Events/Results

Balgownie Urban Sprint 20/9/17

3.0 km tonight planned by a Scottish Sprint Championship Planner so should be good!

Park in Tescos car park at the west end out of everyone’s way and then walk along Laurel Drive to the junction with Fairview Street to get to Registration. You can dump clothes/bags in the organiser’s car there.   Map of location for Registration.

Reg: 18:00 – 18:45   Start and Finish both very close to Registration
Courses close: 19:30 (i.e be back at Reg by 19:35 please)

Overall points after 3 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.

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)

Full event details including:
– how to get to Forvie
– course lengths, map scales, fees
– location of Start/Finish relative to Assembly, accessibility

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), 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

Scolty POSTPONED

Regrettably the Scolty colour coded event planned for 17th September has been postponed.  We are currently unable to use the area due to ongoing forestry work.  Subject to permission being received from FC the event will now be held on 5th November.  Bennachie will now be run early in 2018 (originally this was scheduled for 5th Nov).

This means the Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup and GRAMP Champs will now be best 4 of 8 races.

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.

Make sure you know what Out of Bounds and uncrossable i.e. “forbidden to cross” walls/fences look like on these ISSOM maps – PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS GUIDE. Uncrossable means forbidden to cross as we don’t have permission for you to do so. If in doubt and the wall/fence/piece of land you’re about to cross looks private then show some respect and don’t do it!

By popular request, here’s a guide to the control descriptions courtesy of the Irish Orienteering Association. Column D shows you what you’re looking for (in urban racing, there’ll be a lot tree, hedge, fence, steps, building, wall, manmade feature) and column G shows you where the flag is on the feature (especially useful when working out which side of an uncrossable fence you need to be for example.)

Reg/starts 18:00 – 18:30ish,  £4 Senior, £2 Junior/Student
Courses close 19:30 (that means be back at registration to hand in your brikke by 19:35 please)
Times are a bit earlier than Summer Series to catch the light but you still might want a torch for the last couple if the weather’s gloomy.

Juniors under 16 should be accompanied by an adult (to comply with BOF insurance requirements).

• Wed 30th Aug  Westburn and Victoria Parks
• Wed 6th Sept Duthie Park and Ferryhill
• Wed 13th Sept Westhill (check parking instructions on separate post)
• Wed 20th Sept  Balgowniel(check parking instructions on separate post)
• Wed 27th Sept Aberdeen Uni Kings Campus (check parking instructions nearer the time)

Click on the area name above to link through to a map showing the parking/reg location. Some are still TBC so check nearer the time before you set out.

Overall points after 3 races – check the separate posts for results and splits for each race.

Sprint fanatic?

Regular at our Urban events?

Then please download a copy of this flyer and help spread the word.

Photo was taken during the Scottish 6 Days Rest Day Sprint Race in Ballater by Laurence Johnson Photography.

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.

Foggieton Summer Series 14/6/17 Results

Results

Well done to all those who braved the no paths version of the map, especially the Short Tech runners moving up from Medium or who said they were just getting back into orienteering after a long break. No handrails can be a bit daunting at first but makes you feel very smug when you nail it!

Team Gomersall wins the LAMM D Class

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 quick blurb which I’ve reproduced here. You can read the full results and browse photos, maps, Routegadget and everything else on the LAMM website.

Sat write up: “How ideal does it get; a sunny Friday evening with few if any midges, then clear sunny Saturday morning still with no midges. A surprise bus took us to the D class and score starts, then we were off. Being used to orienteering maps everything takes a while on a 1:40,000. We hit the ridge a bit early on the first control and hunted; luckily we found it soon. Then we were in our stride, Sam out in front and Lesley behind. A long leg with route choice was interesting, we found a reasonable way. Views from the tops were spectacular, Coigach to the North and Torridon to the South. Let’s hope day 2 is just as good. Good work Martin and the rest of the team.”

Sun write up: “5am alarm, cold porrage, pack up and get to the start line for 6am. Then off again; tired legs; another big climb (but what did we expect). Into the fog, just for some extra navigational challenge. Then downhill; sore knees. When the fog cleared the view was spectacular, Fisherfield hills and AnTeallach from Craig Pannaich, a hill less visited. The last proper leg involved some serious contouring below An Teallach; too high, too low? Luckily we got relocated before heading in to the last knoll. Then down to the finish. Just the Rhododendrons left to fight through. Pleased, if a bit surprised to be first home. A great weekend all round. Thanks.”

And as well as waxing lyrical, that’s not all Sam got up to…

“As well as leading the D course, Sam Gomersall also had time to do a bit of sketching! He had brought an old waterproof O map with him and spent half an hour last night making a sketch of the camp site, which he then managed to keep in pristine unfolded condition in order to present it to Martin Stone at the finish. Who’d have thought that the LAMM would be the subject of fan art?”

C Class had a several Gramps running too:
Gordon Urqhuart as one half of the intriguingly named team Guild of Doric Farmers 14th
Ian Hamilton and Colin Larmour 27th
Dave Kirk and Lachlan as Team Greenhowe Greats 29th

8/6/17 Dunnottar Woods Summer Series Results

Despite the 48 hours of rain beforehand, the weather was lovely and I think the evening went well, as evidenced by the number of people coming back covered in mud!
I’d like to pass on my thanks to Olivia, Bob Daly, Rachel and Pete for doing most of the control collection.

Eddy Coman

Results

And I’d like to say thanks to Eddy for his first event as novice planner/organiser. Very smooth and relaxed on the day and managed to catch a few folk out underestimating the deceptive contours – Mark’s skid marks were particularly impressive.
Next up Foggieton – parking will be at or in the streets close to Cults Primary School. Check here Tuesday night for confirmation.

Rachel

24/5/17 Hazlehead Summer Series starts and WOD

Beautifully hot evening to kick off the Summer Series and to coincide with World Orienteering Day!

The planner did a runner (John – I hope you had a lovely time down in London), leaving the rest of the Lang team in charge.  It all mostly went  according to plan though a few controls went walkabout at various points during the evening (first 234 and 245 went missing but were found by Rob and later on 139 made a very temporary disappearance or maybe that was just an excuse for not finding the point).  As controls came and went and came again and I don’t have a record of splits, I’m afraid times are as recorded by your brikke and I can’t void any legs, so apologies to those who spent a long time hunting for controls that weren’t there.  But it’s all good practice, it’s the taking part that counts etc etc…well maybe not for all…and you’ve got another 11 events to show us what you can do.

Results

Many thanks to all my helpers: Naomi and Angela for help setting out controls, Alex and Patrick for help at registration and download, Jayne and Anne for helping newcomers (and control replacement), Sasha, Nick and Patrick for collecting the controls and Helen for filling in all those certificates!!  Prize for best use of time goes to Nick for collecting in the northern controls whilst still doing his course and chasing the Finish stake all the way to the car.

Cheers,
Marianne

PS We look forward to seeing everyone at Tyrebagger this Sunday

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

Forest Sprint results from Foggieton 10th May

A pleasant cool and dry evening.  A bit difficult to squeeze a 3 km course into such a small area.  Thanks to Helen Rowlands for helping with registration/download, Dennis, Bob and John for collecting controls and Rob Hickling for help with map corrections.

Forest_Sprint_Foggieton_Results

Overall Results after Foggieton

Tyrebagger Middle Distance – Sunday 28/5/17 – Results

A cold wind if you were hanging about at the registration tent, but otherwise fine dry conditions for a quick dash around Tyrebagger.  Several positive comments were heard about the courses, and the forest was in good shape as the bracken is still low.  Many thanks to our event team and all the helpers.

Click on the links for provisional results and split times.

Winsplits and Routegadget are loaded.  BOF ranking points

  Officials
Planner: Rachel Scott
Control Hangers: Evgueni and Sasha Chepelin
Organiser: Laura Farquharson
Controller: Paul Duley

Summer Series 2017

Summer Series Events – fun, friendly events with something for everyone on Wednesday evenings. Events will have an easy (white/yellow standard), medium (orange standard) and two as-hard-as-we-can-make-it courses of different lengths (generally referred to as short and long tech).

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

Junior attendance awards Well done to all the ‘medal’ winners.

Google Map of all locations

Continue reading →

Dunnottar Forest Sprint 26/4/17 Results

The midges weren’t actually biting, the notorious mudslides of Dunnottar weren’t anywhere near as bad as previous years, Jon beat Ewan by 2 seconds, the injury wasn’t a broken ankle as feared and Rachel and Pete had their chips.
I’d call that an evening full of results.

Dunnottar FS 26-4-17.pdf

Many thanks to Mark Hammonds for getting our injured competitor home after a visit to Stonehaven minor injuries clinic; hope the complications won’t hamper his preparations for an early flight out of Aberdeen at 0530 on Friday morning (ouch!).

Hazlehead Forest Sprint Wednesday 12th April Results

Results

A straightforward event at Hazlehead: just one unmapped abandoned tent between two points – not quite as exciting as the naturist sunbathing in the dunes at Balmedie last year.

Olivia had brisk trade at her cake stall, not surprising as we were spoilt for choice and my choice was delicious.

Some new faces and some old faces braving a chilly wind and evening golfers. Good to meet/catch up with you and hope to see some of you at Glen O’Dee next week? Details on Maroc’s website.

Crathes – Level C Event – 9/4/17 – Results

Crathes Event Results

A pleasant mild day at Crathes, perfect conditions and dry underfoot, so some fast times seen especially by the leaders on the Brown (and all the more impressive considering the fastest 4 legs had already done the Clachnaben Hill Race on Sat!) And at the other end of the spectrum, it was great to see so many new faces having a go – hope you enjoyed it and that we’ll see you again some time over the next few months at our Forest Sprint or Summer Series.

Here are Results and Splits.
BO results c/w rankings points.

Routegadget is loaded here, and you can analyse your splits at Winsplits.

Thanks to Planner Helen, control setter-outers Rachel, Pete, Gareth and Helen, Controller Andy and Organiser Paul who were rewarded by a larger than usual entry.

Courses

Officials
Planner: Helen Rowlands
Organiser: Paul Duley
Controller: Andy Tivendale

Compass Sport Cup 2017 – 3rd place for Gramp in the Trophy class!

=-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 a team competition so you need strength and depth across a variety of age classes/courses, so potentially anyone’s score could be the deciding factor between placings.
Tentsmuir’s an area well suited to such a broad variety of competitors with a grid of forest blocks, some of which have small patches and ridges of highly complex contour detail for the TD5 courses. The blocks seem ridiculously easy at first glance but lulled one or two of us into a false sense of security and caught us napping.
Thanks to all 31 Gramps who ventured down and particularly to our 13 highest scorers shown in bold below.

Helen & Stuart Anderson; Evgueni Chepelin; Bob Daly; David Esson; Morven, Kirsty & Laura Farquharson;Sam, Lesley & Josie Gomersall; Oonagh Grassie;Sam, Noah & Tim Griffin; Rob & Anne Hickling; Anne Hoy; Pete Lawrence; Alan & Jayne Macgregor; Neil McLean; Iain, Calum & Carolyn McLeod; Richard Oxlade; Ali Robertson; Rachel Scott;
Bob Sheridan; Gordon Urquhart; Duncan Will. For full results check out Robin Strain’s results pages.

This now means that we’ve qualified for the CSC final down in Devon 22/10/17 at the intriguingly named area, Virtuous Lady – fancy an Autumn break anyone? FlyBe will get you to Exeter via Manchester for a mere £180!

Double win for Lesley Gomersall at Scottish Night and Sprint Champs 2017!

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 Helen Rowlands
W50L 1st Carolyn McLeod
W55L 1st Lesley Gomersall

M/W Open 1st Keith Yardley

M70L 1st Neil McLean
M55L 3rd Richard Oxlade

Scottish Sprint Champs
W55 1st Lesley Gomersall

M21 2nd Callum McLeod
M55 3rd Sam Gomersall
W50 3rd Carolyn McLeod

Full results and RouteGadget can be found on the MOR website.
What do you make of the courses?

Forest Sprint Series – Wednesdays

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.

April 12th Hazlehead GRAMP    Results
April 19th Glen O’Dee MAROC   Results
April 26th Dunnottar GRAMP    Results
May 3rd  Tilquillie MAROC         Results
May 10th Foggieton GRAMP       Results
May 17th Dess MAROC                 Results

One course TD3 or Orange standard, 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

Overall Results after all 6 events.

.

Compass Sport Cup – Tentsmuir 12th March

The Compass Sport Cup qualifying round this year is being hosted by KFO at Tentsmuir in Fife on Sunday 12th March. Tentsmuir is a runnable coastal forest, excellent orienteering terrain, which has staged the British Championships in the past!

This is an inter-club competition; however, you need to do your own entry via Oentries.   You can enter any course you like, but if you want your result to count towards GRAMP score in the club competition then you need to enter an appropriate course.  Full details can be found by clicking here.

Start times need to be allocated by the club, not the organisers, so if you enter, please let me know (GRAMP treasurer email) if you have a start time preference (early, mid-, late etc).   Start times are between 11.00 and 13.00.

Entries here:

https://oentries.com/event/details/633-compasssport-cup-and-trophy-scottish-heat-at-tentsmuir-north

The finals are on 22 October 2017 in Devon.

DNC Scolty – 8th Feb 2017 – Results

A slightly damp night, but the drizzle was light and didn’t realy penetrate the trees too badly.  The forest was very wet underfoot, however – I’ve never seen the marshes so wet.  Fortunately, the event was well over before a sharp snowstorm blew through about 9.45pm!  The courses were very nice – thanks to Murray for planning and running the event.  The Chilimobile was well patronised, and was serving a magnificent “multi-millionaire shortbread” … What an extraordinary calorie-packed tray-bake.  If you missed it, hard luck – you snooze you lose!

Here are Results and Split times.

Routegadget is loaded up – please put up your wiggly routes!

North Area Junior Training day on 18th February Culbin

In an exciting new development for 2017, we will be introducing North Area Junior Orienteering training days!

Main aims:
*To provide coached training opportunities outwith club orienteeringfor TD3 (Orange) and above juniors.
*To provide fun and motivational opportunities for juniors in the North of Scotland.
*To provide a stepping stone between club and national squad level.

Who can join in?
The training days will not be selected, however all juniors attending need to be confident at completing an orange (TD3) course independently.
Last chance to sign up for the first North Area Junior Training day on 18th February!
I need to have confirmed numbers by Sunday night (5th February) so that I can ensure we have enough coaches lined up for the day.

We are currently at 24 junior athletes, which is very exciting 🙂
I’m sure there’s lots more who would like to join us! Anyone under 20 who can independently conquer a TD3/orange course is welcome, even if you’re in ScotJOS.

Also, remember to get designing your North Area logos so we can vote on them at Culbin.
More details for the training day will go directly to those who are attending in the week beforehand.

Jess Tullie

(GJOs – if you want to sign up then email Jess directly jjtullie at’ gmail.com)

DNC Tyrebagger – 25th Jan 2017 – Results

Another pleasantly mild and dry winter’s evening for night-O at Tyrebagger.

Here are:  Results and Splits

Routegadget is loaded – please enter your routes and check out the splits on Splitsbrowser.

Balmedie – Sun 5th February 2017 – Results

We were taken by surprise a bit by a last-minute Saturday rush to pre-enter this event using the Early Email Entry system.  We’d printed 85 maps based on early indications of the number of EEE’s.  In the end, there were 97 runners.  So well done everyone for getting up off the couch and coming along to run.

Extra maps were photocopied on Sunday morning, but they weren’t on waterproof paper and the quality was slightly reduced.  So we apologise to anyone who used a map of lesser quality than our normal standards.

There was some vandalism of controls on the Yellow course – controls had been picked up and thrown onto the ground a little way away.  They were found and replaced quite quickly by competitors (for which many thanks), but some people will have lost some time – sorry for that.  We’ve had controls stolen at Balmedie before (boo….) – so this is not a particular surprise;  fortunately none were taken away for good this time.

Click for provisional Results and Splits.

Routegadget has been loaded – sorry for the delay – it’s been a bit tricky this time, I need to edit the punches because of the cluster controls!

The results for Green and Blue have been adjusted to include any penalties incurred at the ‘joker’ control clusters.  Many of you got it 100% right – well done.  The Blue was won by Calum McLeod, who won by 3 seconds despite a 3 minute penalty.  Hazel and Martin were very close in 2nd and 3rd place, with no time penalties.  Dave and Sonia Armitage maded it an impressive family 1-2 on Green, also with no time penalties.

The correct controls in the clusters were:

Blue:     A  242,    B  248,   C  236

Green:  X  240,   Y  245

Time penalties have been applied by adding them to your run-in split time (i.e. between control 96 and the Finish).  If you have any queries, please email the planner!

The planner would very much like to thank Adrian Will and Bob Daly for the great job they did with control collecting after the event.  All controls were collected in by 3:05pm.  (The planner managed to avoid the very heavy rainshower than swept through Balmedie about 3:10pm!).  And a special mention of thanks to Duncan Will for his organisational help all the way through the event.

Our thanks to Anne Hickling for running an excellent soup and cakes stall.  Over £120 was raised for Water Aid.  Thank you for your generosity.  Anne’s objective this year is to raise funds for projects in Madagascar, leading up to a visit to Madagascar in November where she’ll be joining a trek, hopefully seeing some lemurs, and visiting a WaterAid project to see what a difference clean water can make.  Only half of Madagascar’s population has access to safe water and only 10% access to decent sanitation, so your support is much appreciated.

Courses:

• Yellow – Easy navigation, along paths – 2.0km   45m climb
• Light Green – Quite hard navigation – 2.7km   90m climb
• Green – Hard navigation – 3.1km    120m climb
• Blue – Hard navigation – 5.0km     160m climb

On the Blue and Green courses, two or three of the controls will have a special twist:- no control code will be provided, so you’ll have to find the correct control unit purely from the map and control description.  There will be several false controls placed nearby to try to confuse you! … and each time you punch a wrong control, a 3 minute time penalty will be applied.

Officials:

Organiser: Adrian Will
Planner: Rob Hickling

DNC Forvie 11th Jan 2017 – Results

Twas a beautiful night, not a cloud in the sky, with a full moon and a great view of the planet Venus and the stars. (Not that the moonlight helped me much!).  There was a bitter wind and it was only 3 degrees, but it didn’t feel too bad when you were running in a cagoule.  We had to take care not to drop our map in the windy spots, or it would have been quite a chase over the dunes to catch it.

Here are the Results and splits .

Routegadget is loaded.  Please add your routes – they should be interesting!

Thanks to planners Ali Robertson and Adrian Will for their fiendish courses, to Adrian for hanging the controls.  And thanks as always to Teresa for making the longish trip with the chilimobile – which was much appreciated by their customers.

Hogmanay Hangover Handicap – Hazelhead – 02/01/2017

Sudok-O

Congratulations to all who came and managed to find their way round the right 9 controls! Great watching the start as everyone ran off in different directions.

We had 8 teams running around the slightly icy Hazelhead, and all but one managed to collect all 27 controls, getting caught out collecting two 237’s and no 227 (a couple of question marks – did Olivia visit 245 [I think so], and I lost Oonaghs download, but I’m sure she’ll have got the nine the others didn’t). Rachel thought up some great team names, but I am sorry to say I lost the sheet so unless she can remember them …

Many thanks to the McLeods for their hospitatlity having everyone round for soup and for providing prizes for the first three teams!

Some results and the map:
Team Results
Individual Run Results
Individual Splits
Hazelhead SudokO Map

Description

Based on the puzzle Sudoku of a 9×9 square that needs filling with numbers 1 to 9 …
There are 27 controls.
Teams of 3.
Each team of 3 people to visit all 27 controls, each team member to visit 9 controls whose last digit is numbered 1 to 9 (in ANY order).
All runners start at same time (11.00) after 10-15 mins dividing up the controls between team members (a PEN will be useful at this stage!).

Winning team is the one that collects all 27 controls correctly between three people in shortest time (runner times are summed – like a relay – but all running at once).

In more detail … the LAST DIGIT of each control is a number from 1 to 9. For example, controls 224, 234, 244 all count as 4’s. The first two digits of each control number only serve to identify the correct control on the ground. Each runner must visit nine controls collecting one of each number from 1 to 9, but in any order. So one runner might visit controls 235, 221, 246, 229, 222, 233, 244, 228, 227 and their two team mates will collect the other 18 controls between them.

Q   where has the extra H come from?
A   me!    Helen’s Hogmanay Hangover Handicap at Hazelhead

Crathes – DNC – 21/12/16 – Results

Many thanks to Lesley and Jack for another great evening .. last this year!

Some results and routegadget

Simple Results
Splits
Routegadget

Have a look …

Gramp events for 2017  requiring organisers / planners are listed HERE

Please take a peek and see if you can help out.

Post-AGM Novelty Event @ Countesswells 11/12/16

Results             Map
Pondering over the top words: 2 Juniors came up with “sunshine” compared to the adults’ “rampage” and “dental” – what does that tell you about the different perspective a few extra age classes gives you?!

Prepare to be boggled! This was a score event like no other…

Instead of controls having a points value, each control has a letter allocated.
The aim is to create words by visiting the controls in correct sequence to spell out your words.

1. 45 minute time limit
2. Visit controls only once
3. 2 points per minute penalty after 45 mins

4. For each word created 1 point is awarded for each letter.
5. 5 points bonus for 5 & 6 letter words
6. 10 points bonus for 7 & 8 letter words
7. 15 points bonus for 9 letter words and over
For example: “HAT” = 3 points, “SLOPE” = 5 points + 5 bonus points = 10 points

Well done to all those who turned up to the boggle O score. Rob Hickling had the best tactics and the overall best score for the seniors, with Naomi Laing holding Calum off the top spot for the juniors.  Thanks to Bob, Liz and Helen for their help at registration and collecting controls.

A bit of planning insight to anyone who might be interested…..

The requirement was for something a bit different so after a bit of head scratching the Boggle idea was hatched. I’d picked out about 30 control sites in Countesswells and looking at it I thought it would be easy to get quite a lot in 45 mins (how wrong could I be), but I wasn’t sure how quickly people would manage to work out their words. A quick search on the internet provided lists of the best letters to use that would also provide the maximum possibilities.

I thought people would try to work out words with letters that were close together and confined to 3 different area’s . The first one, the Northern area in the top half of the map, the second area closest to the Rotton o’Gairn car park and the third area close to the start.

If you put the letters I used into a scrabble cheat in google you’ll find that there are literally hundreds of possible words in each area and I did spend quite a bit of time juggling the different possibilities – I wanted to try if at all possible to use letters which would provide orienteering terms, but in the end just made sure that I kept the letters to spell “Grampian” and the rest would have to be a bit of a mix of luck and design.

Judging by the deductions for late returns it would probably have been better to have 1 point per minute deducted and allowed 60 minutes for the course.

Getting all this into Condes was a bit time consuming, but worked out ok in the end. I was pleased that at least some people managed to get “Grampian” and even more pleased when Calum produced “Grampians”.

Dennis

DNC Glen Dye 7/12/16 – Results

As well as a new planner we had some new faces at Glen Dye, enjoying both the good terrain, good weather and the Chillimobile hospitality. Welcome to the DNC “club” guys!

Final Results and Split Times

Apologies from our newbie planner, Bob Sheridan, for control 7 (131) on the Long being in the wrong depression. We’ve voided* the legs on either side.

*Seems Glen Dye has that mind-blowing effect on first time DNC planners (you’ll remember Rachel had to do the same last year?) and it’s hard to know who to ask to double-check for you without making them non-comp as most of the experienced orienteers are DNC regulars.

Date for your Diary: Gramp AGM, 10th December 2016

Where? The Craigiebuckler Scout Hall, accessed from Craigibuckler Drive starting promptly at 7pm. No parking on the grass please!
When? 7pm en punto
What? AGM business followed by prizegiving and food and fun and games and blether

Just a reminder for everyone to bring a dish to share to the AGM and your own choice of beverage. Your dish can be savory or sweet, and perfect if it can be shared.
If you have any special dietary needs, it is assumed you will ensure you bring a sharing dish to suit your needs.
Drinks as per usual is BYOB “Bring Your Own Bottle/Booze/Beverage”. Please remember your own serving spoons and tongs to suit. Cutlery, napkins, cups and plates will be provided.
There will be team games for all following the meal.

Bring your food 5/10 minutes early to allow a prompt start to the AGM at 7pm.

See you all there.

The AUOC 100

The Aberdeen University Orienteering Club organised the first ever (as far as we are aware) 100 control point race around the Aberdeen Uni campus.

Here are the results:

Loop Results    Splits

Cumulative Overall Times

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and well done for those whose concentration meant that they found all the controls in sequence!

We apologise for the mistake at the end of loops 2 and 3 (100 CP course) with the incorrect control codes on 167-240 and 159-248.  Everyone has been reinstated who was affected by these checkpoints.

Mapper, Planner and Organiser (!):   Janne Heikkinen,   AUOC president

100cp Final details.pdf

DNC Balmedie – 23/11/16 – Results

Starry, starry night!  Perfect for star-gazing and not so bad for orinteering, either!  Although cold (+1 deg) there was almost no wind, and conditions were excellent for fast running.  The ground frost actually hardened up the open sandy areas, and made them faster than ever before.

The EMIT equipment worked well despite the cold.  All the brikkes functioned perfectly.  I think that doing the brikke check at registration is something we should always do.  The control units worked fine, although two units (103, and 106) gave numerous low battery warnings – “99 codes”.  However, with one exception, they still registered punches on the brikkes of everyone who visited them.  The exception affected Matthew Gooch, who logged a “99 code” from control 106, but no punch registered there.  As the 99 code is clear evidence that he visited the control, we have happily reinstated Matthew.  Controls 103 and 106 are now going to be retired from active duty (after over 10 years service).

There was very close competition at the top of both courses, though you’ll see from the splits that even the speed merchants still had far from perfect runs and some lost considerable time at certain controls.  Here are the links to:

Results        Splits         Routegadget

Planner/Organiser – Rob Hickling

GMC 2016: Morven 12th/13th November

Day 1  Results  Splits  RouteGadget
Day 2  Results  Splits  Routegadget

Overall results    Organiser’s Report

A big thank you to all who came to pit themselves against the Grampian terrain and each other. We were lucky with the weather in the end after the previous weekend’s foul conditions – sunshine and superb visibility on Saturday and a dry but frosty night at the overnight camp helped make it a day to remember for all the right reasons.

Thanks to those who realised things weren’t going to plan and phoned to let us know they’d bailed or would be late back – another bit of luck as we don’t always get such good mobile reception – and to those who bowed out gracefully on Day 2 and helped to pack up the campsite or lent their Excel expertise – really helps us run the event smoothly.

Bit of rain Sunday afternoon but didn’t seem to cause too much grief on the homeward stretch and well done to those who completed Day 2 and laid a few Grampian demons to rest

Congratulations to the overall winners and other prize winners:

A
1st Overall     Alec Keith MV
1st Pair           Alex McVey & John Ryan M
1st Ladies       Susan Blackwood & Katy Boocock FV  aka Black and Boo
1st Vet             Jonathan Shepherd MV

B
1st Overall     Duncan Coombs & Chloe Haines MIX  aka Auld and Reekie
1st Solo           Gordon Urquhart M
1st Ladies       Bryony and Rebecca Harding F  aka Hard(-ing) as Nails
1st Vet             David Frame MV*

C
1st Overall     John and Naomi Lang MIX  aka The Hare and the Tortoise
1st Mixed       Ben and Clare Stansfield MIX aka The Stoating Stannies
1st Vet            Kenny Milton MV
1st P&P          James & Graeme Ackland M  aka A Clan
1st Solo          Pete Lawrence MV

* corrected 14/11/16 – apologies for getting this wrong on the day (blame Rachel’s mental arithmetic for mis-estimation in our rush to present as many prizes as possible on the day before potential winners left to go home.) Bottle of wine en route to you somehow soon.

We also need to thank numerous folk for help/permissions etc (see Organiser’s Report above too.)

The Factors & Owners of Candecraig, Dinnet & Kinord, and Tillypronie Estates.
The Sporting Tenants on Dinnet & Kinord Estate.
Mr John Anderson.
FCS & SNH.
Tisos – for providing voucher prizes.
Mar Orienteering Club.
Aberdeen Scouts.
Maryculter Scouts.
Dave, Alan & Ross – The Catering Team.
Mike, Donnie & Graham – The Heavy Kit Team and Hill Marshals.
Mid Deeside Community Trust.
The Dinnet Hall committee.
Brandon Hire & Heilan Loos.

And personally, I’d also like to thank Ian S, Ian H, Rachel, Helen, Sam, Tim & Josie G, Iain B, Tim, Ali, Kate, Sean, and all the competitors who also became helpers at some point during the weekend. A final thanks to my wife Liz for putting up with my ‘project’ over the last 18 months, acting as event Base Contact, and managing to come up with a GMC Prize Cup (in chocolate).

Organiser: David Kirk
Planner: Ian Searle
Controller: Ian Hamilton

If anyone took any photos and is willing to share them then send the link to webmaster@grampoc.com please.

More photos from Ian Hamilton here and Yomping Yardleys here

“Many thanks for the race – a great introduction to mountain marathons for my daughter. She’ll now expect all of them to transport bags, have heated tents, controls in the right places, be well catered and have quick results. A few photos from my phone are linked here.  Cheers, Dave Robertson”

Photos from the Langs: “A bit Langcentric, but a few photos from the week end. And proof that John and Naomi even had time for photos on Day 1!”

DNC Cheyne Hill 9/11/16

Results Splits RG     Long course results amended 16/11/16

First big apology goes to Alistair for repeatedly calling him Craig. I do know who you are but was suffering brain fade after a long day and hassle over brikkes not starting.

Second apology goes to all who had trouble getting brikkes to start – lesson learned and we’ll not be using the old ones for DNC in future as it looks like they don’t like the cold any more than we do.
I was keeping our new brikkes aside for GMC this weekend and wasn’t sure how many we had and whether I could cover both events with all new brikkes so decided to use older for last night. Bad move!
You’ll see on the results I’ve massaged the times by either using folks’ watch/GPS time or estimating what they might have taken for the first leg as they mostly have all correct controls logged just not the Start.

Third apology is for not getting results up last night as GMC preparations took precedence and then bed beckoned.

Fourth apology is for apologising so much!

Organiser: Rachel Scott
Long 4.9km 240m climb
Short 3km 165m climb

AUOC events for Movember

AUOC would like to invite everyone along to their events to help raise funds and awareness of mens health for Movember. Here’s the flyer and check their Facebook for details or their Movember campaign page.

Sun 13th November  Foggieton
Tues 15th November  Quiz night
Sun 20th November Duthie Park
Sun 27th November 100 control race Aberdeen campus

Scottish Junior Inter Area Relay @ Culbin 29/10/16

Some of our GJOs did their bit for the North Team in the Scottish Junior Inter Area Relay last weekend – well done Naomi, Hannah & Josie for flying the GRAMP flag. Full results can be found here .

Scolty 23/10/16 Level C – Results

We hope you enjoyed our event at Scolty – with some tough courses.

Here are Results,   and Split Times.

Routegadget is loaded (click here) – Please enter your routes and compare them with others.

Winsplits (split time analysis website) is loaded – click here

BOF results with Rankings points  Added 30/10/16

Thanks to our event officials, helpers and control collectors.

Brown 7.8 Km
Blue 6.9 Km
Green 4.9 Km
Light Green 3.5 Km
Orange 2.9 Km
Yellow 2.7 Km
White 1.8 Km

Officials
Planner: John Lang
Organiser: Alex Maclachlan
Controller: Drew Tivendale

Hazelhead Night O – Wed 26/10/2016 – Results

We had a pleasant starry night for the “come and try it” Night-O at Hazlehead. Some fast times were recorded on Helen’s good courses.  The recent rain has wetted the ground quite a lot.  The grass was pretty squelchy in places (not good for golfers) and the ditches had a lot of water in them.

Did anyone see the Northern Lights after the race?  There was a red-alert … high chance of aurora.

The event was only timed informally, and results do not count for the Deeside Night Cup. But here are the results, and split times for those who are interested.

A couple of quite experienced people failed to punch the Start control (you must wait till it flashes) !! Don’t forget next week !  And sorry to Luke Graham who had a non-working eCard.

Long  5km  – difficulty TD5  (hard)
Medium  3km – difficulty TD5 (hard)
Orange 2.3km – difficulty TD3  (medium)

North Area Inter-Club Junior Challenge 2016 – calling all GJOs

Mike Rogers of MOR would like to invite all GJOs to take part in the North Area Inter-Club Junior Challenge 2016. The competition is deliberately kept simple and is aimed at juniors who run Light Green and below – White runners completing their course have been known to sway the final results, so everybody’s result really does help.

It would be great to see all 5 north clubs fielding teams to make it into a truly competitive event (and also a chance to get to know their local peers and team-mates for when North compete against the other Scottish regions.) Somebody from Gramp’s GJO Team may well be about to send an email round to you all but thought I’d better give you the heads up asap.

This year’s North Clubs Junior Challenge will be at the excellent Keppernach on 6th Nov incorporated into INVOC’s Level C event so there will be chances for parents/chauffeurs to compete too.

North Clubs Junior Challenge Format 2016.pdf
North Area Inter-club Junior Challenge 2016.pdf

Deeside Night Cup 2016/17

To try and make best use of the darker nights, the DNC will start and finish a bit earlier again this year. Two courses 3km and 5km at TD5/Green standard as far as possible. No concessions to the dark. There may also be an additional Orange in a couple of our less technical/scary areas for really junior Juniors and beginners to be able to have a go too. Check the details on the DNC blog .

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26/10/2016 GRAMP Hazlehead intro event
02/11/2016 MAROC Cambus O’May
09/11/2016 GRAMP Cheyne Hill, Stonehaven 
16/11/2016 MAROC Dess
23/11/2016 GRAMP Balmedie
30/11/2016 MAROC Muir of Dinnet 1
07/12/2016 GRAMP Glen Dye
14/12/2016 MAROC Bogendreip
21/12/2016 GRAMP Crathes

04/01/2017 MAROC Muir of Dinnet 2
11/01/2017 GRAMP Forvie
18/01/2017 MAROC Coull
25/01/2017 GRAMP Tyrebagger
01/02/2017 MAROC Muir of Dinnet 3
08/02/2017 GRAMP Scolty
15/02/2017 MAROC Glen O’Dee + 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!

Urban Sprint Aberdeen Uni 28/9/16 – Results

Last in the series using a newly refurbished map courtesy of Janne Heikkinen of AUOC.  Thanks to the Gomersall family for planning and running the event.

Here are the Results ,  and Split Times

Please enter your routes on Routegadget   so we can see the answer to the most asked question last ight, “Which way did you go 10 to 11?”

(We await the final points totals with bated breath !)
You can breathe again now…  Overall points     Overall points by category

Congrats to the category winners – prizes will be dished out at the AGM.
If you’re not a club member then we’ll have to arrange some other method to hand over the goodies – contact me on webmaster@grampoc.com

Lot of fun had by all – thanks for coming and supporting the series and see you all next year I hope.