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.

Roxburgh Reivers’ juniors led the way at Sunday’s East of Scotland Championships held by Tay Orienteers at Mill of Fortune near Comrie in Perthshire, winnning five trophies between them. A large turn out of over 160 competitiors and some suprisingly mild Autumn weather helped make for an excellent event, despite being run on the same day as the Veteran Home Internationals (see below).

On the Yellow Course, Kirsten Maxwell finished in a well deserved fourth place, taking the W10 age class trophy. Similar success was also bestowed on the Tullie family with Sarah Tullie winning W12 after a tough Orange course and brothers Andrew, Douglas and James winning M14, M16 and M20 respectively. These results were particularly impressive considering that Douglas also won the Blue course in a time of 50 minutes for the 5.4km course and James ran up a class, finishing fifth on the 7.5km Brown course against some experienced opposition. Not to be outdone, Kirsten’s younger sister Karen also won the White course, but unfortunately was too young to qualify for a trophy.

Other results for the event, which was also the first of this year’s East of Scotland Orienteering League events (ESOL), included Martin Sloan who finished 23rd on the Blue course, just pipping fellow club member Lindsey Knox, who finished 24th, with Bill Bruce coming in 27th.

For full results see the Tayside Orienteers Web site. The next ESOL takes place this weekend (6 October) at Sherrifmuir and Dumyat near Stirling. More details are available from the ESOA Web site.

Despite Roxburgh Reivers’ John Tullie coming second in M45L, finishing a couple of minutes down on Forth Valley Orienteers’ Martin Dean, Scotland yet again came second to England during the Veteran Home Internationals held at Mynydd Llangatwg in Powys, South Wales.

Finally, in more International news, Roxburgh Reivers will be respresented by three club members in the forthcoming Junior Home Internationals next weekend, with Andrew, Douglas and James Tullie all selected for the squad.

South Forest Lodge near Dalry in Galloway played host to the fifth round of the Scottish Orienteering League recently. Despite being a physically tough area underfoot and there beind several retirements, Roxburgh Reivers recorded some good results.

Leading the way were John Tullie (M45L), son Douglas and Kirstin Maxwell (JW1) who all came home in first place, taking maximum points. Also having good runs were Reivers James Tullie (JML5), Robin Sloan (M55L), Lindsey Knox (W40L), Jim Knox (M50S) and Bill Bruce (M45S) who all finished in second place.

For full results see the Cunoc Website.

The rescheduled fourth round of the Scottish O League took place last weekend at Docharn and Deisher near Grantown on Spey. Originally postponed following the foot and mouth outbreak last year and then again this year due to new laws protecting the Capercaillie, the event had been looked forward to for some time.

Once again, Douglas Tullie led Roxburgh Reivers’ results, winning the JML4 class by a clear four minutes, with younger brother Andrew coming fifth. There were also good results for dad John and brother James, who both came in third on their respective classes. Rounding off the Reivers results were Lindsey Knox (4th on W40L) Bill Bruce (5th on M45S) and Sarah Tullie (5th on JW2).

For full results and the latest league standings see the Grampian Orienteers Website.

Roxburgh Reivers produced a sparkling display at the recent Lakes Five Days event, near Penrith in Cumbria. The multi-day event, which took place in some of the North West of England’s best terrain suited Reivers down to the ground. Leading the way was Scotland International James Tullie who won the competitive M16A, making up for a 12th place on Day 2 with wins on the final two days of competition.

Following the family success, dad John was second on M45L, unable to catch FVO’s Martin Dean, who won all five days and a consistent performance of four third places for young Sarah Tullie on W10A led to an excellent runners-up spot.

As if that was not enough, 15 year old Douglas Tullie, who has had a fantastic season so far, was top Scot on M14A, finishing the week in third place, with younger brother Andrew in 21st place.

For full results see the Lakeland Orienteers Website.

Roxburgh Reivers’ James Tullie played an important part in Scotland’s second place at last weekend’s Junior Inter-Regional Championships. James’ recorded an excellent fifth place against older competition whilst running up a class at the 2002 championships near Kendal, with younger brother Douglas coming in fourth on M14. This, along with several other podium results helped Scotland finish the weekend in second place overall, only a few points behind eventual winners, the North West.

The good performances from Saturday’s Individual event were also replicated on the Sunday during the relays. In the Boys relay, SOA Boys 1, which included James as well as fellow Scotland stars Oleg Cheplin (who won M16 the previous day) and Calum Coombs, finished just 22 seconds behind the North West Orienteering Association’s winning team. This was matched by the girls team, who matched the boys by also finishing in second place.

Full results for the weekend are available from the Lakeland Orienteers Web site.