daly

John Duncan Cup Medal Winners:

Class
M8        Gold          Oli Robertson
M14      Silver         Sam Griffin
M10      Bronze      Robert Prince
W16      Silver         Josie Gomersall
W8        Bronze      Emily Robertson
W12      Bronze       Kirsty Farquharson

Grampian Orienteers Roll of Honour for 2016  

Scottish Elite Development Squad:    Tim Gomersall, Sasha Chepelin

Scottish Championships:
1st
W60S Individual:  Jayne Macgregor
3rd
M55S Richard Oxlade

SOL winners:
M50S 1st Pete Lawrence
M70L 2nd Neil McLean
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M55S 3rd Richard Oxlade
M60L 3rd Robert Daly
W40L 3rd Carolyn McLeod

SOUL winners:
WSV 2nd Lesley Gomersall
WYJ 3rd Morven Farquharson

Scottish Night Championships:
W 45L 1st Helen Rowlands
W50L 1st Carolyn McLeod
W55L 1st Lesley Gomersall
M70 2nd Neil McLean
M55L 3rd Richard Oxlade
M/W open 1st Keith Yardley

 

GRAMP Champs 2017

2017 GRAMP Champs by age class.pdf
2017 GRAMP Champs by category (for trophies).pdf

Congratulations to all our trophy winners!

Juniors: Josie Gomersall & Paul Caffyn*
Seniors: Sarah Wallace & Jack Gomersall
Veterans: Rachel Scott & Gareth Yardley*
Super Veterans: Lesley Gomersall & Bob Daley

*these folk retained their 2016 titles – Lesley retained her winning streak but moved up a category this year

The trophies were presented at the AGM. If you weren’t there and think nobody else might have collected on your behalf then contact John Lang asap.

In case you’re wondering how the points are calculated, these are the Gramp Champs rules:

  • You have to be a member of Gramp to qualify.
  • The Champs are run over 10 nominated events with the best 5 scores counting for each runner.
  • Within each event, the Gramp member who is highest placed for each course scores the maximum course points:
    White 200, Yellow 400, Orange 800, Red 1200, Light Green 1600, Green 2000, Blue 2800, Brown 4000.
  • Points for subsequent runners are calculated using this formula: score = [(winner’s time)/(runner’s time)]*(maximum course points)
  • Men and Women’s Junior, Senior and Veteran divisions are used to decide Championship positions and individual totals are modified to try and make competition within these divisions as fair as possible:
    M/W10 +100% of total, M/W12 +50%, M/W14 +32%, M/W16 +24%, M/W18 +16%, M/W20 +8%, M/W21to M/W40 +0%, M/W45 +5%, M/W50 +15%, M/W55 +25%, M/W60 +40%, M/W65 +60%, M/W70 +80%, M/W75 and over +100%
  • Any questions – contact Iain McLeod

2017 events were: Glen O’Dee, Potarch, Crathes, Tyrebagger, Sluie, Coull, Cambus O’May, Forvie, Scolty.

2018 events have already started happening but full list will be announced soon pending permissions so watch this space…..

Would you like to see the Gramp Champs results published at intervals throughout the year? Would this encourage you to attend more events? If you want the results in Excel format so you can do a bit more analysis and figure out which 2018 events to target for maximum points then contact webmaster@grampoc.com.

 

Scottish Sprint Championships 2018

Sprint is one of the many different flavours of orienteering that seems to be getting more and more popular. It can be done in forest* or urban settings but in either case involves very short courses with lots of controls and twists and turns to keep your brain, lungs and legs at max capacity for 12 – 15 minutes if you’re at the top of the field or at max fun for much longer if you’re not so speedy but enjoy the opportunity to use your navigation and decision making skills every inch of the way.

Route choice is paramount – which way to go round a large building or lake when at first glance it looks 50:50? which side of an uncrossable hedge is the control? – but don’t spend too long overthinking it as you’ll waste vital seconds. Quite often for big events there will be a prologue race and then the final with combined times counting towards your final position as was the case at this year’s Sprint Champs held at Stirling University 10/3/18. If you want to see what sort of course to expect if you decide to have a go next time then take a look at FVO’s Routegadget.

Well done to our speediest Gramps:
Sam Griffin 4th Junior Men 16- (just 19 seconds off the podium)
Tim Griffin 6th Veteran Men 40+

*And here comes the shameless plug – keep your eye on our website for info on the local GRAMP/MAROC Forest Sprint Series starting 11th April.

CompassSport Cup Qualifier 2018

Thanks to Tim Griffin, Oonagh Grassie and Anne Hickling for flying the Gramp flag at this year’s CSC qualifier at Beecraigs 11/3/18. Between them they scored 280 points – just enough to keep us off the bottom of the table for the small clubs’ CompassSport Trophy.

I know there were several others who entered, or were going to, but couldn’t make it on the day for various reasons.
Even so it looks like Gramps generally aren’t interested in this competition or travelling further afield than Aberdeenshire to compete.  Am I right?

What can the club do to get a few more of you interested?
Training?
A club captain’s call to arms?
More social events to build up the team spirit?

Let the committee members know next time you bump into them (although maybe halfway round a course in the middle of Glen Dye is not the best time or place but you know what I mean.)

Rachel

Summer Series 2018 – Weds 23rd May to 15th Aug

Summer Series Events

Fun, friendly events with something for everyone on Wednesday evenings. All events will have 4 courses making them suitable for beginners and experienced alike:

  • easy (all on paths – white/yellow standard – upto 2km)
  • medium (partly on paths – orange standard – upto 3km)
  • two as-hard-as-we-can-make-it courses of different lengths (generally referred to as short and long tech with as-the-crow-flies distances between 2.5 and 5km).

Starts  6-7pm, courses close 8pm (unless changed for a particular event, please check website for any changes)
Seniors £4, students/juniors £2

If you need to know more please or have any questions, please contact the summer series coordinator using this form.

Junior attendance awards up for grabs again. (That means CHOCOLATE!!)

Links to maps showing the car parking/registration locations will be added nearer the time.

23-May Hazlehead & World Orienteering Day Results
30-May Countesswells Results
06-Jun Foggieton Results
13-Jun Dunnottar Results
20-Jun Perwinnes Moss Results
27-Jun Balmedie & BBQ Results
04-Jul Tollohill Results
11-Jul Tyrebagger Results
18-Jul Crathes Results
25-Jul Scolty Results
08-Aug Glen Dye Results
15-Aug Templars & BBQ

… then Wednesday entertainment will continue with a series of Urban events in Aberdeen (and Westhill), including a multi-course event on Sat 15th Sept in and around Danestone (details coming soon).

Continue reading “Summer Series 2018 – Weds 23rd May to 15th Aug”

Forest Sprint Series 2018 – Weds 11th April to 16th May

ForestSprint 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.

Links to all parking locations will be confirmed soon so check back here nearer the time or on each clubs’ website.

April 11th    Foggieton    GRAMP  Results
April 18th   Tillyfourie   MAROC  Results
April 25th   Scolty           GRAMP  Results
May 2nd      Tilquhillie   MAROC  Results
May 9th       Mulloch       GRAMP  Results
May 16th     Bellwood      MAROC  Results

Overall series results coming soon (Ian H has been very busy as Assistant Planner for the British Orienteering Champs hence the slight delay)

One course TD3 or Orange standard i.e. medium difficulty, about 3km, with lots of controls and route choice in a relatively small area so full on concentration required just as much as fleet feet. Great for developing Juniors too if accompanied by a TD3 standard runner. Best 4 scores out of 6 will count towards the FSS league results.

Registration: 18:00 to 18:50
Starts: 18:30 to 19:15
Fees: £4 Senior, £2.50 Junior/Student

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Bennachie under threat?

Save Bennachie
Some of you will be aware of ongoing discussions/plans for the dualling of the A96 from Aberdeen to Elgin and that some of the alternative routes under consideration would encroach upon Bennachie and its surroundings. From a purely selfish orienteering point of view, or from a wider ranging appreciation of the other benefits that Bennachie offers, you might like to take a look at the Save Bennachie Campaign website. Although lately the area around the Bennachie Centre has been thinned and felled quite a bit so we’re not really able to use it at the moment it’s still worth hanging onto for the long term as it’s a good bridge between us and MORland to the north and a great place to attract newcomers to the sport.

Scolty DNC 2018-02-14 Results

Many thanks to Gareth for braving the worst of the day’s weather to put out the controls for me … must be something to do with the date!

Apologies to long course runners for not having full set of timed controls – entirely my fault for not collecting correct controls from the store. Splits below are as recorded. I have attempted some fixes for routegadget …

Thanks to everyone who came along – see you all next week at the meal. Helen

Results
Splits
RouteGadget

And now for something completely different…

Here’s the map from EUOC’s Big Weekend Indoor O laid on by Prof Graeme Ackland of INT in “his” offices (JCMB Building in Uni Kings Campus).

Indoor O map – EUOC Big Weekend 2018

The staircases are all given letters so you can spot where they come out on successive floors, green lines across corridors are fire doors you can open and go through, black lines are locked doors or walls. What’s not mapped is a handful of earnest scientists who were working late on a Friday evening for some reason trying to dodge flying orienteers and ignore the thundering feet outside their offices.
Nor is the treacherous ice on the roof on level 9 mapped but at least there were handrails along the parapet to hang onto. (Risk assessment? Yep – risky but let’s go for it!)

If you’re intrigued by this, try Googling the Stockholm Indoor Cup – a much grander affair across sprawling school complexes including darkened cinemas with video loops, mini maze sections made out of desks, disco lights and music and a chicken run past spectators while trying to get your head around the latest up, down, there, back… takes Indoor O to a whole new level (geddit?)

Tyrebagger DNC Results – 31st Jan 2018

On the night of the “super-moon” there was possibly enough light to complete the courses without using a headtorch!  Joe Wright nearly had an opportunity to try that theory out, as he broke his light (and bashed his knee) before even starting.  Fortunately for him, he borrowed a light and his knee didn’t seem to slow him down too much … after the second control, that is 😉

Here are the results and split times.

Routegadget is loaded up here.  Please upload your stumblings around.

 

Planner – Murray Anderson

Balmedie DNC – 17th Jan 2018 – Results

Another delightful night for orienteering … clear, moonless (fantastic views of the constellations), little wind … and even the open sand areas were frozen, so were very fast running.  If you weren’t there you missed a treat.

Here are Results and Split times.

Routegadget (with Splitsbrowser) is now loaded up – enter your trails (and trials!).

Thanks to John Lang for enjoyable courses, and I hope he warmed up quickly after freezing in the car!

Next week we’re at Balnagowan in Maroc-land.

 

Back of Bennachie Results – Sun 4th Feb 2018

It turned into a beautiful winter’s day at Back O’ Bennachie (after a cold wet start) – blue skies, no wind, and a tough hilly forest and moor to test you all.

Here are provisional results and split times.
Routegadget has been loaded here, please add your routes!
You can also analyse your splits on Splitsbrowser.
Splits are also loaded up to Winsplits Online.

Taken a wee while (sorry – holidays and handovers) but results now uploaded to BOF site and ranking points will be calculated overnight 20/2/18.

Course details were as follows:

White 1.8k 40m
Yellow 2.1k 40m
Orange 2.3k 45m
Lt Green 3.0k 80m
Green 3.6k 140m
Blue 4.6k 210m
Brown 5.6k 225m

A (JD)2C event.

Our very grateful thanks to:

Organiser;   Lesley Gomersall
Planner :      Sam Gomersall
Controller:   Drew Tivendale (MAROC)

IOF review of control description and mapping symbols (2017)

During 2017, the IOF carried out a big review of control descriptions and mapping symbols. We won’t be able to update all our maps to comply straight away but we will be doing so as and when logical to do so over the coming months.

Control descriptions: no major changes you need to know about that I can see apart from the addition of a new symbol for out of bounds areas like flowerbeds in parks and urban areas which looks like a flower head in a box (right).
There a couple of others but not that will affect our areas or those of neighbouring clubs but if you want to take a look at the full details then look at the International Specifications for Control Descriptions 2018.

Spoiler alert! That document is not as grim as it sounds and actually worth having a look to teach or refresh yourself if you’re a bit sketchy on these as it has some great illustrations from page 18 onwards of what the feature described in the control description looks like both on a map and on the ground, some examples below (click each to enlarge):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(We used to have some small foldout guides to hand to beginners explaining control descriptions. Maybe an idea to cobble some more of these illustrations together to print on the back of maps for beginners to refer to for Summer Series events?)

Map symbols: most of the changes are tweaks to colours and line thickness to try and enhance legibility of maps for everyone but especially for the older age groups or those with colour blindness or other visual impairment.
The International Specification for Orienteering Maps 2017 will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about these specifications (and some!) so to save blowing your minds I’ve had a quick flick through looking for major changes or additions that I think we might come across.

Addition of a coloured outline to the ride symbol showing runnability.
E.g. rides in open woodland often have thicker vegetation due to more sunlight getting through to ground level so are actually harder to run along compared to surrounding terrain. You could figure that out quite quickly when you get there and not a problem in open woodland but worth knowing in advance if the ride goes through light or dark green – look for a white or yellow band surrounding it as shown here otherwise don’t bother.


(Think this is a new one.) Variation on the rough open land (shown here) and open land (yellow background) with trees –  now shows green spots for bushes/thickets and white spots for trees.

Gigantic boulder so high and steep it’s impossible* to climb. We don’t have many of these but Maroc’s Dinnet  map may be featuring some soon. (*Sounds like that’s just going to act as a distracting challenge to the likes of Gareth and Ian H to me!)

 

Vineyard or similar cultivated land containing dense rows of plants offering good or normal runnability in the direction of planting.  One for RR to use when they they next update the biomass plantations on the Carmichael Estate map.

 

Raemoir DNC – 3 Jan 2018 – Results

Taking a look at the weather for the rest of the country, we were pretty lucky with the conditions for the DNC race at Raemoir.  We had the most benign evening, with almost no wind, clear skies, a nearly full moon, and temperatures just hovering a degree or so above zero.  That didn’t mean there wasn’t any ice around though ! … the tracks to the start were skating rinks and the car park was pretty treacherous.  But everyone was very careful and no we had no bumps or lumps – well done everyone.

Rob and Joe showed us exactly how it should be done on the Medium and Long courses respectively.  Well done gents.  Congrats also to Helen, our leading lady, obviously benefiting from using her Xmas present of a shiny new head torch.

Here are results and split times.

Routegadget is loaded up here – please enter your wanderings!

Organiser – Rob H.

HHH 2018 results

Mon-O-poly Results

Well done to everyone that braved the cold and took on a whole new style of Monopoly at Tyrebagger today. HHH results

Congratulations to the winners of both courses, Olivia Coman and Lynn Smith on the short, Keith Yardley and Rob Hickling on the long.

HHH

Glen Dye DNC 20-12-17 Results

A balmy night at Glen Dye after all the slipping and slithering around in the town of late made a lovely change. Hope you enjoyed the seasonal mince pies after …

Results

Splits

Routegadget

Sasha’s in the GBR Senior Squad for 2018

5789b821-8490-4c5a-862d-051fe5214614.gifBritish Orienteering has announced the GBR Senior Squad for 2018, and there are a good number of Scottish and Scotland-based athletes included in the squad not least ex-Gramp Sasha Chepelin. Congratulations!
(And next year I promise to try and keep better tabs on his international apearances and results as this year it was all al bit under the radar. Any Gramps out there who spot things like this or any other Gramps’ achievements that deserve to be trumpeted then don’t be afraid to send me an email reminder. Rachel)

Crathes DNC – 6th Dec 2017 – Results

A dry and mild evening for night-O at Crathes  (Thankfully before Storm Caroline arrives).

Thanks to Jack G for very pleasant, runnable and enjoyable courses.  Getting to the Start was a bit more challenging than usual, as there were no reflectors to show the way, and no start description either!   I think everyone found it easily enough, though  🙂

Here are results and split times.

Routegadget is loaded up.  Enter your routes there, and add your comments on to the DNC blog.

See you next week (13th) at Carlogie Wood.  Bring your winter woollies …

Seaton Park – 3/12/17

Many thanks to Dave Kirk and everyone who came to lollop along the l0opy longs and other courses. Everybody found the cave, avoided dashing headlong into the river and obviously didn’t spend too long dozing on the sofa. There was a bit of wildlife watching.

Some head-to-head battles on the run-ins created a much greater effort than normal for the final leg! The race for top spot on the medium was particularly keenly fought. Weel done to Jeremy whose extra tears of experience obviously paid dividends!

Not sure what happened to the Lawrence/Scott team – enjoyed themselves a little too much at the AGM?

Results
Splits

Don’t forget the next day time event we have to run off the even greater excesses of New Year celebrations – Jan 2nd at Tyrebagger with soup etc after at the Anderson’s in Inverurie.

Photos from Lesley (and Marianne above).

(Shame didn’t manage to capture Kevin squeezing himself into the cave “How the *£^%!! am I expected to get in there?!”)

Scottish Score Championships 2017

A good day for Gramp today. Congratulations to these guys who swept ~20% of the podium places between them:

Champions
M21 Jack Gomersall
M40 Pete Lawrence
M55 Sam Gomersall
M60 Bob Daly
W50 Carolyn McLeod

Plenty of 2nd places too – W60 Oonagh Grassie, M60 Rob Hickling, M14 Sam Griffin, M35 David Esson (robbed by a MOR ringer but Pete redressed the balance there!) – and Tim Griffin was 3rd M50 with a bit of judicious scrambling.

MOR hosted this year’s Score Champs at Quarrelwood near Elgin, an intriguing little area with 6 or 7 extremely complex patches in and around old quarries interspersed with open almost featureless (in comparison) stretches.

No big value controls but rather a fairly even sprinkling of 10s and 20s which made for quite a dither for most trying to decide which clusters to target first – out west weaving up and down the hillside to hoover up the ‘interesting’ ones close by first or up onto the fast running at the top to warm up legs and brain first and hope you have enough steam to tackle the slope at the end?

Countesswells DNC – 22/11/2017

Here are final Results and Splits

Routegadget is loaded up – please input your routes.

Many thanks to Dennis for two challenging courses, where I suspect many expected an easy time!

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup 2017 Final Rankings

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOverall 2017 final rankings   and Winners table

Big congratulations to Oli Robertson who retains the M8 Trophy and Sam Griffin for 2nd M14, just pipping Maroc’s Joel Gooch at the final post , and Josie Gomersall 2nd W16.
3rd places go to Emily Robertson W8, Kirsty Farquharson W12 and Robert Prince M10.   Trophies and prizes will be awarded at the Gramp AGM.

Any Junior from Gramp or Maroc is automatically entered into the (JD)2C. You win points by running in any of the 9 nominated local Level C races listed below, with a sliding scale depending on your course and how well you do.

To try and keep things as fair as possible, only half points are awarded to shadowed competitors which is why we ask you to declare this when entering.

8 Jan     MAROC  Glen O’Dee
19 Mar  MAROC   Potarch
9 Apr    GRAMP   Crathes
30 Apr  MAROC  Coull
28 May GRAMP   Tyrebagger
18 Jun   MAROC  Sluie
17 Sep   GRAMP   Scolty  postponed
1 Oct     MAROC   Cambus O’May
15 Oct   GRAMP   Forvie
5 Nov    GRAMP   Scolty

  • The (JD)2C competition will be run over 9 events with the best 5 scores counting for each runner.
  • There will be 5 classes for girls and boys, using the ‘standard’ age classes, i.e.M8, M10, M12, M14, M16, W8, W10, W12, W14, W16
  • Within each event, the Gramp/Maroc Junior who is highest placed for each course scores the  maximum course points: White 200, Yellow 300, Orange 400, Light Green 500, Green 600, Blue 700, Brown 800
  • Points for subsequent runners are calculated using this formula:
    score = [(winner’s time)/(runner’s time)]*(maximum course points)
  • Every effort will be made to provide a White course at each event. However, if this is not possible, the JDC organisers will review how many events will qualify for the M8 and W8 classes.
  • If you are being shadowed or running in a pair, please declare this when you register. You will score half points for your run.
  • The competition aims to provide competition in each age class. Juniors may choose the course
    appropriate to their ability. More difficult courses earn higher points.

Hazlehead DNC 8th Nov 2017 – Results

After the clear frosty evening of 7th Nov, when the northern lights coud be seen all over northern Scotland as far south as Edinburgh, we had a cloudy damp evening for Dave Kirk’s courses at Hazlehead – but nevertheless a large entry.  It was a bit of a middle distance style race, with many controls dictated by the shape of the area, and some people clearly had a bit of bother sorting out the fancy control loops and crossovers, and the right order for running the controls.  Here are the results for your enjoyment:-

Results        Splits         Routegadget

Courses:  Long Night:  4.8km ,   Medium Night:  3.8km

Planner/organiser:  David Kirk

Scolty (Level C) 5th November 2017 – Results

Gramp Champs and JD2C Event

We hope you enjoyed running at Scolty.  It’s a hilly and physically tough area in some places, fast in others, and the navigation can be testing – especially near the far start on Hill of Gouach.  The air temperature of 5 degrees felt chilly in the tent, but was pleasant enough on the run.  Cold feet, though! (the forest is pretty wet at the moment).

A big thanks to our officials and helpers.  (Amazing speedy job by the control collectors, BTW.)

Results

Here are final results and split times.   BOF results page with ranking points.

Routegadget is loaded up – please draw your crazy wiggles.

Click here for Winsplits split times analysis.

Course lengths/climbs

White       1.6km/ 25m
Yellow      2.2km/ 45m
Orange     2.7km/ 60m
Lt Green   3.4km/ 80m
Green        4.1km/ 90m
Blue           5.8km/ 160m
Brown       8.0km/ 230m

Organiser                         Helen Anderson
Planner                             Pete Lawrence
Controller                        Andrew McMurtrie (MAROC)

SOL Rankings 2017

Congratulations to the following GRAMPs for top 3 placings in this year’s Scottish Orienteering League final rankings:

W40L 3rd Carolyn McLeod (running up a class or two)
W60S 2nd Oonagh Grassie
M12B 2nd Noah Griffin
M35S 1st David Esson (who also got his Organiser’s badge for Forvie)
M50S 1st Pete Lawrence (who also got his Most SOL Points Overall badge)
M55S 3rd Richard Oxlade
M60L 3rd Bob Daly
M70L 2nd Neil McLean

And others who made it into the top 10:
M21E Rachel Scott (retaining her What Does She Think She’s Playing At? badge)
M12B Connor Whitelaw, M40L Ali Robertson, M55L Iain McLeod, M55S Stuart Anderson, M60L Paul Duley
W12 Morven and Kirsty Farquharson, W16 Josie Gomersall, W50L Laura Farquharson
W55L Lesley Gomersall, W55S Anne Hoy

Ex-GRAMP virtually in the Guardian

Not to do with orienteering so even more of a double-take when I read Mark Mon-Williams’ name in this article.

Wonder if he’s tried using junior orienteers for his study as their eyesight and balance must be better than the average?

Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup – rankings after Forvie

Rankings

Good to see several of the GJOs taking on the contour challenge at Forvie. Most of you made it out alive and kicking at the other end and even if you didn’t we hope you enjoyed the day anyway.

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Only Scolty left to go now to round off this year’s (JD)2C on Sunday 5th Nov. Don’t miss out on your last chance to boost your scores. Trophies have been gathered in already for engraving ready to present at respective club AGMs so good luck everyone and hope your name is on one!