GMC 2018: Braemar 10th/11th November update – ONLINE ENTRIES OPEN

Grampian Mountain Challenge  –  Scotland’s Friendly Sociable Winter Mountain Marathon

NEWS: We have the potential to provide Fri night accommodation (sleeping bag on the floor) in Castleton Hall if we get 10 or more takers – email dkirk006@btinternet.com if this is of interest – and there will be Portaloos at the overnight camp.

GMC18 – Information, Rules and Kit List (updated 14 June)
GMC18 – Flyer

*****Online entries via SiEntries now open – click here*****

28 entries so far and Course C Parent/Offspring by far the most popular
Remeber, there are only 100 places available.   HAVE YOU ENTERED YET?

HAVE YOU TOLD ALL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT?
Feel free to download the flyer and send it to friends or display at work or whatever it takes to help spread the word and fill the 100 places available.

Summer Series 27/6/18 Balmedie + BBQ

Get out your umbrellas and waterproofs – it’s Balmedie BBQ time. Bring your own food and tipple and we’ll provide the charcoal and grill. Oh yes, there’s also some orienteering to be done. Details to follow.

Parking at southern car park: StreetMap
GoogleMap

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

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.)

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 …

Crathes – Level C Event – Sun 24 June 2018

Introduction
This is GRAMP’s next Sunday event, squeezed in between all those Wed Summer Series ones we hope you’ve been enjoying.
Time to come and put all that practice into action against your Club Champs and (JD)2C rivals. Beginners also very welcome – come and find the GRAMP banner in the car park and someone will be on hand to help you choose a suitable course and get you going. You can go in a group so bring family and friends for a big day out as Crathes also has a cafe, Go Ape and obviously the castle, gardens and grounds to enjoy.

Location
Streetmap Link    googlemaps
Postcode: AB31 5QJ,  Lat/Long: 57.062806,-2.439328, OS Grid Ref: NO734969, what3words: craftsman.fears.brilliant
Access/Parking will be in the lower public car park and you need to pay for parking at the NTS machines please.

Registration and Start Times
Registration: 10:30 to 12:30
Starts: 11:00 to 13:00
Courses Close: 14:30

Registration/download will be adjacent to parking.  Approximately 250m to the Start, 2 Finishes close to car park.

Continue reading →

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 – 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)

Recent extraction lane

Mapped ride with younger trees. Crossed in foreground by recent extraction lane.

Mapped ride

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.

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.)

Forest Sprint @ Scolty 25/4/16

Great turn out at Scolty … here are the results. Many thanks to Matt for taking on the planning. Well done!

Results

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.

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/

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

The first three events (Hazlehead, Countesswells and Foggieton) will have introductory coaching available 6-6.30 – just turn up. Or if you need to know more 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.

Continue reading →

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

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

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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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

Next (JD)2C counting event – Shooting Greens 18/2/18

Not long to wait now for the next episode of the great (JD)2C challenge.
Registration & Start Times 10:30 – 12:30
Check the MAROC website for more details.

PS Open to anyone not just Juniors…

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)

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 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 2nd January 2018 Tyrebagger

To kick off 2018 Grampian Orienteers are proud to present the antidote to Christmas board games.  Are you fed up of never getting that triple word score?  Tired of being beaten to the finish in Trivial Pursuit?

Come along to Tyrebagger and blow away those winter blues with a magnificent game of Mon-O-poly Mon-O-poly instructions.  Registration and starts between 10.30am and 11am.  Parking at the 2nd car park off the A96.  Streetmap. Entry fee £4/£2.

This will be a score event with a 45 minute time limit.  Estimated course lengths: long 4.2km, short 2.4km.

Afterwards head to Inverurie (Stuart and Helen’s) to fling open the Gramp ‘community chest’ for soup, buffet and prize-giving.

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

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?!”)

HHH – Tyrebagger – 02/01/2018

Run of the seasonal excess at Tyrebagger. Novelty event, more details to follow (as well as post-event soup and social in Inverurie).

Organiser: Helen Anderson

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!

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)

Forvie SOL 6 – Results

The Clothing Dump Pram “Who would believe that the Organiser used to fit into this?” Photo and quote Lyndsey Esson

Final Results and BOF ranking points added 22/10/17

Thank you for coming to Forvie.  Tricky area, init ?!  We hope you enjoyed your runs.  None of the controls blew away (phew) and the weather improved, and the wind dropped, as the day went on.   Nevertheless we were very pleased to have a van to host the timing computers (thanks to Dennis McDonald and U Drive ).  We hope you liked seeing the wi-fi results on your smartphones (using our extended range wireless access point).

Here are final results by Course, and by Class, and Split Times.

Routegadget is loaded up – please enter your squiggles.

Split time analysis can be found at WinSplits Online .

BOF ranking points

Pre-O
Results and maps with answers

Thanks

Our thanks go to the Forvie ranger, Annabel Drysdale, and SNH for permission to run on the National Nature Reserve. Also to Andy Harper for use of his field for parking and AUOC for assisting with control collecting.

Many thanks to Dennis McDonald and U Drive for their generous support with van hire.

Courses

Courses/age classes chart

Officials

Planner – Ian Hamilton GRAMP
Controller – Sarah Dunn MAROC
Organiser – David Esson GRAMP

Deeside Night Cup 2017/18

To try and make best use of the darker nights, the DNC will start and finish a bit earlier again this year and also includes an event in between Christmas and New Year to keep the momentum going. Two courses 3km and 5km at TD5/Green standard as far as possible. No concessions to the dark.

Check the details on the DNC blog .
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01/11/2017   MAROC Birsemore
08/11/2017  GRAMP Hazlehead
15/11/2017   MAROC Shooting Greens
22/11/2017  GRAMP Countesswells
29/11/2017  MAROC Potarch
06/12/2017 GRAMP Crathes
13/12/2017 MAROC Carlogie
20/12/2017 GRAMP Glen Dye
27/12/2017 MAROC Glen Tanar
03/01/2018 GRAMP Raemoir TBC
10/01/2018 MAROC Coull
17/01/2018 GRAMP Balmedie
24/01/2018 MAROC Balnagowan
31/01/2018 GRAMP Tyrebagger
07/02/2018 MAROC Corsedarder
14/02/2018 GRAMP Scolty
21/02/2018 MAROC Sluie + prizegiving + meal

As this is a shared series, we operate a separate blog with full list of dates, venues, travel maps, final results and chat – DNC Blog.  Once it kicks off in earnest check there rather than here for up to date details like snow reports.

There are lavish prizes for the best M/W Junior and Senior in each Cup and a host of frivolous prizes for things like the Toughest of the Tough for the most gruelling courses and Best/Worst Mistake. Seriously though, this is one of the most competitive leagues around and worth turning out for if only for the challenge of finding your way around areas you thought you knew pretty well until someone turned the lights out!

GMC 2018: Braemar 10th/11th November

Grampian Mountain Challenge  –  Scotland’s Friendly Sociable Winter Mountain Marathon

The GMC will be back in 2018 staying with its traditional date slot and will be over the weekend of 10 / 11 November 18.
It will be held in the Braemar area. All the usual features will be present, including a remote overnight camp with catering and heating, kit transfer to and from the camp, and orienteering and traditional hill sections over the two days. Ali R has agreed to take on the job of Planner once more, and Dave K and Ian H are again doing the Organising and Controlling.

NEWS: We have the potential to provide Fri night accommodation (sleeping bag on the floor) in Castleton Hall if we get 10 or more takers – email dkirk006@btinternet.com if this is of interest – and there will be Portaloos at the overnight camp.
Check the updated information sheet in the link below for more details.

GMC18 – Information, Rules and Kit List (updated 14 June)
GMC18 – Flyer

*****Online entries via SiEntries now open*****

Feel free to download the flyer and send it to friends or display at work or whatever it takes to help spread the word and fill the 100 places available.

Aberdeen Uni Urban Sprint 27/9/17 Results

Results   Splits

A great lesson in reading your control descriptions carefully tonight (Team JFF had photographic evidence of number 5 skulking on the wrong side of the fence to where they were) and if that didn’t catch you out then the straight line belt from 11 to 13 missing out 12 did. Thanks to David for a fitting finale to this year’s series.

Congrats to the following folk who either retained or gained a new trophy:
JU16   Sam Griffin (GRAMP) & Rachel Salway (MAROC)
J          Lachlan Kirk (GRAMP) & Josie Gomersall (GRAMP)
Open  Janne Heikkinen (AUOC) & Claire Tunaley (MAROC)
V         William Nicolson (INVOC) & Carolyn McLeod (GRAMP)
SV       Gary Longhurst (FVO) & Lesley Gomersall (GRAMP)
UV      George Esson (GRAMP)
Newcomers  Petra Hampton & Dominykas Kardokas

Final rankings after 5 events (best 3 scores to date) and by Category

Trophies will be presented at the GRAMP AGM or passed to non-Gramps some other way – Newcomer winners please email webmaster@grampoc.com to claim yours (or see you at another event soon?)

Balgownie Urban Sprint 20/9/17 Results

Results   Splits

Couple of folk got caught out by the loop from 10-11-12-13 and  forgot one of the controls. Oops!
The rest of us just caught out not reading the map properly around that area and at least two of us realised afterwards that we used key alleyways once but then promptly ignored them a second time around. Mind games – “surely the planner can’t mean me to go back up there?” – are intregal to the urban challenge and we really should have known to expect some crackers from Pete!

Overall points after 4 races here.  And standings by age category here.
Lots of folk look to have it in the bag already (e.g George, Lesley, William Nicolson and Sam Griffin) but some other categories are still up for grabs theoretically and a mispunch next week could shatter a few dreams of receiving one of our much-coveted trophies so make sure you watch for the LED flash – should be easier next week as it’s darker sooner all the time.

Westhill Urban Sprint 13/9/17 Results

Results  Splits
As always, any spelling mistakes or other corrections please email webmaster@grampoc.com asap.

OK, hands up all those who got caught on the wrong side of the fence between 9 and 10?
Thanks to Mark Stockton for another great wee course with some interesting route choices all the way to the end. (And thanks to to Mrs S for holding off the inevitable tonight so Mark didn’t have to dash off on paternity leave mid-event! Let us know when it’s time to pass on the Gramp’s Most Junior Orienteer T-shirt if the Robertsons still have it.)

Good to see more new faces – I’m told “someone” was stirring things up over on our Facebook page – cheers James! Team JJF – we missed your smiley old faces. Next week?

Overall points after 3 races here.  Next week is when the best 3 from 5 rule kicks in so time to squeeze that last ounce of speed from jelly legs and burning lungs for those of you into (and capable) of such masochism. The rest of us will just enjoy exploring the odd corners of Balgownie we’ve never been before.

Scroll to the bottom of the overall results for an explanation of the age categories used in Urban Orienteering races. Check the Scottish Orienteering Urban League page for details of bigger urban races in various locations throughout Scotland and if you happen to be in the right town at the right time then give it a go.

SOL 6 Forvie 15/10/17

GRAMP are pleased to welcome you all to the amazing landscape at Forvie, guaranteed to keep you on your navigational toes all the way round with intricate contour features hidden within the bigger dune structures which are challenging enough in their own way.
Terrain is mostly vegetated dunes with some marshy bits, a smattering of thickets in places and just enough paths to be able to cater for the TD1 and 2 Junior courses without mitigating the challenge for the rest.

It’s windswept, it’s wild, it’s wonderful (in our not-so-humble opinion but we’re sure you’ll agree).

Online entries via Fabian 4 – click on the logo below
Open Wed 20th Sept
Close midnight Sunday 8th Oct  (limited EOD subject to map availability)

Final details (web page)
Final details (PDF)
Including:
– how to get to Forvie
– course lengths, map scales, fees
– location of Start/Finish relative to Assembly, accessibility
– safety info and facilities

Here’s a quick reminder of the SOL course/age class system and a link to our RouteGadget so you can get a taste of what to expect if you’ve never run here before. You will probably already had a taste of ScotJOS baking before and will be pleased to know they will be running a cake stall at Forvie.

Parking will be in the field next to the Forvie Visitors Centre courtesy of the farmer, Andy Harper (and we will be collecting £1 per car for his nominated charity, Macmillan Cancer Support), and we are also indebted to the Forvie ranger, Annabel Drysdale, and SNH for permission to run on the National Nature Reserve.

Planner: Ian Hamilton GRAMP
Organiser: David Esson GRAMP
Controller: Sarah Dunn MAROC

Duthie Park and Ferryhill Urban Sprint 6/9/17 Results

Results     Sorry, no Splits this week as the laptop was playing up. Hopefully business as usual next week.

Thanks to John Lang for several interesting route choices tonight leading to differences of over 500m recorded on different folks’ GPS. Do you take the time to eyeball the differences accurately before committing or do you just plump and then run as fast as you can along your chosen route?

Different control seemed to cause a few “mp” tonight but again we’ve given you all the benefit of the doubt as many had eye witnesses and you would have had to run pretty much past it anyway on the way back into the park. Don’t forget to check for the flashing LED before leaving a control.

If you were a trophy winner last year, please bring it back and hand it in to registration at any of the events.

I’ll post details about Westhill tomorrow.

Overall points after 2 races here. Scroll to the bottom for an explanation of the age categories used in Urban Orienteering races.
Check the Scottish Orienteering Urban League page for details of bigger urban races in various locations throughout Scotland and if you happen to be in the right town at the right time then give it a go.

Westburn & Victoria Parks Urban Sprint 30/8/17 Results

Results  Splits
(If I’ve mispelled a name or mis-guessed an age group let me know webmaster@grampoc.com.
Age groups are used for trophies at the end of the series, best 3 results from 5 count towards your total. I’ll post more on that after a couple of events when I’ve calculated points to date.)

Thank you to Tim Griffin and helpers for kicking off this year’s series in grand style.
50 runners – which may be an Urban Sprint record for Gramp – zig-zagging back and forth at incredible speeds in some cases, although William did look as if he’d been for a swim half way round by the time he collapsed at the Finish.

One or two folk had trouble getting number 8 to register whereas others had no problems. I’ve given you all the benefit of the doubt, and the person who didn’t start their brikke properly so it read 64 minutes initially, and re-instated you as it’s the first in the series but remember it’s your responsibility to check all controls flash at you to indicate a successful read. Worth sacrificing a few tenths of a second to make sure you’re not disqualified in future.

Templars Park Summer Series Grand Finale 16/8/17

Thanks to David Kirk for a brain-bending finale to the Summer Series using some new additions to the fringes of the Templars map to give us a guided tour of part of the hotel grounds next door and some particularly vicious patches of nettles we’ve not visited before. (Top Tip: don’t lose your footing and sit down in them. Still stinging even now!)

Junior Attendance choc coins were dished out along with spot prizes of teeny cactii awarded for most complex map, most prolific control collector and lots of other things I can’t remember.  (Do nettle stings affect the memory?)

Hoist by his own fiendish petard again, it will take David a wee while to figure out the points for the Technical Score course so in the meantime here’s a space filling photo of some diehards who just couldn’t bring themselves to  abandon the BBQ when there’s important unfinished mallowy business to be toasted.

Update from Dave:

Here are the Templars results.

Apologies to all the people who tried to make it across the swamp on the north west side of the area – in hindsight I should have marked that area OOB.

The biggest mistake made by quite a number of people, resulting in loss of numerous points, was only recording one checkpoint in a particular Section. That meant that all their subsequent controls were voided until they got back to that area again and visited another. I hope you all enjoyed visiting the new areas.

Scolty Summer Series Results 9/8/17

“Of all the control sites in all the features in all of Scolty Woods, he had to pick mine.”
Pete Lawrence, Planner for Scolty Level C in Sept on parts of Calum McLeod’s courses last night

A gorgeous sunny evening saw us scampering round the lower levels of Scolty on Middle Distance style courses much appreciated by tired legs post-6 Days.
Thanks Calum and helpers. Results attached.

Scolty SS Results 9-8-17.pdf

Autumn Urban Sprint Series 2017

One course of TD3 (Orange) standard about 3 – 4km long in streets and parks.
Wed 30th Aug  Westburn and Victoria Parks
Wed 6th Sept Duthie Park and Ferryhill
Wed 13th Sept Westhill
Wed 20th Sept  Balgowniel
Wed 27th Sept Aberdeen Uni Kings Campus

.

Congrats to the following folk who either retained or gained a new trophy:
JU16   Sam Griffin (GRAMP) & Rachel Salway (MAROC)
J          Lachlan Kirk (GRAMP) & Josie Gomersall (GRAMP)
Open  Janne Heikkinen (AUOC) & Claire Tunaley (MAROC)
V         William Nicolson (INVOC) & Carolyn McLeod (GRAMP)
SV       Gary Longhurst (FVO) & Lesley Gomersall (GRAMP)
UV      George Esson (GRAMP)
Newcomers Petra Hampton & Dominykas Kardokas

Final rankings after 5 events (best 3 scores to date) and by Category

Bennachie – Weds 26th July – Results

Our pre-Six Days tune-up event took place at Bennachie on Weds 26th July.  After a wet day (which the planner can vouch for, as he was setting out the controls in the rain!) the sun came out and the evening finished with immaculate blue skies and a terrific sunset.

Click here for the results.

The circular maps were a novel training exercise for more experienced orienteers.  The maps had no magnetic north lines, and no indication of which way is north!  Ideally you should do the courses without using a compass, by simply reading the map, identifying the features, using good attack points, and staying in close map contact.  If you have any thoughts on this format, maybe you could let us know, or add a comment to this post.

Courses

• Easy  –  2.2km   70m climb
• Medium  –  2.2km   90m climb
• Short Technical  –  2.7km  90m climb  –  CIRCULAR MAP
• Long Technical  –  4.1km  170m climb –  CIRCULAR MAP

Event Centre

As a special treat, the Bennachie Centre kindly agreed to extend it’s opening hours and was open for the event.  So we benefited from all the facilities there:

• Displays on the flora, fauna and history of Bennachie,
• Hot drinks, cold drinks, sandwiches and snacks,
• Ice Cream for sale !!

The registration desk was in a dry and midge-free zone inside the centre!  And there are very good toilet facilities there too.  What more could we ask for.

Our grateful thanks to Forestry Commission Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council, the Bennachie Centre Trust and to the manager and staff at the Bennachie Centre, for letting us use the forest for this event, and for providing the excellent facilities at the Centre.

Planner/Organiser:  Rob Hickling

Cheyne Hill Summer Series 12th July – Results

A sunny warm evening with a swimming opportunity in the hefalump trap taken by a few including myself and Ian while setting out the controls.

High bracken and overgrown paths made it especially challenging for those taking ‘short cuts’.

A friendly family all the way from OLG Chur (Chur orienteering club) in Switzerland came and competed as well. I hope they weren’t too underwhelmed.

Thanks for all coming.     Results: cheynehill120717results

Gen

I had a very pleasant walk back down to Stoney chatting with  Käthi and Benno. They did comment on the “big green plants up to here” (think hand passing 6″ over Käthi’s head) being hard going but otherwise enjoyed their taste of orienteering Scottish-style.  If anyone spots any OLG Chur shirts at S6D then say ‘Hi!’ and ask about the next Swiss O Week in Gstaad in 2019.  Rachel

Glen Dye 5/7/2017

Lovely evening for some blaeberry picking … and orienteering too. Many thanks to the Caffyns for entertaining us all.

Results

Balmedie Summer Series 28/06/17

Balmedie, beach, BBQ, bit blowy

and lots of scouts!

Results

Many thanks to Gareth for planning and Alex for saving the day putting controls out (only some, only helped his time a little bit Pete!).

Crathes Summer Series 21/6/17 Results

Results

Squelch, squelch, drip, drip, splish, splash, sploooosh… Thanks go to Bob Sheridan for having faith in the hard core bunch of nutters that we all are and still thinking it was worth setting out controls and sitting patiently in the rain waiting for us last night.

So many hard core nutters in fact that late punters on the Long Tech had to nurse round recycled soggy maps. Sorry about that – maybe due to Maroc being back in the game now their WOUD series has finished.

I’m enjoying watching the weekly intra-family battles of the Gomersalls, Dunn/Musgraves and occasionally the McLeods too. E.g. this week:
Jon Musgrave      33.34
Ewan Musgrave   34.14
Sarah Dunn          34.44

Thinking of starting a sweepstake on the outcome by the end of the season but to make it Junior friendly only confectionery bets are on. What do you think?

Balmedie next week and unless we get a repeat performance weatherwise we’ll be firing up the BBQ too so bring food and drink.