Two Roxburgh Reivers, James & Douglas Tullie, were part of the Scottish Senior team that was victorious in the Home Internationals held in Northern Ireland. This is only the third time that the Scottish team has prevailed over the Auld Enemy, and the first time outside Scotland! Luck was obviously with James and Douglas, as both were members of the historic Junior team which won the Junior Home International for the first time in 2002.

The individual race was held on Magilligan Strand, a very tough sand dune area which was scene of the British Champs in 2002 and had an unusual four loop format with a runner from each country starting every 2 mins. James was running up on M21 and finished the 16km (!) course in 118 mins in an excellent 6th place. Douglas, who was also running up a class, finished the 11km M20 course in 5th place in a time of 97 mins. This coupled with individual wins from Jon Musgrave (M21), Sarah Dunn (W21) and Duncan Coombs (M20) gave the Scots a 3 point lead after the individuals.

In the Relays, held in a forest nearer Belfast, James and Douglas ran together in the Scottish second team along with Graeme Ackland. The Scottish first team of Duncan Coombs, Jon Musgrave and Murray Strain were convincing winners with James just getting out sprinted on the line by Welsh runner Rhodri Buffet to finish in third. With the first English men’s team finishing fifth and the Scottish ladies teams securing 2nd and 3rd, Scotland recorded a famous victory by a sizeable margin.

Full results are available from the Northern Ireland Orienteering website.

Over 200 hardy orienteers braved the wet and windy weather at Loch Doon in Ayrshire on Saturday to compete in the combined Scottish Score and Inter-Club Championships on moorland next to Loch Doon. In the Scottish Score event the younger members had the best runs with Kirstin and Karen Maxwell from Jedburgh both winning their age classes. And, proving that quality is better than quantity, Roxburgh Reivers finished 2nd in the Inter-Club competition despite only having 5 runners.

On Sunday the weather had improved for the 5th Scottish League competition. Karen Maxwell showed the rest a clean pair of heels winning W10 and in doing so wrapped up the title for 2005 having amassed the maximum 4000 points. Kirstin Maxwell couldn’t quite repeat her Saturday result but finished a creditable 4th, not far behind the winner, while her mum Eileen had a good result in finishing 2nd. Ian Maxwell had a blistering run over the tough terrain to win M45S easily but only after a nail-biting wait for his main rival to finish.

Teviothead’s Douglas Tullie seems to have recovered from a recent injury with a good win in M18 and John Tullie was narrowly defeated by seconds on M45L despite his skill at finding buggy tracks over the rough ground. Lindsey Knox from Hawick had a good run to win W45L with a comfortable cushion of 8 minutes over her main opposition for the 2005 league title.

Roxburgh Reivers had a successful raid over the border last weekend to take part in the Phoenix Long Orienteering event, a combination of orienteering, hill running and mountain marathon. Over two glorious sunny days in the southern Cheviots and after many gruelling miles it was Andrew Tullie of Teviothead who took the honours in the 18km “D” class, winning by a clear 14 minutes in a time of 3:28 hrs. On the 25km “C” Class Douglas Henderson improved on his overnight placing to take 3rd place in a time of 4:50 hrs, with Ian Maxwell finishing 10th and Lindsey Knox winning 1st female category in overall 24th place. On the 34km “B” course John Tullie finished in 2nd place with a time of 5:20 hrs which was also good enough to take 1st place in the veteran category.

Kirsten and Karen Maxwell, neither old enough to compete in the main event, took part in a standard orienteering event at the same venue. Over slightly longer distances than they are used to Kirsten finished in 4th and 3rd positions on Light Green while Karen won both her Orange courses.

St Andrews may be the home of golf but last weekend (28-29 May) it was taken over by orienteers, there for the Scottish Orienteering Championships on nearby Tentsmuir Forest.

Roxburgh Reivers may be one of the smallest clubs in Scotland but we still managed to come away with seven individual prizes and one relay prize from a field of over 600 competitors. Karen Maxwell continued her good form to win W10 by a large margin, while Douglas Tullie and Lindsey Knox finished in 2nd place on their courses. Third places went to Kirstin Maxwell, James Tullie, Eileen Maxwell and Ian Maxwell.

There were mixed fortunes in the Relay competition on Sunday but pride of place went to the Junior Team of Karen Maxwell, Kirstin Maxwell and Andrew Tullie who finished in 2nd place overall, but top Scottish team and only 12 seconds behind the winners.

Full results are available from the East of Scotland Orienteering Association Website.

Roxburgh Reivers’ James and Douglas Tullie took part in the Future Champions Cup Final, held in conjunction with the World Cup series of races, near Dorking in Surrey last weekend. In blistering 70 F heat, the M20’s and M18’s all ran the same course. The middle distance race (4.8km) was held at Mytchett a tricky army training area near Deepcut Barracks. James finished 2nd in 31.29 (1.51 down on Duncan Coombs, but 1.22 clear of 3rd), with Douglas finishing 10th in 35.27 after making a few mistakes.The Classic race (10.7km) was held on the very fast runnable terrain of Winterfold, Pitch & Holmbury Hills. James again finished 2nd (4.30 down on Duncan Coombs, but 2 mins clear of 3rd) completing the weekend in in second place overall and completing a Scottish 1-2. Douglas struggled a little with the length and heat but still had a good run to finish 11th in 76.11. This made him 9th overall (4th M18). In the FCC series of races James moved up from 9th to 4th on M20 and Douglas maintained his position in 3rd on M18.

James will almost certainly be selected for the Junior World Champs to be held in Switzerland in July and Douglas has a good chance of getting selected for the European Youth Games in Cezch Republic in June.

A small but dedicated band of Roxburgh Reivers members travelled to Faskally Woods near Pitlochry on Sunday to compete in the Scottish round of the Compass Sport Trophy. This team event involves runners competing on 8 colour coded courses with different age groups allocated to each course. The best thirteen scores are then added together to arrive at a winner. With class wins for Kirstin Maxwell on Orange and Douglas Tullie on Light Green and strong support from the other Reivers the club finished in 5th place.

The trophy went to the mighty Edinburgh Southern Orienteers who tied for first place with the Forth Valley club from Stirling but won on a count back rule. With a few members unavailable Reivers could only muster 11 scorers and a potential third place went a begging. There is always next year!