Reivers had another successful outing on the Scottish O League circuit on Sunday, this time at  Dunrod Hill overlooking Greenock.  The terrain was fast and furious, the weather surprisingly warm despite the occasional shower of rain, and the results flowed once more.

Douglas Tullie scooted round the JM5L course to win his class, just failing to catch Martin Dean on the same course.  John Tullie, nursing a sore leg after coming off worst in a bull v man contest, still managed a respectable run to finish 4^th on M45L, with Ian Maxwell finishing 10th on the same class. Bill Bruce denies doing any extra training but is doing well in M50S this season and had a winning run on Sunday.  Douglas Henderson finished 2^nd on M55L on what he reckons was his ideal terrain. 

Among the ladies, Karen Maxwell found the legs to win JW3 by 5 minutes, her first SOL win in her new class.  Kirstin Maxwell couldn’t quite match her INVOC rival and finished 2^nd on JW4 with Sarah Tullie finishing 5^th on the same course.  On W40S Eileen Maxwell made one or two mistakes but still had a creditable finish on 4^th, and Lindsey Knox made amends for last weekend’s disappointing run to record her third win of the SOL season on W45L. 

• Full results 

The odds of two brothers dead-heating for first place in a major two-day Orienteering competition are almost incalculable. This, however, is exactly what happened at the weekend in the rough, tough and technically demanding forests of Ganavan and Creag Mhic Chailein, near Oban in the West of Scotland.

In the sport of Orienteering where competitors run as individuals from staggered start times, over rough and varied terrain, with electronic timing to the nearest second and where navigational errors can cost minutes it is unusual to get dead heats. It is even more unlikely when the competition is held over two days.

The event was the Future Champions Cup Final, which is the culmination of a series of races to find the best junior orienteer in the UK. The protagonists were Teviothead brothers and Roxburgh Reivers Orienteering Club members James and Douglas Tullie. In the 4.8km middle distance race it was younger brother Douglas who prevailed by 42s while in the 9.1km long distance race it was James who finished in front by an identical margin resulting in them being crowned joint champions. The weekend also counted as selection races for the Junior World Orienteering Championships, which will be held in Lithuania in early July, and this result virtually guarantees James and Douglas a place in the team.

Sunday’s event at Creag Mhic Chailein was also a Scottish Orienteering League race and several other Roxburgh Reivers made the long trip north. The younger junior members of the club also performed well with Jedburgh’s Karen Maxwell finishing 4th on Junior Women 3 ,while her older sister Kirstin, fresh from competing in the World Schools championships, went one better on JW4 with Sarah Tullie 7th on the same course. Other results, Lindsey Knox 4th W45L, Eileen Maxwell 5th W40S, Caroline Tullie 5th W45S, Ian Maxwell 12th M45L, Bill Bruce 2nd M50S, Jim Knox 4th M55S & Douglas Henderson 6th M55L.

• SOL 4 Results

Whilst the rest of the Club were doing battle in the ESOA Inter Club Championships, Roxburgh Reiver Martin Sloan was sleeping off nearly two and half working days of exercise.

Martin was one of Brodies LLP‘s team for this year’s Monster Bike and Hike, a charitable event raising money for Maggies Cancer Care Centres. The challenge involves cycling 30 miles from Fort William to Fort Augustus, then hiking the remaining 40 miles of the Great Glen Way from Fort Augustus to Inverness, all within 24 hours. The Brodies team comfortably beat this target, finishing at 3:05am on Sunday morning, with a time of 19 hours exactly.

Thanks to internal fundraising events, and external sponsorship (including sponsorship from fellow Roxburgh Reivers), the team are well on their way to meeting their fundraising target of £3,000. If you would like to sponsor the team, there’s still time – please follow this link to the team’s page on the Just Giving website:

• http://www.justgiving.com/brodies

Proving that quality is better than quantity Reivers took the title of East of Scotland Club Champions for 2006 at Dalmeny Estate on Sunday. 

The area is brand new to orienteering but, due to lambing, about half the area was out of bounds on this occasion and a lot of rest was brambly.  However, there were some nice parts and the views over the Forth were stunning.

On the Brown course James Tullie finished 2^nd overall with Paul McGreal and Andrew Tullie fighting for the second counter, Paul just pipping it.  On Blue Ian Maxwell was first counter in 6^th place followed by Andrew Armstrong.  Rob Cranston unfortunately mispunched on a knoll which had two controls very close together.

On the 6.5km Green course Lindsey never got going through the brambles and finished 7^th with Bill Bruce backing up in 8^th.  Kirstin Maxwell, just back from Slovakia, took full points on the Light Green and Colin Ross excelled himself by finishing 5^th despite having to use pictorial descriptions for the first time.

On Orange Jane and Alison McNeilly (and Judy) came out of retirement and took the top 2 places while on Red Eileen Maxwell had a breeze round the course to win by less than a minute from Bill Knox (brother of Jim).  Karen Maxwell had an easy day at the office winning Yellow comfortably and Vicky Ross showed how much she’s improved by taking 4^th spot.

The final scores were RR 184, ESOC 167, INT 148, EUOC 60, KFO 49, ELO 36, TAY 8, LINOC 0.

• Full results are here

Roxburgh Reivers were well represented at the British Orienteering Championships near Midhurst In West Sussex last Saturday with several club members putting in excellent performances over very wet and physical courses.

Douglas Tullie dropped in on his way back from competing in the Spring Cup in Denmark to finish a superb 2^nd in the M18 race, only 33 seconds behind the winner and Ian Maxwell achieved his best result to date finishing 3^rd in the M45S race behind two former GB internationals.

James Tullie finished in 5^th place in a very competitive M20E class with Kirstin Maxwell and Sarah Tullie placed 9^th and 12^th respectively in the W14 race. Andrew Tullie finished 24^th on M18L , John Tullie was 20^th on M45L and Douglas Henderson was 72^nd on M55L

• Full BOC Results

Kirstin and Ian along with several other Scots competitors made the long journey back up on the Saturday evening to compete in the final SoSOL of the season at Devilla the following morning. The forest is being clear felled and thinned, and this combination with the normal long heather meant the courses were quite physical. 

Best performances from the Reivers came from Robin Sloan who finished 2^nd on the Blue course and Kirstin Maxwell who was 6^th on Green.  Winning the overall league titles are Karen Maxwell and Kirstin Maxwell, a tremendous achievement by both athletes and a good result for the club with two class winners from the seven available. KFO had a frustrating day – their generator broke down so the SI system couldn’t function and everyone had to make up their own control card using a quarter page A4.  And one control apparently went walkies.

• SoSOL9 results

On a drizzly, but not cold, day there were two wins for Reivers at SOL 2 held at Mill of Fortune near Comrie on Sunday. The forest was wet and grotty in places with lots of windblow, although the longer courses visited the nicer semi open areas at each end of the map. Andrew Tullie won JM5L finishing less than a minute behind Dad John running the same course.  John finished 2^nd on M45L despite leading Martin Dean in the early part of the race.  Ian Maxwell was 10^th on M45L with the slow terrain probably not his favourite.

Lindsey Knox won a very physical W45L making it two in a row but the split times show how close it could have been with everyone making mistakes.  With Karen Maxwell sending in a sick note we only had two junior girls competing with Kirstin Maxwell finishing 3^rd on JW4 and Sarah Tullie in 8^th place on the same course.  Bill Bruce and Douglas Henderson were both 4th on their respective classes, and Fiona Forrest, up from “down south”, was 2^nd on W21L.    

Robin Sloan controlled the event and was spotted lurking behind a tree taking photos so hopefully he’s got a few worth publishing on the Reivers website.

• Results here