The 2002 Junior Home Internationals took place in Perthshire last weekend and Roxburgh Reivers’ James, Douglas and Andrew Tullie were part of the first ever Scottish team to win a Home International, ending many years of coming second to England at all levels of competiton.
Saturday’s Individual event was held at a newly mapped area, Errochty, and the home ground seemed to suit the Scottish squad, with the home team taking top spot in three of the 6 classes. A second place from Douglas on the 4.025km M14 course, finishing just 19 seconds behind fellow Scotland team mate Calum Coombs, and 6th and 12th places respectively from James (M18) and Andrew (M14) helped Scotland to a 9 point lead over England before going into the Sunday’s relays at Faskally Woods, near Pitlochry.
In the Boys relays, Douglas’s Scotland 1 team finished second behind a strong England team, with Scotland 2 (containing James, Calum Coombs and Rory Matheson) also collecting important points, finishing 5th. The girls teams fared even better with Scotland 1 being nearly a minute clear of the second placed England team. Despite a stonger England showing overall on the Sunday, it was not enough to win overall and Scotland finished an historic weekend on 127 points to England’s 122.
For full results and comments see the SOA Web site.