Events/Results

Forest Sprint @ Scolty 25/4/16

It’s never to late to come along and join in the fun for the Forest Sprint Series – although best 4 of 6 scores count towards the final score you don’t have to attend all 6. So even if you missed the first two come along to Scolty and get the old legs and brain working overtime on a short, sharp dash around a 3km course.

You’re also more than welcome to come along and treat it as a lovely evening walk to get some fresh air and exercise of course.
Bring the dog, bring a friend, bring the family.

See you there?

Parking in the Forestry Commission car park signposted from Banchory.
Registration: 18:00 to 18:50
Starts: 18:30 to 19:15
Fees: £4 Senior, £2.50 Junior/Student

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.

Glen Dye – Level C Event – 6th May 2018

Introduction
Welcome, come and have a great time in one of Gramp’s flagship areas. This counts towards both Jon Duncan Junior Deeside Cup and GRAMP Champs.

Location
Streetmap Link
Postcode: AB31 6LU    what3words: emulated.expert.drank
Lat/Long: 57.006816,-2.585495 OS      Grid Ref: NO645907

Parking will be in the north west area of the map on forest tracks. This will be signposted from the B976 just west of the junction for Potarch, between Finzean and Strachan.  If coming from the south, follow the B976 over Cairn O’Mount and fork left at the AA Box in Glen Dye.
Toilets available at Bridge of Feugh and the main carpark in Banchory en route.

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

Registration/download will be adjacent to parking.
Distance to Start/Finish and suitability for buggies TBC.

Courses
Gareth is busy putting the final touches to a full range from White to Brown – more details to follow asap.

Guide to course difficulty (thanks BKO).

Entry
Entry on the day, or, to help our IT team, if you think you are probably coming to the event and have a fair idea of which course you would like to run, please email your name, BOF number and course to grampoc@gmail.com (subject EEE Glen Dye). A map will be held for you till noon. No obligation to run if you change your mind.
Senior: BOF/SOA member £6, Non-BOF/SOA member £8
Junior: £3

Officials
Planner: Gareth Yardley
Organiser: Laura Farquharson (looking for offers of help from Gramps please)
Controller: Andy Oliver MAROC

Dogs
Well behaved dogs and their owners welcome

Notices
Safety – A risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event. Health – Full leg and torso cover is required due to ticks. Waterproofs may be compulsory if weather is really bad so bring them just in case.

Public Liability – Please be aware that British Orienteering Federation (BOF) event insurance only covers non-member participants  for public liability for 3 events in any one year (this includes helpers, parents shadowing and competitors).

Privacy – when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports. Grampian Orienteers data privacy policy

Photography – In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or video showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or video and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.

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

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

More info now available:
GMC18 – Information, Rules and Kit List (published 15 Feb)
GMC18 – Flyer

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

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.

LOOK! There’s a small group of GRAMPs currently in touch with each other to try and arrange a Mountain Marathon day – nothing too formal, just a chance to bounce tips and ideas of each other and go out to practice navigation on a mountain/moorland sort of scale. If you want to join in then email webmaster@grampoc.com and I’ll put you in touch.

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. 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 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
May 2nd      Tilquhillie   MAROC
May 9th       Mulloch       GRAMP
May 16th     Bellwood      MAROC

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

.

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 .
.

.
.

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.

GMC18 – Information, Rules and Kit List (published 15 Feb)
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.

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?