Another double orienteering weekend saw another set of Scottish titles for members of Roxburgh Reivers.

On-form Douglas Tullie continued his season by being joint winner of the Open class at the Scottish Sprint Championships held in Stirling on Saturday but was unlucky to trip near the finish line and lose vital seconds which cost him a clear win.

With information being relayed back to the commentary team from radio controls Kirstin Maxwell had a nervous wait knowing her rivals were close to matching her time, but the outcome was a well-deserved victory in the under 18 class for Kirstin by 20 seconds.

Fiona Forrest also made it into the frame with an excellent 3rd place in the Women’s Open class.

On Sunday the action moved south of Stirling for the second round of the Scottish League onto an area of open moorland and complex mature forest. There were wins for Robin Sloan and Douglas Tullie, 2nd places for James Tullie, John Tullie, Jim Knox and Eileen Maxwell, and 3rd place for Kirstin Maxwell.

Full results are here.

Forget all the other cup finals (the ones with the round ball) the FCC is the one to win, and Douglas Tullie did just that at the weekend, winning M20E by 8 minutes to book his automatic place in the British Team for the Junior World Champs this July.  You will remember that Douglas and James dead-heated in the same competition 2 years ago, a feat unlikely to be repeated.  This will be Douglas’ 3rd and last time at JWOC, as he joins the senior ranks in 2009.

The Scottish Junior Squad were also in attendance at the FCC, running in their normal badge classes.  Kirstin Maxwell had 2 good runs, finishing 4th on both days.  Sarah Tullie gave Kirstin a good run for her money on Day 1 finishing in 5th but had a slight blip on Day 2 to finish 18th.  Karen Maxwell, still in her first year at W14, finished 7th and 14th while Ian and Eileen were 11th/15th and 11th/5th respectively.

The forest was tricky, the courses long, the runnability mainly fast, and everyone agreed that it was a testing area. Culbin Forest on a sunny afternoon takes some beating! Roxburgh Reivers were in charge of Emit brikke issue before their runs so we were aware of all the sweaty bodies finishing with tales of woe. Douglas Tullie was the star again, taking 2nd place on M20E although he would obviously have preferred the gold medal. Everyone else managed a respectable run, some more respectable than others, but we all got our money’s worth.

We had 3 teams in the relays, all doing Ad Hoc. The planners had made no compromise on the TD5 courses and runners had to keep concentrating. The team of Lindsey Knox, Jim Knox and Robin Sloan managed a podium place, taking bronze only 4 seconds behind silver place. This was RR’s first British relay medal since 1996. The other 2 teams packed well in 11th and 12th place.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend of racing and a few weeks before the next SOL for some of us, the writer included, to get some technique training done.

Results here.

Roxburgh Reivers Orienteering Club are celebrating another British title holder after last weekend’s British Middle Distance Championships in Warwickshire. With every second making a difference, Douglas Tullie won the M20 race by a comfortable margin of 28 seconds for the 6.5km course.

Douglas had another excellent run in the 3.1km Sprint Championships the following day and was close to making it a double but was beaten into second place by 3 seconds.

We were cruelly robbed of 3rd place and a place in the final by some late finishing TAY’s so we’ll need to wait another year for our crack at glory.  Hopefully it won’t clash with BUSA again next year and we’ll have our students available to run.

The final results were so very close with a measly 7 points separating ourselves and TAY, the difference being only a few seconds on some courses.  Our sole course winner on the day was Robin Sloan on Green but there were other notable runs, including team captain John Tullie who led by example with a 10th on Brown despite his knee injury. 

The results are here .

The ladies section of Roxburgh Reivers made two very successful sorties over the Border last weekend.

The trio of Karen Maxwell, Eileen Maxwell and Lindsey Knox headed for a Regional/Ranking event in Northumberland, held on wet and heathery moorland near Kirkwhelpington, and came home with three tremendous first places. Club exiles Fiona Forrest and Douglas Henderson came north for the day and finished 3rd and 4th in their classes.

Travelling with the Scottish Junior Squad were Kirstin Maxwell and Sarah Tullie who had the long journey to Salisbury to compete in a combined National Event and Future Champions Cup qualifier. Kirstin had a storming run to finish in 2nd place in a very competitive class while Sarah Tullie had another solid run in 19th place, only 13 minutes behind the winner.

Closer to home the Cattermole family were at the lovely Dalkeith Park for the latest South of Scotland league event. Jamie had the best result finishing 11th on Orange with brother Iain not far behind in 15th place. Mum Jenny was 14th on Light Green. Bill Bruce was also in attendance, finishing 34th on Blue (probably saving his strength for the Pentlands!).