Category Archives: News

I had hoped to bring you some updates from JK 2019 but still can’t figure out the results by class so that’s still pending. I did have a trawl through Steve Rush’s photos and found this photo of the lesser spotted Daly though. BOC 2019 in Yorkshire is still going strong with Relays today (6/5/19) andContinue reading “JK 2019 & BOC 2019”

Gramp has already had podium success at Day 1 of the JK 2019. Sam Griffin came 2nd in the M16 Sprint. His father also got a top ten placing in M50. Today is Middle Distance day, and we have three more Gramps competing, having kept their powder dry yesterday!😂 Good luck to Bob Daly, PaulContinue reading “JK 2019 Podium Success”

The idea is to build up a database to help estimate the risk of exposure of humans to ticks and tick bites in Scotland and many of you helped this citizen science project by Scotland’s Rural College last year by reporting the presence, or absence, of ticks after you’d been orienteering or doing other outdoorContinue reading “SRUC tick research project has recommenced for 2019”

Well done to assorted Gramps for braving a looooooooong walk in and out as well as the technicalities of Dinnet to contest the British Night Champs over the weekend.  Congratulations to the medal winners and commiserations to those who ran out of steam/brainpower especially after helping at the SOUL at Cove earlier in the day. W21L KatrinaContinue reading “British Night Champs 2019”

We can’t claim any champions this year but we can claim some near misses. Pete, Rachel, David and Katrina ran at the Night Champs held at the John Muir Country Park just outside Dunbar 2/2/19 – very flat and fast compared to most DNC fare but good fun and an amazingly clear and starry nightContinue reading “2019 Scottish Night and Sprint Champs”

The Minutes of the 2018 AGM have been circulated around the club members by email so for those that missed out or have lost that email, here’s a quick summary of issues discussed, prizes awarded and the 2018 Roll of Honour.

Four GRAMPs made the trip down south to Roxburgh Reiver’s event at Elibank in the Borders (to get in a bit of Score practice priot to the post-AGM event next weekend?) and did very well! Congratulations to Pete Lawrence and Neil McLean who are this year’s champions for M55 and M75 respectively. Bob Daly cameContinue reading “Scottish Score Champs 2018”

According to Space Weather News for Sept. 6, 2018 JUPITER HAS AN EXTRA MAGNETIC POLE: NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered something extraordinary about Jupiter. There is an extra magnetic pole near the giant planet’s equator, dubbed “The Great Blue Spot” by researchers who identified it. Jupiter’s unexpected magnetic morphology is a sign that strange thingsContinue reading “So how do they orienteer?”

We have 3 Gramps running at WMOC 2018 over in Denmark – Oonagh Grassie W60, Rob Hickling M60 and Peter Bellarby M80. Following the opening ceremony complete with flags, steel band and Indoor Sprint event amongst other things, they got down to business on Saturday with Sprint Qualifiers followed by Sprint Finals today. Tomorrow seesContinue reading “World Masters Orienteering Championships 6th – 13th July 2018”

Congratulations to all those who high-tailed it to Harris for the last ever Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM) this past weekend. Special mention to Sam and Jack Gomersall – FIRST – on the C course. Whoopee! Well done! Great photos on the LAMM site (and links to full results). Other Gramps and associates spotted inContinue reading “Gramps at LAMM 2018”

We have more champions in our midst – and some double champions too! Building on last weekend’s successes Ros Evans, Oonagh Grassie and Kevin Reynard all won this weekend and some excellent personal results all round so congrats to all and as with the BOC I’ve listed all results as a measure of how weContinue reading “Scottish Championships 2018”

Well done to everyone who came, ran, won or just had fun and helped out over the weekend. Photo links for many of us caught in action (or mid-lick of an icecream) can be found on the SOA website post dedicated to BOC 2018. It was a mighty big ask of Gramp to be lead clubContinue reading “British Orienteering Championships 18th/19th May 2018”

In a bid to move away from the red and the castle, which some folk have said they don’t like that much, we’ve been mulling over alternative themes still connected to the Aberdeen coat of arms or other symbols and can now proudly unveil the new club running tights: made from ultra industrial rip-stop lycraContinue reading “New club kit running tights”

Quick summary of you for those of you who didn’t go to the AGM – and it’s very quick as it was a long time ago and I can’t remember much now. Sorry – should have posted much sooner. Busy year: Forest Sprints, Summer Series, Level C events, Urban etc. Scottish 6 Days – anotherContinue reading “2017 AGM roundup and Roll of Honour”

Sprint is one of the many different flavours of orienteering that seems to be getting more and more popular. It can be done in forest* or urban settings but in either case involves very short courses with lots of controls and twists and turns to keep your brain, lungs and legs at max capacity forContinue reading “Scottish Sprint Championships 2018”

Thanks to Tim Griffin, Oonagh Grassie and Anne Hickling for flying the Gramp flag at this year’s CSC qualifier at Beecraigs 11/3/18. Between them they scored 280 points – just enough to keep us off the bottom of the table for the small clubs’ CompassSport Trophy. I know there were several others who entered, orContinue reading “CompassSport Cup Qualifier 2018”

Some of you will be aware of ongoing discussions/plans for the dualling of the A96 from Aberdeen to Elgin and that some of the alternative routes under consideration would encroach upon Bennachie and its surroundings. From a purely selfish orienteering point of view, or from a wider ranging appreciation of the other benefits that BennachieContinue reading “Bennachie under threat?”

Here’s the map from EUOC’s Big Weekend Indoor O laid on by Prof Graeme Ackland of INT in “his” offices (JCMB Building in Uni Kings Campus). Indoor O map – EUOC Big Weekend 2018 The staircases are all given letters so you can spot where they come out on successive floors, green lines across corridorsContinue reading “And now for something completely different…”

British Orienteering has announced the GBR Senior Squad for 2018, and there are a good number of Scottish and Scotland-based athletes included in the squad not least ex-Gramp Sasha Chepelin. Congratulations! (And next year I promise to try and keep better tabs on his international apearances and results as this year it was all alContinue reading “Sasha’s in the GBR Senior Squad for 2018”

A good day for Gramp today. Congratulations to these guys who swept ~20% of the podium places between them: Champions M21 Jack Gomersall M40 Pete Lawrence M55 Sam Gomersall M60 Bob Daly W50 Carolyn McLeod Plenty of 2nd places too – W60 Oonagh Grassie, M60 Rob Hickling, M14 Sam Griffin, M35 David Esson (robbed byContinue reading “Scottish Score Championships 2017”

Congratulations to the following GRAMPs for top 3 placings in this year’s Scottish Orienteering League final rankings: W40L 3rd Carolyn McLeod (running up a class or two) W60S 2nd Oonagh Grassie M12B 2nd Noah Griffin M35S 1st David Esson (who also got his Organiser’s badge for Forvie) M50S 1st Pete Lawrence (who also got hisContinue reading “SOL Rankings 2017”

Not to do with orienteering so even more of a double-take when I read Mark Mon-Williams’ name in this article. Wonder if he’s tried using junior orienteers for his study as their eyesight and balance must be better than the average?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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