Rachan and Dreva, near Broughton, was the venue for this year’s Scottish Score Championships.  Brilliant blue skies, a covering of snow on the hills, and lovely autumn colours led to a sociable discussion with everyone in the car park after our runs.

Oddly, Courses 1 and 2 (i.e. everyone 16 and above) had the same controls but the oldies had 60 minutes and the fast young ones had 70 minutes so the faster “young” ones didn’t need to choose which ones to leave out – just blast all the controls as fast as possible.  BUT, several people took an illegal short-cut so the M21 trophy went to the 5th place finisher.  This meant a slightly confused prize-giving but we did amuse ourselves by booing any mention of people who hadn’t returned their trophies from last year!

There were only 5 RR’s in attendance but we came away with 2 trophies – Robin Sloan on M60 and Lindsey Knox on W45.  Both got slight revenge for last weekend’s SOL finale by beating the SOL winners.  Andrew Armstrong was 5th on M50, Bill Bruce 6th on M55 and Jim  Knox 8th on M60 – but Jim was suffering tired legs after winning a Teviotdale Harriers race the previous day compounded by an ankle tweak sustained coming back down from the far away controls.

More information:

event results (link takes you to the ESOA website)

Highland Perthshire proved a fitting climax to the Scottish Orienteering League although the results for the club could have been better. Six RR’s were still in the hunt for the 2008 titles but, after a tough physical and mental test in Craig a Barns overlooking picturesque Dunkeld, only Eileen Maxwell managed to claim overall victory.

There were individual wins for Douglas Tullie, John Tullie and Kirstin Maxwell but not by enough margin to take the league, with best 4 scores from the year counting.

Douglas and James Tullie were part of the Scottish team competing in the Senior Home Internationals this weekend and were instrumental in the team’s demolition of the other nations – an emphatic and very satisfying win.

Further south, Ian Maxwell was having a different exciting weekend, taking part in the Original Mountain Marathon in the Lake District.  Ian and his partner Robin Orr finished their Day 1 course before discovering that the event had been called off due to bad weather and took refuge overnight in a youth hostel.

A windy day near Aviemore resulted in perfect conditions for the local gliding club and the orienteers running in the Inshriach forest below them, although the orienteers also had the added interest of an aggressive capercaille which had chased the course planners the day before.  Luckily it didn’t make an appearance although some courses were changed to avoid it’s area.

The more serious business of navigating through one of Scotland’s most intricate forest focussed the athlete’s minds and Roxburgh Reivers bagged a good number of podium places in this the penultimate round of the 2008 Scottish Orienteering League.   There were wins for John Tullie, Robin Sloan and Lindsey Knox plus runners-up places for Jim Knox, James Tullie and Eileen Maxwell.  With the final round taking place at Dunkeld in a fortnight, all these runners are in a good position to take the overall title.

Other results: Kirstin Maxwell 3rd, Sarah Tullie 4th, Ian Maxwell 5th, Karen Maxwell 6th.

The Scottish Orienteering team, including John Tullie and Lindsey Knox, returned home in good spirits on Sunday evening having secured overall victory in the annual Home International match which this year took place in Northern Ireland.  The team regularly wins either the individual competition or the relays but this is the first time the Scots have won the overall match, beating England into 2nd place with Wales and Ireland 3rd and 4th.  John was in formidable form all weekend, winning his individual race by several minutes on a windy and rain-swept Magilligan Strand on Saturday then leading his relay team to victory on Sunday.

Closer to home, five club members travelled to Northumberland for the October Odyssey weekend.  Douglas Henderson finished an excellent 2nd over the two days, and there were 3rd places for Ian Maxwell, Karen Maxwell and Eileen Maxwell. Kirstin finished 5th.

The weekend also saw the first in this years South of Scotland League events which was held at Dunkeld.  On the Brown course Douglas Tullie took the honours, with James Tullie finishing 2nd.