Tullie wins Club champs

Correct choice of footwear was all-important at the Roxburgh Reivers Club Championship meeting last Sunday, as recent snow had melted, then frozen hard, making the tracks and paths of Bowhill Estate into a skating rink.

The going was good under the forest canopy, and Douglas Tullie from Teviothead, caught just the right balance of hill and track, in choosing his route over the demanding terrain. Handicapper Rob Cranston had devised a classic competition, where careful choice of controls and route was more important than overall speed. John Tullie, with the lowest handicap – none were off scratch – was closest to son Douglas, but still a few minutes adrift. This was a good start to the season for the young Hawick High School pupil – Douglas is already a member of the Scottish Junior O Squad – and augers well for the 2003 Orienteering season about to get under way.

Runners packed in behind the Teviothead duo, with not much separating Darnick’s Robin Sloan, Dick Warren from Morebattle, Jim Knox of Hawick and Chris Hall from Eshiels. First lady back was Kirstin Maxwell from Jedburgh just ahead of Hawick’s Lindsey Knox.

Full results will be posted on the Results page in the next couple of days

Club Championships 2003

As already advertised the new Roxburgh Reivers Club Championships will take place at Bowhill on Sunday 12 January 2003. There will be a massed start for all competitors at 11:30am and a handicapping system will be used to ensure that all club members can compete.

As Rob will need to calculate the handicapping system, please let him know if you intend to compete by emailing him at r.a.cranston@btinternet.com or telephoning on 01450 372095. Assembly is at the top car park behind Bowhill House and after the event there will be a debriefing and prize giving (maybe) at Selkirk Glass. See the Fixtures Page for more information.

Festive frolics

This year’s Christmas fun event takes place at Wilton Lodge Park on Boxing Day. Come along and burn off those Christmas calories with Roxburgh Reivers’ annual novelty event.The event starts at 11am, meeting at the Walled Garden, with hot drinks and mince pies afterwards at the Hawick Cycling Club club rooms. For more details, call Rob Cranston on 01450 372095 or email r.a.cranston@btinternet.com.

SOL 7 @ Keir Hills

The final Scottish Orienteering League race of the year took place at Keir Hills in South Ayrshire last weekend. Leading the way for Roxburgh Reivers were John and James Tullie who both won their respective classes (M45L and JM5L). Also having a good day were Karen Maxwell, who won the White course, and Douglas and Andrew Tullie, who came second and third on the JM4 class. In the seniors, Ian Maxwell finished fourth on M40S and Douglas Henderson rounded off the season with a sixth place on M50L.

In the overall standings for the season, Roxburgh Reivers’ best perfomances came from Douglas Tullie, with three wins, and Lindsey Knox (W40L), who bothv finished in second place. Robin Sloan (M55L) and John Tulie also finished in the top three and James Tullie, in a transitional season finished fourth on both JM5M and JM5L, having changed age class half way through the season. Showing promise for the future, Sarah Tullie and Kirsten Maxwell both had a good year in the JW2 age class.

Full results for SOL 7 and overall standings are available from the Scottish Orienteering Association’s Website.

Success at last for Scotland

Photo: Scotland's Victorious Junior TeamThe 2002 Junior Home Internationals took place in Perthshire last weekend and Roxburgh Reivers’ James, Douglas and Andrew Tullie were part of the first ever Scottish team to win a Home International, ending many years of coming second to England at all levels of competiton.

Saturday’s Individual event was held at a newly mapped area, Errochty, and the home ground seemed to suit the Scottish squad, with the home team taking top spot in three of the 6 classes. A second place from Douglas on the 4.025km M14 course, finishing just 19 seconds behind fellow Scotland team mate Calum Coombs, and 6th and 12th places respectively from James (M18) and Andrew (M14) helped Scotland to a 9 point lead over England before going into the Sunday’s relays at Faskally Woods, near Pitlochry.

Photo: James Tullie handing over to Calum Coombs in the RelaysIn the Boys relays, Douglas’s Scotland 1 team finished second behind a strong England team, with Scotland 2 (containing James, Calum Coombs and Rory Matheson) also collecting important points, finishing 5th. The girls teams fared even better with Scotland 1 being nearly a minute clear of the second placed England team. Despite a stonger England showing overall on the Sunday, it was not enough to win overall and Scotland finished an historic weekend on 127 points to England’s 122.

For full results and comments see the SOA Web site.

Juniors lead the way at ESOA Championships

Roxburgh Reivers’ juniors led the way at Sunday’s East of Scotland Championships held by Tay Orienteers at Mill of Fortune near Comrie in Perthshire, winnning five trophies between them. A large turn out of over 160 competitiors and some suprisingly mild Autumn weather helped make for an excellent event, despite being run on the same day as the Veteran Home Internationals (see below).

On the Yellow Course, Kirsten Maxwell finished in a well deserved fourth place, taking the W10 age class trophy. Similar success was also bestowed on the Tullie family with Sarah Tullie winning W12 after a tough Orange course and brothers Andrew, Douglas and James winning M14, M16 and M20 respectively. These results were particularly impressive considering that Douglas also won the Blue course in a time of 50 minutes for the 5.4km course and James ran up a class, finishing fifth on the 7.5km Brown course against some experienced opposition. Not to be outdone, Kirsten’s younger sister Karen also won the White course, but unfortunately was too young to qualify for a trophy.

Other results for the event, which was also the first of this year’s East of Scotland Orienteering League events (ESOL), included Martin Sloan who finished 23rd on the Blue course, just pipping fellow club member Lindsey Knox, who finished 24th, with Bill Bruce coming in 27th.

For full results see the Tayside Orienteers Web site. The next ESOL takes place this weekend (6 October) at Sherrifmuir and Dumyat near Stirling. More details are available from the ESOA Web site.

Despite Roxburgh Reivers’ John Tullie coming second in M45L, finishing a couple of minutes down on Forth Valley Orienteers’ Martin Dean, Scotland yet again came second to England during the Veteran Home Internationals held at Mynydd Llangatwg in Powys, South Wales.

Finally, in more International news, Roxburgh Reivers will be respresented by three club members in the forthcoming Junior Home Internationals next weekend, with Andrew, Douglas and James Tullie all selected for the squad.