Reiver’s new gazebo had a real baptism at Tweedbank, as the morning’s rain was a lot more persistent than expected. Be careful if you’re standing at the edge to avoid water off the roof running down the back of your neck, but the shelter round the computer on such a wet day pointed to a good investment for the club.

Well done Lindsey for a storming run to win the Club Championship and bad luck Yousuf for mistaking a “Yellow course” only control for a counter. The correct one wasn’t far away, so he might have still been runner up. Ian just pipped Faisal for second spot – all these runners making good decisions how to link controls as efficiently as possible, and just as important, which were the best ones to miss out.

Abbotsford House provided a good assembly and the underpasses enabled us to allow juniors to be fully competitive while staying safe. Good to have a such a big turnout of club members in such wet conditions, which made the morning’s splashing round Tweedbank with coils of wire to secure the units well worthwhile – but why did I chose so many trees of massive girth as control sites?!

Thanks to all for coming, and to Lindsey, Rob and Alan for invaluable help.

Robin

Club Champion 2014

Results and splits for the Handicap Score and Yellow course are HERE

The results of the club championships are in the table below.

East Lothian Orienteers annual Festive Frolic was held at Vogrie Country Park near Gorebridge today.  As usual it was a sort-of score event with a twist, this year controls marked on the map but with clues to bonus controls not marked on the map.   With 80 people running about in all directions it was a slightly crazy 60 minutes but really good fun to end the year.

Kirstin Maxwell picked up the prize for 1st woman and Lindsey Knox was first 40+ woman.

Results here

Results from today’s event HERE

Routegadget (draw your route)   HERE

Tales of rudimentary orienteering maps of Dundock Wood from 30 or 40 years ago had reached me so when given the chance to plan on a professionally produced brand new map in 2013,  I couldn’t resist planning a few course legs through the rhododendron maze –  I do hope that those of you doing the Light Green courses enjoyed the challenge.  It’s quite a small compact area but can provide multiple route choice options for almost any leg.  And looking at the split times for individuals is very revealing –  no less than 5 individuals recorded fastest times for individual legs in Dundock Wood on the Light Green Long course.

Leg 10-11  Fastest was Lindsey (1.05)
Leg 11-12  Fastest was Sarah (1.32)
Leg 12-13  Fastest was Ian (1.21)
Leg 13-14  Fastest was Faisal (0.47)
Leg 14-15  Fastest was John (1.12)
Leg 15-16  Fastest was John (0.53)

I think RouteGadget would be rather interesting here !

It is always exciting to plan an event on a brand new orienteering map and I hope that this event has whetted your appetite for more.  The areas of mixed woodland to the north and west of the map are quite different to Dundock Wood which formed the core of our event this time around.  The map of the whole Hirsel Estate is not quite finished yet but should be ready within the next couple of months and we are planning to use the whole area later next year with assembly and car parking adjacent to the Homestead area within the main Estate grounds. Personally I can’t wait !
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(Note from Lindsey – the timing on the last control was out by 10 seconds which meant led to some pretty fast run-in times)

Andrew

The last proper race of the current orienteering season was the East of Scotland Championships held in lovely sunshine at Duns Wood on Sunday. The map lacks a bit of detail so the scope for the technical courses was limited, but overall it was an enjoyable run and there were some nice bits of woodland.

Roxburgh Reivers had a good turnout and came away with several of the trophies.  Lindsey Knox secured the W50 trophy for a 5th time (it’s cost a fortune in engraving and replacing the too-small base !), John Tullie won M55 convincingly and Barry Veitch on M40 bagged his first ever orienteering trophy.

There were runners-up certificates for Fiona Forrest, Fiona Johnston and Pauline McAdam. Cathy Rooney and Keith Murray seem to be benefiting from the club coaching sessions and both finished 3rd on their respective classes.  The first 3 in each class were presented with a laminated “medal” in colors approximating Gold, Silver and Bronze (i.e. Yellow, Pale Blue and Orange).

Lindsey, Barry and Fiona J

Full results on the ELO website HERE