Category Archives: Club info

In 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 lycraContinue reading “New club kit running tights”

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 – anotherContinue reading “2017 AGM roundup and Roll of Honour”

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 forContinue reading “Scottish Sprint Championships 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, orContinue reading “CompassSport Cup Qualifier 2018”

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 BennachieContinue reading “Bennachie under threat?”

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 corridorsContinue reading “And now for something completely different…”

British 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 alContinue reading “Sasha’s in the GBR Senior Squad for 2018”

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 byContinue reading “Scottish Score Championships 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 hisContinue reading “SOL Rankings 2017”

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?

2nd M Supervet* in the Night Race on Friday in the build up to the Porto City Race finale on Sunday. When interviewed by our roving reporter, Pete commented “Finally all those freezing cold nights in Deeside have paid off. Cheers!” as he cracked open his prize, a bottle of Poças Tawny Port**, and crankedContinue reading “Porto City Race Night Podium for Pete”

At the 202nd Braemar Gathering last Saturday, the long distance races had great showings from orienteers: – Hill Race (Ladies) – 1st Naomi Lang (GRAMP), 2nd Tessa Hill (EUOC) – Hill Race (Open) – 1st Peter Hodkinson (NOC), 2nd Graham Gristwood (FVO), 3rd Sasha Chepelin (EUOC), 5th Alex Carcas (EUOC) – Hill Race (Ladies Veterans)Continue reading “Orienteers win races in the presence of royalty”

Back home now after a great holiday in deepest, darkest Deeside and it’s good to see the sea again after a whole week of heathery hillsides, silvery birch and bouldery… bouldery… um… bignesses? (Sorry, been a long and energetic week.) Congratulations to the following successful Gramps: 1st Sam Griffin M14B and Oonagh Grassie W60L 2ndContinue reading “Scottish 6 Days 2017 Royal Deeside”

SOA website has a post with regular updates on how Scottish athletes are helping Team GB rack up some great results at this year’s JWOC with Sasha playing a big part. In the Middle Sasha comfortably made it through the heats to the A Finals finishing 7th, missing a podium place by only 1 second. In theContinue reading “Sasha running really well at JWOC”

Congratulations to Sam and Lesley who won the D Class in this year’s LAMM in a stunning and very physical area comprising An Teallach, Fisherfield and Fannichs (and still had energy to peg it on the uphill finish at Dunnottar Woods – very impressive.) As course leaders they got the honour of providing a quickContinue reading “Team Gomersall wins the LAMM D Class”

Woohoo! Naomi will be running 3000m for Team Scotland at the CYG somewhere considerably hotter and sunnier than NE Scotland. Huge congrats from all Gramps and we’ll be glued to the track and field sports news late July. http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/bahamas-bound-11-athletes-picked-cyg/

=-O How did that happen?! As a club with no clear strategy or captain (although we did have a banner which was more than many) we somehow managed to rack up enough points at Tentsmuir to come 3rd in the Trophy class (small clubs) and a mere 6 points behind arch-rivals Maroc. Result! It’s aContinue reading “Compass Sport Cup 2017 – 3rd place for Gramp in the Trophy class!”

Woohoo! Congratulations to Lesley for sweeping up two trophies a couple of weekends ago (and apologies for not spotting this and posting sooner :-[) And she wasn’t the only Champ as Gramp mopped up several of the other Night Trophies too… congrats to Helen, Carolyn, Keith and Neil too. Scottish Night Champs W45L 1st HelenContinue reading “Double win for Lesley Gomersall at Scottish Night and Sprint Champs 2017!”

Quick summary of you for those of you who didn’t go to the AGM: Busy year: Forest Sprints, Summer Series, Level C events, Urban etc. Scottish Champs in May – run jointly with MAROC JIRCS in Sept – very successful, Ian coordinated whole w/e GMC – Dave plus 2 Ians – no issues – mightContinue reading “2016 AGM roundup and Roll of Honour”

The results have now been published for the 2016 SOUL races, sponsored by BTO Solicitors. Congratulations to everyone who took part, and especially to the following who finished in the top 10 of their class :- W12- 2nd   Morven Farquharson 4th   Kirsty Farquharson W16- 2nd   Josie Gomersall M Vet 40+ 5th   Peter Lawrence W VetContinue reading “Gramps on the podium – BTO Urban League 2016”

Karen Darke, para-cycling medal winner and one of our patrons of Scottish Orienteering, will be competing in the Paralympics in Rio next week. Silver 2012 London Paralympic Games H1-2 time-trial Silver 2014 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, USA H3 time-trial Bronze 2014 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, USA H3 road race ….to name a fewContinue reading “One to watch @ Rio 2016 – Karen Darke”

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

And it is now. A veritable mud bath to finish off today, getting stuck down deep slippery sided gullies and skiting down even steeper slopes desperately hoping the folk at the bottom would get out of the way as we certainly weren’t stopping even if we’d wanted too. Sadly no podium finishes for the GrampsContinue reading “Croeso 2016 – they think it’s all over”

Couple of photos for you, courtesy of Lindsey Esson, showing the mixed bag of orienteering/weather we’ve been sampling. First was taken on the training area at  Merthyr Mawr sand dunes and the second was taken at today’s start at Mynydd Llangynidr, limestone moorland dotted with monster depressions, sinkholes and pits and visibility down to a few hundred metresContinue reading “Croeso 2016 update”

Just in case you’re wondering what to do with yourselves on Wednesday evening (as there’s no Summer Series), how about checking on the progress of the Gramps down at Croeso this year? A mixed bag of fortunes on Kenfig Burrows on Days 1 and 2 – a cracking area of vegetated monster dunes a bit like Forvie onContinue reading “Croeso 2016”

If you see Bob Daly going about at one of the Summer Series over the next few weeks congratulate him on his call up to the Scottish Vets Squad for the VHIs in Northern Ireland 3rd/4th September. (If you don’t know him, he’s the one who always runs late and always offers to collect controls.)Continue reading “Scottish Vets call up for Bob Daly”

The fell-runners of the club were out and about over the weekend taking part in the last Highlander Mountain Marathon in Glen Cannich. “A great event and amazing weather conditions, with some really tough courses. Didn’t expect the B to be quite the test it was for me, or my right shoe (which had halfContinue reading “10th (and last) Highlander 2016”

  In recognition of his invaluable contribution to the success of Highland 2015, this year the SOA President’s Medal will be going to Richard Oxlade. Read all about it here.   Congratulations and thanks once again from the rest of the club to Richard for stepping up to that very challenging role on our behalf. (Just hopeContinue reading “President’s Medal 2016 goes to Richard Oxlade”

Having dismantled the final marquee about 2pm today after the Relays, Richard eventually went off home for a well-earned rest and to apologise to his cat for force feeding it all last week (he needed the box the cat food sachets come in as it had perfectly sized compartments for three rows of neatly foldedContinue reading “Scottish Championships 2016”

1996 11 Person Relay Winners Richard Oxlade, Rob Hickling, James Esson, Tim Nash, Bob Daly Gordon Hendry, George Esson Andrew Lobban, Duncan Grassie, Laura Mackinnon, David Esson Planner was Neil McLean Controller was Chris Aust Organiser was Donald Grassie The first (and only) response to our wee competition was Neil McLean whose first reaction onContinue reading “40th Anniversary Photo Competition”

5 dedicated GRAMPs made the trip down south for this year’s JK held in Yorkshire. Bob Daly and Ian Hamilton took on the Sprint course in brilliant sunshine on Day 1 at Leeds Uni (cracking looking map on RG) and were then joined by Rob and Anne Hickling and Gen Jones for Day 2 atContinue reading “JK2016 & CompassSport Cup”

To celebrate GRAMP’s 40th birthday, I thought we might run a wee competition for some of our long-standing members. Click on the photo to get a better view if needed, then drop an email to flump@care4free.net with the answers to these questions: Who are all these skinny/hirsute people? What year was the photo taken? WhatContinue reading “Who are all these skinny/hirsute people?”

Nothing to do with orienteering but he is a Gramp so I feel totally justified in passing on a link to something Ian Searle spotted and flagged up with the comment ‘Simply outstanding!’ Seconded! Intrigued? Click here.

GRAMP’s 40th Birthday is this April! We’re now officially Vet class! Join us for a birthday dinner to celebrate at Raemoir House on evening of Friday the 22nd of April. Further details to come… Altogether now – Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us!

Congratulations to Sam Gomersall on his M50 win on Saturday at Bonaly near Edinburgh. We have another Champion to kick start 2016’s Roll of Honour. (Take note JL.) Other performances of note were Josie 3rd W16, Gordon Urquart 3rd M35 and Helen Rowlands running up and taking 2nd W45.

Can you beat 68/70 in 165 seconds? (all options selected, 3 multiple choice answers per question) Maprunner IOF control descriptions quiz

For those of you who didn’t make it to the AGM, here’s a copy of the Chairman’s Report and the 2015 Roll of Honour and other awards. 2015 GRAMP Roll of Honour.pdf Chairmans report 2015.pdf

The last championship event of the year, the Scottish Score Orienteering championships, was held last Sunday 22nd November at Pitmedden Forest, Fife.  The provisional results can be found are the KFO website here. Gramp competitors ran well and came away with some excellent results: M20 – 1st Jack Gomersall W45 – 5th Helen Rowlands W50Continue reading “Scottish Score Champs and Inter-Club Championships”

Having “done” Venice, Barcelona and Rome in previous years, we looked at either Antwerp or Sevilla for our autumn City O Break this year and the lure of tapas, beautiful medieval streets and the chance to practice our Spanish again swung it. (Sorry, Antwerp!) 3 very different O races to help justify all that tapasContinue reading “Pete’s turn on the podium @ Trofeo Sevilla O-Meeting”

Congratulations to David and Lachlan Kirk on their excellent 10th place on the C Course in this year’s OMM. Quite a debut for an M16 (although we already knew that Lachlan can run the legs off anything!) And thanks for the tip off and congratulations too to Mark Stockton and Urban Sprint newcomer, Chris Cowley,Continue reading “OMM 2015”

He won’t thank me for telling you this (he’s very quiet and self-effacing) but we have a hero in our midst. He’s been regularly volunteering to get controls in after events for years and years but looks like he’s now started collecting competitors instead…..! “Can you relay a thank you to Bob Daly who cameContinue reading “Hero of the hour!”