The odds of two brothers dead-heating for first place in a major two-day Orienteering competition are almost incalculable. This, however, is exactly what happened at the weekend in the rough, tough and technically demanding forests of Ganavan and Creag Mhic Chailein, near Oban in the West of Scotland.

In the sport of Orienteering where competitors run as individuals from staggered start times, over rough and varied terrain, with electronic timing to the nearest second and where navigational errors can cost minutes it is unusual to get dead heats. It is even more unlikely when the competition is held over two days.

The event was the Future Champions Cup Final, which is the culmination of a series of races to find the best junior orienteer in the UK. The protagonists were Teviothead brothers and Roxburgh Reivers Orienteering Club members James and Douglas Tullie. In the 4.8km middle distance race it was younger brother Douglas who prevailed by 42s while in the 9.1km long distance race it was James who finished in front by an identical margin resulting in them being crowned joint champions. The weekend also counted as selection races for the Junior World Orienteering Championships, which will be held in Lithuania in early July, and this result virtually guarantees James and Douglas a place in the team.

Sunday’s event at Creag Mhic Chailein was also a Scottish Orienteering League race and several other Roxburgh Reivers made the long trip north. The younger junior members of the club also performed well with Jedburgh’s Karen Maxwell finishing 4th on Junior Women 3 ,while her older sister Kirstin, fresh from competing in the World Schools championships, went one better on JW4 with Sarah Tullie 7th on the same course. Other results, Lindsey Knox 4th W45L, Eileen Maxwell 5th W40S, Caroline Tullie 5th W45S, Ian Maxwell 12th M45L, Bill Bruce 2nd M50S, Jim Knox 4th M55S & Douglas Henderson 6th M55L.

• SOL 4 Results

Whilst the rest of the Club were doing battle in the ESOA Inter Club Championships, Roxburgh Reiver Martin Sloan was sleeping off nearly two and half working days of exercise.

Martin was one of Brodies LLP‘s team for this year’s Monster Bike and Hike, a charitable event raising money for Maggies Cancer Care Centres. The challenge involves cycling 30 miles from Fort William to Fort Augustus, then hiking the remaining 40 miles of the Great Glen Way from Fort Augustus to Inverness, all within 24 hours. The Brodies team comfortably beat this target, finishing at 3:05am on Sunday morning, with a time of 19 hours exactly.

Thanks to internal fundraising events, and external sponsorship (including sponsorship from fellow Roxburgh Reivers), the team are well on their way to meeting their fundraising target of £3,000. If you would like to sponsor the team, there’s still time – please follow this link to the team’s page on the Just Giving website:

• http://www.justgiving.com/brodies

Proving that quality is better than quantity Reivers took the title of East of Scotland Club Champions for 2006 at Dalmeny Estate on Sunday. 

The area is brand new to orienteering but, due to lambing, about half the area was out of bounds on this occasion and a lot of rest was brambly.  However, there were some nice parts and the views over the Forth were stunning.

On the Brown course James Tullie finished 2^nd overall with Paul McGreal and Andrew Tullie fighting for the second counter, Paul just pipping it.  On Blue Ian Maxwell was first counter in 6^th place followed by Andrew Armstrong.  Rob Cranston unfortunately mispunched on a knoll which had two controls very close together.

On the 6.5km Green course Lindsey never got going through the brambles and finished 7^th with Bill Bruce backing up in 8^th.  Kirstin Maxwell, just back from Slovakia, took full points on the Light Green and Colin Ross excelled himself by finishing 5^th despite having to use pictorial descriptions for the first time.

On Orange Jane and Alison McNeilly (and Judy) came out of retirement and took the top 2 places while on Red Eileen Maxwell had a breeze round the course to win by less than a minute from Bill Knox (brother of Jim).  Karen Maxwell had an easy day at the office winning Yellow comfortably and Vicky Ross showed how much she’s improved by taking 4^th spot.

The final scores were RR 184, ESOC 167, INT 148, EUOC 60, KFO 49, ELO 36, TAY 8, LINOC 0.

• Full results are here