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Balmedie Training Event Sun 30th

JUST A WEE REMINDER TO FILL IN THE PRE-ENTRY FORM BELOW FOR THE NEXT TRAINING EVENT NEXT SUNDAY TO GUARANTEE YOURSELF A MAP, PREFERABLY BY TUESDAY LUNCHTIME.
THE AREA LOOKED GREAT TODAY WHILST YOUR COACH WAS SUSSING OUT THE TRAINING EXERCISES/COURSES.

THERE WILL BE AN ORANGE, TWO TECHNICAL LOOPS AND A LINE COURSE ON OFFER. LONG TERM WEATHER FORECAST LOOKING FAVOURABLE 🙂

Training registration form for Balmedie

Training @ Balmedie 30/1/22

Following the successful morning spent at Dunnottar Woods our next training day is going to be at Balmedie on Sunday 30th Jan. Change of terrain, change of skills required.

Please use the pre-entry form below to register for this and let us know what level you’re at or what you’d like to practice and we’ll be able to tailor things so you get maximum benefit from each session.
Training @ Balmedie 30th Jan 2022
10:30 to 12:30 – more details will be sent out to everyone once you’ve completed the entry form

Training is open for both Gramp and AUOC members. Not a member yet? Not a problem as you can join at any time online via the British Orienteering joining portal. If you have any questions about membership, just fire an email to membership@grampoc.com. And feel free to register for the training in the meantime.

GRAMP and AUOC Training Days

Whether you need to brush up rusty O skills or learn new ones we’d love to see you all at any or all of 3 training days being organised by our club coaches:

16/1/22 Dunnottar Woods, Stonehaven

30/1/22 Balmedie
Pre-entry form for Balmedie only Training @ Balmedie 30th Jan 2022
(fresh links will be posted for each training day nearer the time)
10:30 to 12:30 – more details will be sent out to everyone once you’ve completed the entry form
AUOC welcome as well as GRAMP members. Not a member yet? Not to late to join. Email membership@grampc.com and we’ll help you do that.

20/2/22 Scolty, Banchory
(This is in place of the colour coded event we were hoping to hold here until Arwen blew through the area.)

Balmedie DNC Weds 5th Jan Results

Chilly but fantastic night at Balmedie tonight. Many thanks to Julian for planning, and Julian & David for collecting controls afterwards👍

Results
RouteGadget

Hogmanay Hangover Handicap 1st Jan 2022 @ Hazlehead

Many thanks to Team Esson for planning/’puting and Rachel, Helen and Pete for Control collecting.

Results and splits
Routegadget

Turns out we could have had some sort of social outdoors as it was so warm this morning. Plenty folk spotted picnicking in the park and also bumped into some old ex-Gramp friends, Gordon and Ruth, who confessed to feeling very nostalgic when they’d spotted the controls going out.

Events in the very near future

Wed 22nd DNC at Templars Park has an extra Orange course for anyone fancying a shot at Night O in a small safe area or just a short pre-Christmas blast. Details on the Templars Park post.
NB You must register your interest via the pre-entry form even for the Orange – no obligation to run by doing so and no payment upfront required.

Sat 1st Hogmany Hangover Handicap @ Hazlehead – details here – please note it’s on 1st not 2nd Jan.
(Just typed “Jab”not “Jan” – subliminal messaging!!)

Sun 9th Jan MAROC have managed to reschedule their Cambus O’May colour coded event.
NB Closing date for pre-entries for this one is 2nd Jan so don’t miss it if you’re champing at the bit to get (g)oing again in the New Year.

Crathes Event 12th December – Cancelled

It is with great sadness that we are having to cancel our colour coded event at Crathes Castle on Sunday 12th December.

The Storms that we endured over the weekend has flattened a significant part of the woodland at Crathes Estate. The Estate Office have said that it may well take months to tidy/clear the area before access can be obtained.

Let’s hope that our other areas have fared better, though I have a suspicion that may not be the case! We shall keep you updated on the other events that are due to take place in the next few months.

British Night Champs Winner

Big congrats David Esson on winning M40S down in Englandshire last night, while Hugh Nicholson came 7th in a large M55 field. Looks like it would have been quite magical with a smattering of snow over Cleeve Hill.

ELO Orienteering at Vogrie

Vogrie Country Park, Sunday 28th November

All are welcome to participate in orienteering in the delightful Vogrie Country Park on a newly extended map with very varied terrain. In addition to the parkland, woodland and the valley of the River Tyne, the map has been extended to include a former golf course, and for the longer courses, a visit to some very old quarries and now-vegetation-covered spoil heaps.

The event will incorporate the East of Scotland Orienteering Championships

All participants are welcome to enter their preferred course, as an individual, or in a pair or group, but those wishing to compete to be an East of Scotland Champion must enter the appropriate course as an individual. See the website for details of which course to enter.

Full information at

https://www.elo.org.uk/2021-vogrie-sosol/

and the link to enter is at

https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?event_id=9059

ELO look forward to seeing you there.

Well done, Sam, and the ScotJos Team – JHI 2021 Relay Winners!

Scotland won the Boys JHI Relay by 2 seconds this weekend!
Congrats to James Hammond, Laurence Ward, Sam Griffin running in Team Scotland 1 and all the rest of the ScotJos crew on some other great performances too.
Individual results from the day before

Organisers/planners needed

Did you get an email from Paul Duley recently asking for organisers/planners for DNC and other events coming up soon? Did you respond yet? Please do as without folk stepping up to fill these roles we may be forced to cancel events and we really don’t want to disappoint.
We can offer guidance/mentoring if you’re just getting into planning etc and you can always team up with someone else and share the responsibilities if it makes it easier for you.
If you haven’t already done so please email Fixtures@grampoc.com and Paul will be in touch to confirm what, where and when you can help with.
Ta!!

Abz Uni Urban Sprint 29/9/21 Results

Thank you all for attending tonight’s event. Below is the link to the results.

Many thanks to Dave Kirk for putting on a fun challenging event.

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/GRAMP/2021/OldAberdeenUrban

Looking for events?

I try to keep an up to date list of upcoming events for Gramp and neighbouring clubs* on the right hand side of this webpage but if viewing on a mobile it’s not immediately obvious it’s there. So I’ve left two links in the menu system under ‘Events/Results’ for the SOA Events Calendar and the BOF Event Finder which is searchable by placename or postcode and shows events 1, 2, 3…. weeks away with coloured pins in a map.

*For newcomers it might help to know which club is based where and covers what:
Gramp = Aberdeen and bits of the Shire surrounding
Maroc = Deeside north and south from Banchory to Braemar
Moravian = Moray coast and inland
Basoc = Kingussie to Grantown and areas close to Spey nearby
Invoc = Nairn to Inverness and beyond!

Mobile users – any more suggestions to improve your browsing experience gratefully received by webmaster@grampoc.com please.

Nothing to do with orienteering but… (part 2)

Remember the video with Foss and Erik and other members of the Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra summoning up their inner Picts at Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle?
Well, the ASO Zoomed with a southern counterpart, Phoenix Saxophone Orchestra based in Market Harborough in Leicestershire, for UK Make Music Day on June 21st and recorded ‘Entry of the Gladiators’, by Czech composer Julius Fučík. You’ll recognise it when you hear it as “that circus music” – click here for the video.

‘This collaboration is one positive thing to come out of lockdown – how else would two such geographically distanced orchestras ever get to meet, let alone play together? We’re looking forward to more enterprises with Phoenix, maybe even in the real world, not just the Zoom one!’
Foss Foster, tenor saxophone, Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra

ASO and PSO have been nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society National Inspirations Award for this innovative non-professional musical hook-up, along with 5 other diverse groups from Orkneys down to Bristol. Please go to the RPS website to find out more and don’t forget to vote for ‘oor local SO’ by 11am on 30th Sept.

Templars 18/8/21 Results

Great night with a lovely BBQ afterwards enjoyed by everyone. Thanks to planner Tim Griffin and Scouts for use of the fire pits.

That wraps up our Summer Series. Great to see such big numbers turning out regularly and welcome to all the newcomers who have joined the club recently as a result.
There’ll now be a short intermission before we start the Urban Sprints at Cove on Wed 8th Sept. See you there?
Easy Splits.pdf
Medium Results.pdf
Easy Results.pdf
Long Tech Splits.pdf
Long Tech Results.pdf
Medium Splits.pdf
Short Tech Results.pdf
Short Tech Splits.pdf

S6D/2 Day 5 job done!

Despite steady rain for much of the day, we managed to set off 1000+ people, count them back in and still found time to get a run ourselves, with some good results too with several 1st and 2nd placings. Big thanks to our Day Coordinator, Paul Duley, for keeping us all up to speed with the twists and turns and numerous changes of plan in the run up to the event and calmly and quietly checking up on us all day in the rain.

Also big thanks go to Tim Griffin and Helen Rowlands who inadvertently ended up assistant controlling/planning for both Days 4 & 5 on a very tough area on numerous levels, from physically/mentally challenging terrain to how to squeak in a White and Yellow, and to the jolly band of Start Helpers who carried on smiling regardless of the persistent rain.

But maybe the biggest thanks should go to the folk who helped out even though they’re not regular Gramps/Orienteers – Jackie Reynard, Alison Lovie, George Greenwood and Keith Yardley, here’s to you!

(Did I mention the rain?)

S6D/2 Day 5

Gramp’s day finally rolled round and tomorrow we’ll be manning starts, waking up/collecting controls and hopefully getting some orienteering in too on an area that’s been described as “hard to relocate” – sounds fun!!

S6D/2 Rest Day

Apart from Helen and family plus Tim G who were involved setting up controls for Day 4/5 (3 cheers for them!), most of us have been enjoying the official rest day although some need a few lessons on the definition of ‘rest’ as they seem to have interpreted it as the ‘rest’ of the holiday with mega cycle rides, Munro/Corbett Bagging, long walks, train rides and ski gondola trips to name a few.

Oh, yes – there’s an O competition going on in the background apparently. If you want to see how we’re all doing check S6D Results https://results.scottish6days.com/2021/

Burning question though is who won the Pants award for yesterday’s Middle Distance entertainment on Inverlochy Golf Course and Woods?

Scottish 6 Days off to a great start

If you go down to the woods today…

…take your phone/camera and you can take part in this intriguing project https://www.forestryengland.uk/treeline

Artist Ruth Maclennan is collating video clips of forests by tying them together visually along a horizon, either actual or inferred as a level when panning round a clearing for example. Although commissioned by Forestry England and Film and Video Umbrella it will feature forests from across the world, depicting the unique features of each forest while highlighting the impact of the climate emergency on the world’s forests. The plan is to screen it online coinciding with COP 26.

You don’t need to be a professional to do this, phone footage is fine providing it’s not too wobbly of course. Full details on specs and how to submit are on the Forest England website.

(Thanks once again to Ewen Rennie for spotting this and passing it on.)

Mulloch – now that the party’s over

Photo taken at 2110hrs while collecting controls.

Thanks to Eric Lovie for giving us a guided tour of all the boulders tonight in a fast and furious control picking style and David Esson for computing and control collecting.

3 cheers for Richard and Dave!!

After another month of watching Tiers and C-19 announcements with bated breath we’ve received a flurry of emails from the 6 Days crew outlining Plans L, M and N (at least) to go ahead with the 6 Days in one form or another.

This is all thanks to Richard Oxlade, Dave Kershaw assisted by others on the 6 Days Central Organising Committee and 6 Days Company for doggedly making and remaking plans, canvassing opinions and making some very tough decisions when it would have been oh so easy just to say “You know what? This is getting really messy and complicated and so many unknowns still. Let’s just cancel it.” Thanks guys – much appreciated!

GMC 2021 Lochnagar 6th/7th November

GMC 2023 dates will be 7th/8th October. Can’t say where yet but stick the dates in your diaries now.

Day 1 results
Day 2 and Overall results

Facebook posts and some photos here
Routegadget Day 1 Day 2
More photos

Planner’s report Organiser’s report

Wow! That was a wild one, eh? Many thanks to everyone for all your kind comments regarding courses and organisation and congrats to the winners and also to those who found time to pause for a joke and a photo on the way round, helping us to prove our proud boast of being Scotland’s friendly sociable winter MM.
Photographic evidence here.
If anyone has any snaps they’d like to share, send a link or photos to webmaster@gramoc.com please.

This year’s GMC was brought to you by David Kirk (organiser), Ian Hamilton (planner) and Sam Gomersall (controller) with much appreciated permissions/help from Balmoral Estate, O neighbours Maroc Orienteering (forest map), Crathie Hall, Banchory & Other Scouts (marquee wrangling, kit transport, roving hill marshals, control collection) and numerous Gramps/family/friends who were the “cabin crew” looking after your safety and (relative) comfort helping with IT, braving gushing burns to place controls or ridiculous winds to collect them, humping bags, hanging banners and notices and tapes, driving vans, holding the emergency contact phone, boiling gallons of water and handing out mountains of cake, creating an impromptu marquee substitute, meeting & greeting & counting you all out and safely back in. We all had a great time too, in that type 2 way, and lovely to see the regular GMC faces again and meet some new ones too.
Here’s to the next time!

GRAMP O TOPS

We have a small stock of Gramp O Tops waiting for some (not-so-careful) owners to snap them up and help them fulfill their role in life to take you for a great run/walk through the woods while keeping you cool and psyching out the opposition with your GRAMPGofaster™ stripes.

Adrian Will is i/c club clothing these days and hopes to bring a selection to some of our Summer Series to give you an idea of the look and feel like without you having to chase down someone wearing one. Cost £25 adults sizes, £20 childrens.
If you’re interested but can’t make it to a Summer Series event at the moment then email Secretary@grampoc.com instead.

British Middle Champs 2021

Our roving reporter, David Esson, is currently down in the Lakes thoroughly enjoying a wee holiday and some fine orienteering areas for the British Middle Distance Champs. Keep an eye on our Facebook site for maps and mentions.

Middle Distance combines shorter classic courses and lots of controls so even the “long” legs still require concentration. Today (5th June) it was in an area called Summer House Knott and it “did not disappoint”. Three other Gramps are also competing – Tim Griffin and Bob Daly both narrowly missed top ten placings in M55 and M60 respectively, but looks like Sam Griffin had to pull out. Hopefully he’ll still be OK to try again tomorrow at High Dam.
Good luck guys!

High Dam update: Sam definitely back up and running and came 13th in M18E, 7th for Bob Daly, 17th for Tim but unfortunately looks like David might have crocked himself very early on in the course and been forced to stop as results show lots of missing controls. (It’s either that or the Newby Bridge Hotel food was just too tempting and he decided to go back for Sunday lunch – either way, hope you’re OK David).

Is it mapped?

Another fun wee park for a bit of micro-O maybe?
Little Island, NYC, 2.4 acres manages to pack in 350 species of flowers, trees and shrubs.
Remember the arboreal trail map in Westburn and Victoria Parks? Something similar would work really well here.

Scottish Champs entries open 13/6/21

Scottish Champs (at Craig a’Barns) is open for entries: https://www.sientries.co.uk/list.php?event_id=8389
Details on ESOC’s site https://www.esoc.org.uk/events/craig-a-barns-jun-13-2021

Worth getting in quickly – only 500 entries allowed

Scottish Junior Cup Race 30/5/21

Entries are now open for the first Scottish Junior Cup Race at Auchingarrich, Perthshire, on May 30th.
At this stage priority is being given to junior competitors and accompanying adults, but after 19th May entries will be opened to all SOA members until the maximum capacity of 200 is reached.

C’mon GJOs – now’s your chance to get back out there and practice ready for Six Days!
Enter before 19th May to avoid disappointment.

More info on SOA website.
Entries via Sientries

Child Protection / Safeguarding

Helen Anderson has been busy revising the child protection policy, aka Safeguarding, and a copy can be found here.

From 26th April we can attend other clubs’ events and City/Shire boundary officially permeable

So starting with Maroc’s Cambus O’May Forest Sprint Wed 28th April, fill yer boots!
Still need to be member of SOA/BOF or O club though, pre-entry via forms on websites etc etc.

WED 28/4 Cambus O’May (M)
WED 5/5   Dunnottar Woods (G)
WED 12/5 Denlethen Woods (M)

Few more Forest Sprints to go and then GRAMP’s Summer Series kicks in starting at Hazlehead 19th May.
Full list of planned venues is up on the Summer Series page now but please check individual posts nearer the time for updates as we may have to rearrange things on the fly depending on local travel restrictions or other C-19 factors.

Got a few spare minutes?

Mairi Eades is doing a research project on about why adults in Scotland go orienteering for her uni Sport and Recreation Management degree. Could you spare a few minutes to complete a short questionnaire?

• Participants must be 18 or over, are living in Scotland (or would normally, if it weren’t for Covid) and currently or have previously orienteered.
• All answers will be anonymous, and the results will be observed in topic groups, which will be written up and published to the University and Scottish Orienteering.

Click here for the questionnaire.

Have you peaked yet?

“The slope of these curves varies by task. For example, in sports that rely heavily on physiological fitness—like sprinting 100 meters—the decline of the fitness curve would be steeper than in a sport like alpine climbing or orienteering, where pure fitness matters less and wisdom gained through experience matters more.”
(Outside Online An Ode to Aging)

Want to move the curve for wisdom? Then look out for news on club training which we hope to recommence next year along with more Come and Try It sessions.

Calling all speccy wearers…

Would you like to help a Loughborough student, William Smith, help you by coming up with a solution to misty specs while out orienteering? Then please take a few minutes to complete this survey to help him get a better insight into the problem (his words not mine!!)

Is it mapped?

Dreaming of autumn city O breaks back in the old days…. this looks like it would be fun for a Friday night race to kick off a weekend. It’s in Awaza, a luxury resort in Turkey.

Crathes 6/12 Results

We misinterpreted the messages about “Guides” and “car parks” and weren’t expecting a very well supported open air market going on full swing in the Guides’ field. Thanks to Sam and Lesley for taking it all in their Organiser/Planner stride and organising some impromptu parking marshalling on top of hanging the last few controls this morning.
Did anyone go shopping after their run? (Anyone who knows me and my email address won’t be surprised to find out that I was a bit annoyed when I got home, looked it up to see what it was all about and discovered I’d missed out on a chance to purchase goodies from “Flump and Fudge” amongst others!)

Yellow Results and Splits
Orange Results and Splits
Green Results and Splits
Blue Results and Splits
(BTW, I am working on how to get the flashy SI generated html results file uploaded to WordPress but a quick search for instructions talks about editing key files in the background and I wanted to get results up asap so it’s separate pdfs again for now while I chew it over until I feel brave enough to dabble!)

RouteGadget BOF points (calculated overnight)

Invoices have been fired out – you should have received an email from Grampian Orienteers c/o no-reply@izettle.com. You need to click on the “Show invoice” button and that will then open up a browser window showing an itemised invoice (Senior fees, Junior/Student fees, non-NTS member parking fee) and a payment button at the bottom for you to pay by card please. If you have any queries about your invoice contact webmaster@grampoc.com.

Have you visited the BOF website recently? See anyone you know?

Go on – take a careful look at the scrolling photos at the top…. https://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/home

Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week 2020

Have you spotted the articles going up on the SOA site highlighting the achievements and contributions of various individuals?
Heidi Ross and Marie Bernards of AUOC were in the spotlight on Tuesday. They’re doing a great job currently coaching via Zoom amongst other things to help keep AUOC fired up about orienteering and it’s obviously working as it was good to see some of their teammates out at Balmedie for the first DNC including Lucie Hamplova and Margarita Radeva.
Nice to see the lads too obviously but you don’t fit the (rather binary) W&GSW criteria, so sorry, but no namecheck this time!

Sam’s in the Squads!

Congratulations to Sam Griffin on his selection for the ScotJOS Squad and the British Orienteering Talent Squad Tier 1. Despite the lack of events this year, Sam’s been keeping fit with lots of running and cycling and we had wondered if he would be able to remember how to orienteer still but any concerns were squashed on Wednesday night when he came over to the dark side and romped round the DNC Long course at Balmedie in 5th position on his first night O ever.

Check the announcement on the SOA website to see who his ScotJOS team mates will be. And the BOF site for the Talent Squad.

So now the question is… with no cake stalls allowed at the moment how are Team Griffin planning to raise funds this time?

Nothing to do with orienteering but…

…does feature three Gramps. Can you spot them?

Glen Dye snaps and thoughts

Well, who would have thought all that mud, marsh, bog and assorted wet stuff would have produced so many excited, grinning faces? We’re a weird bunch!

It’s been a very strange few weeks as what was supposed to have been a simple little local event firstly attracted folk from far, far further afield than we’d ever have expected normally and then got snarled up in local lockdown shenanigans towards the end. I have to admit that at various stages of the process both Pete and I thought “Why bother? It’s bound to get cancelled due to another Lockdown.” But I’m glad we did. It was just as enjoyable for me watching those grins (and listening to the traditional moans about fitness or making the same old mistakes – nothing changes that much!) and we both appreciated it when many of you came to find us to say “Thanks for a great bit of old school orienteering” or “Thank you for rebooting the sport and helping us get out again.” You’re welcome!

Although it means fewer helpers required on the day with no Registration queue, we found the main complication was pre-entry and start time allocation during the run up to the event. I was on holiday for 2 weeks shortly after entries opened so a big thank you to Kimi Raikkonen (aka David Esson) for fielding all those emails and plotting the start times as well as acting as Covid Officer liaising with SOA. This meant all I had to do was think about logistics, normal safety stuff on the day, handling the money side and volunteers.
I think job sharing will be the way to go for a while now and why not into the future as well?

Also thanks to Helen Rowlands (non-runner) for putting in a shift as chief car park attendant assisted by Paul Duley and Ian Hamilton; the Gomersalls for overseeing the Green and Short Brown Start (Lesley’s doodling shows it was quite a relaxed affair obviously); Bob Daly and Tim Griffin, Ace Control Collectors Inc; George Esson who assisted David on Download; and last but not least, Jonathan Smith for helping me fish kit out of the shed and then ferry a lot of it back again after the event to save me another journey.

Rachel

Thank you, EUOC!

I just wanted to acknowledge EUOC’s sensible attitude to recent announcements and to thank them for their decision to pull out of our event at Glen Dye this weekend. Technically they didn’t have to as there is no travel ban as such but they’ve obviously taken on board the recent headlines that “researchers at UCL said 86.1% of infected people picked up by the Office for National Statistics Covid-19 survey between April and June had none of the main symptoms of the illness, namely a cough, or a fever, or a loss of taste or smell the day they had the test” and decided that discretion now, even though they feel fit and well and were really looking forward to a dose of Deeside, will hopefully help avoid a second full Lockdown later as well as showing concern for fellow orienteers and anyone else they may have come into contact with on the journey.

Thanks, guys!

Is it mapped?

Urban-meets-classic. Even just getting there would be fun, never mind keeping track of yourself in that maze.

MapRunF: how to amend your results for missing controls

For the geeky amongst you here’s an advantage to using MapRunF rather than MapRun: you can review, amend and re-submit your splits to include controls that didn’t ping for whatever reason. On the grounds that many folk are self-timing and will be running straight through the control sites rather than waiting for a ping, I’m happy to trust MapRunners to do this yourselves too and adjust after. It’s all a lowkey, fun way to get us back into the swing of things after all.

Want to geek? Here’s how using the “Hey, I think the GPS missed one” (HITMO) function:

1. Reload last night’s event if necessary (no PIN required now – they expire at 23:00 on the day of the event)
2. Select “Show Results” at the bottom and then last night’s event from the top of the list.
3. When you see your trace on the screen, select the menu button top right and then “Review Results (HITMO)”
4. Tap the info button top right for instructions how to locate and select missing controls. The same instructions can also be found here.
5. Tap “Submit a Revised Result” at the bottom.

You can’t edit times though so what I suggest in future is if you visit a control and after a few seconds still no ping and you’re certain you’re in the right place then move on and HITMO at the end if necessary. And I promise to be more careful plotting the remaining courses for this year’s Urban Sprints series.

Rachel

Cove Urban Sprint

It was great to see so many old friends again tonight, tempted out for a run despite the weather threatening to dump on us big time.

Thanks for being game guineapigs and joining the MapRun Tribe. A few lessons learned, not least that I need a new pair of glasses having plotted no. 8 in the wrong place – please accept my apologies for that. We’ll see if we can make some adjustments to the manual set of results tomorrow to compensate those of you who were affected.

It seems that responsiveness varies quite widely from phone to phone. I found myself having to loiter for several seconds at some controls waiting for the next satellite to come round but it did give me time to get my breath back and plan ahead.

The most weird thing reported, by Phil, was having an icecream van drive by drowning out the sound of his phone beeping.

MapRun was the original app which gave you the experience you had tonight but required an administrator to upload courses. Then came MapRunF which also has some natty features allowing you to set your own courses or check control positions all by phone. And now there’s MapRunG for Garmin watches which Sam Griffin was trialling tonight. We’ll let you know whether it gets the thumbs up.

Danestone next week. Look out for an email from David Kirk with details and email address to pre-enter. Thanks for your patience waiting for your allocated start time or quietly slotting yourselves into a gap if you spotted it. Remember it’s all about maintaining 2m distancing between ‘strangers’ so don’t blow it by crowding round phone screens afterwards! (Didn’t think that one through when I suggested using MapRun.) As orienteers you’ll be wanting a scale so…
2m = 6.666667 orienteering kites side by side.

Crathes event 5/8/20 CANCELLED

As the local Aberdeen Lockdown has just been implemented and the Planner and many competitors live in the City and can’t now travel that far we’ve had to cancel the event at Crathes tonight.
We may be able to rearrange it for later in the year so watch this space for news on both Crathes and our other Summer event at Tollohill that may also be affected.

Covid 19

We want clubs, volunteers and participants to feel safe, confident and also enjoy their first experiences returning to orienteering events. So Scottish Orienteering have put together an Event Guidance document and a COVID-19 Risk Assessment which has been approved by Scottish Government and we also have the support of sportscotland.

Why club members only at the moment?
It’s to do with contact tracing should the need arise, minimising numbers of people using an area at any one time and so we can practice our new anti-C19 measures.

What are these new anti-C19 measures?
Simple things to minimise the amount of person-to-person contact and the risk of person-object-person transmission so for example we ask runners to register in advance, pay by contactless gizmo, no results displayed at the event or anything else like cake stalls that would cause folk to gather in larger groups, provision of sanitiser as well as general observance of the current government guidelines. For a fuller list, see our Covid 19 info page.

Round 9

Round 9 – Something a bit less orienteering – but map required… what year and where were they?

Round 8 – Back from holiday and

Round 8 – Back from holiday and visiting a local place… Clue: A-mazing! – Same as usual Location Year and what event?

That nice welcoming ‘ding’!

The Gramp MapRun Factory (Rachel) has been busy over the last couple of weeks and we now have several more courses uploaded courtesy of Sarah Dunn. From Aberdeen Uni and Perwinnes Moss (4 variations Easy to Tech) down to Stonehaven via Cove. Or a novelty twist based on and Aberdeen Street Art Trail. You pays no money and takes ‘yer choice!

More ideas are being worked on by a couple of other Gramps too and we’re open to suggestions for either areas to use or courses to convert. Ping an email to webmaster@grampoc.com to get your requests/offers in for either MapRun or lowkey trad courses as we start to prepare for travel restrictions being lifted even further.

And the ‘ding’ bit? That’s how Tim Griffin described the noise his phone made at each control when test running Perwinnes Moss.

Round 7 – “We shall orienteer soon!”

(Fingers crossed, if we remember how?)… What’s the name of the woods, competition name and date!? Good luck…