The full results from Gala Policies on 16/9/23 are HERE

Planner’s Report: Maybe not the biggest turnout at Gala Policies for a Local event today, but everyone who came seemed to enjoy the challenge of this tiny area of good O terrain. Great to see the cousins Andrew and Robin – and Janey, whose dad was founder member of Roxburgh Reivers all of 54 years ago! Well done Barry for speeding round the Light Green course, and thanks to Rob, Cathy and Eb for their help – and all who came to liven up a dreich afternoon in Gala.

Robin Sloan

Ian Maxwell, Jedburgh planner, has provided some interesting route choice analysis – download the PDF here

Thank you for supporting Roxburgh Reivers Race the Abbeys event.  I hope you enjoyed your runs and enjoyed visiting the Scottish Borders.  Roxburgh Reivers are a small club so this was a significant undertaking to organise events on successive days.  Having the WRE sprint event alongside the Urban event added prestige but required an extra level of organisation.  

Jedburgh is a great place to plan urban courses with the bridges over the river and underpasses below the A68 creating route choices and the alleyways around the town centre complexity. I added in the Castle as the WRE courses were starting through it and it offered a 3-dimensional route choice to get there. Unfortunately, we lost one control inside the castle when the curator took fright at the speed that the WRE competitors were coming through.

What a weekend, well-done Roxburgh Reivers – all the people I spoke to after the event were of a similar view.

The planner has already commented on some unexpected issues on the day; these were dealt with quickly and fairly with little fuss. The crossing out of the removed control (courses 1, 2 and 3) on the control descriptions in the pre-start boxes alerted competitors that something was amiss. The handing out of maps on the start-line allowed competitors to check their map and listen to the explanation that a control had been removed from their course without disturbing the concentration of competitors on the other courses.

Planning a significant urban event in my own home town was daunting but something that I had very much wanted to do for some time. There’s the desire to make sure all the tricky little corners are included but in an event such as this I wanted to ensure that icons of Kelso like the Square, the Tweed and the Abbey all featured on the longer courses. My goal was also to ensure that every senior competitor would have choices to make throughout their course.