A superb week of orienteering and weather – it’ll be hard to beat ! Continue reading →

After a bit of a gap in articles I thought I’d better do an update with apologies in advance to everyone I’m going to forget to mention !

April: SOL2 at Ardnaskie near Oban. A tick bite I picked up at the JK had turned nasty so I wasn’t at my best. (a month of antibiotics has hopefully avoided Lyme Disease).

A win for Jim, and second places for Kirstin, Karen and Lindsey.
2 day colour coded event at Kielder with good runs for the same 3 ladies.

May: Scottish Championships on Speyside. Wins for John and Lindsey, wrapping up the 50’s classes.

Relays at Strathmashie with a grotty run-out and run-in plus a river crossing immediately, meaning wet feet the whole way round. Relays at the Individual venue would have been much more pleasant. 3rd place in the 18+ handicap for Robin, Jim and Lindsey.

June: SOL3 at Teviothead. Months of planning paid off with a successful day. Jim and Sarah got a chance to learn Sportident. Wins for Fiona and Lindsey, 2nd place for Jim, 3rd places for Kirstin and Karen.

July: John gets a spike in the leg and spends a weekend in the BGH on an antibiotic drip. And he hasn’t taken any photos !

At various times Douglas Tullie has been competing for GB but he’ll need to provide me with some info so that he can get a suitable mention.

Lindsey

Results and comments for Sunday’s third round of the Scottish Orienteering League at Teviothead are now available here.

Roxburgh Reivers Orienteering Club had an amazing Bank Holiday weekend competing at the JK – amazing results, amazing weather.

Fiona Forrest started the medal rush by taking second place in the Urban Sprint race in Newcastle on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday’s classic races were held at Kyloe and the nearby St Cuthbert’s Cave woodland. John Tullie took pride of place by winning both races for an aggregate victory in M50, extracting revenge on Mark Saunders who pipped him at the post for the British Championship title a few weeks ago.  Sarah Tullie held second place overnight in W18 and was able to maintain the position on day two, only one minute behind the winner.  Karen Maxwell (W14) and Lindsey Knox (W50) had a lot to do after the first race but dug deep on day two to win their races, elevating both into second place overall. Fiona Forrest completed the podium lineup with 3rd on W35.

Also on winning form on Sunday, but missing out on the overall standings, were Robin Sloan who finished 3rd in M60 and Ian Maxwell who won M45.

In the relay event on Easter Monday the highlight came in the JK Men’s Trophy with Douglas Tullie and his Edinburgh University team coming from behind on the last leg taking the title by less than a minute after almost 2 hours of racing.  There were 3 RR teams competing, the best result coming  from the Short Women’s team of Kirstin, Karen and Sarah who finished 14^th – despite an organisers cock-up with Karen’s map.

Results here .

Well done to everyone……

For only the second time in many years Roxburgh Reivers have qualified for the final of the CompassSport Trophy, and all despite being missing some key runners.  The match, between all the Scottish clubs, took place at Mugdock near Glasgow in an area of mixed forest and boggy moorland with Reivers providing an incredible four winners from the eight courses in the competition. 

The winners of Douglas Tullie, John Tullie, Robin Sloan and Karen Maxwell were backed up by another nine good performances to calculate a team score. FVO won (again !) but go through automatically because they won the final in 2008, and Clyde and RR take the two qualifying places.  The final takes place on 18 October at Fineshade between Leicester and Peterborough.

Missing from the team was Kirstin Maxwell who spent the weekend competing for the Great Britain Junior Squad at the Spring Cup in Denmark, the first major international event of the year.

Jim and I travelled to Spain recently to take part in the 2009 Trofeo Costa Calida which this year was held about 1 hour’s drive from my parent’s house.

The Model event/training was on an area next to a large picturesque reservoir and we had a potter round together just to get our legs moving.  Unfortunately I’d picked up a cold and wasn’t feeling great, not helped by being told I looked ropey.

Day 1 on Saturday was hot and sunny so it was full summer gear including sweatbands.  I managed to win by 6 minutes and Jim has his first run/jog since his knee operation to finish 10th.  Day 2 dawned hot again and we were all taking shade at the pre-start.  Day 2 is a chasing start which made it slightly more “exciting” when I made a couple of mistakes but as I entered the Finish arena the announcer said that I had won W50.  I only won Day 2 by 19 seconds so the second placed Spaniard will be one to watch next year.

We enjoyed the prize-giving then visited the local open-air Spa baths where we cooked for an hour or so.  All in all an enjoyable break while Scotland was a bit chilly.