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

RR winners at JK 2009

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.

Lindsey on the podium at Trofeo Costa Calida 2009

The first major orienteering event of the year isn’t usually the British Championships but, to avoid disturbing ground nesting birds, this year’s event took place last weekend.  Eight Reivers made the long trip south to the New Forest and were rewarded with a good set of results over the fast terrain.

John Tullie normally has to miss the Championships because it clashes with his lambing time, but he made the best of the opportunity this year with a storming run to take 2nd place in M50.  Lindsey Knox also had a good run to take 4th spot on W50.  The club’s three Scottish Junior Squad members all had solid runs with Sarah Tullie and Karen Maxwell both finishing 6th on their courses, and Kirstin Maxwell taking 7th in the Future Champions Cup race.  Other results: Robin Sloan 20th, Douglas Henderson 22nd, Ian Maxwell 33rd.

Only three members stayed on for the Relay Championships but the team of Robin Sloan, Douglas Henderson and Lindsey Knox managed a highly respectable 7th place in the Mixed class.

Full results here

Elsewhere a small number of members had a good day at the Edinburgh Sprint which took place at Hopetoun House, South Queensferry.  The event takes the format of a prologue then a chasing start, with the winner being the person with the fastest overall time for both legs.  In the Senior Men’s category Doug Small finished in 12th place on 36:46 mins with Andrew Armstrong not far behind in 14th place on 37:11 mins.  On the Senior Ladies course Eileen Maxwell had two good runs to finish in 3rd position. Results are here